I Learned About Flying From That (ILAFFT)

[FlightOops]

Sight pictures

Not quite the war-story of the longer toothed members, but still makes me chuckle and there may be ppruners who were lucky enough to witness.


Passed my CPL(H) the day before and was invited by the Chief Pilot to fly the H300 demo aircraft to a safety seminar that I was attending with him - great effort the fellas at Air Work, Caboolture.

Feeling a little green but enormously eager to impress I jumped at the chance (free hours !!) even though I'd spent the final 30 odd hours of CPL(H) in a Bell47 and was a little out of practice on the 300.

Clean startup, one of my best departures (correct direction !), good radio calls, nice approach to centre of dest. airfield and smooth steady hover taxi to the hangar at the far end.

In front of a crowd of approx. 50 attendees I came to a nice 5' hover ready for landing ... nerves starting to build with the audience but never mind I'm a CPL(H) now !! I CAN do this.

Words of FI(H) in my head .... "keep your eyes outside the aircraft!!" ... lowered the lever, down we came then ... BOING ... straight back up to the 5' hover ... damn the H300 being slightly further off the ground than the B47 !!!

<click> ... "Nice landing [name removed to protect the guilty]" ... <click> came the immediate repsonse with only the slightest hint of sarcasm.

Needless to say my second landing in as many minutes had a little more polish, but I learnt a valuable lesson from it !! Never fly with your CP if you're planning to co*k it up and can avoid taking them, and we only ever make mistakes when there's an audience !!

FO

[Heli-phile]

I learnt a lesson that day! -share the experience

Over the years I have learnt a great deal from reading accounts of incidents to other pilots.

I will get the ball rolling again with one of my own!!

I was called by a local real estate agent to fly around some prime properties in the Marlborough Sounds (Beautiful part of NZ) Having sat down with the agent and planned the route and fixed the locations on the topo we were off.

After about 45 mins of various positioning for various locations we were all done, and I was heading back to base. The agent then says "oh can we just pop over to xyz bay where we just listed a property, its on the way back". I said fine and diverted to the small bay, it was somewhere I had never been before nor heard of. as we approached the location the agent rang the owner to warn him, and "get the washing off the clothes line" kind of thing.
The house was set back in the steep sided and wooded bay about 200' above a beach with the ridge running above and around it in a deep U shape about 600' above the house. As we approached and descended into the mouth of the bay I asked the agent if there were any powerlines in this bay?? "No, just head in to the house and hover a hundred metres out from the house, about 500' " he said, At this point I was all set to carry on in and position as requested. But resisting the invitation I slowed the 500c down to about 40kts with about 800m to run, and with the agent looking at his watch!! I did my mental checklist
Wind - No 'sign' on the trees or on the water surface so ok.
Wires - Knowing wires are pretty much invisible,especially set against native bush and trees I began scanning the slopes for power poles, eventually I found 1 pole in about the 2 oclock LEVEL position. QUICK STOP !! Putting the machine into the hover, with the agent looking at me with a "why have you stopped" look on his face, I searched for the next pole, scanning intently my eyes ran right around the U shaped bay ahead until then in the 10 o'clock LEVEL position, I found another pole. Then to my absolute horror I spotted and followed the barely visible set of double wires which hung between these two poles ACROSS THE BAY, there about 20m metres directly ahead and level with the nose of the helicopter were the wires waiting to greet us!!
At this point the agent asked "why have you stopped?? I invited him to look carefully 20m ahead. eventually he found the wires and turned a sickly shade of grey (to match me no doubt!!) I turned the machine around and headed for base without another word.

[Heli-phile]

500' rule

NZ has the 500' rule but you can operate as required for bona fide reason as long as the action does not put anyone on the ground/below at risk.
In this case the house was 200'amsl so the 500' amsl would have been 300' above the house.

