First Jobs - Professional Helicopter Pilots

the journal of the professional helicopter pilot
First Jobs
by Elan Head
COLUMNS
FEATURES
3 Letter from the President
4 Letters to the Editor and
Announcements
6 First Jobs
By Elan Head
16 A Day In The Life
By LT Adam Merrill
20 Safety Corner
Volume 8
www.autorotate.org
& MORE
12 IHST Update
14 Purely Pete
22 Reader Photos
Issue 1
A u t o r o t a t e i s t h e o f f i c i a l p u b l i c a t i o n o f t h e P r o f e s s i o n a l H e l i c o p t e r P i l o t s ’ A s s o c i a t i o n ( P H PA )
www.autorotate.com
Volume 8 Issue 1
PRESIDENT’S LETTER–LOSS OF PILOTS AND LOSS OF EXPERIENCE
In light of the impending pilot shortage, PHPA will be making some major
changes and upgrades to the PHPA website to help our membership take full
advantage of the best employment opportunities available. One of the more
important ones will be an area where we
will list PHPA Preferred Employers. This
area will contain the Autorotate magazine
articles featuring each of these companies
along with current wage and benefit
information and a link to submit a
resume. We feel that with the ever growing shortage of pilots we should give our
members the advantage of looking at
companies we feel provide above-standard working conditions for their pilots.
If you have any suggestions for information you would like to see included in
these company profiles or if you would
like to suggest your employer as a potential preferred employer, please send it to
me at Butch@autorotate.org.
As for the pilot shortage itself, I would
like to make a personal observation I feel
many have overlooked. At the moment,
there is a major push to reduce accidents
in our profession by 80 percent over a ten
year period. Having attended two
International Helicopter Safety Team
conferences I cannot help but get the
feeling the industry is about to be blindsided in more than one way in this pursuit. I think everyone is worried about
the pilot shortage, but I am not sure they
understand what else may be on the horizon.
I am just a couple of months away
from my fifty-ninth birthday, and I consider myself among the last of the
Vietnam Era pilots. Reflecting back to
my beginnings in my chosen profession,
while re-reading a letter I sent to my
mother after my first mission as an Army
Aviator, I came to a realization. That
mission lasted eleven and a half hours
and included one hundred and nineteen
landings while re-supplying the 173rd
Airborne Brigade.
I think many in the helicopter industry
overlook the difference in the level of
experience those pilots returning from
Vietnam had compared to that of many of
those coming into the profession today.
My class at Ft. Wolters, TX started with
250 students. If memory serves me correctly, approximately fifty quit on day
one and were quickly replaced. After
months of solo confined areas, pinnacles,
day cross country, night cross country,
and a myriad of other tasks, we graduated
ninety nine. Of those ninety nine, all but
four went straight to Vietnam. We then
spent a year doing mountain flying, pinnacles, sling loads to pinnacles, confined
areas, hover holes through triple canopy
jungle, combat assaults while working
continuously with max gross weights in
all of these situations. Those of us who
managed to survive and return have been
the backbone of this industry for the last
30-plus years.
I recently attended a safety meeting
(continued page 4)
Publisher:
The Professional Helicopter Pilots’ Association
Managing Editor:
Anthony Fonze
Design:
Studio 33
Editorial Assistance:
Michael Sklar
Mina Fonze
Autorotate is owned by the Professional Helicopter
Pilots’ Association (PHPA). Autorotate (ISSN 1531166X) is published every other month for $30.00 per
year by PHPA, 354 S. Daleville Ave, Suite B, Daleville,
AL 36322.
Copyright © 2008, Professional Helicopter Pilots’
Association. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or
in part is strictly prohibited. It is illegal to make copies
of this publication. Printed in the U.S.A. by union
employees.
Subscriptions:
Subscriptions are provided to current members of PHPA.
PHPA membership is offered at $60.00 per year.
Promotional discounts may be offered. For a complete
list of membership benefits go to www.autorotate.org.
Single issue reprints offered, when available, for $5.00
each. To become a member of PHPA or to notify PHPA of
a change of address, contact PHPA at 354 S. Daleville
Ave, Suite B, Daleville, AL 36322.
Phone 334-598-1031 Fax 334-598-1032.
The Toll Free Number is 1-866-FOR-PHPA
E-mail publisher@autorotate.com.
PHPA members may submit address changes at
www.autorotate.org. Local members may submit address
changes through their locals. Local members with e-mail
addresses, who are not registered at the website, should
contact their locals.
Article Contributions and Editorial
Comments:
Article contributions, including ideas, freelance stories,
an interest in assignment articles, Live and Learn
experiences, photographs, and comments are welcome
and should be sent to autorotate, 3160 N. San Remo,
Tucson, AZ 85715. Phone 520-906-2485.
Fax 520-298-7439. E-mail editor@autorotate.com.
Autorotate and PHPA are not responsible for materials
submitted for review.
Notice:
The information contained herein has been researched
and reviewed. However, Autorotate and PHPA do not
assume responsibility for actions taken by any pilot or
aircraft operator based upon information contained
herein. Every pilot and aircraft operator is responsible for
complying with all applicable regulations.
Cover: Pilot David Bales flying over the Grand Canyon;
David Bales
3
Letters & Announcements
(continued from page 3)
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR & ANNOUNCEMENTS
with several hundred other pilots. It was
held in a movie theater to accommodate
the size of the crowd. Sitting in the back
row, looking down across the theater, all I
saw was a sea of gray hair and balding
heads. Literally eighty percent of the
pilots fit this category. I turned to one of
the company executives, pointed at the
crowd and said, "You are in trouble."
“Not only are ‘you’ in trouble but the
entire industry is in trouble, and I don't
know if you even know it.” She responded, "I do know it. I just don't know what
we are going to do about it."
Folks, the industry is about to be
turned on its ear. When the Vietnam era
pilots leave, which has already started, I
envision an industry in turmoil. That
kind of experience cannot be reproduced
in the short term. So, where does that
leave you? Well, if you are just getting
into this business it is going to be an
exciting time for you as employers offer
more and more incentives to both capture
and retain pilots. If you are one of the
ones leaving, like me, we leave grateful
for a career that we loved; somewhat
frustrated for never really being accurately valued for the skill we possessed and
the work we performed; and more than a
little concerned for those we leave behind
to take our place.
Butch Grafton
President
Butch@autorotate.org
END
4
Angry criticism of Air Evac
LifeTeam…
Well Boys,
You have just succeeded in “PO’ing” a
majority of the HEMS pilots in the USA
with your article on Air Evac LifeTeam.
How could you glorify and praise a
sleaze-bag company like this bunch.
They are currently under a Federal
Investigation for mail fraud,
Medicare/Medicaid billing fraud, and
unethical practices (Membership). This
should have run up the red flag to you,
but I guess that you are just trying to get
members in the union. I have some good
friends that work for AirEvac, but for the
most part, they are a bunch of outlaws…
Bob Caldwell
Editor’s Reply—
Mr. Caldwell,
A few comments in response to your
criticism.
1. Our article on Air Evac LifeTeam
focused on the unique aspects of their
safety program. And we stand behind
our reason for doing the story—few other
U.S. operators are investing the dollars
and energy in safety specific programs
that we see at Air Evac LifeTeam. Yes,
we were aware of the FBI investigation
and, in fact, sat on our story for over 4
months to give things a chance to shake
out, and they did not. We decided to run
the story in the end, because the safety
argument stood on its own and still does.
2. I can’t speak for specific issues of
foul play that you claim in your letter.
But I too have long-term friends in the
HEMS industry both in and out of Air
Evac LifeTeam who admire what the
company is doing to improve safety. It
was they who originally called my attention to the company.
3. Though Autorotate has been owned
by OPEIU (Office of Professional
Employees International Union) for over
4 years, not once during that time have
they ever influenced or dictated a story
direction. We did the story because we
thought it would be interesting and
because we thought it was the right thing
to do. We still do.
4. I have no explicit, detailed, knowledge of claims of wrongdoing against Air
Evac LifeTeam other than the relatively
devoid of relevant detail headlines found
in the newspaper, so I can’t comment
directly, with certainty, on those issues.
But, I did spend days interviewing over a
dozen employees of the company and I
discovered a number of things that I
found to be both relevant and important:
The employees of Air Evac LifeTeam
have an esprit de corp that is rare in any
company and it is based, in no small part,
on a sense of pride they have in both the
work that they do, and the company they
work for. I remain impressed with that
and know that the same is not true for all
other HEMS operations.
