I never said that I have had to put down hundreds of times due to bad weather though.:)

Encountered unexpected weather en-route? Nope......I have frequently encountered weather that has been worse than I had anticipated and in which case I either diverted, flew around or simply went back for a nice cup of coffee and a wad. Put down en-route.......naw too embarrassing isn't it chopjock. Well I would feel so anyway and certainly its the icing on the cake for those accusers of unproffessional standards. Do you suffer from 'gethomeitis' by any chance?:}

toptobottom...
 

toptobottom



I've told you a thousand times...don't exaggerate!


Sorry...:E


Dan

Sounds like it to me - or was I just pulling your chain :E
Or are you jsut saying you've landed hundreds of times - fullstop :confused:

Dantruck

I know, I know - but hey - I'm just a heli pilot! DOH!! There I go, exaggerating again!! :E

I'm glad I'm not the only one to have read, "Out of all the 17 years I have been flying, I have put down hundreds of times" and though it to mean that in 17 years of flying, chopjock has had to put down hundreds of times.

So what does,"Out of all the 17 years I have been flying, I have put down hundreds of times" actually translate to?

I myself have only opted to put it on the deck just once due wx since beginning in this caper circa 1996....and of all places, t'was in so-called sunny Spain.

There I was, in the hills not far north of Cordoba (great little airport if you ever get the time) bumbling southbound from Cuatro Vientos (Madrid) in my R44 when all manner of fluffy grey stuff encircled me. "Bugger this for a game of soldiers" I explained to the px as I simultaneously bent it into a right-hand steep turn looking for a safe spot...just as I'd been taught. Anyone famiilar with those parts will attest all there was, and is...is olive trees, each a perfect 40ft apart, in serried rows, as far as the horizon. Suffice to say, it was a confined area landing, and on very private farmland to boot.

Did el farmer complain?...did he f@{k. Neither he or his goat ever turned up, and he wouldn't have given a tapas either way if he did, truth be told.

Point is: do as would be expected locally. Call UK Plod if you will, but don't then be surprised when he yawns down the phone in excitement. Sid...your 'airmanship' is to be applauded, but you must be a dot on that thin blue line, or completely out of touch...or both...if you think the average, well intended, UK pilot's pre-report will ever get passed on to anyone. Truly:=

Fly safe...and stay clear of the olive oil whatever you do:ok:

Dan

It's not so much the putting down, but putting down without being asked to leave which implies no PPR. However, chopjock does not specifically state that all these "put downs" were due to bad weather so some could have been due to mechanical problems, being lost, fancying a fag and a cuppa or a nice snooze.

Cheers

Whirls

Silso and TTB,
translates to: Doesn't say anything about bad wx.:)

Would anyone want to know why anyone would want to purposely put down regularly in perfectly good weather?

Whirls is pretty close.

Not your land and without permission?

Cheers

Whirls

Pretty much spot on (I dropped in for fuel at Leics on Sat evening, sorry I missed you!)

I hope not because I was extracting the micturation. :eek:

Cheers

Whirls

In answer to chopjocks questions;

1. No, but I give flight a second thought when the weather is nearing three times my legal limits.

2. Correct, thorough pre-flight briefing would probably be the reason why. Never unexpected bad weather, but anticipated weather problems en-route.

3. No, not yet, but it's an option I'm always prepared to take, especially as these days most of my flights are ad-hoc.

4.
a. Well, for the first 4 years of my flying career as an observer, I/we never encountered the situation where the pilot was caught out and had to put down. [See answer 2] (could have been interesting over the jungle or sea)

b. For the first 13 years of my flying career as a pilot, I had the option to fly through or over it.

c. For the last 7 years, I have had the option of punching up and returning to base. However, if the weather is bad, freezing levels are low, CBs around etc, I get caught out and there is a field handy, of course I'd land.

What would I then do? Inform both ATC and the Police. Closely followed by a pub recce, purely to locate the land owner of course, because I'd need their permission to take off!
;)

Classic, nice one Whirlygig :D

Right, so chopjock didn't put down hundreds of times in 17 years because of the weather. Which begs the question, would you fly around with someone who has to land hundreds of times because of mechanical problems, being lost, fancying a fag and a cuppa or a nice snooze?

Because that, or something very close, is what he/she is now telling us. :eek:


It's not the weather, so we are now being told, despite starting a post with, 'So there you are one day, grovelling along in poor vis and you have to put down in a field' and ending with the immortal line...'Out of all the 17 years I have been flying, I have put down hundreds of times'.

Silsoe
Two different sentences. There is a full stop between the two statements.
Also,
None of those, but like I said, close!:) (Well I have had a couple of mechanical problems! and I don't smoke)

Weak bladder :uhoh:

Cheers

Whirls

In fact, two different paragraphs :p


Anyhool, I guess that's chopjocks digging rate slowing :rolleyes:

Back to topic, if you don't need the landowners permission to land, do you need it to take off?

No, but when flying 3 hr sorties I often take a p155 when I put down in fine wx for the other reason. :}

Our Civil Aviation Safety Authority has a foot note in all references to landings, which reminds/cautions pilots that Local Laws (used to be By-Laws) must be complied with. Here in Victoria helipads require Planning Permission, which then opens a can of worms over what is a helipad!

SS point about notifying Police is a moot point. I had one (approved) landing where the local Bill turned up some time later following a report of a helicopter crashing: my landings weren't all that bad ;) Another landing had a pair of young Constables maintaining "you can't land there, because we said so" which got very short shrift from me. Much as I initially tried to be nice....

Quite often around Melbourne the permission from CASA for specific low flying would include a requirement to notify the Police, and work around Docklands would need liaison with the Docks Authority. Probably to stop the dockers walking out on strike because of their perceived exposure to crashing helicopters: but it all worked well, and reduced the chance of misunderstandings in the long run.

I never bothered to ring Mr Plod unless something exceptional was planned: a routine landing would not come into that criteria IMO :=

John, I agree but as I wrote earlier, the UK CAA make informing the local police a written condition of the granting of a landing permission in a congested area (i.e. for exemption from the UK Air Navigation Order's "Not below 1,000ft overflight of a congested area" rule).