What's the biggest lesson you've learnt .... and How?

[3 D]

After reading the thread on the R22 overspeed it just got me thinking. There must be a wealth of wisdom gained by all of the pilots on here through close calls and even accidents.

I know that I admire and wish to thank all the people on here that share thier experiences with us so that we may all learn through them.

Would other wiser pilots than I care to tell us of the lessons they have learned through their close calls ?

(There must be some good stories out there !)

[Whirlybird]

3D,

I've posted mine on the R22 overspeed thread, as it's relevant to that.

There probably are some "good stories out there". Unfortunately, in aviation, people aren't always keen to tell them. If you do, it can get used against you. It's happened to me, someone who worked out who I am (and not a lot of women living in North Wales fly helicopters, so I'm not really anonymous) posted, when I criticised something he said: "Whirlybird, aren't you the one who..." He deleted the post before I had decided whether to explain, ignore, or retaliate, but I didn't need that early on a Monday morning! :( :eek:

So don't be surprised if you get very few replies. Of course, one way of coping is to have nothing to hide. In theory that seems to me to be the way to go. In practice I'm not brave enough, yet. But I'm working on it.

Whirly

[RW-1]

Though many may or may not post personal experiences, I would recommend that you go to:

www.ntsb.gov

and read the mishap reports from the previous week, month, year, etc.

While some may not be in as much detail as a personal account, you can achieve the same goal.

I review the site biweekly, as reading about the circumstances and the unfortunate outcomes tends to keep me on my toes when I do go out and fly.

[Grainger]

Easy:

1. Never assume anything.
Once went into a private site where I had been with an instructor on a previous occasion. I had thought it was OK to use it as it was OK to use the other sites that we used for practice. Well, the owner was p*ssed. I had assumed we had blanket permission to use this site for training when evidently we did not.

On another occasion I got into trouble at a well known airfield by using the same approach that I had used on my last visit three weeks earlier. They had in fact just moved helicopter ops to the other side of the field. I had assumed that it was the same as before and the guy I had phoned for a briefing immediately before the flight had presumably assumed that he didn't need to tell me about the new procedure.

2. If you are not sure what just happened, shut down (or land) immediately and check it out.
Whirly's experience should be enough to convince us all of that. I have twice found (thankfully minor) mechanical problems before lifting: one occasion was a vibration that I didn't expect, the other I only imagined that I heard something unusual but shut down anyway and yes, there was something wrong.

[RW-1]

Grainger,

I like both of those.

Don't you hate #2 when you imagine something but don't find anything?

When getting ready to return home once, Ithought the bird sounded louder than normal spooling up to 104%, backed down and looked at it, but found nothing amiss, still was a bit nervous taking off on that return flight, but once 30 min into it, I settled down, as everything seemed normal, but in my mind ...

[3 D]

Whirlybird

Thank you for your frank account on the R22 over speed thread.

I wasn’t really looking for people to admit any liability or tell us all of their worst nightmares, just for them to share some of the lessons they have learnt the hard way.

I have found that it is the personal accounts of others that tend to stick in my mind. So often when I am checking an instrument or considering where to make that emergency landing should I need to, I think to myself of the time my instructor told me he had an engine die and had to land etc. The experiences of others just seem to put things into perspective and make you realise these things will happen and you will need to deal with them. I personally believe these stories should not be used to apportion blame or to get at someone as some try to do but as valuable learning aids that benefit everyone. For example I never knew that the governor had an upper limit I do now and have you to thank for that.



Grainger

Thanks for the good advice.

:D :D :D

[Vfrpilotpb]

Hi ThreeD,

You may have heard the voice of the really annoying Irish lady who tells us all about the Self Assesment Tax forms, well imagine her saying this:-

Never, never, never, never never( and so on) rush anything, Preflight, take off or landing, take it as easy as you can, and like the advert that ask's us to think about motorcyclist's, THINK TWICE about what you are doing, if you are only flying for fun it is so important to be up to speed on everything that is done in flying a Heli, they will bite you so quickly that reactions alone sometimes will not be able to straighten out the kink you have created.
Peter R-B

[slgrossman]

I've been at this business for quite a while now and have accumulated experience in a variety of aspects of the profession. I've learned my share of lessons the hard way, a few by seeing someone else learn the hard way. Occasionally, I was wise enough to believe someone when they gave me good advice.

I've learned that no matter how many different places I go or how many different types of flying I do, there's always something new for me to learn.

I've learned that anyone is capable of teaching me something, that experience has no exclusive claim on knowledge and common sense.

I've learned that the hottest stick is not necessarily the best pilot.

I've learned there's usually more than one right way to do things in aviation, it just depends on the situation and priorities.

I've learned there's hardly anything more satisfying than being part of a team working together to accomplish a task or mission.

I've learned (from guys many years older than me) that age and seniority are no excuse for laziness, and that laziness is a poor reason to cut corners.

I've learned that persistence and loyalty pay off in the long run.

I've learned that it's all about attitude.

-Stan-

[Nick Lappos]

Stan,
With those lessons you've learned, you can have a cup of coffee at our pilot's office, anytime! Thanks for sharing.
Nick

[Nigel Osborn]

After 40 years and nearly 14000 hours in 20 different helicopters, it still surprises me how I can still make stupid mistakes. The secret seems to be in recognising that you have made a mistake and doing something about it before it is too late. This will come from experience, good basic training, being in genuine current flying practise so that you rectify your mistake correctly and immediately. With people learning to fly a little late in life and scrimping to save money to pay for helicopter hire for private purposes, it is vitally important you don't get into bad or careless habits and cut corners. Learn and keep learning for at least the next 40 years!:D

[Hone22]

Biggest lesson I've learned????


