AAIB(H) UK July 2021

[Hilico]

R-44 translates out of wind OGE and overpitches: link (https://www.gov.uk/aaib-reports/aaib-investigation-to-robinson-r44-clipper-i-g-clio) There but for the grace of God....report offers links to SafetySense leaflet 17 and Robinson's own SN-42 in the POH

[Aucky]

I thought for a moment it was April 1st when I just read a 4 page AAIB report about a 0.5kg ‘small’ drone which collided with trees…

[Hilico]

The one that made me laugh was when the drone that collided with a car, was subsequently run over by the car.

[ApolloHeli]

I thought for a moment it was April 1st when I just read a 4 page AAIB report about a 0.5kg ‘small’ drone which collided with trees…
The "Commander's flying experience" of 11 hours (of which 11 were on type), 5 hours in the previous 90 days and 4 hours in the previous 4 days had me laughing. Clearly the low PIC time was a contributing factor there...

[212man]

R-44 translates out of wind OGE and overpitches: link (https://www.gov.uk/aaib-reports/aaib-investigation-to-robinson-r44-clipper-i-g-clio) There but for the grace of God....report offers links to SafetySense leaflet 17 and Robinson's own SN-42 in the POH
I don't know about God's grace, but this doesn't exactly help!
108 hours (of which 108 were on type)
Last 90 days - 2 hours
Last 28 days - 1 hour

[Hilico]

I have 85 hours on type and will be taking TEM very, very seriously.

[Aucky]

I may have to start considering whether it’s correct to say no, when asked if I’ve ever had any reportable flying accidents. I totalled a good few paper aeroplanes, and an RC helicopter which lasted about 5 minutes…

[PANews]

Someone in the government should do something about it....With COVID shutting down drone flights it has been safer all round. With flying starting again it seems that these pesky craft are falling from the sky like confetti. The report lists 19 commercial drones coming to grief in a three month period. If that is the number of commercial failures we may soon have to wear tin helmets as soon as we get to give up the face masks - simply to go shopping.

Why someone would buy a drone I do not know. It looks like there are dozens out there up trees waiting to be rescued and repaired.

[[email protected]]

Someone came very close to getting himself into a whole pile of poo recently when he flew a drone from the car parking area right next to the undershoot of RW 30 at Newquay to film a US C17 that was parked there.

The drone was reported to ATC by a taxying aircraft and the guilty party departed very quickly when I made a low approach to try and identify him. This was in the run up to G7.

[torqueshow]

Not enough being done to curb delinquent droning. Having had an extremely close call with one at 800ft agl whilst in the cruise there was absolutely nothing I would have been able to do to take avoid action let alone spot it in time to do so.

Drones don’t move in a way that we’re used to like birds that change aspect in flight. A drone can just sit stationary in the air and with little to no relative movement can be impossible to spot at any stage in flight unless above and silhouetted against the sky.

[172510]

I don't know about God's grace, but this doesn't exactly help!
The pilot's initial mistake was a confusion about the wind: initiating a down wind approach while thinking he was flying headwind.
That can happen and that is not the cause of the accident, even an experienced pilot can make that sort of mistake. Confusion can happen.

There was several ways to spot the error before it was to late, but the pilot was probably too focused on the glidepath: that's to me the real issue.
At all times during an approach and certainly before your decision point, in addition to make sure you are not going to hit something, you must crosscheck that everything else is going as planned. Is the MAP consistent with what is expected? Is the airspeed consistent with the ground speed ? Is the transitional lift lost at the expected point?

[212man]

The pilot's initial mistake was a confusion about the wind: initiating a down wind approach while thinking he was flying headwind.
That can happen and that is not the cause of the accident, even an experienced pilot can make that sort of mistake. Confusion can happen.

There was several ways to spot the error before it was to late, but the pilot was probably too focused on the glidepath: that's to me the real issue.
At all times during an approach and certainly before your decision point, in addition to make sure you are not going to hit something, you must crosscheck that everything else is going as planned. Is the MAP consistent with what is expected? Is the airspeed consistent with the ground speed ? Is the transitional lift lost at the expected point?
Thanks - I'm reasonably familiar with how to approach and land

[172510]

Thanks - I'm reasonably familiar with how to approach and land
What I wanted to point out is that to me it was not a matter of experience. It was a matter of training and discipline.

An experienced pilot would have felt that something was wrong during the tailwind approach before an inexperienced one, but an inexperienced but disciplined pilot would have made the appropriate checks during final, before it was too late to initiate a go around.

[[email protected]]

I think it was a mixture of inexperience and indiscipline that got him into this situation.

The inexperience was not to recognise the warning signs of a downwind approach - groundspeed vs airspeed, difficulty in maintaining his intended approach angle and early loss of ETL with associated higher power settings..

The indiscipline was not doing a proper 5S recce and taking time over establishing the wind direction and best approach - he could have flown a dummy approach each way if he was unsure but chose to push on with his 'mental model' of the conditions.

If you are a low-time pilot with friends on board for goodness sake err on the side of caution - he could easily have totalled himself and his mates.

[212man]

What I wanted to point out is that to me it was not a matter of experience. It was a matter of training and discipline.

An experienced pilot would have felt that something was wrong during the tailwind approach before an inexperienced one, but an inexperienced but disciplined pilot would have made the appropriate checks during final, before it was too late to initiate a go around.
Ok, but I think I would still suggest that a 100 hour pilot who has only flown 2 hours in the last 3 months is simply going to lack the capacity to handle anything vaguely complex. But, I do agree that having a strong sense of discipline imparted right from the beginning of training is vital, and that even recreational flying should be conducted with a professional mindset.

[212man]

In the cockpit, the engine fuel mixture control was found pushed in and guarded, and the carb-heat lever was unlatched and pulled halfway out.

The carburettor system features a heat assist function to adjust carburettor heat mechanically as the collective lever is raised or lowered, which is designed to improve safety and reduce pilot workload.

It's not clear to me if carb-heat may have been an issue or not? It certainly wouldn't be the first time.....