Ask a helicopter pilot anything
Discussion
texaxile said:
If you went upside down, would you and your co pilot fall out, or would you still be friends?.
Also:
There have been a few tragic accidents due to Helo's hitting power lines, if flying low in unknown terrain is it a serious hazard or something that you have made yourself aware of prior?.
And how many cojones does one need for this job?:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIrcRu-dsV0&ab...
Yup, I've lost a lot of friends in helicopters. A lovely chap called Vince Hussell was on one of my flying courses and was killed instructing in a Squirrel which hit power lines in Devon. A few friends have hit them and got away with it too....Also:
There have been a few tragic accidents due to Helo's hitting power lines, if flying low in unknown terrain is it a serious hazard or something that you have made yourself aware of prior?.
And how many cojones does one need for this job?:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIrcRu-dsV0&ab...
Powerlines are a massive hazard to military pilots. Flying in Bosnia was bloody lethal because they would place the mast itself on a ridge and one on the opposite ridge with just a powerline hanging between (in mainland europe they often have coloured globes on the lines or strobelights). Our maps were marked with all the powerlines from 60' upwards and the 50 thou ones with the small house type powerlines too, It was incredibly difficult to see them and I landed once in the desert in Iraq, at night and as the troops got off I noticed a massive set of powerlines that ran along the road. Despite 4 of us looking out on approach none of us saw them and just pure luck we flew parallel to them.
Those powerline guys are totally nuts.
Edited by Siko on Wednesday 30th March 17:21
Siko said:
Mandatory reading going through flying training as a helicopter pilot 
I would edge "Low Level Hell" marginally ahead of it though and am just listening to "To the Limit" which is also outstanding and on a par with Chickenhawk. All Vietnam helicopter books.
Thanks siko, ordered for kindle @ 99p, looking forward to reading it I would edge "Low Level Hell" marginally ahead of it though and am just listening to "To the Limit" which is also outstanding and on a par with Chickenhawk. All Vietnam helicopter books.Siko said:
Yup, I've lost a lot of friends in helicopters. A lovely chap called Vince Hussell was on one of my flying courses and was killed instructing in a Squirrel which hit power lines in Devon. A few friends have hit them and got away with it too....
Powerlines are a massive hazard to military pilots. Flying in Bosnia was bloody lethal because they would place the mast itself on a ridge and one on the opposite ridge with just a powerline hanging between (in mainland europe they often have coloured globes on the lines or strobelights). Our maps were marked with all the powerlines from 60' upwards and the 50 thou ones with the small house type powerlines too, It was incredibly difficult to see them and I landed once in the desert in Iraq, at night and as the troops got off I noticed a massive set of powerlines that ran along the road. Despite 4 of us looking out on approach none of us saw them and just pure luck we flew parallel to them.
Those powerline guys are totally nuts.
I know a pilot who managed to clip some lines and take out the power of a village in wales. During the investigation the MAA (from memory) started to get very excited about the low flying chart in the ops room, I got dragged in on my day off with a very unhappy squadron boss where I then pointed at the big sign above the map saying “This chart is not CALF amended” Powerlines are a massive hazard to military pilots. Flying in Bosnia was bloody lethal because they would place the mast itself on a ridge and one on the opposite ridge with just a powerline hanging between (in mainland europe they often have coloured globes on the lines or strobelights). Our maps were marked with all the powerlines from 60' upwards and the 50 thou ones with the small house type powerlines too, It was incredibly difficult to see them and I landed once in the desert in Iraq, at night and as the troops got off I noticed a massive set of powerlines that ran along the road. Despite 4 of us looking out on approach none of us saw them and just pure luck we flew parallel to them.
Those powerline guys are totally nuts.
Edited by Siko on Wednesday 30th March 17:21
MAA soon moved along from that line of inquiry. MAA = Military Aviation Authority
CALF = chart amendment low flying (basically published every 28 days with any new wires/masts and so on.
Yeah, my brother spent lots of time navigating for Pipeline surveying, flying over the National Transmission System gas pipelines.
He said it was mostly boring, punctuated by landing quickly over the (buried and unmarked) pipe, when they found a farmer with a JCB unknowingly about to dig into the main gas supply to a powerstation.
