Yup, nearly happened to me about 4 weeks ago. I was running in to land with the sun in my eyes at a friends house where I had been several times before, and was so busy making sure that I was clear of the wires on each side of the approach path that I assumed I had already passed over those that ran straight across. I hadn't, and suddenly to my horror saw them about 6 feet in front of the skids and maybe 2 feet below. The worst part of it was that I knew full well that they were there and was taking great care on the approach.

Last time I wil ever go into that site!

Wires
 

Hey Madbob

Yep I am not ashamed nor afraid to admit it, been there done that :eek:
Army Aviation had surveyed & approved the Helipad for VVIP's movements confirming nil hazards, nil obstacles & nil wires :( I arrived in poor visibility, nil sun, overcast, haze, smog did 2 orbits for my SWAT checks, nothing seen := set up for a fast steep approach, flare at the bottom then stretched & busted 3 yep 3 wires with the skids almost over the pad :yuk: What saved me & the 6 PAX was the fast, steep appoach needing the flare aligned the skids at the perfect angle to bust them wires. The wires were on concrete poles just short of the H, stretched across from a wee hill totally invisible as they were the same drab colour as the soil in the fields where they were burning off :{

Always be learnin' ;) Cheers to Life :)

Cherry Drying....did the Recce...saw every wire....even the wee tiny skinny ones going to the Pump House out in the middle of the Orchard. Had dried the field twice in the previous week.

Let's just say that Wires smaller than your Pinky Finger look like Inch and a Half Rope when seen really....really ...really close up!

I believe it was Gordy who once posted here that he did a course that taught one to insert "wire" every third item in a verbal check list when operating near wires... any more items in between and one is likely to forget.

The other thing that bothered me in this video was accepting marshaling instructions from the folks on the ground...

Unless you know them, and trust them to know what they are doing for you, execute your own plan...

The course metioned is called Flying in the Wire Environdment, taught by Utilities Aviation Specialists. www.helicoptersafety.com It is taught many times yearly in the US, Canada, NZ, Australia, and occasionally in other places including the HAI and HAC.

The other thing the course would call out in this situation would be to perfrom a full orbital recon when going into any off air airport/heliport/LZ for the first time. Even if it appears to be fairly open.

Yep, that is the one--It is a two day course and I am required, along with all my pilots, to do the full day refresher every year in order to fly some of our power line patrol contracts.

Video Introduction Here

Sure it can happen to anybody. I've done it twice and a couple of closed calls .....
You are never safe totally if you work long hpours on a wire enviroment.
Great news that this guys went by this time.
Fly safe

500guy,

I would suggest the "One Full Circle" (Known as High Recon/Recce) applies to every Off Airport Landing done the first landing each day no matter how many times you have landed there.

Electrical and Telephone cables do not take long to install. All it takes is for the Cable TV company to come along and change their "Drop" and you might find yourself winding up a lot of wire around the rotor head.

In the kinds of places Gordy operates.....Logging companies throw up high lead lines in no time at all. You can pass through an area and return just a couple of hours later and find a new set of wires in place.

I agree Bob, for the most part.
We use the 500s for powerline construction, we will use an LZ all day a (10-50 landings a day) for about 10-14 days then we will move up the line a mile or 2 to the next one. If we ever go back to a previous LZ or see any signs of new activity in the area it would be prudent to do another full recon. We are normally in the transmission right of way itself, so if there is new wire being strung, its us stringing them.