The company’s mission, “To save lives
and positively impact outcomes during
life- or limb-threatening medical emergencies by providing rapid access to
definitive emergency health care for people in rural America,” and their business
vision, “To establish a network of membership-supported cooperative helicopter
ambulance operations throughout rural
communities across America,” are
known, shared, and internalized by nearly
everyone in the company. That is both
unusual and commendable in any company. Having a clever business model and
knowing how to execute it is, in itself,
not a crime.
I am not able to predict the future, so I
cannot comment conclusively on the
eventual outcome of the now 9 month old
www.autorotate.com
FBI investigation. But I can stand confidently behind both our reason for doing
the Air Evac story and for the content of
the story.
Tony Fonze
Managing Editor, Autorotate
Editor’s Note—
I would be remiss if I did not at least comment
on the tragic Air Evac LifeTeam fatal accident
that occurred on December 30, 2007. We are
deeply saddened by the loss of the lives of the 3
Air Evac crew members who died in a crash
while performing a voluntary mission—looking
for a stranded hunter in the early hours of the
morning.
At the time we’re going to print, the NTSB
findings were still preliminary and did not pinpoint an explicit cause for the accident. Rather
than engage in speculation, we’ll wait until the
NTSB findings are concluded and hope that
there is something that can be learned and
shared with others to help prevent a tragedy like
this one from being repeated.
Professional Helicopter
Pilots Test Center
come to PHPA breakfast, a free one-year
associate membership, a 4-hour prep
class, the exam, and the FAA sign-off
fee. The test alone is normally $90.00.
Our package price is $99.95 for absolutely everything. Last year we gave 689 of
these tests. That means that there are 689
people who have had a very positive
experience with PHPA and will recognize
the name in the future. Fort Rucker has
about 1,200 students a year going
through the Initial Entry Rotor Wing
course. I’m estimating that approximately 20-25% of the students leave Fort
Rucker without getting their Commercial
Certificate. That leaves the Test Center
getting about 72-76% of the students who
are getting the certificate. Our competition gets the rest.
Although the Test Center specializes in
the Military Competency Exam, we also
administer all FAA written exams. PHPA
members receive a $10.00 discount on all
tests. Many of our PHPA members have
taken advantage of this perk already. So
if you are in the Fort Rucker area and
wish to take a test give us a call.
About a year ago, the FAA issued a
Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to FAR
Parts 61 and 91 that I am monitoring
very closely. One of the proposed
changes is a program that would allow
military instructor pilots to obtain a
Certified Flight Instructor certificate by
taking a written exam only. This has not
been approved and information is
sketchy. However, if this change does
come about, look for the Test Center to
develop a prep class/special package deal
much like the Military Competency Test.
This year, through vigorous advertising, I hope to capture a larger percentage
of the student population. 100% is the
goal. The hard work will pay off in the
future, with increased growth for PHPA.
Fly Safe
Ron Arsenault
Test Center Supervisor
END
(Announcement-Update)
I hope that each and every one of you
had a safe and happy Christmas holiday
season. We here at Fort Rucker, Alabama
are settling back into the daily grind of
training Army Aviators. I myself, along
with Local 102 Executive Board duties,
have the distinct honor of managing the
Professional Helicopter Pilots Test Center
for PHPA. Having just completed the
closeout of last years’ paperwork, I can
report on the final numbers for year
2007.
The biggest reason for opening the Test
Center was to introduce the flight students here at Fort Rucker to PHPA. We
are doing this by providing a service to
them, in the form of the Military
Competency Test, to obtain their FAA
Commercial Certificate. We do this with
a package deal, that includes a free wel5
Cover story
First Jobs
I am on my back in the dirt, the skid of
a 204 digging into my shoulder blade.
My armpit is filling with jet fuel. I am
cursing. I am in the days before “pushto-drain” buttons. I am in the real world
of helicopter flying. I started my helicopter training three years ago, and that
famous phrase — “when you get out into
the real world” — was something I heard
from day one. Variously translated,
“when you get out into the real world”
means: “When you get into an aircraft
larger than a tin can;” or “When you
don’t have to fly traffic patterns;” or
“When your helicopter is serving some
useful third-party function.” Yes, that
was the dream.
Like many of today’s civilian-trained
pilots, my training followed a straight line
from private through CFII. Shortly after
I received my flight instructor certificate,
I took a job at Quantum Helicopters in
Chandler, Arizona, the school where I
had done my training. I worked there for
about a year with a dozen other instructors, all of us on the same career path, all
of us working toward that magic 1,000
hours of PIC time that would be our ticket into the “real world.” Although my
world always seemed pretty real when a
student was, say, rolling the throttle in the
wrong direction.
A special kind of camaraderie develops
in a situation like that. You’re sharing the
achievement of getting paid to fly after
months of blood, sweat, and tears.
You’re sharing the burden of being a lowtime pilot paying your dues. And you’re
sharing stress—lots and lots of stress.
Flight instructing has some truly great
moments, but it has some terrifying ones
too. And at a busy school like Quantum,
it also has a lot of tedious ones: trying to
make a student understand dissymmetry
of lift (again); pushing your helicopter
6
Photography: Pilot Don Pruett; Don Pruett
By Elan Head
into the hangar at 11 p.m. (again). When
our 1,000 hours came due, we started
looking for jobs that offered more than
one day off per week and didn’t involve
teaching ground school. Here’s what we
came up with.
North, to Alaska
Don Pruett was the first of our number
to trade up from the R22. Don and I are
pretty good friends. We did our CFI
training together. I’m tempted to tell
some stories about him, but I’ll suffice to
say, Don has a lot of personality.
Don reached the 1,000-hour mark in
February, which put him in a good position to get in on the summer tour season
in Alaska. He took a job with TEMSCO,
in southeast Alaska, in April. For Don,
who had been complaining more and
more about Phoenix traffic, the prospect
of spending the summer in some of the
most spectacular country in North
America was worth the relatively low
pay.
A few weeks after Don disappeared
into the wilderness, we started getting emails with photos of awesome southeast
Alaskan scenery. Together, they conveyed the impression of an unbroken
idyll of fishing and hiking, with a little
flying thrown in here and there. At my
request, he filled in the gaps, admitting,
“on a nice, beautiful day it’s not even
work.”
Don’s summer hitch started with a
week of ground school in Ketchikan,
reviewing company policies and procedures, Alaskan weather, and the systems
in his new ride, the A Star. That was followed by about 10 hours of flight training
in normal and emergency procedures and
off-airport landings in preparation for his
Part 135 checkride. Don shared his flight
time with a “stick buddy,” another new
recruit in the same class. He also spent
some time learning the Capstone Traffic
Avoidance System as an aid to situational
awareness. Two days after his training,
Don took a plane to the TEMSCO base in
Skagway, a tiny town northwest of Juneau
that’s a popular stop on the cruise ship
route. “I got a tour of the town in about
five minutes,” Don says, “Then ... I did it
again.”
Don spent his first couple of days in
Skagway flying with the chief pilot,
learning the tour routes and practicing
approaches onto snow and ice. TEMSCO
offers “Glacier Discovery” flights in
which the pilot lands and gives his passengers a walking tour of the glacier, as
well as flights to dog sledding tours on
the ice. No, the pilot doesn’t have to
mush.
The tours depart in groups, and if
you’re new, Don says, “They’ll have you
follow last year’s guys.” It’s up to each
pilot to chat up his passengers — or not
— as he deems fit. “Needless to say the
first few tours were a little quieter than
usual,” Don observes. On average, he
might fly four or five hours a day. He
works with a dozen other pilots and lives
in company housing in Skagway (he does
have his own room). On his time off, he
fishes for salmon. Things could be
worse. Don was known around Quantum
as an outgoing guy, so it’s not surprising
to hear that he hits it off with the passengers. “I meet a lot of neat people as I
go,” he says.
As for how the real world stacks up to
instructing, well, he’s not flying standard
traffic patterns into his base, where a
tricky approach and constant crosswind
keep things interesting. “The approach
into Skagway is nothing like what I’ve
ever done in my training,” he says.
Though the antithesis of white-hot
Phoenix, southeast Alaskan weather
poses its own challenges. “I think the
biggest thing was the weather, not being
exposed to flying in the clouds,” Don
says. “And the flat light conditions are
pretty scary. That’s one of the things I’m
glad I came out here to see and experience.”
Vegas, Baby
Before Quantum moved into its swank
new building in the fall of 2006, we
instructors shared cramped cubicles in a
triple-wide trailer. David Bales was my
“cubicle buddy,” and later had an office
two doors down from mine. We saw a lot
of each other. As an instrument-only
instructor, he was my go-to guy for questions about Phoenix Approach, and also
just a good friend. Dave has a wife and
three kids, so he was looking for a relatively stable job that could accommodate
his family, too. For him, the ticket was
Las Vegas. Sin City’s reputation notwithstanding, a tour pilot there can lead a
pretty sane life on a four-on, three-off or
seven-on, seven-off schedule.