[Hell Man]

Low Vis Sling Ops Incident

Basic Info

Aircraft: MD530F
Local: Rocky Mountains
Elev. 5800ft
Job: Construction Support
When: Late 80’s

Scenario:

I was finishing-up a job flying construction materials to a repeater site in the Rockies. The build was over and there were a number of cement bags remaining which were surplus to requirements and which the contractor wanted transferred back to the staging pad from where they would be returned to his stock.

It was the end of the day with weather, wind and cloud, moving in fast to the ridge-top pad (around 5800ft) on which the final load of cement was waiting. I had been using a 50ft line the entire day.

The Incident:

On my second to last load I noticed that the cloud base had been descending and that the wind had picked up. I was concerned that the final lift might be tight but returned to give it a go. Sure enough the cloud was descending rapidly and there was now light rain meaning reduced vis.

By the time the remote hook was secured to the load, the cloud base (assisted by local downdrafts) was now surrounding me so that I had to lower my height making the line slack in order to maintain visual reference. The wind was bringing in the cloud and rain real fast and I reckoned I had 2-3 mins before the entire pad would be engulfed in the fog.

The loads were being taken to a staging area at around 1500 ft at the bottom of a valley which led up to the ridge pad. The valley was still clear (I had just flown up it) and so I decided to enter IMC, lift the load off the ground while IMC, transit a sufficient distance in the direction of the valley in IMC and then execute a descent.

I entered IMC and kept climbing an additional 30ft vertically while moving easterly in the direction of the valley and which course I held for about 3 seconds before reducing height in order to regain VMC.

The return to VMC took slightly longer than expected so I increased nose down attitude to hasten the cloud break. As I broke cloud I felt a jolt to the fuselage and simultaneously punched the load heaving my head out the door to watch the line, net and cement strafe their way across the tree tops with a spray of cement particles as they did so! My velocity was up around 65kts in a shallow dive at the time of the impact and I continued to contour the valley towards the staging pad.

The Cause:

Pilot stupidity! By going IMC I no longer had vref with the valley into which I was descending. Although I had a good 'feel' for the progress of the deteriorating cloud base my 'feel' was insufficient to make this insane maneuver 'safe' and in the end I was caught out by the weather. The cloud had begun enveloping the ridge pad while I was being connected to the load and was progressing into the valley at a rate which was faster than I had estimated and which is why I remained IMC for longer than anticipated.

Eager to break cloud I nosed down and brought the bottom of the load into dangerous proximity with the terrain (tree tops) resulting in a load strike at the moment of cloud break.

The Luck:

My luck had been to have my hand over the cargo release handle at the time of impact combined with the fact that I seemed to release the load simultaneous to feeling the jolt through the line. Unlike the Lama I was flying, which had a neat little electric switch right next to the cyclic, the 530 had a manual cargo release lever (like a motorbike brake handle) up front of the cyclic – a bit of a reach but I have big hands and could comfortably wrap my fingers over the lever while controlling cyclic with my palm base and thumb.

As the 530 sped down the valley from the incident I recall, in a moment of adrenaline-fuelled madness, screaming “Yee Haa” into the open air as I celebrated my skill in ‘cheating death’ but - about a week later sitting in my chair at home looking at my son I could have punched myself in the head!

The Excuses:

This had been a three day job based in a pre-fab camp at the staging pad, it was the final day with the helo due to return to base that evening. The day had been long, I hadn’t had lunch and was as hungry as a horse. The job was routine and my mind had been elsewhere figuring out the moves on a contract me and my partner were bidding on.

By the time the wind and the rain had moved in we were all but done, just one final load and we were clear. The consequence of landing, coiling up the 50, slinging it in the back, re-entering the hover and attaching the net directly to the belly hook, would (in my view) have resulted in being stuck on the pad overnight. Even to land and coil up the 50 and depart without any load would, in my view, have taken too long so – it was either button the 50 and fly away or .. do what I did!

I had a rep for taking risks without incident – its a bad M.O. but had gained me good business and new clients – I was known for getting the job done! I’m being honest (and showing my age by admitting it now) when I say that there was a part of me that was looking forward to the loadies (ground crew) telling their buddies that I’d disappeared into the clouds in order to get the last load away (yes, very stupid I know!).

