Low flying in poor viz near Malvern today

[Teefor Gage]

I've just had a call from an aviation minded friend in the Malvern area. He was concerned after seeing what he believes was a Jet Ranger flying past the village of Suckley, possibly towards Shobdon but certainly towards rising ground.
The cloud base he estimated to only be at, or slightly above 100 ft and viz at ground level approx half a kilometre. I think it was some time near 15:00 today, Thursday 14th.
From what he has told me it sounds like one of our bretheren was tempting providence!

Anybody else on here see anything in this area around the same time? Let's hope there's no sad news items later on today!

[Senior Pilot]

I've just had a call from an aviation minded friend in the Malvern area. He was concerned after seeing what he believes was a Jet Ranger flying past the village of Suckley, possibly towards Shobdon but certainly towards rising ground.
The cloud base he estimated to only be at, or slightly above 100 ft and viz at ground level approx half a kilometre. I think it was some time near 15:00 today, Thursday 14th.
From what he has told me it sounds like one of our bretheren was tempting providence!

Anybody else on here see anything in this area around the same time? Let's hope there's no sad news items later on today!

TG,

Should your friend have been wrong, and the conditions not as you describe or the helicopter have been legitimately operating, what would be the point of this post?

It sounds to me like gratuitous scandal mongering, with scant foundation. Poor form, IMHO :=

[Teefor Gage]

I take your point. However, my colleague is a very experienced aviator, as am I, and the conditions were exactly as described.
It's certainly not gratuitous scandal mongering, IMHO, but a concerned member of the rotary fraternity expressing concern regarding the interpretation of operating VMC. The only concession to the prevailing conditions was that the helicopter was estimated to be flying at around 40-50 knots at the time.
I'm not out for names and pack drills etc, but was interested to know if anybody else in the area had seen the same thing. Also, this post was placed in the hope that the pilot concerned recognises his/herself and makes a mental note of not pushing on when the conditions are below acceptable.
If there was a legitimate reason for the flight then I would be interested to know that also!

[helispeediii]

teefor gage could be a 206 with a stab system carring out imc training , who knows thats the point??

[Teefor Gage]

teefor gage could be a 206 with a stab system carring out imc training , who knows thats the point??

I'm not familiar with how operating at around 100 ft with a similar cloudbase near a village some distance away from an airfield comes into imc training, with or without a stab system!

[helispeediii]

teefor gage you said cloud base was aroud one hundred feet you did not state aircraft height ??

[Camp Freddie]

experienced aviator or not, it is very difficult to assess viz and cloudbase from the ground that would be applicable in this situation.

In the past I have been accused of flying at 50ft when I was actually greater than 500ft.

I put no faith in ground based estimates of low flying at all

as for this business of IMC training in a stabilised 206, well that sounds like garbarge to me, as far as I know there is only 1 a/c that is approved to do this unless things have changed and presumably if IMC he would be at MSA wouldnt he, unless on an approach.

regards

CF

[Teefor Gage]

helispeed iii.

Didn't think I had to state the height of the heli as my colleague wouldn't have seen if it was above the cloudbase!! OK, so you might want to argue that the cloudbase was broken and he caught a glimpse if the heli in a gap, but that wasn't the case..
Anyway, hope that clarifies things now.......

[helispeediii]

tefore gage sorry you said he thought it was a jetranger i just asumed he would be able to tell by the sound of it , my appologies regards helispeed iii

[FLY 7]

Two Shawbury 'Squirrels' flew over my house yesterday evening - similar height, similar conditions.

[feathering tickles]

Camp Freddie is spot-on.

The crew of a popular, orange painted budget airline once accused me of flying over their taxiing Airbus at 70ft (they later amended it to 200ft).

In fact I was transiting overhead in clear weather at 600 AAL.

Luckily my GPS data "proved" my case. Without it the observations of two so-called "experienced" aviators would have been difficult to counter.

They said that they were worried in case something fell off my aircraft....

[ShyTorque]

I was driving in a 50 mph limit today at the legal speed limit and someone overtook me....

As a professional aviator, no doubt your friend has reported his concern to the CAA?

[Teefor Gage]

Although this is a rumour network, we shouldn't just pass over facts in favour of sentiment.
It's amazing that many of us seem to have forgotten the lessons learned from the Mull of Kintyre accident where a helicopter was IMC below safety altitude and hit a mountain! If you cast your minds back you might recall what the outcome of the enquiry was....

[101BOY]

If it was a military Squirrel then, given the difficulty in guestimating cloud/vis from the ground, it would be perfectly legal to be at that ht.

[Flugplatz]

Tefor Gage,

You ain't fooling anyone; you are part of the problem with your curtain-twitching.

Flug

[Teefor Gage]

No curtain twitchers at this house, Flugplatz. Had I seen the helicopter myself I'd have said so. I posted here as my colleague doesn't belong to PPrune.

I'm not so sure what planet 101BOY is on though!

[flap flap flap]

as far as I know there is only 1 a/c that is approved to do this

Not anymore there isn't. It's sitting in a hangar gathering dust!

[griffothefog]

This thread is pathetic ladies.....

Maybe he had marginal weather on a short hop and took a chance due to intense commercial pressure to get the revenue in.... :{

As the cloud base and vis deteriorated he elected to descend to remain vmc, slowed the aircraft to 50 knots looking for the nearest safe place to land..... :ok:

Curtain twitcher saw him on his finals to a nearby field and **** his pants.. :eek:

We've all been there...............

[spencer17]

No Griff, not the threat is pathetic, it's pathetic to start such a thread.
Finger pointing at someone is never a sign of great self-confidence, Teefor!!
And to start such a useless thread in public is an absolute NO GO.

[Senior Pilot]

I think that this thread has had its day.

It is disconcerting that a thread is started with a second hand report (initially "an aviation minded friend") with what seemed to be scurrilous intent. We know that PPRuNe is viewed by various regulatory authorities, and they are not so stupid as to ignore the possibility of a serious infringement of aviation law.

In no way do my comments condone reckless or illegal operations, but the use of Rotorheads to initiate a finger pointing exercise in this way is Not On :=