Dave accepted a position with Papillon
in June, flying tours of the Grand Canyon
out of Boulder City, Nevada. Like Don,
his first days on the job were spent in
training. Although new hires at Papillon
come from various backgrounds, the
company is used to taking on recent
CFIs. “They seem to have a really good
understanding that this is a transition job
and they’re willing to work with you,” he
says. “Obviously it’s a big change for a
Robbie pilot, jumping into a turbine.”
Dave did six days of ground school and
two days of flight training in the A Star.
Besides getting up to speed on company
policies and procedures, he had to learn
the SFAR requirements for flying in the
Grand Canyon. Then there was the matter of getting comfortable in a helicopter
whose rotors turn in the wrong direction.
“That took a little getting used to,” he
says. “The first day of training for me
7
retired as an airline captain from
Southwest, and took up helicopters as his
retirement job. It goes without saying
that he is the coolest one of the bunch.
So it’s hard to begrudge him his new job
at Pollux Aviation in his hometown of
Wasilla, Alaska, where he may be doing
the most interesting flying of all.
was actually a little tough. But the second day when we went out it was a total
180.”
A typical tour flight from Boulder City
includes a landing in the Big Ditch and
clocks in at a 1.1 or 1.2 on the Hobbs
meter. Dave had to fly the route three
times, once on the controls, before getting signed off to go it alone. (Yes, he
can carry a cheat sheet on his kneeboard.) Pilots can narrate the tour to the
extent they feel inclined or to the extent
that their passengers can understand
them. “My first flight was with six
Italians who didn’t speak a word of
English,” Dave says. “English-wise, you
can talk as much or as little as you like.
First (priority) is safety, second is flying
the aircraft, third is the tour.” On a busy
day, Dave might fly the route four times.
On average, he logs about 12 hours a
week. He has the option of picking up
extra days if he wants to work more, and,
by the same token, can take an extra day
off if he finds a pilot to cover for him.
For someone coming off of the six-daysa-week schedule, that’s a pretty nice perk.
8
Right now, the challenge for Dave
comes from “flying a new aircraft and
flying a new environment,” plus dealing
with the high temperatures and density
altitudes at the Canyon in the summer.
Otherwise, he admits that the flying itself
is pretty cut-and-dried. Dispatch handles
his flight calculations, and the route doesn’t change. “It is ‘monkey flying,’” he
says. “I think what’s making it exciting
is the people, showing them the experience. That’s what’s fun about the job.”
Pollux operates R-44s doing ondemand work around the state. During
his year at Quantum, Ray checked in with
Pollux periodically. Who wouldn’t want
to work back home? By spring, he had
built up his helicopter time and Pollux
needed a pilot with an A & P. Ray started training with the company at the end
of May. “It was pretty informal,” Ray
says of his training in Wasilla. His real
schooling, he says, came in June, when
he accompanied his boss to Bristol Bay
for salmon season. Picture a run of 40
million sockeye salmon and you can
guess at the size of the fishing industry it
supports. Pollux found plenty of demand
for two R-44s flying people to and from
the boats offshore. “Each flight was different,” Ray says. “You met a lot of
interesting people. You had everyone
from CEOs on board, to ordinary fishboat crews.” Although most of his flying
was passenger transport, he was occasionally called upon to scout the water
for hot spots. “Some people use the heli-
Adventures in
Alaska
Don, Dave,
and I are all in
our twenties, as
were a lot of the
instructors at
Quantum. The
senior pilot
among us was Ray Hodges, who, with
about 30,000 hours of fixed-wing time,
had more time in the air blinking at night
in instrument conditions than the rest of
us had total flight time put together. Ray
spent years doing air taxi work in Alaska,
Photography: Top Left-Pilot David Bales; David Bales; Bottom Right-Pollux Aviation R44s in Alaska; Ray Hodges
copter like a management tool,” he
explains. “They’ll reposition assets to
take advantage of where the fishing is
hot.”
Cranky weather, cramped landing pads
and downwind approach paths kept the
www.autorotate.com
flying decidedly “real world.” “It was
really an education and the flying was
pretty challenging for a new guy like
me,” he says. “The wind was the worst
thing. Out there, there’s all kinds of
obstacles to stir the wind up.” Although
he had to cope with poor conditions as a
matter of course, he also had to decide
how much was too much. “One guy did
ask me to land on the hatch of a tramp
steamer,” he recalls. “I flew over it and
took one look at it and said, ‘nah.’”
Ray’s work schedule makes the rest of
us seem like slackers. Because the company and most of its pilots are focused on
maximizing the summer season, Ray has
been working as much as 135 regs allow.
In his month at Bristol Bay, he flew about
160 hours. When he’s not flying, he’s
helping with maintenance. “The work is
hard,” he says, “and the pace definitely
makes it a harder job.” But for now, the
flying is worth it. When I talked to Ray,
he had just finished a job in Prince
William Sound visiting potential antenna
sites. “It’s beautiful, beautiful country,”
he says. “Some of [the sites] are pretty
limited. You have to decide if you have
enough power before you get yourself
committed.” And he was also getting
ready to take a biologist and her dog out
to capture and study picas. (Picas:
“halfway in size between an Arctic
ground squirrel and a marmot,” according
to Ray.) “It’s all the reasons I wanted to
get into helicopter flying,” he says.
Well, not the picas, exactly, but you get
the idea.
Ray has found that landing in the “real
world” is a little different than setting
down in the flight school practice area.
For example, the 500-foot high reconnaissance we taught at Quantum doesn’t
necessarily reveal that your “gravel bar”
is a jumble of cantaloupe-sized boulders.
There are other differences. “With the
flight instructing you’re relying on checklists,” he says. “In this world it’s all
flows. You need a good solid flow on
your start ups and shut downs. There’s
no sitting down reading a checklist while
you’re doing this.”
Mmm, Cajun food
Another one of our comrades recently
took a job with Air Logistics, ferrying
workers to and from offshore oil rigs in
the Gulf of Mexico. As a new hire, he’d
like to keep a low profile so I won’t mention his name. But I spoke with Michael
Suldo, the president of Air Logistics, to
get an idea of what’s in store for him.
Demand for pilots in the Gulf is as
strong as ever. Air Logistics conducts
classes for new hires twice a month, generally training four or five pilots at a time
“and we’re pretty much filling the classes,” Suldo says. “We like 1,000 hours of
helicopter time,” he continues. “But really, we look at each candidate individually.” Interviews at Air Log include a basic
written test on the regulations and a short
flight: “We just want to make sure they
can fly a helicopter and make some decisions in the air.” Meanwhile, the candidates are also being evaluated on their
people skills. “Most of the people we get
can fly a helicopter,” says Suldo. “Our
pilots are our first line of customer serv-
Photography: Photos courtesy Ray Hodges—seen catching some well-earned 40 winks
ice.”
Training for new hires generally takes
between 10 and 14 days, depending on
previous experience. Besides the usual
Part 135 instruction, pilots get water survival training, and their flight training
includes autorotations to the water, on
floats. Air Logistics supplements its
flight training with two flight training
devices that it uses to demonstrate hot
starts and other unsavory flight regimes.
“We rely heavily on the simulators,” says
Suldo. “That’s what allows us to take
piston pilots and give them good turbine
transitions.” If a new hire has rather less
than the company’s 1,000-hour standard,
that pilot may then be paired with a
“field-training captain” who completes
his or her education on the job.
Air Logistics is a union company, and
jobs are parceled out on the basis of seniority. According to Suldo, new pilots
start in a Bell 206 or 407 and generally
work in “the pool,” where they fill in on
short-term jobs as needed. From there,
they can bid on jobs at Air Log’s 13 bases
along the Gulf Coast. “You bid on jobs
and the more desirable the job the more
seniority you need to get it,” Suldo says,
although he admits that the definition of
“desirable” varies from pilot to pilot.
Over the years, Suldo has seen a hiring
shift in Gulf pilots, from a primarily military-trained to a primarily civilian-trained
workforce. This is due, in part, to the relative supply of both. Still, “we really like
our civilian-trained pilots,” Suldo says.
“We find that civilian pilots really have a
9
good touch on the controls.”
Air Logistics is a large company that’s
part of a larger one, Bristow Group. So
there’s opportunity for advancement within the ranks. “If somebody just wants to
be a professional pilot, we have room for
those people,” Suldo says. “But everyone
we look at is someone with the potential
to advance.” Having recently spent some
time near the Air Logistics base in New
Iberia, Louisiana, I’m going to add to the
recruitment talk. Two words: Cajun food.
