Tag Archives: pilots

Strangers Know My Name

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And that’s kind of spooky.

The other day, on my flight from Page, AZ (PGA) to Phoenix Deer Valley Airport (DVT), an odd thing happened. I was about 12 miles out, coming down through the mountains near New River on the east side of I-17 when I caught sight of a low-flying aircraft ahead of me. The tiny dot in the distance moved left to right in front of my flight path at about my altitude. When it made a sharp turn, I knew it was a helicopter.

I was tuned into the helicopter air-to-air frequency, 123.025, and keyed my mic. “Helicopter over New River, are you on frequency?”

Nothing. Repeating this call twice also brought no response. In the meantime, it appeared that the helicopter was circling in that area. It couldn’t be a media helicopter; they monitor the helicopter frequency. Who was it, what were they doing, and — most important — did they see me?

I started to climb. That in itself was odd. Normally, when I see traffic in my vicinity, I descend to avoid it. But this guy seemed as if he were looking at something on the ground. As he moved from right to left, I veered off a bit to the right, planning to either pass behind him or into his view if he turned again.

I had the helicopter’s nosecam running and just inspected the video. It reminds me that I was flying into the low-lying winter sun for most of the flight; this clip was from about 11:30 AM. The other helicopter is almost impossible to see because of the wide angle lens exaggerating distances, but as the video progresses, I can clearly the the flash its blades as the sunlight reflects off them at certain bank angles. Here’s a capture from the movie with an inset blowup of one of those flashes; he was 2-3 miles away at this point:

Traffic

He didn’t turn. He continued to the left, eastbound, out of my path of flight. I resumed normal navigation, keeping an eye on him to make sure he didn’t come back. He didn’t. Instead, he began heading south about a mile east of me, slightly higher. I could see from the shape of his helicopter that he wasn’t flying a Robinson or a Hughes. It could have been a JetRanger.

Meanwhile, I was nearing Deer Valley and had listened to the ATIS on my second radio. I was about 7 miles out and ready to call in when another helicopter called in, using the same position report I’d use: “7 miles north.” Unless there was another helicopter right behind me, it had to be the guy I’d been watching. He was going to the north hangars, which is a huge group of hangars on the northeast side of the runways. The tower responded, telling him to report a mile out.

I called in immediately with basically the same call but to the Atlantic ramp, which is on the south side of the runways. I added: “I have the other helicopter in sight.” I was told to report a mile north and expect a midfield crossing at 2,000 feet. The usual.

The tower frequency was unusually quiet, but the controller did talk to one or two other pilots. Then the other helicopter came on. “Helicopter 1-2-3 (I can’t remember its real tail number and wouldn’t use it anyway) is just crossing Carefree Highway.” There was a pause and then he added, “Maria.”

He was talking to me. On the tower frequency. Creepy.

A little surprised, I spoke up, “Helicopter Zero-Mike-Lima has you in sight.” What I later realized is that he still didn’t see me and was trying to get me to tell him where I was in relation to him. I should have added, “I’m at your two o’clock low,” which is where I was, still at least a half mile away. But I was a bit frazzled by a stranger speaking to me directly, by name, on the tower frequency.

Hell, wouldn’t you be?

But was he a stranger? Maybe I did know him. But I couldn’t think of anyone I knew who owned a helicopter like that. If he’d been landing on the south side, it could have been a media or medevac helicopter and then I might know the pilot, but he wasn’t. He was landing at the rental hangars on the north. That meant his helicopter was likely privately owned or he was visiting someone up there. Who was it? Beats me.

A minute or two later, he called again, “Deer Valley Tower, Helicopter 1-2-3 has the red Robbie in sight.”

(Why does it bug me just a tiny bit when other helicopter pilots refer to Robinsons as Robbies?)

Then I was making my call a mile out and getting instructions to cross midfield at 2,000 feet. I was making my spiraling descent on the other side of the runway when the other helicopter reported a mile out and got his instructions to land.

