SASless
17th Apr 2022, 13:34
Excerpt from a statement made by Robert Sumwalt who is a recognized Aviation Safety Expert having served in many related capacities to include the US NTSB in a senior position.
Recall Nick Lappos was saying the same thing many years ago and did flight testing at Sikorsky in field trials that confirmed the feasibility of such innovations to existing IFR route structures fhat are designed for Fixed Wing Aircraft and not Helicopters.
Safety and operational flexibility would be enhanced if the FAA would embrace this concept and apply funding for the creation of these routes and approaches.
"Former National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) member and chairman Robert Sumwalt began his tenure as a distinguished fellow in aviation safety and executive director of the new Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Center for Aviation and Aerospace Safety in January. Sumwalt was one of the NTSB’s longest-standing members, serving from 2006 to 2021 and holding the role as chairman since 2017. Prior to joining the NTSB, he spent 32 years as a pilot, including for Piedmont Airlines and US Airways, and also managed a corporate aviation department of a Fortune 500 energy company, amassing some 14,000 flight hours. While at US Airways, he served on the airline's flight operational quality assurance (FOQA) monitoring team. At Embry-Riddle, he intends to focus his attention on “three buckets” of interest, he told AIN.
“One is research. Part of the university's strategic plan is to bring in more research, and there are certainly a lot of areas ripe for improvement. Then we will be looking at our academic curriculum, across all three of our campuses, to see if there are ways that we can enhance that to better prepare students.” Finally, Sumwalt said, he will examine the university’s professional education courses “to see if there are ways that we can enhance that program.” He also noted that the university plans to use advisory boards to “keep our fingers on the pulse of what the industry needs.”
With regard to helicopter safety, Sumwalt again made the case for increased helicopter IFR and development of a low-level route structure to support it as a long-term strategy to avoid accidents related to encounters with inadvertent IMC. “The NTSB, years ago, did call for an enhanced low route structure to accommodate IFR helicopter traffic, and that needs to move forward. It is much safer to have a well-trained, well-qualified, proficient pilot in a helicopter that is capable of operating in IFR conditions.” Sumwalt made a similar case last year in the wake of the NTSB hearings on the fatal 2020 helicopter crash that killed basketball legend Kobe Bryant and eight others. Then he told AIN, “Which would you rather have? Somebody who is scud-running in a hilly area—or anywhere—or would you rather have someone who is competent, qualified, and certified to be flying IFR, where they are receiving the radar separation they need and have the terrain clearances that are in accordance with the TERPS [terminal instrument procedures]. We’ve seen so many accidents where people are trying to remain VFR and then get into inadvertent IMC.”
In June last year I made this post here at Rotorheads....and referenced a Safety Presentation given by Nick in Raleigh, North Carolina Ten Years earlier......
"Many EMS operations in the United States have an IAP to the Hospital Landing Pad which are off airport and are such IAP's.
I attended a Safety Seminar in Raleigh, North Carolina at least ten years ago where Nick Lappos talked of that work by Sikorsky using an S-76 to do those Point in Space Approaches.
He was a very strong advocate for the expansion of Helicopter IFR flight in non-traditional IFR environments.....or in plain language....doing Helicopter IFR using the unique ability to land at places other than legacy airport facilities.
That is the hard task...getting the authorities to bless and embrace that change in thinking .
It can be done...and done safely with the right equipment and training, combined with a careful intiial survey of the intended approach and surveillance of that to ensure no changes occur....much as has to be done with current on-airport IAP's."
Recall Nick Lappos was saying the same thing many years ago and did flight testing at Sikorsky in field trials that confirmed the feasibility of such innovations to existing IFR route structures fhat are designed for Fixed Wing Aircraft and not Helicopters.
Safety and operational flexibility would be enhanced if the FAA would embrace this concept and apply funding for the creation of these routes and approaches.
"Former National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) member and chairman Robert Sumwalt began his tenure as a distinguished fellow in aviation safety and executive director of the new Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Center for Aviation and Aerospace Safety in January. Sumwalt was one of the NTSB’s longest-standing members, serving from 2006 to 2021 and holding the role as chairman since 2017. Prior to joining the NTSB, he spent 32 years as a pilot, including for Piedmont Airlines and US Airways, and also managed a corporate aviation department of a Fortune 500 energy company, amassing some 14,000 flight hours. While at US Airways, he served on the airline's flight operational quality assurance (FOQA) monitoring team. At Embry-Riddle, he intends to focus his attention on “three buckets” of interest, he told AIN.
“One is research. Part of the university's strategic plan is to bring in more research, and there are certainly a lot of areas ripe for improvement. Then we will be looking at our academic curriculum, across all three of our campuses, to see if there are ways that we can enhance that to better prepare students.” Finally, Sumwalt said, he will examine the university’s professional education courses “to see if there are ways that we can enhance that program.” He also noted that the university plans to use advisory boards to “keep our fingers on the pulse of what the industry needs.”
With regard to helicopter safety, Sumwalt again made the case for increased helicopter IFR and development of a low-level route structure to support it as a long-term strategy to avoid accidents related to encounters with inadvertent IMC. “The NTSB, years ago, did call for an enhanced low route structure to accommodate IFR helicopter traffic, and that needs to move forward. It is much safer to have a well-trained, well-qualified, proficient pilot in a helicopter that is capable of operating in IFR conditions.” Sumwalt made a similar case last year in the wake of the NTSB hearings on the fatal 2020 helicopter crash that killed basketball legend Kobe Bryant and eight others. Then he told AIN, “Which would you rather have? Somebody who is scud-running in a hilly area—or anywhere—or would you rather have someone who is competent, qualified, and certified to be flying IFR, where they are receiving the radar separation they need and have the terrain clearances that are in accordance with the TERPS [terminal instrument procedures]. We’ve seen so many accidents where people are trying to remain VFR and then get into inadvertent IMC.”
In June last year I made this post here at Rotorheads....and referenced a Safety Presentation given by Nick in Raleigh, North Carolina Ten Years earlier......
"Many EMS operations in the United States have an IAP to the Hospital Landing Pad which are off airport and are such IAP's.
I attended a Safety Seminar in Raleigh, North Carolina at least ten years ago where Nick Lappos talked of that work by Sikorsky using an S-76 to do those Point in Space Approaches.
He was a very strong advocate for the expansion of Helicopter IFR flight in non-traditional IFR environments.....or in plain language....doing Helicopter IFR using the unique ability to land at places other than legacy airport facilities.
That is the hard task...getting the authorities to bless and embrace that change in thinking .
It can be done...and done safely with the right equipment and training, combined with a careful intiial survey of the intended approach and surveillance of that to ensure no changes occur....much as has to be done with current on-airport IAP's."