Why don’t the job postings for these Gulf
companies list “shrimp po’ boys” as one
of the benefits? If you’re as serious
about your grub as you are about your
flying, Louisiana is a good place to be.
Gone fishin’
And that brings me to me. I left
Quantum in the spring with the idea of
taking some time off (possibly revisiting
the luxury travel writing gig I had traded
for the glamorous life of a flight instructor). But Ray Hodges handed me an
opportunity that was too good to turn
down: the chance to do some maintenance and ferry flying on a 412 with his
friend, Ed Gunter. Ed is a story in himself: an 18,000-hour pilot who has done
just about everything you can do with a
helicopter, and then some. He’s the kind
of guy who has “favorite” engine failure
stories, but can’t always choose between
them. He can rebuild wrecks that you
wouldn’t have recognized as a helicopter.
For a pilot just stepping into the “real
world,” Ed is one heck of a person to
learn from.
At the time, Ed was getting ready to
retire from the North Slope Borough
Search and Rescue in Barrow, Alaska.
He and the director of Search and
Rescue, Randy Crosby, were ferrying the
department’s latest acquisition from
Arrow Aviation in Broussard, Louisiana,
where it had been undergoing a pretty
significant overhaul. I flew down to
Lafayette and spent a few weeks hanging
10
out at Arrow, learning the ins and outs of
the machine from Ed and eating crawfish, lots and lots of crawfish.
as far as Portland. Flying across the
Rockies one day and up the California
coast the next is just downright cool.
That “few weeks” part wasn’t exactly
planned. It was supposed to have been a
few days, and Ed was supposed to have
retired on May 1. But once one, then
another part of the helicopter started
leaking, I gained a true appreciation for
exactly what it takes to make old equipment fly. In fact, the delay worked out to
my benefit. It gave me some time to
study the flight manual and get acquainted with a lot of unfamiliar systems (note:
there are some fairly significant differences between a Robinson R-22 and the
twin-turbine Bell 412). Then, when we
finally got in the air for the test flights, I
had the dubious advantage of seeing
those systems function imperfectly.
There’s nothing like troubleshooting to
make you think about how a helicopter
works. As for the ferry flight, I made it
My formal turbine training came later
in May, when, thanks to a generous
scholarship from the Whirly Girls organization, I had the opportunity to attend the
206B Initial Course at the Bell Customer
Training Academy in Fort Worth.
Anyone who has been to the factory
school knows that the training there is
absolutely top-notch. My five hours in
the air with instructor Bobby Craigo were
absolutely invaluable, and after 800 hours
in the left seat, it was nice to let someone
else sweat the autos! But what really
made the training count was the fact that,
unlike my buddies, I wouldn’t be going
through a structured Part 135 training
program for a while. In June, I took a
summer cherry-drying contract in
Washington State, flying an old UH-1B
for a private owner.
Photography: Author/Pilot Elan Head and her Blow Dryer; Elan Head
www.autorotate.com
fuel trailers, then negotiating with the choke
and throttle of a reluctant fuel pump. But the
real challenge was flying an unfamiliar, 45year-old aircraft, an aircraft that did not always
start like clockwork,
without supervision and
with no on-site maintenance support.
Cherry drying is a niche job I hadn’t
really heard about before. Here’s the
basic idea: at a certain stage in their
development, cherries become extremely
susceptible to water damage. So, growers
hire helicopters to hover over their
orchards after a storm, shaking rainwater
off the fruit. Thus, my Huey is basically
a giant blow-dryer.
In a situation like
that, you draw on your
available resources.
Fortunately, I got a 10hour insurance checkout in the Huey before I
started drying, which
made all the difference
in the world. Since the
pilot and mechanic who
checked me out were
based at the same airport, I went to him frequently with questions.
My personal Huey expert, Ed Gunter,
also got a lot of phone calls. And then
there was a fair amount of time spent
reading the flight and maintenance manuals. Sometimes you have to work for
your education, but pilots are a supportive bunch. Help is there if you ask for it.
Second seat
I recently heard from one of my more,
um, “colorful” former students, Kevin
Thompson. Kevin is a bit of a hustler. I
once had to pick him up at Falcon Field
in Mesa, Arizona after he had bummed
some time in an MD 900 the rest of us
Robbie pilots had been drooling over for
weeks. So I guess I wasn’t totally surprised to hear that, as a brand-new commercial pilot, he was flying second seat
in a CH-54B Skycrane for HTSI. Job
options are limited for new pilots who,
for whatever reason, choose not to go the
CFI route. But jobs are out there, and
second-in-command jobs on heavy-lift
ships are among the more interesting
ones.
I talked to Eric Nance, a cherry-drying
pilot I met in Washington, about his
experience flying SIC with Croman. Eric
did his training at the former Helicopter
Adventures Inc. (now Bristow Academy).
Halfway through his CFI course, he
found himself in the not uncommon position of running out of money. Rather
than finishing up the training, he decided
to take what he had and started looking
The bulk of the job involves sitting
around waiting for it to rain. I tried to
approach my two-month gig as paid summer camp, which was easy to do when
my employers let me take the helicopter
out fishing. The flying itself, although
repetitive, was not without interest. It
was a good introduction to working a helicopter low and slow in a wire environment. It gave my feet a workout on
windy days and got me used to looking
out and down. I learned how to get fuel
in the real world: by making a crosswind
approach to a weedy slope between two
Photography: Photo courtesy Eric Nance
11
for a job. Eric put together a cover letter
and resume and criss-crossed the country:
“I started in DC and zig-zagged down to
California,” he recalls. But most operators wanted either more time or a CFI.
Finally, a friend told him that Croman
would hire low-time pilots as SICs. He
mailed off a resume package and followed up with a phone call. “I was just
persistent,” he says, advising pilots in the
same position: “Don’t be overbearing, but
follow up.”
Months after he first made contact with
the company, Eric was hired to fly second
seat on an S-61A for fire and logging
work. He spent his first two weeks in the
hangar, training with the chief pilot oneon-one and studying up on the flight
manuals. On his first two-week shift in
the field, generous downtime gave him
the opportunity to train and study some
more. “It just really worked out to my
advantage,” he says. “I had a good
understanding of what was going on with
the helicopter.” The pace picked up fast,
particularly when he started logging. He
found himself in the air for eight noisy,
stressful hours a day, 13 days at a stretch.
“If you’re paying attention, it’s exhausting,” he says. “You’re the one who gets
to scream in the pilot’s ear if something
goes haywire.” The upside was learning
from high-time pilots doing challenging,
purposeful work. “I think one of the best
things about it was the opportunity to fly
with all of these guys with twenty, thirty
thousand hours of flight time,” he says.
“Quite frankly it was the best thing I
could have done out of the gate. I was
interested from the get-go in getting into
a high-tempo operating environment.”
Eric’s advice to pilots looking for SIC
positions holds true, really, for anyone
looking for a first or second job. “The
biggest thing that would be helpful is to
have a positive attitude. Attitude is
everything,” he says. “Be flexible and be
willing to go the extra mile, especially at
this level of the game.”
12
END
Update IHST
PHPA continues to monitor the
progress of the IHST towards the goal
of an 80% reduction in helicopter accidents by 2015.
Why should you care?
Because the process has reached the
implementation stage and this is where
YOU are going to be impacted by the
decisions of others.
This past September, PHPA attended
the 2nd International Helicopter Safety
Symposium in Montreal, Canada. Three
hundred attendees from around the
world represented all corners of the
industry from regulators, manufacturers
and operators - to pilots like you.
JHSAT – JHSIT
Here is a quickie on the boring stuff:
the focus of this gathering was a report
from the JHSAT (Joint Helicopter
Safety Analysis Team) on the exhaustive
study of 197 accidents from the year
2000. From this study, the JHSAT developed 125 recommendations spanning 15
different mission types.
The recommendations were passed on
to the JHSIT (Joint Helicopter Safety
Implementation Team). This team is
charged with the task of deciding what
recommendations to implement, and
how to go about it.
Of course, accident analysis is a secondary benefit when your real goal is to
prevent accidents in the first place. So
it doesn’t take much imagination to see
where this is going. Not that most of us
should mind having the boss virtually
riding along on every flight, but so can
the feds, plaintiffs’ attorneys - anyone
who could get access to the recorded
details of everything you did (or didn’t)
on a flight.
Properly structured, a program collecting in-flight data can be a useful tool
in identifying unsafe procedures and
practices for operators and pilots alike.