And that was the last I heard from him.

Of course, all this reminds me that the helicopter community is a small world where most folks know most other folks. Of all the helicopter pilots out there, how many are women? Likely 5% or less. Of all the female helicopter pilots, how many are flying red Robinson R44 helicopters in the Phoenix area? Probably just one: me.

And it’s a lot easier to remember the name of the one oddball in the pack than every other pilot out there.

I just wish I knew who was flying the other helicopter.

Highest Duty

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A book review.

Highest DutyLast night, I stayed up late to finish reading Highest Duty by US Airways pilot Chelsey B. “Sully” Sullenberger. Captain Sullenberger was the pilot in command of US Airways Flight 1549, which landed with no loss of life in the Hudson River on January 15, 2009.

I’d been wanting to read the book for a while but I kept putting it off. I wanted it to be my first purchased ebook experience. I was supposed to get a Nook for Christmas, but the idiots at Barnes & Noble were completely clueless about customer service and timely order fulfillment, so I canceled the order. I wound up with an iPad in April. After weighing the benefits and drawbacks of ebook reader software — iBooks, Kindle Reader, and B&N Reader — I decided to go with the Kindle software and ordered the Kindle edition of the book from Amazon.com. From what I hear from Twitter friends, the iPad makes a better “Kindle” than Amazon’s Kindle.

On Heroes

I’ve always been intrigued by Captain Sullenberger’s modesty and apparent reluctance to bask in the limelight of his extraordinary experience. People call him a hero but he [rightly] refuses that title. He quotes from a letter he received after his Hudson River landing: “I see a hero as electing to enter a dangerous situation for a higher purpose, and you were not given a choice.”

I agree with this definition of a hero. Captain Sullenberger did what he had to do and was fortunate enough to have the knowledge, experience, demeanor, and team to carry it off successfully. His love and respect of life — including, of course, his own — is what motivated him to do everything he could to succeed.

In many ways, that’s better than being a hero. When a terrible situation was thrust upon him by circumstances he could not change, he rose to the occasion and emerged victorious, saving the lives of 105 people. Along the way, he gave the rest of us hope — after the terrorist attacks of 9/11, in the midst of a serious economic recession, with wars going on in the Mideast — he showed us what people can accomplish when put to the test. He gave us the happy ending we all needed.

It Wasn’t a “Miracle”

Another thing that intrigued — and, I’ll admit, pleased — me about Captain Sullenberger was his failure to credit his success to the intervention of some supernatural being. I’m talking about God.

I can’t tell you how sick I am of seeing famous athletes and celebrities and just plain people thank God for something good happening to them. Scored a record number of goals in a basketball game? Thank God! Won a Grammy? Praise Jesus! Tornado took out the house next to yours but left yours unscathed? God was watching out for you!

It makes me sick. People don’t want to give themselves credit where credit is due. They work hard, they train, they practice, but they give God credit for getting the ball through the hoop. They learn music, they practice singing, they get a great producer who helps package their material, but they give Jesus credit for winning that Grammy. They don’t want to admit that luck has a place in our lives — good luck preserves one house while bad luck takes the one next door away. What of the people who lost the basketball game or the Grammy or their home? Did God simply not like them as much? And what about when these winners get their own dose of bad luck — injury, illness, scandal, death? Did God change his mind about them?

Captain Sullenberger, however, did not thank God or any other supernatural being for the positive outcome of his Hudson landing. At least I didn’t hear him do so in any article, interview, or elsewhere. I wanted to read the book to be sure that he didn’t thank God within its pages. He didn’t.

And that just makes me respect him even more.

The Story

The book mingles autobiographical material with events from the day of the landing. The autobiographical material was presented in a roughly chronological order, but did bounce around a lot with side stories, including references to the Hudson landing. I’m not sure that was the best approach, but it did keep me reading.