Literally running over from the helicopter to the bemused farmer, and shouting.
He also said it's still amusing to phone up a hotel in advance for the night, when on a 2 day jaunt and ask "do you have a helipad for me to arrive on?"
- and then find they've run the Bentley over to the H for his arrival.....
He said it was mostly boring, punctuated by landing quickly over the (buried and unmarked) pipe, when they found a farmer with a JCB unknowingly about to dig into the main gas supply to a powerstation.
Literally running over from the helicopter to the bemused farmer, and shouting.
He also said it's still amusing to phone up a hotel in advance for the night, when on a 2 day jaunt and ask "do you have a helipad for me to arrive on?"
- and then find they've run the Bentley over to the H for his arrival.....
ecsrobin said:
I know a pilot who managed to clip some lines and take out the power of a village in wales. During the investigation the MAA (from memory) started to get very excited about the low flying chart in the ops room, I got dragged in on my day off with a very unhappy squadron boss where I then pointed at the big sign above the map saying “This chart is not CALF amended” MAA soon moved along from that line of inquiry.
MAA = Military Aviation Authority
CALF = chart amendment low flying (basically published every 28 days with any new wires/masts and so on.
Lol I remember the joys of CALF amending a half mil and losing a day of your life….thank god for technology MAA soon moved along from that line of inquiry. MAA = Military Aviation Authority
CALF = chart amendment low flying (basically published every 28 days with any new wires/masts and so on.
I get funny looks from the other pilot if I take the paper map out of the cockpit door but old habits die hard The_Doc said:
Yeah, my brother spent lots of time navigating for Pipeline surveying, flying over the National Transmission System gas pipelines.
He said it was mostly boring, punctuated by landing quickly over the (buried and unmarked) pipe, when they found a farmer with a JCB unknowingly about to dig into the main gas supply to a powerstation.
Literally running over from the helicopter to the bemused farmer, and shouting.
He also said it's still amusing to phone up a hotel in advance for the night, when on a 2 day jaunt and ask "do you have a helipad for me to arrive on?"
- and then find they've run the Bentley over to the H for his arrival.....
I’ve probably crossed paths with your brother. Possibly.Maybe.He said it was mostly boring, punctuated by landing quickly over the (buried and unmarked) pipe, when they found a farmer with a JCB unknowingly about to dig into the main gas supply to a powerstation.
Literally running over from the helicopter to the bemused farmer, and shouting.
He also said it's still amusing to phone up a hotel in advance for the night, when on a 2 day jaunt and ask "do you have a helipad for me to arrive on?"
- and then find they've run the Bentley over to the H for his arrival.....
Siko said:
Yup, I've lost a lot of friends in helicopters. A lovely chap called Vince Hussell was on one of my flying courses and was killed instructing in a Squirrel which hit power lines in Devon. A few friends have hit them and got away with it too....
Powerlines are a massive hazard to military pilots. Flying in Bosnia was bloody lethal because they would place the mast itself on a ridge and one on the opposite ridge with just a powerline hanging between (in mainland europe they often have coloured globes on the lines or strobelights). Our maps were marked with all the powerlines from 60' upwards and the 50 thou ones with the small house type powerlines too, It was incredibly difficult to see them and I landed once in the desert in Iraq, at night and as the troops got off I noticed a massive set of powerlines that ran along the road. Despite 4 of us looking out on approach none of us saw them and just pure luck we flew parallel to them.
Those powerline guys are totally nuts.
Thanks for the answer, sorry to hear about your friend. That takes some real mettle to handle a Helo in the first place, and to fly one in a military capacity, not something I could be capable of. Keep safe!!Powerlines are a massive hazard to military pilots. Flying in Bosnia was bloody lethal because they would place the mast itself on a ridge and one on the opposite ridge with just a powerline hanging between (in mainland europe they often have coloured globes on the lines or strobelights). Our maps were marked with all the powerlines from 60' upwards and the 50 thou ones with the small house type powerlines too, It was incredibly difficult to see them and I landed once in the desert in Iraq, at night and as the troops got off I noticed a massive set of powerlines that ran along the road. Despite 4 of us looking out on approach none of us saw them and just pure luck we flew parallel to them.