When used as a training tool, pilots can
benefit from these systems since no one
has more to lose in an accident than we
do. Large operators with pilot organizations can work out a structure through
collective bargaining that protects pilots
from disciplinary action for simple mistakes. These agreements should not
make anyone immune from the consequences of flagrant violation of rules
and regulations, or common sense.
For those of you who do not have a
local to look after your interests, PHPA
wants to hear about your concerns and
any problems you may encounter with
your employer in this area. We intend to
monitor how operators go about implementing the recommendations of the
IHST.
Big Brother is Coming:
To no one’s great surprise, the exhaustive analysis of those 197 helicopter
accidents showed that we often can’t
figure out what really happened in the
final moments leading up to an accident. Also to no one’s surprise, the recommendation from the study group was
to greatly increase cockpit and system
monitoring across the industry to provide better information for accident
analysis.
Safety Management System
While cockpit monitoring might get a
pilot’s attention, of greater importance
to the overall safety effort is SMS,
(Safety Management System). The
industry is putting a large push on operators to adopt SMS, which was very
effective in improving airline safety.
The program can be tailored to fit any
operation, from the largest to the one or
two ship operators.
www.autorotate.com
- International Helicopter Safety TeamBy-Jeff Smith
Without boring you with the details of
how a safety management system works,
at its core is a company-wide culture that
puts safety in front of everything else.
An effective SMS requires “buy-in” at all
levels of the operation, beginning at the
top.
IHST leaders are concerned that many
small operators functioning on tight margins put far more effort focusing on the
bottom line than the safety of their operations. Reaching these operators and
encouraging them to adopt SMS is a
challenge that the industry has not yet
met. Most of these operators did not
attend the Symposium in Montreal.
Honest Effort but……
From what we have observed going
back to the beginning of the IHST, there
is an honest effort being made to realize
the 80% goal, particularly from manufacturers, regulators and industry representatives.
Operators (the folks most of you actually work for) are the wild card.
Some operators have been present at
the IHST sessions and voice their support
of the goals. But even operators who
truly support the IHST goals must consider rivals’ seeking financial advantage
over businesses making an effort to comply with expensive voluntary safety recommendations.
What Now?
The operative word in the last sentence
is “voluntary.” Industry and regulators
alike are making every effort to avoid
recommendations that would require
drafting new regulations. Their rationale
for this policy goes like this: regulations
are hard to get approved and even harder
to change, and then there is always the
law of unintended consequences.
Photography: Photo courtesy Kelly Teague
So, how will this work where everyone
is free to adopt or ignore recommendations of the IHST Implementation Team?
Would you believe corporate “peer
pressure?”
That’s pretty much it. The idea is that
once the recommendations become the
industry norm, companies that ignore the
recommendations will open themselves
up to lawsuits and other unpleasantries
(usually after the accident!). Whether
this will actually work or not remains to
be seen, but there are some things that
PHPA members can do to assist the
effort.
Where You Come In
Suppose you work for an air tour operator, and you are concerned about an
unsafe practice that you feel compelled to
accept for the completely unreasonable
fear of losing your job. Your site manager does not seem to appreciate your concern for public safety. What to do?
Well, you could post a sign on the door
of your machine advertising your safety
concerns to the customers and let them
be responsible for assessing the risk. Or
you could let PHPA know of your concerns and let us forward these issues to
the IHST. The safety effort needs feedback from those on the front line to
gauge its effectiveness, and who better to
do that than our membership?
We plan on keeping a record of issues
filed and what - if anything - is done to
rectify the issue. While we can’t promise
that a specific concern raised will be settled to your satisfaction, we can promise
to keep your name confidential if you
prefer, and, over time, build a database on
problem operators that might be in need
of a visit from their local Fed.
Prior to PHPA, pilots did not have a
convenient method for voicing their safety concerns outside of a corporate structure that may not be interested. Now you
do, so use it.
Send as much detail as you can to
include times and dates if appropriate to
PHPASAFETYISSUE@autorotate.org .
We are considering drafting a form for
this purpose to make reporting easier and
standardized. Let us know if you feel
this is something you might actually use
before we spend hours of valuable beer
drinking time developing one.
For the latest updates on IHST proceedings, log in at www.ihst.org
Fly Safe.
END
13
Live & Learn
Purely Pete
thing but an airport, and you may be
caught totally by surprise by a sudden
loss of power to the main and tail rotors.
The subject of this article concerns initial and recurrent autorotation training for
professional helicopter pilots. Actually, it
should concern all helicopter pilots, but
let me address this specifically to those
of you who fly helicopters for a living
and need to be really proficient at performing touchdown autorotations to the
ground or water.
Before we successfully graduated from
flight school, whether military or civilian,
all of us had to master autorotations to
the level mandated by flight school standards and/or the PTS. For civilian training, all the way through commercial standards, power-recovery autorotations were
all that was required. A few decades ago,
military flight training included touchdown autos, but that requirement went
away when it was decided that the cost of
repairing helicopters was greater than the
benefits to the crew gained by such training.
Most of you remember the typical
training scenario. Enter at 500 AGL and
60 knots or whatever, fly either a straightin, 90 degree, or 180 degree path and do
a power recovery without exceeding the
limitations of the engine or airframe or
kissing the ground. Do this over and
over and over again until you get it right
and until you could do the recovery at or
close to the designated target, if there
was one.
If you missed the target by too much,
the solution was pretty simple. Enter the
auto either earlier or later. By keeping
the entry altitude and airspeed consistent
between tries, moving the entry point
would move the flare point. Problem
solved.
And by all means keep the ball centered on the way down! No skidding or
slipping. “S” turns? Yeah, okay, but in
moderation. The most important thing
14
Photography: Author Pete Gillies; Tom Magill
By Pete Gillies
was to learn to enter the auto at the right
point, so S turns would not be necessary
in the first place. Remember the Number
One Mandate when taking a flight check:
Don’t scare the examiner! Be smooth, be
nice, be respectful of the helicopter, don’t
do anything abrupt, no wild maneuvers,
and so on. Practice makes perfect, or
nearly perfect. So you passed your flight
check. Now you’re a real helicopter
pilot!
Sometime later…much later…it’s time
for your annual 135 check-ride. Same
scene. Act Two. Around and around you
go, maybe the same helicopter, maybe the
same airport, same check airman, same
speeds and altitudes, same autos. Maybe
a few practice tries, then one for the
check airman. Same rules. Don’t scare
anyone and don’t have any exceedances.
You passed!
What’s wrong with this picture?
Is there an engine or drive-line failure
in your future? When it happens, will
you be in the familiar pattern at your
favorite airport, with lots of open runway
or taxiway space in front of you, with no
obstructions, just like when you were
first in training and passed your last 135
check ride? And with an idling engine to
fall back on if the auto isn’t going right?
I very much doubt it. You’ll be over any-
Look below you. What do you see?
Houses? Water? Industrial area? The
middle of a town or city? Farmland?
Open country? Trees? Mountains?
Canyons? Slopes? Heavy foliage?
Giant boulders? Boats? Docks? Rigs?
Do you think that all you have to do is
put the pitch down, dial in the perfect
autorotation speed, make a straight in, 90
degree or 180 degree approach, flare and
make a nice, smooth, no-damage landing
on a nice, smooth, hard surface? Dream
on! There is one chance in a thousand
you’ll be that lucky!
Let’s get real. Something pops. Here’s
what you need to do, and in the following
order.
First and foremost, start the cyclic
moving back NOW. Don’t take time to
troubleshoot the problem. Sure, if your
left hand is on the collective, start it
down at the same time. But DON’T
NEGLECT THE CYCLIC! It is one of
your two flight controls and just as
important. Many of us fly long hours
without having our hand on the collective. But we almost always have one
hand on the cyclic. You’re not in an
autorotation until the air is passing
upwards through the rotor system.
Putting the pitch down tips the rotor disc
forward, complicating the picture even
more. Again, cyclic back the moment
anything happens to your helicopter that
you didn’t purposely cause. And pitch
down, of course.
If you’ve reacted in time, you will
catch the falling rotor rpm before it drops
below that oh-so-critical rpm from which
recovery is not possible without help
from the engine or engines. If you delay
more than the blink of an eye, you may
www.autorotate.com
be just a passenger as the helicopter
makes its way to the ground or water.
And you won’t like the way it “lands.”
Second, pick a place to land! With
the rotor somewhere in the green, you
have a flying machine. When the rotor
rpm is below the critical point, you are
part of a falling object over which you
have no control. Like I said above,
you’re just a passenger.
Pick a place to land and do whatever
maneuvering you have to do to make it.
Don’t worry about the actual landing.