Captain Sullenberger is clearly a true pilot. He entered aviation because of his love of flying. From his start as a teen, he took aviation seriously, learning what he could to be a better, safer pilot. He understands the importance of knowing an aircraft’s systems inside and out. He understands the value of studying past accidents to prevent future ones. He also understands that all the things that happen in our lives define who we are and how we will react in a given situation.

Flight 1549 from Wikipedia

This iconic photo of US Airways Flight 1549 in the Hudson River by GregL originally uploaded to Flickr can be found on Wikipedia under a Creative Commons 2.0 license.

A detailed discussion of the events of January 15, 2009 begin about 60% through the book. The story is riveting. He combines his narrative of what happened with references to his past that he believes influenced him to make certain decisions. For example, his knowledge of research into why military pilots sometimes ejected too late is part of why he decided not to worry about saving the airplane by attempting an airport landing and instead concentrate on saving the people by landing in the river. (There’s a lot more to his decision than that; this is just part of what went into it.)

Throughout this part of the book are bits and pieces of the cockpit transcript, recorded by microphones during the flight — the so-called “black box” data. Even though I knew how it would end — don’t we all? — I found the details fascinating. It was a great example of teamwork between Captain Sullenberger and his first officer, Jeff Skiles. Later in the narrative, it was clear that the flight attendants were also part of the team, helping passengers off the plane in as orderly a manner as possible.

The aftermath of the experience also made interesting reading. Getting an inside look at the mail Captain Sullenberger received from people on the plane — as well as many people who had no direct connection to the flight or its passengers at all — revealed the psychology of people. I’m not the only one who appreciated the happy ending to that seemingly doomed flight.

The Soapbox

One of the complaints people have had about the book is the soapbox aspect. Captain Sullenberger believes that airline pilots are not treated as well as they should be by their employers considering the hours and responsibilities of their work. He believes that pay cuts and pension cuts are making it ever more difficult to attract and retain quality pilots who actually care about their work. He suggests that airline pilots are like bus drivers of the sky.

Although I don’t have intimate knowledge of the airline industry, as a professional pilot who has worked for a large tour operator, I know exactly what he means. Aviation employers don’t care how good a pilot is. As long as the pilot meets insurance requirements and can do the job, all that matters is how much that pilot costs. In my experience, many employers would rather hire a cheap, entry level pilot than a seasoned professional who costs more. They don’t see the benefit of the experience. They’re gambling, of course, on the equipment and circumstances of flight — when something goes wrong, will the entry level pilot have the experience and knowledge to bring the aircraft and passengers back safely?

In the airline industry, pilots are locked into their employers for seniority. If they leave one airline, they lose all seniority and start at the bottom at their new employer. This prevents experienced pilots from looking for better jobs. It stagnates the employee pool. And although Captain Sullenberger didn’t mention this, it prevents good ideas from one airline from migrating to another.

Captain Sullenberger does discuss how many airline employees have simply stopped caring about anything other than what’s in their job description. As budget cuts reduce non-essential staff, customer service suffers. Captain Sullenberger talks about his personal experiences going the “extra mile” to help passengers who can’t get the help they need from other airline employees. He talks about how most airline employees are simply tired of doing other people’s jobs. He doesn’t blame them — he hints that they’re underpaid for what they’re supposed to do — but he does decry the system that results in this poor attitude.

He also believes that budget cuts have the potential to reduce safety. A good example of this is the emergency procedures book that his first officer needed to consult on the loss of both engines. In the past, the book had numbered tabs that made it easier to find content. The airline, in a cost-cutting measure, had stopped including the tabs, making it necessary to thumb through the book and look at individual page headings to find content. In the slightly more than three minutes the cockpit crew had to land the plane without engines, every second was valuable. Yes, this flight had a happy ending — but could other flights be lost due to cost cutting measures like this? It certainly makes you wonder.

My feelings about Captain Sullenberger’s soapbox are mixed. I didn’t like reading his complaints, but, at the same time, I knew they were valid. And I know that his experience and the interviews, articles, and books that come from it are the perfect way to get the message out.