Because of the evaporating time, wanting to get the job done, being fed up with the day’s work, feeling tired, cold and hungry, wanting to go home and being a 50% owner in the ship – I thought “I can do what I want” and "I’m gonna finish up this job and I’ll do it anyway it comes!"

The Lessons:

I’ve had around 8 incidents in civilian aerial work (no crashes) and some life-threatening events in Nam. This one passed almost unnoticed but, over the years I’ve reckoned that it had the potential to be one of the worst.

The lesson was pretty straight forward, don’t mess with poor vis – ever! It can be hard when you’ve had enough and your are just seconds away from finishing up and all you want to do is get back home but .. had I been slow in punching off the line or had the belly hook jammed I have little doubt that I wouldn’t be writing this now – let’s say by some miracle I made it – I’d be lying in some hospital bed pretty messed up possibly unable to do anything meaningful in the future – I’d be lying there thinking “If I just waited until the following morning everything would be fine.”

Thankfully I never had to say those words and, as with many (but not all) ex-Nam pilots I had a good many years where I thought I was pretty much untouchable but, as you mature, you begin to see the error of your ways.

Aside from that cardinal rule of keeping the hell away from weather when you need good vis for specialist ops the other two lessons I engraved on my soul were a) Always make sure that your belly hook is 100% operational (as in no question as to its serviceability) b) Always fly with your hand over the cargo release handle/switch while the line is attached.

An old friend M.C. the III ‘rd (also ex-Nam) was doing wood in Alabama with a 58 – the remote hook was working fine but the belly hook was falling open all the time – he told the loadies to weld the hook closed! You tempt fate and she’ll come right up and greet you – on his fourth load after having ordered the belly hook closed .. the line snagged .. down went the 58 and MC was gone!

.. I learnt about flying from that!





(Not the actual helo but a similar setting)

HM

[outofwhack]

Biggest lesson

I had the biggest lesson of my rotary flying career a few months back.
I present it in the hope it might prepare someone better in case they suffer the same.

1. It's easy to burn all your reserve fuel if you engage in 15 minutes of unplanned fun at high manifold pressures. Viz chasing rabbits. I calculate the helicopter that normally burns 50litres per hour must have been burning well over 100 liters per hour for that 15 mins.

2. Don't forgo a landing to check your fuel level even if it's getting a bit dark and you are not quite home. Motels or taxis are cheap.

3. a real engine stoppage, even if semi-expected, is nothing like a practice. Your eyes dilate (adrenalin I suspect) making focus difficult. Its hard to read the airspeed. Time stops. Your brain tells your limbs what to do but they don't move. You wonder if the blades are still going around - you look for them. You are confused. I still wonder how long it took to make the inputs.

4. You fly too fast shortening the glide. You flare on the high side. You pray there's enough inertia left to cushion the touchdown. You slide for an eternity.

5. You realize that if you had 1 litre less you wouldn't have reached the flatness and space of your home airfield and would have probably made the papers.

I was lucky - there was no doubt the engine had stopped - and my training worked.

But I recall once taking off in a fixed wing (with 1200 hours under my belt) and it took me a good 30 seconds to realize the engine wasn't functioning properly. I cleared the fence by 300 feet instead of the usual 800 feet due to an intermittently blocked injector yet I had convinced myself the take off should go ahead and that I was 'seeing things' and everything was fine. The instrument panel was a blur during the take-off due vibration!

The same delayed decision making with a semi functioning engine in a helicopter in any part of the flight could easily chew up a lot of your height.

I was flying a helicopter deemed to have high inertia blades. I don't know if I would be here right now if I had been flying one with a lot less inertia.

OOW

[Shawn Coyle]

OOW
Thanks for sharing, especially the part about things not being as they were in training. We often forget that.

[Goody35]

The lessons you've learnt over the years

Been involved in an accident or incident or narrowly avoided a mishap over the years? Tell us your story so that in the interests of better safety for the community we can lean from your experiences.