Check "Everything" yourself, before committing to the wild blue.


Case in point: Chief pilot tells me to take a/c to X. I pre-flight and find there's 40% fuel onboard.


Chief Pilot: That's plenty, no need to top up. Go now to beat the light.


Duh! ok............. off I go. Pulled out a chart which still had course etc to X from last time......bye bye.

Weather/Wind was quite a bit different from last time (funny that).
Had me sweating golf balls when the low fuel came on with 10Nm to run.

Chief pilot on the phone later...........yeah that's alright, you still had 10mins fuel onboard. I do it all the time, no problem. :mad:


I should have: Checked the current weather, checked the burn rate in this different machine, insisted on topping up (would have taken 10mins max).


Stans 3rd to last paragraph summed up this CP to a "T".

I learned not to let others lax ways become my own........ Lest they kill me.

[Barannfin]

The little piece of advice i would like to pass along (from my tremendous 80hrs experience) is that the checklists are your friend. They are there so we dont skip anything important (like a governor or perhaps something like frictions.) The checklist will remind you of things you might have otherwise missed.


It was early in my training and I was having a flight with an instructor other than my regular one, so perhaps I was trying to show off. I blew through the pre-start checklists trying to be all slick about it. Started the engine, and then a couple seconds later it just died. It was pretty embarrassing, but at least it wasnt deadly. In my haste to start up and get in the air, i forgot to push in my mixture. luckily i skipped something that didnt damage the a/c and didnt put anyone in any danger.
BUT I MIGHT NOT BE SO LUCKY THE NEXT TIME. So now i follow the checklist and double check everything on it.

Just another thing to think about.

[RotorHorn]

OK, my "I learned about flying from that' experience.. (hope your sitting comfortably)....

Went for a trip in a plank with my mate who got his PPL(A). The aircraft he'd booked wasn't yet back from the previous hirer, so we were offered another - after a telling "they've just repaired that right, so it should be fine" comment from the CFI.... BELLS should have been ringing in my head by now.

The same CFI took us out to the aircraft and said to my mate, we've had the electrics fixed on this, but should they 'trip', just cycle this button here and everything should be fine. We fired it up, and the CFI checked everything before we left. Everything looked ok so far.

Plan was to do a round trip down the coast to Cheshire and back (about 80nm round trip).

As we got close to the turning point, the electrics died. We recycled them using the switch - no problem.

No problem the second time it happened five minutes later. Or 5 minutes after that or two minutes after that...

You get the idea. By the time we were nearly overhead, the switch was going up and down like a fiddlers elbow..

We tried turning off pieces of equipment one at a time in an attempt to reduce the load on the electrics and see if we could at least get enough juice for the radio or transponder (7600 was dialled in ready, but the electrics didn't fire long enough for it to be seen), it was like a scene from Apollo 13.

Suffice to say, we found ourselves just on the edge of Class D airspace, with no radio, no transponder and all the electrically driven dials dead....

I ended up ringing the airfield below us on a mobile (cellphone) and my mate making a 'precautionary' landing.

We could have flown back if it had just been the radio that had gone, but given the instruments were dropping like flies we didn't know if the engine was going to be next.

Cost us £80 back home in a taxi, and the school owners gave us a bollocking for not bringing the plane back!!

Things I learned:-

if you not happy with the aircraft - dont take it. Its up to you to say its in a flight-worthy condition. I think my mate hesitated because he didn't want to dissappoint me. Rather be dissappointed than in that situation again....

Always handy to have two pilots up front rather than one. Even though I know more about knitting than flying planks, being able to navigate and work a radio (when they work) halved the workload on each of us ... wouldn't have like to have tried to think straight if it was just me!! I always offer my plank mates a ride now, just in case I need help.

Later we found out there was a dodgy earth connection on the battery causing the problems. The reason the problem seemed to be getting worse as we approached the field we decided later was that the ADF was still tuned in to the NDB at the destination field from an earlier flight, and as we got closer, the ADF started to draw more and more current which is what kept tripping the electrics.

p.s. apparently a few months later the same aircraft dropped one of its flaps onto the runway on final.... :)

p.s. Aviation Accident Investigation Branch reports (NTSB equivalent) can be found here - AAIB (http://www.aaib.dft.gov.uk/index/)

[Draco]

Quote from rotorhorn;

"I ended up ringing the airfield below us on a mobile (cellphone) and my mate making a 'precautionary' landing. "

Shows the value of having a mobile phone for flight emergencies (not under a seat and obviously switched off except in extremis).

Probably more useful (and certainly cheaper) than a standby handheld vhf?

[Irlandés]

Barannfin,
I made exactly the same mistake two days ago. I was interrupted by my instructor (as is his right) during my start-up checks and I totally forgot to push in the mixture. What annoyed me most was that I had drilled into myself a golden rule about interruptions. If I get interrupted, start the checks again!!! This time, the golden rule and the checks went out the window. After three attempted starts, my instructor walks over (he was outside) and points to the mixture control. "That's going to cost you six beers!" he says. I got really annoyed with myself and not a little worried. I mean if you can forget something as simple as that, then you can just as easily forget about say carb heat in a descent. Same basic neurological lapse. Very different potential outcome. :eek: No room in this game for mediocrity.

At least they'll let me have one of the beers... :rolleyes:

Irlandés

[ShyTorque]

The day you don't learn something new about flying is the day you stopped looking.

[Jez]

A lesson I've learnt?

When you're doing a pre-flight and your mobile phone rings - let it!! Don't answer.

Best advice I've been given?

You always have enough time for one last walkaround before hitting the starter.