While Captain Sullenberger was careful not to criticize his airline, it’s clear that US Airways is just as bad as the others when it comes to matters of pilot compensation and cost-cutting. Perhaps his insight will help make the situation better?

Sadly, it probably won’t.

Thumbs Up

In all, I give the book two thumbs up. While it’s especially good reading for pilots and others interested in aviation, I also think it makes a good guide for young people who want to make something of their lives. And for the rest of the world, it’s a great look at one of the most amazing emergency landings we’ll likely ever see.

Helicopter Career Advice Sought…and Provided

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I answer another request for “my insights” submitted via e-mail.

This morning, I got another e-mail message today from someone interested in starting a career as a helicopter pilot. Here’s the content, with identifying information XXXed out:

I ran across an article about you and Flying M Air in this years Az. Highways and thought you might be able to offer some advice when you had some free time (though reading about all of what you do on the job, I’m thinking you don’t have much free time).

I am currently a director for a large multi-national XXX company in XXX doing global IT security operations, as I have done for other fortune 500 companies for the past 8+ years. I foresee another 2-4 years in the industry as I try and setup my exit strategy from corporate America. The deeper I get into the business side of things (finishing my MBA at XXX in May) and coupled with what I already know from doing IT security for large corps, the less I like the idea of spending the next 20 years behind a desk working for a corporation.

I’ve always loved helicopters as far back as I can remember. Tried to get a guaranteed shot at them in the Army but they wanted me to be in the infantry first so I entered the Air Force as an EOD tech (not helo’s but still fun). I did get to partake in several rides in Blackhawks getting air dropped into zones for work and training. Had a blast, even in the back of helo.

You seem to have escaped the corporate trap and entered the world of helicopters so I am hoping you can share some tips/pointers on how to enter the field. My current research and plan has me thinking I go to XXX helicopters to start training in 2010/1 and start to work my way up to get commercial to instructor tickets while working corporate job. Then I am not sure how to make the break from corporate America into aviation. I am really interested in medevac jobs as well as other jobs around XXX (versus long range/extended travel as I have a family based in XXX).

So in an attempt to wrap up what has become a long winded email, any insights, pointers, advice you might be able to share when/if you have some free cycles would be greatly appreciated.

First, I want to say that it was a pleasure to receive an e-mail like this from someone who was actually literate and could explain himself clearly. I suspect this guy can succeed at whatever he puts his mind to.

In formulating a response to him, I realized that although this blog has lots of posts containing my thoughts and opinions and experience on the topic, there isn’t one post that links to all of it. So I composed a response to him that collected the links and offered some additional words of advice. I’m repeating that response here for the benefit of folks looking for the same kind of information. In the future, I’ll simply link to this.

Thanks for writing.

I need to clarify something: I didn’t escape corporate America for a job as a pilot. I escaped for a freelance career as a writer. That’s where I make my money. If I had to depend on flying income and my flying business to cover all helicopter costs AND pay me enough to cover my mortgage and other living expenses, I’d be broke.

I’ve written about helicopter pilot careers extensively in my blog and that’s probably the best place to get my insights. Here are some specific posts to get you started:

And, for a lighter look, check out the video in this post: The Truth about Flying Helicopters

My biggest piece of advice is to NOT sign up for any “program” that takes you through the process of getting your ratings if that program requires an up-front commitment. You’ll understand why if you read the “Broken Promises” link above.

Don’t be lured by promises of a high-paying job as a helicopter pilot. It will likely take at least 5-10 years to quality for such a job and right now, the helicopter pilot job market is absolutely overflowing with low-time pilots competing for the entry level jobs needed to move forward in a career. If an employer has a choice between a 25-year-old career pilot and a 40-year-old on his second career, who do you think he’ll choose? Hint: inexperienced kids are willing to take all kinds of crap from employers because they simply don’t know any better.

Be a pilot because you love to fly — and be prepared to sink a LOT of money into flying before you see any money in return.

On that dismal note, good luck.

One more word of advice: if you want to be a helicopter pilot, subscribe to publications about helicopters, such as Vertical (excellent), Rotor & Wing (so-so but free), and HelNews (Australia-based but excellent). If you’re going to participate in helicopter forums, take every comment with a grain of salt and try to block out the comments by the trolls. I don’t think forums are worth the time, but I have limited time and patience; if you have more, give them a try. Immerse yourself in the helicopter pilot/flying community before making a career decision and spending a lot of money on training.

Making Cockpit Management Tasks Easier

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Some tips for helicopter pilots (and others).

One of the disadvantages of being on the controls of a helicopter is that you pretty much always have to have at least one hand on the controls. Most helicopters do not have autopilots and, in my experience, I’ve found that releasing the cyclic while in flight is a good way to begin undesired aerobatic maneuvers that are likely prohibited by the Pilot Operating Handbook (POH).

The more you fly a helicopter, the more accustomed you are to dealing with one-handed chores like dialing in radio frequencies, adjusting the altimeter, fiddling with the GPS, and even folding maps. But for new pilots and pilots flying to, from, or through busy airspace, navigating and dealing with other cockpit management chores can be a real challenge.

The key to dealing with this gracefully is preparation. Here are some of the things I’ve come up with.

Organize in Advance

I don’t think there’s any simpler or more important tip to share. By organizing your cockpit in advance, you’ll know exactly where everything is and be able to reach it when you need it. I’m talking mostly about things like checklists, charts, pens, flight plans, and notes. But this could also include navigational aids like a handheld GPS, performance charts, and water or snacks.

Organized!

My seat pocket includes charts and checklists; my passenger’s seat pocket includes marketing material and souvenir postcards.

There’s nothing that bugs me more than when an aircraft mechanic or cleaner or some other pilot moves the things I keep in the pocket under my legs in my aircraft. That’s where I should find all the charts I use regularly, my preflight briefing card (for passenger briefings), my emergency checklist, and my startup/shutdown checklists with performance charts. These are things I sometimes need to reach for in flight — I want them exactly where I expect them to be — not under the seat or in the back or in the seat pocket of the front passenger seat.

By always having things like this in the same place, I can always find them where I expect them to be. This reduces workload in flight — I don’t have to hunt around to find them when I might also need to do something else.

Use an Airport Frequency Cheat Sheet

Airport Frequency Cheat SheetI’ve had one of these on board since I bought my first helicopter, an R22 Beta II, back in 2000. It’s a standard letter size sheet of paper with a four-column grid on it. The columns list Airport Names, Elevations, Tower/CTAF Frequencies, and ATIS/AWOS/ASOS Frequencies. Each row is for a different airport in the areas of Arizona where I fly. The type is purposely large, so I can read it from a distance. The entire sheet is laminated so it doesn’t get beat up.

In Robinson helicopters, the floor at the pilot’s seat is carpeted but covered with a sheet of clear plastic. I slip my cheat sheet under the plastic so it’s at my feet. When I fly, I can shift one or both feet aside to get a look at the sheet to find a frequency I need. This is a lot quicker and easier than consulting a chart or fiddling with a GPS to get the same information.

Of course, if you don’t want to go all out and create one of these for everyday use, you should consider creating one for the flight you’re going to take. It can be much smaller — perhaps index card size — so you can slip it in a pocket when not in use. My husband uses sticky notes that he affixes to the yoke of his airplane. Same idea. He doesn’t fly as often as I do or to as many places, so that meets his needs.

Configure Your Charts in Advance

TripTik and Cheat Sheet

My cheat sheet under the plastic carpet protector and my TripTik on the Robinson-designed GPS tray I use to mount cameras and display charts.

By “configure,” I mean fold open to the area of the chart you’ll need to consult enroute. For most helicopter cross-country flights, you’ll likely use only a few panels of a single chart. But if you’re going on a long cross-country flight, you’ll likely need to fold open more than one chart — or fold the chart you need in a way that it’s easy to get to all panels you’re likely to need. Large paperclips or binder clips can come in handy to keep the chart open the way you need it.