Those powerline guys are totally nuts.
Edited by Siko on Wednesday 30th March 17:21
normalbloke said:
Siko said:
Dr Jekyll said:
What's the drill if the tail rotor fails?
Pretty much the same drill as if the Jesus nut goes 
However it can be done and we do train for it a lot (in the Simulator of course) in the hover, cut the throttles and land....it's pretty much ok if you get the throttles off before it spins too much probably within 45 degrees or so. If you are slow to get them off through 90 degrees then the aircraft builds up rotational speed very quickly and even cutting the throttles at this stage will almost certainly result in a crash.
In forward flight it's not quite as bad, because of aerodynamic effects on the tail boom. For my helicopter you have to go into autorotation as quickly as possible by lowering the collective lever, confirm it has failed rather than is fixed (the S92 has a spring that can hold the TR to a fixed pitch) which you do by briefly raising the lever and seeing if you have any control, assuming it has failed you close the engines down and conduct an autorotative landing.
Pretty much the worst place for it to happen is from a high hover or late on approach/shortly after takeoff. Sadly the Leicester City chairman who was killed when his helicopter lost the TR was in 2 of those conditions taking off and unsurprisingly it was unsurvivable. There are lots of varieties of failures you can have (if you're lucky
) and diagnosing exactly what has happened quickly is incredibly difficult...This AAIB bulletin from 2018 worth a read.
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5c0...
The_Doc said:
Yeah, my brother spent lots of time navigating for Pipeline surveying, flying over the National Transmission System gas pipelines.
He said it was mostly boring, punctuated by landing quickly over the (buried and unmarked) pipe, when they found a farmer with a JCB unknowingly about to dig into the main gas supply to a powerstation.
Literally running over from the helicopter to the bemused farmer, and shouting.
He also said it's still amusing to phone up a hotel in advance for the night, when on a 2 day jaunt and ask "do you have a helipad for me to arrive on?"
- and then find they've run the Bentley over to the H for his arrival.....
That’s why helicopters are so freaking awesome He said it was mostly boring, punctuated by landing quickly over the (buried and unmarked) pipe, when they found a farmer with a JCB unknowingly about to dig into the main gas supply to a powerstation.
Literally running over from the helicopter to the bemused farmer, and shouting.
He also said it's still amusing to phone up a hotel in advance for the night, when on a 2 day jaunt and ask "do you have a helipad for me to arrive on?"
- and then find they've run the Bentley over to the H for his arrival.....
A buddy of mine flew for the lighthouse board in Scotland and used to turn up at the Sumburgh hotel in his EC175 and park it out the front…..now I don’t care what anyone says, that is super cool.Gaines178 said:
Do you work for an oligarch? Only asking as the other thread went quiet very quickly.
Lol nope and that is a great thread indeed. I’ve never done corporate/VIP but when I got my licence one of my instructors was a VIP pilot who had been let go. Whilst he may have been biased (he was a pretty chilled out sort of guy) he said that most corporate/VIP pilots only last in the region of 2 years with a particular client before they are let go and that most clients were *****. A good friend of mine worked for a very wealthy uk family and was basically treated like dirt before he left, he was put under a huge amount of pressure at times to “get the job done”. I think it’s probably 50/50 between client/self-induced pressure but there have been a number of high-profile corporate accidents/incidents which shouldn’t have happened. I won’t go into it here but it’s freely available all over the Internet if you look.
Madness60 said:
Ooooh another one....hang on... you said you'd choose the 412 out of all the helis you've flown, worst one for me, overcomplicated for training ac and horrible roll and pitch rate, felt like flying a giant angry American redneck
Are you better at hovering over the sea than on SARTU??
Lol I only hover over a helideck/airfield nowadays mate Are you better at hovering over the sea than on SARTU??
I basically fly a 747 with a whirly disk on top. I adored the 412, just a simple fun aircraft to fly and could do anything…there’s a reason the Canadians/USMC use them operationally.Gassing Station | Boats, Planes & Trains | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff