About a year ago a pilot attending one of my 5-day CRM Instructor courses asked me, “Have you seen this?” He played a YouTube clip that made my blood turn to ice. Michael Farikh, a highly respected Russian pilot who accomplished many great things for civilian helicopter aviation in his country, posted it. One article published just after his death called Farikh “The godfather of Russian helicopter aviation.”
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My Two Cents Worth
Looks like we got a couple “new” aircraft types entering the market place within the next year or so. The first production Bell 505 landed at a Bell Training Center recently, where they will begin training instructors and eventually the initial pilots and mechanics.
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ROTORwrench
“Sacred trust,” is what your passenger exhibits when they get into your helicopter to go on a flight. By their very actions they are telling you, “I am placing my life in your hands.”
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My Two Cents Worth
This past week, two videos were posted throughout the Internet regarding helicopter incidents that caught my attention. One was a fire fighting helicopter hitting wires while departing with a load of water, and the other of a wedding party flight which ended in a fatal crash after an Inadvertent Instrument Meteorological Condition (IIMC) event. On the surface, the immediate value of visually experiencing the mistakes of our pilot peers seems priceless. The issue is the unknowing public believing each helicopter pilot is just one flight away from a video-recorded disaster!
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Rotorcraft Checkride
A follow up to last month’s blog tidbit on the Airbus 225 accident in Norway. Ran across an interesting article detailing the inner workings of the Super Puma main transmission and how it relates to the failure of the Norway aircraft.
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ROTORwrench
“But all twins are not alike”, I said to the air medical flight doctor who is very keen to make it mandatory that all air medical programs in America operate twin-engine helicopters. He replied, “I wasn’t aware of that.”
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My Two Cents Worth
Many of the helicopters utilized in today’s training market are equipped with an engine governor. The governor assists the pilot with managing and maintaining appropriate engine/rotor RPM to safely operate the helicopter. When conducting system failure training, the engine governor will be turned off and the pilot will be required to manipulate the throttle manually. In situations where the engine governor fails and mismanages engine/rotor RPM, the pilot may be required to isolate or turn off the governor. Adequate training and proficiency is critical in these situations.
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Rotorcraft Checkride
I received a message from a person responding to comments I’d made on my professional Face Book page that deals with crew resource management topics, about the UH-60M Black Hawk helicopter crash that occurred back in March 10, 2015 off the coast of Florida. The crew, who was extremely experienced, had lost spatial orientation when doing an overwater exercise in sea fog killing the crew of 4 and the 7 soldiers on board. The aircraft was from the Louisiana National Guard. The person who wrote to me concluded, “The LA guard is the best aviation unit in the world.”
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Categories:
My Two Cents Worth
An interesting development in the investigation of the EC225 that lost its M/R in flight last year.
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ROTORwrench
I am very happy to report that the accident rate for helicopters in the United States continue a downward trend. This should be the goal of each helicopter operator and pilot. However, the accidents we do have are not new, we just keep having the same accidents repeatedly. One such mission segment that has long stood out for having a higher than average accident rate is flight training.
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Categories:
Rotorcraft Checkride