A very smart pilot navigating through a new area will likely use a highlighter — pink and orange work best — to highlight his intended route. This makes it very easy to find the line you’re supposed to be on and keep track of landmarks you fly over as you go.

I’ve actually gone a step farther with this idea. I’ve created a “TripTik” (think AAA) by cutting old charts into pieces that I laminated and put on binder rings. I can clip this loose binder full of map segments to a platform I recently had mounted in my helicopter. As I fly, I can flip through the pages to see the segment I need. It was time consuming and tedious to create and it isn’t quite perfect yet, but it sure does make it easier to manage my charts. (You can see a video about it below.) And yes, I still do have all the up-to-date charts I need on board for every flight.

What’s that you say? You have a whiz-bang moving map GPS so you don’t need charts? Try telling that to an FAA inspector. And then think about what might happen if you didn’t have charts handy, weren’t paying much attention to where you might be, and that GPS dropped dead. That was the topic of an AOPA video I saw a long time ago and it’s stuck with me ever since. Situational awareness is vital to flight. Don’t depend on a GPS to tell you where you are. When flying in an unfamiliar area, always keep track of where you are on a chart.

One more thing about charts: make sure the one you’re carrying is the current one. Airport information and frequencies change. Having the wrong information about an airport you’re landing at or flying near can get you in trouble, as this story relates.

Punch in a Flight Plan

If you do have a GPS, make the most of it by punching in a flight plan before lifting off. This is extremely useful when doing a cross-country flight through relatively busy airspace.

For example, when I fly from Phoenix, AZ to Torrance, CA in the Los Angeles area, I fly through about two hours of wide open, empty desert, stop for fuel, and then spend another two hours threading my way though the busy airspace of Riverside and Orange Counties. This can get really intense, especially when LA’s famous smog has settled in the valleys and visibility is right around minimums. Although I mostly follow roads, I use waypoints along the way to make sure I don’t take the wrong exit (so to speak). Punching these waypoints — airports and GPS waypoints on the LA terminal area chart — into my GPS not only helps keep me on course, but it displays the upcoming waypoint and my distance from it so I can make intelligent radio calls when passing through.

While lots of pilots learn how to use the Go To feature of their GPS and stop there, learning how to enter a full flight plan is far more beneficial on a long flight. Suppose I decided to use Go To to move from one waypoint to the next. That means that as I’m passing through Fullerton’s airspace, I might be trying to punch in Long Beach’s waypoint. While keeping an eye out for other helicopter traffic in the busy 91/5 intersection area. And keeping to a restricted altitude. And dialing Long Beach’s frequency into standby. I don’t know about you, but that’s more of a workload than I want when visibility is 3-1/2 miles in smog. Using the flight plan feature to have all waypoints entered in advance significantly reduces the workload in flight.

Get a Capable Companion Involved

If you’re not flying solo, you may be able to shift some of the work to the person sitting beside you — but only if that person is willing and able to perform the tasks you need done promptly, with the minimal amount of instruction.

I’m lucky. My husband is a pilot, too. He knows how to tune in radio frequencies and use the Go To feature on my helicopter’s GPS. He can read a chart and pull off radio frequencies. He knows how to look for traffic. When we fly together, we share the workload. Since he’s got his helicopter rating, too, I usually put the duals in and he does most of the flying while I handle the cockpit chores.

Not everyone is as lucky. Some companions just can’t figure things out — even the simple things, like tuning in a radio. Entering busy airspace is not the time to teach them. Do it yourself — it’ll be quicker and safer. If you’ll be flying often with a person, give him some training when you’re just out cruising around so he’ll be ready to help you when you’re in busy airspace and can really use a hand.

And even if your companion is capable of doing things, he might not want to. As I mentioned, my husband is a pilot and can read a chart. But is he willing to monitor our progress on a chart in flight? No. He’s not a map person and simply doesn’t like using any kind of map unless he needs to.