Worry about not making the spot. What
about airspeed? What about coordinated
flight? What about not making abrupt
maneuvers? Forget those things. Just
keep the rotor in the green and fly the
heck out of the machine! What you must
do is make that helicopter fly to the target
you have chosen. No excuses. You can’t
break the machine in flight as long as the
rotor is in the green and you don’t (for
you two-blade teetering-rotor pilots) overdue the negative g thing.
So you’ve made the spot. Now what?
Third, make the best flare you can,
level the ship if possible, pull whatever
pitch you have left, sit up straight, close
your eyes and wait until the noise
stops! The objective is to get the helicopter as low and slow as possible before
making ground contact, thus reducing the
crash forces, if any, as much as possible.
That’s it! The “landing” will take place
whether or not you are proficient at doing
touchdown autorotations. Sure, being
proficient in this skill may help with the
outcome, but that skill may not help very
much if you miss the only good spot to
land within gliding distance.
Here’s the bottom line: Once you’ve
gotten good enough to do the very sanitary flight-school type of autorotations, it
would behoove you to start challenging
yourself by entering autorotations at various altitudes, speeds, attitudes and direc-
tions. Pick a target and learn the tricks of
hitting it every time. Do this with a fellow pilot on board who knows how to do
this and wants to share it with you. And
remember: Training of this type should
always be done with the understanding
that the engine may quit when the throttle
is rolled to idle. Always be sure you are
within gliding distance of a smooth, hard
surface, and don’t initiate practice autorotations while you’re in the H/V curve.
Learn that with the engine gone, the
pitch down and the rotor in the green, the
helicopter will do every maneuver it
could do with the engine running except
a sustained climb. The airframe could
care less if the engine has quit. As long
as you are willing to descend, and with
the rotor in the green, the ship will do
anything you want to do. Speed up, slow
down, turn left or right, stop, back up, fly
sideways, and so forth. The ship couldn’t
care less about the “quiet” engine.
We’ve been doing advanced autorotation training here at Western Helicopters
since 1975, and we’ve learned a lot over
the years. For a long time we emphasized making the best landings possible,
knowing that the less the metal is bent,
the less likely injuries will occur. That is
still true, of course, but more important is
the need to successfully get into the
autorotation in the first place, and right
behind that, to fly as decisively (aggressively, assertively) as necessary to make
the best reachable landing spot. A lot of
pilots we’ve trained over the years can
make wonderful landings, but they glaze
over if the flight path is not what they
want. They forget that they are pilot-incommand and that the helicopter will do
their bidding as long as the rotor is in the
green.
We also have the 0 degree / 90 degree /
180 degree mentality, as though the helicopter will only autorotate in those particular directions. What a joke! The helicopter does not care which way you turn
it or the exact amount of the turn! But
what do we practice over and over and
over? Those three entries, just like way
back in flight school.
One more thing: The H/V curve.
Sure, if you can avoid flying within the
H/V curve, do so when you can. This is
good risk management. But many of us
have to ignore the H/V curve to get the
job done. What I’ve said above applies
any time you are in flight, H/V curve or
not. The most important thing is to have
rotor rpm all the way to ground or water
contact, then hit the spot. If something
happens when you are in the H/V curve,
don’t automatically push the nose over to
gain airspeed. Remember that pushing
forward on the cyclic accelerates the
decrease of rotor rpm. Do so very carefully, or you may end up with plenty of
airspeed but a rotor that is slowing down
rapidly, and quickly becomes of no use to
you. Read between the lines here…
Is there a place for the sanitized type of
autorotation training practiced in flight
schools and at the factory schools? Sure.
Just know that this training is primarily to
give you the skills to pass check rides. It
satisfies the FAA and insurance folks.
Nothing less, nothing more. Knowing
only how to pass check rides does not
equip you to handle some of the realworld emergencies you may face from
time to time in your career.
Purely Pete
Pete Gillies is the Chief Pilot of Western
Helicopters, a different kind of flight school.
Western’s predominant clientele includes local,
state and federal law enforcement and other professional pilot groups from around the country.
Their claim to fame is precision autorotations—
how to hit “that spot right there” from different
altitudes, airspeeds and wind directions. They
also teach long-line and mountain flying. The
Western folks provide primary instruction: private, commercial, CFI, and instrument as well,
from their base in Southern California.
Pete Gillies, WesternOps@aol.com
END
15
A Day in the Life
US Coast Guard Air Station
Sitka, Alaska
The standard Search & Rescue crew
for a U.S. Coast Guard HH-60J
“Jayhawk” helicopter is two pilots, a
Flight Mechanic, and a Rescue Swimmer.
At Air Station Sitka, our duty day begins
at 1500 and runs until our relief at 1500
the next day. This day, like most duty
days, I pull onto base around 1430. Just
enough time to jump into my flight suit
and take a look at the weather before the
brief. Normal routine complete, I join
the Rescue Swimmer in the passageway,
and we make our way into the Opcen
with the rest of the crew for the oncoming duty brief at 1445. The Operations
Watchstander (OWS), an OS1 behind the
Ops desk, runs through the standard
briefing items for the crew, including current airfield weather, status of the 3 helos
assigned to our unit, and the location of
the command cadre, in case something
comes up during our duty day that
requires command notification.
As a rule, the Coast Guard doesn’t
send nuggets to Alaska, so unlike Air
Stations in the lower 48, the wardrooms
of Air Stations Sitka and Kodiak are
16
Photography: Courtesy LT Adam Merrill
filled with multi-tour Aircraft
Commanders (ACs), experienced in our
respective airframes. Though we’re both
ACs in the mighty Jayhawk, the other
pilot I’m on duty with today is senior to
me in rank, so he’s the Senior Duty
Officer (SDO), and will be the Pilot-inCommand (PIC) for any flights during
the next 24 hours.
After the OWS wraps up his brief, the
SDO runs through specific items for our
crew:
“OS1, if we get a launch request before
2200, hit the SAR alarm first thing, and
then pipe as much info as you’ve got
about the case so Maintenance Control
can get a head start configuring the aircraft with extra fuel tanks or de-watering
pumps as necessary. If the request is
after 2200, find me or LT Merrill first,
and we’ll talk to the Command Center
before we wake everybody up.”
“Weather around the AOR…well, what
you see out the window is what you get.
Some low clouds, marginal VFR everywhere, but the visibility isn’t too bad; the
field’s calling scattered at 400, overcast at
1,000 and 4 miles vis right now. As
By LT Adam Merrill
usual, the east side of the AOR is forecasting the worst weather. Petersburg is
calling for conditions down to about 200
and a half tonight, and Wrangell is about
the same. If we get sent that direction,
we’ll take a hard look at the weather
before we punch in.”
“We’re not scheduled to fly tonight, but
we do have an 0800 ramp time tomorrow
morning for a 5-hour patrol north. We’ll
ROL in Juneau and get back to home
plate in time for the relief. Questions
anybody? Alright, that’s it.”
Okay, the brief’s complete; we’re now
the ready crew for Southeast Alaska. I
grab my helmet bag and head down to
the hangar deck. I swing by the
Swimmer Shop, where the Aviation
Survival Technicians (Rescue Swimmers)
are busy completing scheduled maintenance on all the survival gear we carry in
the helo. They’re responsible for the aircraft life rafts, the de-watering pumps
that we hoist down to sinking ships, and
our own aircrew survival vests. The vests
have an integral harness that can be used
to hoist us out of the water, and they contain survival gear including emergency
www.autorotate.com
flares, an EPIRB, and my personal
favorite, the HEEDs bottle.
Underwater Egress
The Helicopter Emergency Egress
Device is a mini-SCUBA setup with
about 5 minutes of air, depending on how
rabbit-fast your breaths are. We carry
one in our vest on every flight for the
same reason that we wear dry suits and
carry life rafts and cold-water exposure
suits (Gumby’s) in the helo…just in case.
The HH-60J is not an amphibious aircraft
like its predecessor, the H-3 “Pelican,”
and if we were to put one in the water for
whatever reason, the engines and massive
transmission system perched on top of
the fuselage make the aircraft notoriously
top-heavy. The result is that the helo
would roll inverted and then sink. To
prepare ourselves for that unlikely possibility, Coast Guard helo crews undergo
annual training in the infamous SWET
chair (Shallow Water Egress Trainer).
