Climbing on helicopters and working at heights

[krobar]

Does anyone know what the current standard is for preflight main rotorhead inspections, as far as 'working at heights' goes?
Do oil campanies require the pilot to have fall protection?

[Brian Abraham]

Do oil campanies require the pilot to have fall protection?
Yes. It's called concrete, grass, dirt, bitumen, or some such.

[Fortyodd2]

Do oil campanies require the pilot to have fall protection?

Attached to what? :confused:

[perfrej]

Having worked with oil companies in offshore work, I beleive the general rule is fall protection if you are more than 2m over the ground... I don't think they care about the fact that you can't attach it to anything...

[Chopper Doc]

seems to be a place where H&S has not reached yet. In most industries if your feet are more than 3 feet above the ground you need some form of protection. Certainly in UK law inspecting the head of anything but a rotorway exec would fall under the working at height regulations.

[quichemech]

A harness attached to a skyhook the last time I was offshore, granted that was over 10 years ago!

[Fareastdriver]

Super Puma in Karratha 2007.
I had not flown out of Karratha before so I was doing a couple of flights as cojo to pick up the score. I landed it on the Goodwin and the Captain got out to do the necessary on the deck. He came back into my view and signalled me to shut down. This I did and apparently we had an oil leak. I knew what it was at first glance, a No1 input seal weeping, and it looked exactly the same as the first one I had seen in 1971 with every bit of a teaspoonful of oil down the side of the aircraft..
I ventured my opinion and advice that we just wipe it off and fly the last leg (45 mins) to Karratha. The captain was unwilling to do this, as was his privilege, so to reassure him I climbed up the side, pulled back the doghouse and lowered the engine panels so could now see the source of the weep. With this knowledge he went down to telephone the engineers for advice. Ten minutes later he came back with the instructions to fire it up and fly it back to Karratha.
I was just about to shin up and panel up when I was stopped by somebody who was not deck crew. It was Elfin Safety. I was not going on top of the aircraft without a harness on, he insisted. I protested that there were steps on the aircraft for that purpose and the engine panels were designed as work platforms. On top of that I had been doing it for thirty six years which was probably before he was born. This last statement did not go down very well so to keep the peace I agreed to use a harness.
The harness they brought looked as if was made for a gorilla who did scaffolding on the side. Three inch webbing with 2 inch chain attached to a metal hook. I got the harness on, struggled onto the starboard sponson and put the chain hook on the aircraft tie down hook. I had a loop of webbing which enabled me to ‘secure’ myself to the rotor head. With extreme difficulty I managed to get up and close the starboard engine panel and at that the Elfinsafety was happy and went down the stairs. As soon as he was out of earshot I took the harness off so that I would not break my neck and I completed closing up.
Talking to the engineers about the weep back at Karratha. They had known about it, for weeks.

[Ned-Air2Air]

Kiwi pilot Bruce Harvey was busted up pretty good recently when he fell from the top of the Aircrane he was preflighting in South America. Went off to hospital for some serious operations so this is a very pertinent subject.

Hope he gets well soon.

Ned

[heliski22]

Long way down from the upper step on the side of the 139 so I keep three out of four planted at all times and just take it nice and easy!!

[skiddriver]

Here are links to UK HSE documents regarding this hazard.

http://www.hse.gov.uk/foi/internalops/sectors/cactus/5_03_58.pdf

http://www.hse.gov.uk/foi/internalops/sectors/cactus/5_02_52.pdf

Our company recognizes that helicopters are not equipped with tested tie offs for fall protection and that it may not always be practicable to provide an overhead anchor or work stand.

We require work stands where practicable.

We require three points of contact while climbing up and down and a safety observer to provide aid in case of a fall in instances where a work stand or overhead tie off are not available.

[Helinut]

The thing that drives this is ordinary ground-based H&S standards. These will differ depending upon which country you are in.

[Agaricus bisporus]

In the lunatic world of the UK it is apparently now considered "working at height" to be standing in front of a 50cm hole...

[Chopper Doc]

When I go bouldering up to heights of 3 m above the ground I would as a minimum make sure I had a spotter watching me in case I fall. Their sole job if I slip is to make sure my upper torso does not hit the ground,
But lets face it if the pilot is not lazy why can't they have maintenance drag out a set of access steps or platform to check the head. It might seem really dumb but people have died let alone been injured by falling just a few feet. But hey if it's your heli or your firm don't really take H&S very seriously carry on.