[Goody35]

Not long after completing my PPL i was filling our 44 . My cell phone was in my pocket .i'd just filled one tank as my cell phone rung, so knowing phones and fuel arent a good mix due to a potential static discharge, I walked over to the bowser , put the fuel pump away, wandered a safe distance and took the call.

At the completion of the flight one of the other pilots who we share a hanagr with asked me if I was missing anything. Rather sheepishly I asked what he'd found that I'd lost. Out of his jeans pocket comes the lid to the fuel tank.

In the distraction to taking the call I'd obviously forgot to put in back on and left it sitting on top of the fuselage. Fortunately it was on the pilots side and it harmlessly blew off onto the ground and not into the tail rotor. Just as fortunate I was on a short flight so half filled the tank , it was a sunny day and I landed on tarmac so no water condensation or foreign debris got into the tank. I got lucky.

Lesson learnt, as soon as I get out my car and go to preflight, my phone gets switched off and the last thing I do once all the passengers are strapped in is I take a 30 second final wander around the machine to make sure I've not forgotten anything

[RMK]

Similarly, during my first year of flying. Upon lifting at the fuel pumps, I thought I heard a sound like “shlink”. Couldn’t tell if it was my imagination (BoseX do work really well). I sit motionless for a few seconds checking/looking and then think nothing of it and take off. (I later find the "shlink" sound is a fuel cap sliding down the side of the fuselage onto the concrete).

Downroute while seated at the table for lunch, I get a call asking if I’m missing a fuel cap. I go out and check and yes it’s mine. I tape a big “X” with duct tape over the opening for the flight home and all was fine. Except the guy who found the fuel cap only did so after pulling another helicopter over top of it smashing flat (it was the same custom colour to match the heli).

Other story:

My front left PAX has never been in a helicopter. Again first year and SFH, so every time I fly I’m in a different helicopter. I notice I see more daylight than usual around the passenger’s door frame (this was ill fitting even by R44 standards). As I’m commenting on whether her door is fully closed, she grabs the handle to possibly (pull in some?). We have the bubble windows and her door quickly pops open. My mind goes quickly to “protect tail rotor”. What I did was a quickish stop to about 40kts and at the same time a bit of right pedal in case the door did come off – in retrospect I believed this to be OK

I’d be interested in comments from the Pros/Old timers on the above reaction. I reached across her and held the door handle as I was slowing - I can add that you would be surprised how much force the bubble windows pull outwards at speed.

[topendtorque]

My mind goes quickly to “protect tail rotor”. What I did was a quickish stop to about 40kts and at the same time a bit of right pedal in case the door did come off – in retrospect I believed this to be OK

I’d be interested in comments from the Pros/Old timers

Don't know if I'll go near the Pro bit but perhaps the old timer will suffice.

I wouldn't do a quick stop, think about the direction of airflow through the main rotor in forward flight. Now think about it in even a gentle quickstop - ugh. If it is still there by the time you are evaluating - then it would stay there for a while longer.


If you've checked the door security, hinge split pins or whatever on your daily it would be near impossible for it to fall off in a short time, I'd slow down gently, get safe in your flight mode, then secure the door, land if necessary first.


You could perhaps pass onto others to think about the time at say sixty knots it would take for a loose article to travel from the cabin into the T/R. Would you react, and get the T/R out of harms way faster than that?

A door popping is something students should be exposed to a couple of times by their instructor, part of the "be prepared and react properly" syndrome. When they pop it usually scares the living S' out of you first time, '47's did it all the time. Had it happen in a B58 on take off once, bloody 'ell.

In my vague old timer cells I remember two incidents from somewhere in OZ, from about twenty five to thirty years ago. One ended OK the other tragically, each involved stupidity.
I.E. A pillow under the head of a patient on a Bell 47 litter, supposedly for the comfort of the patient.
The one that was OK was one of ours just US'd the T'/R, red face for pilot; the other somewhere, else took T/R off with resultant C of G loss - very ugly.
Loose articles is certainly a priority for tourists drivers.