This Machiavellian device includes a
realistic aircraft seat complete w/ 5-point
harness, enclosed in a welded tube-frame
cage with floats on the bottom. The
unlucky aircrew member straps himself
into the seat and two enthusiastic Rescue
Swimmers rock and roll the cage to simulate a water ditching. Once the hapless
crewmember is hanging upside down,
submerged in the cage, the egress process
begins. We take a few rides, culminating
with the night-time, blocked egress
“check-ride.” Once you’ve proven that
you can use your HEEDs bottle to escape
from the cage wearing blacked-out goggles, while the ASTs do their best to
block every exit and tangle you up on
every obstacle, you’re good to go for
another year. All that’s left is to climb
out of the pool and drain the water from
your sinuses…for the next 72 hours.
the locker and mount them to my helmet.
I focus them on the Hoffman 20/20 set in
the darkroom and then stow all my gear
in the ready-crew cabinet by the door to
Maintenance Control.
A few minutes in Maintenance Control
going over the records for the 6002 with
the watch captain familiarizes me with
the recent gripes on our steed. With the
aircraft’s maintenance history in mind, I
head back out to the hangar deck to preflight the plane. Starting at the nose of
the helo, I work my way down the right
side, around the tail and back up the left
side, methodically reviewing each item
on my personal pre-flight checklist. This
ritual, completed the same way every
time, breeds confidence that my steed
will be ready should we need to launch
out on the proverbial “dark and stormy”
tonight.
My primary duty in the Coast Guard is
to stand duty as a helo pilot. However,
like all Coast Guard pilots, I’ve got several “collateral duties” to keep me busy
when I’m not flying. When I get back up
to my office, I spend the next couple of
hours wading through e-mails and working on projects related to my current collaterals.
Escape the Office
Having just finished dinner up in the
galley, I’m sitting in the wardroom
psyching myself up for another couple of
hours in the office, when the SAR phone
line rings at about 1745. The OWS picks
up on the 2nd ring, and I pick up as well,
to eavesdrop on a possible launch.
“Air Station Sitka operations, Petty
Officer Smith on an un-secure line, how
can I help you?” the OWS rattles off.
“Good evening. This is LT Jones calling
from the District 17 Command Center in
Juneau. We’ve got a medevac launch
request for your H-60.”
The OWS pulls out a blank SAR
check-off sheet and starts running
through the required information for a
SAR launch. I listen with half my brain
as I throw on my jacket, hang up the
phone and head out the door. The SDO
After pre-flighting my survival vest
and adjusting the myriad straps to fit me,
I grab a pair of ANVIS-9 NVGs out of
Photography: Courtesy LT Adam Merrill
17
was eavesdropping from his office as
well, and we meet up in the passageway
heading for the Opcen. The OWS puts
the SAR controller from District on the
speakerphone, as the SDO heads to the
chart-table and I start pulling up the
weather.
“The patient is a 63 year-old female at
the Petersburg clinic suffering from
appendicitis. The highest level of care
currently on-scene is a Physician’s
Assistant. The duty Flight Surgeon has
already spoken to the PA, and they’ve
concurred that the patient needs to have
surgery within the next 6 hours. We’ve
already contacted civilian medevac services, but they reported that the weather’s
too bad for them to get in there.” The
the case, the weather, and our plan. He’s
onboard as well.
Even though I know it’s coming, the
SAR alarm makes me jump every time.
The OWS’ voice on the 1MC booms
through the hangar. “Now, put the ready
H-60 on the line, put the ready H-60 on
the line. Medevac of a 63 year-old
female with appendicitis from
Petersburg.” I hear the pipe as I pull on
my drysuit in the locker room. Two minutes later, we form up as a crew in
Maintenance Control, and while the SDO
signs for the plane, I brief the crew on
the details of the case. The line crew has
already towed our helo to spot 2 on the
ramp, so we load our gear on-board and
strap in.
tional maritime customers, including the
commercial fishing fleet and the many
cruise ships that ply Alaska’s waters each
summer.
To ensure a superior level of care, the
medical clinic at Air Station Sitka maintains a pool of Aviation Mission
Specialists, military corpsmen trained as
airborne medics. If the ready crew is
launched on a medevac, we recall the
duty corpsman as a matter of course, and
take him with us to augment the EMT IIlevel care that the rescue swimmer can
provide. As soon as we break ground, the
duty corpsman and Rescue Swimmer
switch to conference 2 on the intercom
system to discuss the patient’s condition
and to plan a course of treatment while
we’re en route to Petersburg.
Low Ceiling, Low Vis
SAR controller keeps doling out the bad
news. “I think the LDA/DME into
Petersburg only gets you down to about
1500’, and their last METAR was calling…overcast at 100’ and 2 _ miles vis,”
I report from the weather terminal.
“Weather gets lousier the farther east
you go. Home plate is calling overcast at
2,800 with 8 miles vis, but Port
Alexander is 300 and 2, Kake is 100 and
1 _, and Petersburg is 100 and 2 _.” The
hits just keep on coming.
18
The SDO and I kick around various
routes to Petersburg, deciding that we’ll
head that direction, and if the weather
gets undoable as we approach the airfield,
we’ll abort. We call Ops to brief him on
Photography: Courtesy LT Adam Merrill
“Battery – On. Passenger and crew
brief – Complete. Seats, harnesses, pedals and mirrors – Adjusted pilot, Adjusted
copilot.”
The familiar cadence of the challenge
and response checklists leads to the
General Electric roar of our faithful T700
engines. Twenty-seven minutes after the
initial phone call, Coast Guard Rescue
6002 lifts from the ramp en route
Petersburg for one of about 60 medevacs
Air Station Sitka will perform this year.
Our unit handles more medevacs than
any other unit in the Coast Guard, providing a lifeline for the residents of the isolated villages scattered throughout
Southeast Alaska, as well as our tradi-
Whale Bay looks clear, so we take the
overland shortcut, and pop out into
Chatham Strait on the east side of
Baranof Island. That jump will save us
70 miles of transit time, but as expected,
the weather is crummy on the east side of
the island. Before long, we’re creeping
along at 150’ AGL and 100 knots, radar
nav-ing on NVGs. We’ve loaded our
locally produced GPS low-visibility flight
plan into the tactical navigation computer, and I’m fighting the 25 knot crosswind, concentrating on keeping the CDI
centered. Even through the goggles,
there’s nothing to see out front, but
through the chin bubble I can still make
out the white-capped surface of the 46degree water flashing by. At least it’s not
snowing…
We make the right turn into Frederick
Sound and follow the clear radar picture
past Turnabout Island. We know we’re
getting close to Petersburg as the pass
starts to narrow down to about 3 miles
wide just past Thomas Bay. The airport
is only 3 miles out now as we make the
last 90 degree right turn and head for the
beach. There’s only one towered field in
www.autorotate.com
SE Alaska, and Petersburg’s not it. We
take a spin through AWOS and hear what
we already know: “Wind 050 at 3, visibility 1, sky condition overcast at 100, light
rain and mist, temperature 9, dewpoint 9,
altimeter 3011.”
and the ceilings are high enough to sneak
through Funter Bay and into Juneau.
Juneau EMS is waiting for us on the
ramp as we touch down, and we effect a
quick transfer of the patient to their care
for subsequent transport to the hospital.
We click on the pilot-controlled lighting, but at 100 feet and 2 miles out, our
NVGs still aren’t picking anything up.
We’ve already briefed and set up the
cockpit for a Precision Approach to a
Coupled Hover (PATCH), an autopilot
maneuver that flies the helo down to an
automatic hover at 50’. We decide that if
we still can’t see the beach from 1.4
miles out, we’ll hit the Approach button,
and then hover taxi to the shore. The
radar is showing us a mile and a half out,
when suddenly we see the reflection of
the runway strobes in the fog ahead.
With that light source as a reference, we
slow to 50 knots and creep up to the
beach and the tree-line. I know the runway is just over that line of 120’ trees,
and as we clear it in a hover taxi, the runway comes into view.
Prior to shutting down, we call the
Command Center on VHF to let them
know that the patient transfer is complete, and that we’re shutting down to
refuel. “Coast Guard Rescue 6002:
Request you contact us via landline upon
shutdown. We have a medevac from
Skagway of a 67 year old male with pulmonary edema.”
“Command Center, Rescue 02. Roger.”
It’s going to be a long night…
Note: since 1977 when Air Station Sitka was
established, its aircrews have saved over 2,000
lives, assisted thousands of others, and saved
hundreds of millions of dollars in vessel property
from the perils of the sea. In 1980, one of the
most successful rescues ever recorded was com-
pleted when the Dutch cruise ship Prinsendam
caught fire 195 miles west of Sitka. Air Station
Sitka crews were part of a joint international
rescue team with units from the Coast Guard, Air
Force, Canadian forces, and commercial
resources. In all, 13 aircraft, 3 Coast Guard cutters, and 3 commercial ships rescued the 522
passengers and crew within a 24-hour period
without loss of life or serious injury. Sitka crews
have also won national acclaim for daring lifesaving missions during horrendous winter
storms in the Gulf of Alaska. Aircrews have
repeatedly battled 70-foot waves, severe turbulence, and darkness to save lives. In addition,
Sitka aircrews have performed daring inland
missions, one of the most noteworthy occurring
last year when a mountain climber who had
completed the first-ever winter solo ascent of
Southeast Alaska’s highest peak, the 9,077-foot
Devil’s Thumb Mountain, fell into a 100-foot crevasse during his descent at the 5,400-foot level.
