Pilot fined after landing helicopter in village car park

[FSXPilot]

I just find it odd that the newspapers are so crap at reporting news and don't do any research.

Likewise it seems you didn't bother looking either or you would have seen it appears to belong to one individual. As for the incident I would imagine that this is not the first time or otherwise how come there was such a swift police involvement. Usually they have trouble finding there own arses so why did they get so quickly involved in this incident?
Perhaps the pilot has previously upset some one would be my first guess but I doubt we will ever know as the journalist reporting does not seem to have spent any time trying to interview anyone at the place where it happened.

Also quite surprised the CAA got a conviction usually when they get top court they lose as they are mostly incompetent pen pushers.

[Heliport]

The court heard .... if there had been a problem with the engine the helicopter would have just dropped “like a brick” and there would have been no way to land.

Why does the CAA allow their representatives to give courts such melodramatic prejudicial nonsense?

Martin James, an investigator with the Civil Aviation Authority, said: “He put his own interests before the people of Treorchy.”

Not just people on the ground but "the people of Treorchy.”
Introducing a local element is an old trick often used by politicians trying to win over an audience, but inappropriate for someone who is supposed to be an objective investigator.

[Helinut]

Thanks Heliport for those thoughts which seem very apposite.

The prosecuting lawyer seems to be verging on the untruthful when he said those things: certainly overegging the danger and distinctly partial. Are prosecutors still meant to be officers of the court? Even the CAA are unable to change the laws of physics, to avoid autorotation existing. A helicopter without a working/connected power source ain't a brick. The CAA itself acknowledges that by having different SE low flying rules for heles rather than planks: "land without danger to persons or property" compared with "land clear of the congested area".

They should have just stuck to the offence that he was convicted of which was a serious abdication of his responsibility as a pilot.

None of which makes the pilot's version of events any more likely.

It would be interesting to know whether this pilot had a "history" with the feds.

[topendtorque]

• Argumentum Ad Verbosium
• Argumentum Ad Invidiam
• Argumentum Ad Metum

• Argumentum Ad Numeram
• Argumentum Ad Populam
• Argumentum Ad Baculum Examples

• Argumentum Ad Ignorantiam Examples
• Fallacy of Argumentum Ad Hominem

Hmmm take your pick, the freeloaders of the world; greenies, Garnauts, carbon tax despots etc all do, why not some idiot Aviation investigator as such below?

but inappropriate for someone who is supposed to be an objective investigator.

But this bit is exceptionally irresponsible.

helicopter would have just dropped “like a brick”

I mean he should have said, 'well it'll come down like a brick s***house'

The pilot would then have instantly known had any of it hit the fan on the way past that he would be in real - big - trouble.

As a side issue this;-

I had to go down on a hill in Germany a few years ago

Reminds me of a chief pilot I once knew whose favourite coffee cup, which he used to nurture lovingly in his gloved hand as he covertly glanced around with his twinkling grey eyes, was inscribed with the words,

"I go down easy"

I never could figure out why for such a good pilot.

[Savoia]

.

Caught trying to play the loaded executive.

In an R44?

Sorry, but what is the issue here; that the car park is in a built-up area or he didn't have permission to use it or both?

[Heliport]

The fine and costs awards should be a very welcome contribution to the [largely fixed] cost base of the UK justice system.

The fine will, but the Ł3,873.19 costs will go to the CAA.
I assume that's what the CAA claimed it cost them.

[Robbo Jock]

Savoia, according to the report, he was fined for "failing without reasonable excuse to comply with a direction".

He said he'd made a 'precautionary' landing because he was concerned about the clutch light. He was subsequently told, either by his engineer or by the CAA (or both), that the aircraft was unsafe and was grounded until it had been inspected by an engineer (the CAA apparently "issued a notice to that effect"). Having been told this/issued with the notice, he took off anyway. And that decision cost him close on six grand.

[bolkow]

I am sure this is the same individual who annoyed the police when he followed a cessna aircraft (Cambrian Air) also out of swansea that crashed into a field in the Gorseinon area last year, and retrieved and flew an injured person from that aircraft out and away as the emergency services, police ambulance and fore brigade arrived, including the local air ambulance.

[griffothefog]

Classic.... sounds like a flying anorak.

[bolkow]

I do believe its and R22 that he flies around in.

[Savoia]

.
Robbo thanks. I did read that but also noted that in his remarks the driver was defending his decision to land in the car park as opposed to a playing field, hence the query, and wondering whether he was being prosecuted for that also.

[Thomas coupling]

He broke the law on two counts:
He was guilty of admitting to fly a Robinson helicopter.
Secondly - he admitted flying it close to other human beings who might have been accidentally contaminated with the Robinson bug. Must have been toptobottom

[bolkow]

well if thats the chopper he has upgraded, My God!

[Agaricus bisporus]

A helicopter without a working/connected power source ain't a brick.

It is if its a single and in the deadman's curve which is possibly/probably what the expert witness was referring to perfectly correctly. The usual and expected selective reporting out of context produces the above shock-horror revelation.

[Bronx]

He landed his bright red ’copter (sic) on an unused car park at the end of Station Road, in Treorchy, Rhondda, instead of following protocol and landing it on a playing field just metres away,

Protocol?

What protocol says that British pilots making a precautionary landing are required to land on a playing field instead of an unused car park just metres away?


griffothefog

Classic.... sounds like a flying anorak.

According to Google, in March 2010 Chris Kiley the pilot in this story heard a distress call from a Cessna when flying in the local area and immediately went to see if he could help. He found the Cessna upside down in a field. The FI and student both had facial injuries, thankfully minor. The FI stayed with the Cessna while he flew the student to hospital. He was airborne just before the first of the emergency services arrived. The Ambulance Service then took the FI to the hospital, the report doesn't say whether by road or air ambulance.
I'd say that shows he's public spirited, not an anorak.

bolkow

well if thats the chopper he has upgraded, My God!

Do you own a helicopter?
I mean a proper helicopter.
I know from your posts that you're an enthusiastic spotter and fly RC helicopters.

[Vizsla]

Its a wonder that the Treorchy Mens Choir didn't claim for loss of rehearsal time

[JTobias]

Give the man a medal !

Joel

[FSXPilot]

he deserves one it takes either an eijit or a brave man to fly a Robbo.

[bolkow]

well bronyx, as a matter of fact I used to not that I see the significance. Even learned in the good old USA at Columbus Ohio started on a jetranger.
Changed profession since then, and to be frank if the internet was available in the eighties I'd have been on a site such as this then. I once landed a jet ranger in a bob evans car park. Silly? Yes, I did not get any bother, but most of us have evolved safety wise since the mid eighties.

[SpeedbirdXK8]

He lost the case because he decided to defend himself, simple. The Courts don't like it because the bloke in the street doesn't speak legal speak or fully understand the law and and the workings of the Court.