UK AAIB helicopter entries for October

[The Nr Fairy]

Two entries this month.

G-TASS, H300 (http://www.dft.gov.uk/stellent/groups/dft_avsafety/documents/page/dft_avsafety_031808.hcsp) - crashed in the Lake District, and there is a suggestion in the report that possible unreported maintenance activity on the mixture control cable was a big contributor.

S61 divert (http://www.dft.gov.uk/stellent/groups/dft_avsafety/documents/page/dft_avsafety_031807.hcsp) - diverted with less than min reserves due poor weather. Q for the S61 people - how long does 425lb actually last ?

The good news - no fatalities.

[Woolf]

Evening,

Reading through the 61 fuel shortage report made me think. The limit 600ft cloudceiling and 4k vis seems pretty standard for VFR approach fuel to a coastal airfield assuming that this was an IFR fllight initially. However I was under the impression that coastal airfields now need a trend section in their Metar to allow pilots to fly to those limits?


Regards,

Woolf

[NickLappos]

425 lbs is about 23 min fuel in the typical S-61.

[Hilico]

Very minor point (just jealous about not seeing the AAIB site first) - the H300 would have weighed about 1700 pounds not kilograms.