[peterprobe]

Hmmm interesting, how does somebody sign for checks on oils etc when solo pilot (hems, police, private charter)or do a pre flight when parked in middle of a field or airfield without climbing up the beast!!!!:ugh: Bloody h and s gone mad. Yes sadly people have done the high dive to terra firma ( and I hope the kiwi pilot previously mentioned makes a full recovery) But isnt that why they are called accidents!!!

[zorab64]

Like all things H&S, there's no accounting for sensible risk assessment. We operate in a risky environment where Flight Safety is, in my book, H&S with bells on - and has been around longer, I'll wager? Not getting to know your new aircraft slowly, when learning how to climb over it to perform daily checks, is like jumping onto a new motorbike & riding onto an ice rink!

That said, there's a world of difference between shinning up a Squirrel and a Skycrane but, as has been mentioned (& whilst one wishes for a speedy recovery) accidents do happen, and from smaller machines too. I would imagine, given where they tend to operate, a "proper, H&S approved," Skycrane gantry is unlikely to be practically available for 90% of any operational requirement?

Certainly for single pilots ops, as mentioned by peterprobe, dragging out a gantry (if available) to inspect both sides of the aircraft may result in back strain; and/or may require a second person to help; and/or could result in inadvertent damage to the aircraft. This may require more time, which should possibly be better used in taking extra care, keeping 3/4 planted, and using the proper foot/hand holds, designed for the purpose! Like riding into work on a motorbike - better to arrive late & alive than risk a dodgy overtake just to get there on time! :=

[Fareastdriver]

If you are not fit enough to confidently check the top of a helicopter using the built in facilities that enable you to carry out that task, then you are not fit enough to fly the helicopter.

[dpale]

My employer insists that we wear stack hats when going up the side of the Super Puma so is it any big deal? Just a minor irritant I would say but part of the job requirements so just get on and do it. As for Fareastdriver hooking himself into a gorrilla harness….priceless :D

[Helilog56]

Well, try and climb on an iced crane on a windy day! Fit or not, there is a risk of injury when doing maintenance or a D.I. if one slips and falls.

Canadian/Erickson have implemented attach points on the aircraft for use of fall restraint for flight crews. Use is mandatory for us.

There have been several cases of injuries due to falls off the aircraft over the years. Sucks to be out of work for an indefinete period of time when you have a family to support.:bored:

A note.....the ones injured, where young, agile and extremely fit.:ugh:

[[email protected]]

Now that our Sea King engineering has been civilianised, all the engineers are required to use correct staging (scaffolding on wheels) to complete servicing on the aircraft when working at height. If the staging is not available then crash mats/bags are supposed to be used.

[brett s]

Knew several folks who managed to fall off the top of a Chinook - a broken wrist for one guy, neck for another (got to wear that lovely halo bolted to his head for months), another lost a testicle (landed just right (or wrong depending on how you look at it) on the edge of a work platform!).

Always hated deicing them in the winter out on the flight line - brooms & pump-up sprayers with deicing fluid were the norm. Nothing beats climbing up on top of a metal fuselage covered in snow & ice :ok:

[RVDT]

From p.e. it can be an issue.

Managed to fall off a tall gear 212 down the side and into the flight steps.

You feel like a right twit when you are by yourself in the middle of nowhere. Makes you consider how lucky you were to get away with it.

[piggybank]

This is a problem that will never be resolved to anyones complete satisfaction, and I gave the same answer to an oil company audit recently.

Certainly with Skycranes once you have gone up the slippery angle to the top decking, or even worse the stainless table over the engines it is deadly with thin grease coating everything.

I worked in Sarawak, logging with Bruce Harvey and hope he make a good recovery. A good man to work with.

Luckily I never fell off the Crane but thats all it was, was luck.

After years working on the Puma on logging, and swamps, I did eventually fall through down the side, feet first, after telling the Parker Drilling visitors to be careful not to fall through the exhaust hole. I hit every fitting on the way down but no real damage done.

One ex Bristow machine we had, P2 PHZ was a killer as it had locks at the front of the engine cowls, involving a 'tip toes' trip along the rain gutter. More than one person got the job out of sequence and shot off into space as the cowl opened up.