Vuichard’s at it again
 

I don’t really want to share this link as it’ll get this self-appointed ‘safety expert’ even more clicks, but I couldn’t resist ‘enlightening’ you all.

https://lnkd.in/e3BiPKBX

Why do people keep falling for his B/S?

Whilst i don't support the self aggrandisement associated with the idea that he has invented this concept - which he clearly has not...

It's actually a really good training video (if you discount the name-dropping nonsense) and when i used it in a CRM course last year i got a lot of "oooh - i'd not thought of it that way before".

The theory is not B/S - The suggestion that the V-foundation has suddenly come up with it as the saviours of the helicopter industry is B/S of the highest order.

I'll keep using the video though.

I don't think the marshaller walking around under the rotor tips with his arms up is sensible or smart safety modelling. Next thing a junior instructor demonstrating that to his students is going to be trimmed. I would also suggest the qualified and equipped marshaller actually wears his goggles when they land right next to him.

There’s a reason for that; it’s B/S!

I’ve never heard of any pilot thinking that the distance to the front of the rotor is the same as the distance to the side. However, what is extremely common is people incorrectly thinking that by looking to the 3 or 9 o’clock positions (2 or 10 o’clock if they’re lazy) that they’re seeing the full width of the disc. The max width is typically in the 4 or 8 o’clock.

And as for not landing side-on to obstacles; please get real. You’re in a helicopter FFS!

Using this video in your own training I would suggest is not your best option. You’d be far better off with a 2D model on a desk or blackboard to simply, effectively and most importantly, correctly, explain the concept. And it would take less than a minute! You’d then not have to subject your students to ill-founded concepts and plain wrong advice, unless you’re trying to pad out the course?

Q. Has anyone from the Authority approved the use of the video as courseware?

Why not do it with the rotors stopped? The dimensions of the rotor system is effectively the same.

More safety bollocks from M. Vuichard, the inventer of helicopter safety!

Ok - I over egged the pudding there.

replace "really good" with "useful".

Much of it is waffle but the element that explains the basic concept is useful in the context of wider discussion of visual illusions and i introduce it with that caveat.

This is clearly something which has got your blood pressure up so I'll leave you to it now.

Ain't that the truth!

(PS. I love your term ‘Oxygen thief’ on the other thread).

Now I'm totally confused by two things!

A) What does the distance to the front of the disc have to do with anything associated with obstacles to the side? If, I'm manoeuvring with anything to my side I will look at the objects and the disc, not to my front.

B) Please run that one by me!

You sit forwards of the mast, therefore the widest part of the disc is over your shoulder, not to your side

Ah, ok. I was thinking of the reference frame being the whole aircraft, not the pilot.

Put rocks, sticks, cones, whatever on the ground at the end of the blades at 12, 3 and 9 from the mast and also at the tip of the tail rotor / tail boom far enough from the aircraft to be seen from the pilots seat. Then sit there for a while looking around.
I did that on every type I ever flew. Gives you perspective of the footprint of the machine.
It helped.

We used to make a very specific point about this for SAR on the Sea King since you sit a long way forward of the mast :ok:

thanks for this question and now that 4 and 8 o clock comes as a revelation.
This video could well be a reminder of the concept, important one i feel. But what i have experienced a greater danger of the disc being hit from underneath by silly things as ladders, broom sticks and flag poles etc.. (a military pilot wont be surprised at what all the troops want to carry in a heli)