I’m exactly the opposite. If I’m not flying, I’ve got that chart open on my knees and can tell you exactly where we are — well, to the nearest finger-width, anyway. I recently had an excursion passenger who was the same way. At the start of each leg of our trip, I’d configure a map for her and show her roughly where we were going. Although she had some trouble tracking our progress on the unfamiliar aeronautical chart format, she put in a good effort and did pretty darn well.

Plan Thoroughly

Of course, to punch in a flight plan and configure your charts, you must have a clear idea of where you’re going. That’s what flight planning is all about. Don’t just wing it (no pun intended) — plan it out completely so you know where you’re going and how you’ll get there.

I can’t stress how important this is for a long cross-country flight. You’ll need to examine the entire route on a current chart to make sure it doesn’t pass through hot MOAs or restricted areas. You’ll need to know where you can find fuel or lunch or maybe even a hotel along the way. You’ll need to learn about weather and NOTAMs and TFRs on your flight path. And you’ll need to get familiar with the layouts of the airports you’ll be landing at.

This is really part of flight planning the stuff you’re supposed to do before you crank up the engine — not cockpit management. But without a solid flight plan, you won’t be able to properly prepare as outlined above to make your cockpit management tasks easier.

Got Your Own Tips to Share?

If you’re an experienced pilot — helicopter or airplane — and have some other tips to share, please do. Use the Comments link for this post to get a discussion going.

What If You Crashed a Helicopter and Didn’t Tell Anyone?

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In Texas, anything is possible.

This morning, I did a quick search of the NTSB reports to get some info about an R22 crash in Skull Valley, AZ that happened over the weekend. One of my Twitter friends, @heligypsy, had DMed me on Twitter, asking if I knew the people involved. I didn’t, but I know the terrain. A high density altitude photo mission in an R22 is never a good idea, and I had a sneaking suspicion that the details would confirm this. Again.

While my search for information about that accident came up empty — too new to be in the records — it did turn up another interesting helicopter accident, CEN09LA201, which occurred in Texas. The first paragraph of the preliminary accident report sounded downright weird:

On or about May 15, 2007, at an unknown (possibly, 1300) central daylight time, a Robinson R22, N456PH, piloted by an non-certificated pilot, was substantially damaged when it struck a pole and impacted terrain either during takeoff or landing at a ranch in Midland, Texas. Visual meteorological conditions are assumed to have prevailed at the time of the accident. The personal flight was being conducted under the provisions of Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 91 without a flight plan. The pilot reportedly was uninjured. The flight originated at an unknown time and location.

How many NTSB reports have you read that include the words unknown (two times), possibly, assumed, and reportedly?

Turns out, the accident did not occur on the report date of March 10, 2009. It occurred nearly two years earlier:

On March 10, 2009, FAA’s Flight Standards District Office in Lubbock, Texas, was contacted by a local rancher, who said there was a 2-year-old wrecked helicopter on his property, and he wanted permission to dispose of it. Unaware of such an accident, an FAA inspector went to the site. The inspector confirmed that an accident had occurred and had never been reported. The rancher said he became aware of the accident around July 2007.

The report continues with some aircraft history that sums up a few facts:

  • The helicopter owner had been taking flight lessons in Tucson.
  • The helicopter owner had planned to use the helicopter to give sightseeing flights in Mexico.
  • The helicopter owner had put exactly 1.9 hours on the helicopter after transporting it by truck from Arizona, where its last maintenance work was done, to Texas.
  • The crash had occurred when a main rotor blade struck a pole while the helicopter was either taking off or landing between two buildings on a Texas ranch.

Here’s the final line from the report:

According to FAA, the pilot’s name does not appear in their pilot database. According to the rancher, after the accident the pilot, who was uninjured, extricated himself and walked away.

Now if he was really smart, he would have come back with a flatbed truck and carted away the evidence of his stupidity.

But then what would I blog about today?