[Brilliant Stuff]

Why does the industry not paint all Fuel caps in bright orange for example, that way it will stand out so much better??????

We always put the fuel cap in the passenger footwell during refuelling that way when we forget the pax steps onto it. Has saved us a couple of times.

Painting them though IMHO is a no brainer .....

I lost a cap in my R22 days, bought one of those one fits all caps at the local petrol station and flew it back to base.

[ascj]

We always put the fuel cap in the passenger footwell during refuelling that way when we forget the pax steps onto it. Has saved us a couple of times.

So what if your not carrying pax. How about you put them on the drivers seat. Hopefully the machines not going anywhere without a driver!

[Helinut]

BS's op is in a police EC135:

Always has a front pax
Fuel loading on LH side just behind the door
So Front pax footwell is the most obvious

[rotorfan]

My first flight after earning my heli rating was to fly to an airport picnic to give a few rides in an R22. I bought fuel, and did all the normal preflight checks, including checking both fuel caps. These had a black mark on the round periphery that lined up with another mark on the fuselage when fully tightened. That makes it easy to see if it's properly attached.

Upon landing, and the crowd looking over the machine, someone asked what the hole was on the top. Hole? WHAT HOLE? The left cap was missing, and my knees weakened when I realized it could have taken out the TR. I still don't understand how it happened with the alignment marks and I was certain I had fully tightened it. With great luck, the tractor used for cutting the airport grass used the same very cap, which was loaned to me for the return flight.

What amazes me is these caps aren't on a tether chain so they can't depart the aircraft, or be set aside and forgotten.

[Brilliant Stuff]

I was given to understand the reason why fuel caps are no longer tehtered is because the thinking is that the cap will roll of the airframe when you start the helicopter or lift into the hover instead of hanging on for dear life until the chain fails and then goes into the tail rotor. That's what happened to me on the R22.

I stand to be corrected.

Thanks helinut.

[Helinut]

Having seen the results of a tethered fuel cap on the external paintwork after a short flight, I don't really think that is the optimal solution. Much cheaper and better to lose the cap.[It is a bit similar to the effect of a seat belt buckle flapping in the breeze]

I have done it more than once; I suspect most pilots have.

It usually occurs when something disrupts your normal procedure, in my experience. Very difficult to entirely prevent such things.

The ultimate is to include something physical that prompts you at the start-up or just before lift-off stages. Even that requires the self-discipline of using the protection.

[Wageslave]

A Bit of Entertainment

This event happened near Tenby in May '88 and was published in Pilot magazine in the mid '90s. Dennis, youda been proud of ol 'AX that day! She impressed the hell out of me I can tell you!

Wire Wise

Way back, early in the reign of Queen Margaret 1st I was a cocky young Helo jock revelling in the escape from drudgery as a North Sea P2. I’d swapped Aberdeen for the exciting (and unknown) world of charter operators, a Captain at last! A proverb pinned to the crewroom noticeboard in Aberdeen was long forgotten.

At 100 hrs a pilot thinks he knows it all.
At 500 hrs he knows he knows it all
At 5000 hrs he knows he’ll never know it all.

