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NOTE: This draft page is not in the
layout as the book will appear but the content is accurate.
Foreword
I am not aware of any new way to have an accident or incident
in a helicopter. They have all been tried before, but, unfortunately,
people seem to keep repeating them. Greg Whyte in his excellent
earlier book; So, You Want To Be A Helicopter Pilot?
explained the requirements and pitfalls for ab initio training.
He now goes on to explain how to avoid some common and not
so common pitfalls that pilots can experience throughout their
flying career in helicopters.
Someone once said that a smart person learns from other peoples'
mistakes and a fool learns from his own. This book gives you
the opportunity to be smart and after reading a variety of
accident reports, they should not then feature in your future
career. Hopefully it will be a wonderful career, as helicopter
flying is in my opinion, the most interesting flying of all.
I have been to a number of funerals, all of them the result of accidents similar to those featured in this book. The most traumatic of these was for some friends of mine killed in a mid-air collision on a very clear, calm day. Following this I did some research and found that most mid-air collisions seem to occur on clear, calm days when people are relaxed, sitting back and enjoying their flight. Greg features one such accident.
This book covers an incredibly large range of situations and medical conditions which, combined with stress in the cockpit, may lead to a loss in concentration, perhaps a lack of situational awareness and finally an accident. Stress in the cockpit has always been a hazard and can start simply by drinking too much coffee at breakfast prior to a long trip. After a while the bladder becomes distended and you start thinking about landing as soon as possible. However, other factors may begin to arise as you have to divert around heavy rainstorms and you drop your map in the turbulence. Suddenly, you have real stress in the cockpit and you can easily end up making bad decisions. Sometimes you can land and thus ease the situation. However, that is not always possible if you are over mountainous terrain, jungle, or water. The stress builds up too easily.
One pilot with whom I flew on a long overwater flight had the answer. He said that he 'wanted a leak' and asked me to take over the controls. I did so and a few minutes later, he said that he was now better and held up in front of us both, a fragile, pear-shaped condom for me to admire! I was horrified and told him to get rid of it. He did so, tipping it out of the cockpit window, shaking it and then rolling it up and putting it back into his overall pocket! I never want to fly with him again, as I believe those things perish in the sunlight and one day he is going to have an embarrassing accident. However, I give him full marks for resourcefulness.
I started flying helicopters in 1958 and throughout the years have seen many of the accidents referred to in this book and in my early days almost suffered similar fates. For instance, one day I was tasked to go to a military unit at another airfield to pick up a S.51 (an old tandem-seated helicopter). It had several defects, but I was assured that it had been cleared for 'ferry flight only'. One of the defects was a sticky collective, but again it was cleared 'for ferry flight only'. I was told that the center of gravity was fine, even though extra gear and covers had been stowed around my passenger in the rear seat.
The helicopter was parked about 50 yards in front and to one side of a hangar. I started up and after negotiating the various problems associated with 'ferry flight only', I was ready for lift off. Sure enough the collective was sticky and moved in short jerks. The airman in front of me was getting tired of waving his arms, indicating that I could get airborne, so at last when I was light on the wheels, I heaved on the collective to positively clear the ground. The nose promptly dropped, the cyclic came back on to the rear stop and we hurtled towards the hangar over the top of the airman who had flung himself flat on the ground! We missed the hangar by a matter of inches and managed to get back into controlled flight some two miles beyond the airfield.
My heart was pounding, my mouth was dry and I was sure I was hyperventilating; I was certainly going to need a runway to put this machine back on the ground. My minimum airspeed with the cyclic on the backstop was 30 knots. Fortunately, it had fore and aft fuel tanks and by the time I had flown back to base I had managed to transfer all the front fuel to the rear tank and was almost able to hover. In about one hour I had covered several pages of events mentioned in this book. I like a good adrenalin rush, as I strongly believe it is good for the system, just as Greg says, but sometimes they can be a bit severe. Caution: Do not believe what people tell you. Check it yourself.
Another incident illustrates Professor James Reason's Swiss Cheese Model mentioned in this book. I was asked to test fly a lightweight helicopter that an acquaintance of mine had imported in a kit form from America. It was a beautiful looking helicopter, well engineered and assembled. The only change from the original design was that the overhead cyclic had been moved to the more conventional floor position with the approval of the designer.
On the appointed day I inspected the machine thoroughly and then checked that all flying controls were connected. Soon after starting, I checked the vibration levels and ran it up to view the tracking. It all felt very smooth and I got ready for takeoff. First of all, I checked the freedom and movement of the controls. I moved the cyclic forward and, watching the rotor disc, I saw it move down. I moved it to the rear and saw the disc move up. Great stuff! I centralized the cyclic and then moved it to the right; the disc moved to the left - to the LEFT! It was difficult to believe, so I moved the cyclic left and the disc moved to the right.
I beckoned the excited owner over and carefully explained to him that there was no way I was going to continue. It had been 40 years to the week since I started flying helicopters and I had religiously done my pre-takeoff checks prior to every flight. It was very repetitious and boring, but after 40 years I had at last found a very positive reason for having done them.
This was certainly an excellent example of Professor Reason's Swiss Cheese Model discussed in Chapter 13. It showed:
| The first slice |
The original designer who approved the change. |
| The second slice |
The engineer/owner who designed the modification. |
| The third slice |
The licensed maintainer who approved and engineered the changes. |
| The fourth slice |
The aviation authority that checked and finally certified the helicopter to fly. |
The holes in all four slices were lined up for a nasty accident but, fortunately, I had done all my checks and the hole in the fifth slice did not line up with the other four, thus saving the day. Checks are stressed throughout your flying training, but I have often wondered if that is enough. In my early days of training in the Royal Air Force, they were called 'vital actions', as indeed they were. The word 'checks' seems to downgrade their importance, because they really are vital, as I found out that day.
Another modern phrase mentioned here that I have difficulty with is 'human factors'. I was always taught 'airmanship' and still believe that this is the correct word; just as 'seamanship' is still taught to sailors.
While not covering every type of accident, this book does cover a large number and, if you read it carefully, it will explain why there appear to be a greater percentage of accidents involving helicopters than fixed-wing aircraft. Pilots flying airplanes have other people telling them where to land, what the wind velocity is, and what the ambient pressure is. They also have the pleasure of landing on big, level open spaces with few if any obstructions. What a dull, uninteresting life they have. You, as a helicopter pilot, must rely on your own initiative and observations to accomplish a successful flight. After having possibly pumped and strained fuel into your helicopter, you take off to go to perhaps a little clearing among the scattered clouds on the top of a mountain or down in a river bed. You may have seen it only on a map but you must find it, decide whether it is safe to land, assess which way the wind is blowing, work out the power requirements for landing and takeoff and, finally, after a successful approach, land on ground that is not ideal - sloping, swampy or rocky - all the time making sure you keep the tail rotor clear of obstructions. The successful completion of such a landing is interesting and exciting. This book explains the problems involved and helps you solve them.
Greg has put an enormous amount of energy into researching this book. It is very readable and I sincerely hope it will be of great value to all helicopters pilots as well as those people who intend taking up this wonderful career.
Bernie Lewis |