I’d just cracked 500 hrs...
The most exciting part of the job, better than the charters, joy rides and wedding trips was the twice monthly pipeline patrol which took my observer and I over much of southern and central England for two and a half days at a time, 30 hrs per month at a legal 200 ft AGL. We dodged Chinooks and Pumas in Hampshire, Tornados in the midlands, mortar shells on Salisbury plain, the landlady in Birmingham, Hawks and Harriers in Wales and the weather everywhere we went. Oh, we also had to avoid the wires, which were never far from our thoughts.
The observer knew the route by tree, hedgerow and roadsign. His job was to spot anyone damaging the oil pipelines we were following, potentially vulnerable to a JCB digging foundations, ditching or draining fields.
We got off to an inauspicious start. The forecast was lousy and much of Wales was clampers until late afternoon. The potential for getting “stuck” was high and I elected to wait an hour or so to see how things would develop. The thought of a delay sent our boss, who I’ll call Harry into one of his John Cleese rages jumping and screaming and waving limbs around at improbable angles. Half an hour later I called Salisbury Ops and got the usual reply, “Roger, cleared Shrewton-West Lavington VFR 200 ft, live mortar firing in progress left to right you are passing beneath the trajectory.” Hmm.....
As the hills rose cloud began to obscure the tops of the pylons I was folowing towards the oil depot. Soon we were grubbing along at 200’ and 60 kts and eventually I had to chuck it away. I made a slow, decelerating turn away from the wires searching for any suitable landing site.
The farmer’s wife was, as Colin said, “Welsh Bloody Wonderful, Boyo”. We explained ourselves at the kitchen door and were fed and watered in the most generous style. As we sat in the damp cockpit phoning Bracknell Met from our huge handbag sized Vodaphone (this was in the days when you could actually talk to the duty forecaster) we saw a hope of moving just before dusk. I called a friend’s father who had a farm thirty miles away; no problem, there’s room for two or three SeaKings here, come on over, and then he briefed me about the wires.
The front passed and we set off. I recognised the farm and did an orbit to recce the field and spot the power lines. Colin and I kept up a running commentary on those wires to ensure that we both knew exactly where they all were. Our host was there to marshal us in. The haze and overcast had made it a very dull grey afternoon and as we slowed the drizzle no longer blew off the screen, making vision ahead rather poor. Still,I could see the electricity poles ahead and our host who was marshalling energetically as the tall hedge passed below.
The next few seconds passed in a series of freeze-frame snapshots. A pencil thick black line, horizontal in the chin window by my left foot. Odd! Then a strong smooth deceleration. The entire screen full of nothing but grass, lit ice-white in improbable detail by a silent flash. I don’t remember taking any corrective action, it must have been instinctive. The field, miraculously back in it’s proper place in the windscreen rushed up at an unhealthy rate as I pulled the collective to my armpit, throttle wide and thought, “That’s all there is...” As we settled like a feather Colin uttered the immortal line, “Nice one, I guess we caught the third wire!”
It lay looped across the grass fizzing malevolently. Grey haze, grey field, grey hedges and poles, and a grey drizzle on the screen. Even my friends father was grey. For all our looking neither of us has seen the third set of weathered grey wires in the undershoot. (Colin never saw them at all, he thought we’d had a control failure until the flash, which he said made one heck of a bang) Our poor host had told me of them on the phone but I had only registered the first two which we had seen. His marshalling acrobatics were an attempt to warn us, and as I flew on he knew what was coming.
Was it pressonitis? Yes. I should have scrubbed the trip back at base and just let Harry rant and rave. Complacency? Had I let my guard drop as the weather improved? Probably. Inattention to the briefing? Definitely. Environmental Capture, seeing the two wires which corresponded to what I thought I’d been told? Obviously. Poor visibility turned from acceptable VMC into something much worse on short finals as drizzle frosted up the screen. I should have thought of that. 500hr pilot-itis, more than anything else, I reckon.
The Enstrom had reached a pitch angle of 40-60 deg down at perhaps 20 feet above ground level. The cable virtually stopped us before it snapped, destroying our translational lift which left us in a very high hover with about a third of the power that we suddenly needed. Thanks to the wonderful design of that little Enstrom we did no damage at all, ego apart. A Jetranger would have chopped it’s own tail off and my beloved Hughes 500 would have dropped the last 20ft like a ripe peach. Boy, were we lucky. Good thing we only hit the wire though, and not one of the poles...
Earlier this year, on a wet, grey, drizzly evening I shot an ILS into Luton and thought about writing this story. Somewhere between Barcelona and that landing I’d passed 5000hrs.

[Senior Pilot]

Bump: hopefully there are more tales to be shared