The aircrew that was pressed into service that
day overcame 60-knot wind gusts, less than 1mile visibility, blowing snow, and minus 30
degree Celsius temperatures to hoist the injured
climber to safety.
END
As we ground taxi to the ramp, the
ambulance pulls up to deliver our patient.
The swimmer and corpsman exit the aircraft to assess and package the patient for
transport. Twenty-five minutes later,
everyone’s loaded back up and we’re
ready to go.
The Command Center tells us that the
only hospital in Southeast Alaska that can
handle the patient tonight is Bartlett
Regional in Juneau, so off we go. The
transit to Juneau is more of the same. It
would be quicker to go straight up
Stephen’s Passage into Gastineau
Channel, but as we slide by Cape
Fanshaw, we can’t even see Five Finger
Lighthouse, so we decide to take the
longer but safer route up Chatham Strait.
The weather improves as we head north
and west, and by the time we get to the
confluence of Icy Strait and Chatham
Strait, visibility is up to about 4 miles
19
The Safety Corner
Last month’s Safety Corner question
was actually more of a discussion point:
“Is our industry going to become significantly less safe as our Vietnam era
pilots retire? What can we expect from
the new generation of predominantly
civilian trained pilots who will be filling the ranks?”
I did not receive a booming response to
this challenge. Nor did I expect to. My
friend Pete Gillies did, however, respond
to a sneak preview I gave him of Butch’s
President’s Letter (see page 3 this issue)
on the same subject. And, as Pete points
out in an edited (for space) version of his
thoughts below—there is no magic
answer.
“Tony, people like you and me, who
have come up "civilian," cannot fully
appreciate the skill, experience, knowledge and maturity of these old-time military pilots who are still flying as PIC in
our world of helicopters,” begins Gillies.
“Although this is my 40th year as a
commercial helicopter pilot, I still envy
those men and women who have gone
through military flight training and then
on to field assignments taking them all
over the world and flying a variety of
mean, complex machines. I'm one of the
lucky ones who have been able to log
many thousands of hours of utility flying
in some of the most challenging situations one can find in commercial helicopter flying. But there are hundreds, if not
thousands, of helicopter pilots still flying
who lived through the Vietnam war and
whose skills, knowledge and experience
more than equal mine. These are the
pilots Butch is talking about (in his editorial), of course, and I share his concern.
We also have the cadre of pilots from
the more recent conflicts in the Near
East, beginning with the Gulf War, and
20
these guys and gals lack only the
experience they may gain by
flying as civilians. I wish I had
a tenth of the knowledge and
experience these newbie pilots
have.
Yes, I share Butch's concerns.
I also have great faith in the
many hundreds of military-trained pilots
who have zero civilian experience but
sincerely want to learn and be a part of
the flying world you and I know so well.
The pilots I don't have an answer for
are the ones being graduated from civilian diploma mills, with a CPL in a light
piston-powered machine and absolutely
no field experience at all. This is where I
think that some sort of mentoring program is absolutely essential, to give these
mostly young and inexperienced pilots
the help they need to take on the myriad
of field assignments involving powerline
construction, logging, firefighting, seismic, ag work, geophysical survey, offshore, and the dozens of jobs I haven't
mentioned here. You know the drill.
I look at my own situation as an example. Here I am with years of experience
and as high a skill level as I'll ever have,
doing things that I could never have done
as a newly minted commercial helicopter
pilot. How in the heck do I turn over the
seat to a determined but totally inexperienced R22 pilot? Is it possible? Sure it
is. But who pays for all of the training I
have to give to this person?
The successful companies will come
up with a plan that guarantees a seniorpilot's employment while mandating that
that senior pilot train a new, inexperienced pilot to fly as well as he/she does.
I know this sounds simple, but it is filled
with pitfalls. One thing is obvious.
Experience only comes with flight hours
on the job, as does judgment. But if
Photography: One of our favorite authors, Dorcey Wingo, atop is his Huey in Vietnam; Dorcey Wingo
every senior pilot will make it a goal to
bring the junior pilot up to, or well past,
the senior pilot's level of skill and knowledge, and be rewarded for it in some way,
it will put the junior pilot in the best possible situation to gain the experience and
the judgment that comes with it.
Four terms: Skill, knowledge, experience and judgment. All are related.
Skills and knowledge can be taught.
Experience can only be gained by putting
in the flight hours. And judgment can
only be gained by learning from one's
successes and mistakes. Listening to war
stories is often very meaningful and educational, but it does not, and cannot,
replace actually being there and doing
that, so to speak.”
Pete does himself an injustice when he
says above, “I wish I had a tenth of the
knowledge and experience these newbie
(military) pilots have.” With the possible
exception of being shot at, he has their
experience, and then some. He earned
his stripes during a time when “not”
being a Vietnam-trained pilot, meant you
were less than nothing. But he stuck it
out, found work, learned, grew, shared,
and is now one of the finest, most expert
pilots I know—military or otherwise.
But with that exception, I agree with
everything he said.
So let me take this discussion just a
step farther. Not as a means of providing
the answer but in an attempt to better
define the problem. The problem is an
American problem—not an industry-wide
www.autorotate.com
problem. And it all boils down to money.
OK, stand back, I’m about to piss some
of you off.
Follow my logic. The issue we’re discussing is basically this, “America’s most
experienced helicopter pilots learned
their skills in the military. Those pilots
are retiring. Civilian trained pilots do not
learn comparable skills in their civilian
training, and they are serving as the primary replacement pool for our retiring
veterans. This is going to impose a safety risk. What, if anything, can be done
about that?”
To answer that question, we have to
look at what’s wrong with the current
way of doing things.
The bulk of the civilian training is
being done by a handful of training facilities that teach according to very crisp
training syllabi. These civilian schools
have multiple real-world issues to contend with while attempting to crank out
new pilots.
• Helicopter training is VERY expensive. A new pilot will pay up to
$70,000 to earn his certificates.
There are no dollars available for anything other than training the pilots to
pass the tests.
• The people doing the training are
themselves, new pilots. The old
adage, “The blind leading the blind,”
must be stated. And believe me, the
new CFIs know this about themselves. So, the school owners must
take measures to protect these new
pilots from injury and death and
themselves from financial ruin. They
do this by very strictly limiting the
training they are able to provide to
the acceptable minimums. Nothing
outside the “envelope” can be tolerated.
• Insurance companies also play a dramatic role in restricting permissible
training activities—if not directly,
then certainly indirectly through very
high premiums and dramatic rate
increases or cancellation in the event
of an accident.
• The demand is so large, that newbie
pilots with total times of 1000 hours,
mostly spent learning and then teaching the same syllabus maneuvers over
and over, are finding jobs. So why
change anything?
Changing this model will cost everyone
more money. And though talk about
change is prevalent, no one wants to be
the one who will have to pay. This
includes the customers, the operators, and
the pilots.
Most U.S. helicopter operations involve
single-pilot aircraft. This voids the best
possible scenario of training new pilots
under the tutelage of their betters. Why
is that? Because putting two-pilot aircraft out there will cost everyone more
money, including the customers. Yes, we
want to be safer, but not if we have to pay
for it.
I say this is predominantly a U.S. problem because training methods and operational models differ in other parts of the
world. Dual pilot operations are the
norm in Europe and increasingly so in
Canada. And those cultures are more
willing to pay for the added safety.
A number of more palatable solutions
have been proposed including establishing a more direct relationship between
flight schools and the ultimate operators
they serve with new pilots, to customize
training for the end operating environment. I’m all for it. There also seems to
be a small increase in low-time, singlepilot jobs, allowing new pilots to avoid
the mandatory CFI career progression
(let’s face it, not everyone should be a
teacher) while learning to fly real-world
in a more controlled, lower-risk environment. Another oft-touted suggestion is to
put the retiring pilots into classrooms and
R22s. A great idea.
I expect these measures to continue—
and they should.
However, three platitudes, describing
the current situation, come to mind:
Talk is cheap.
Put your money where your mouth is.
And…
You get what you pay for.
To all those Vietnam era pilots who
have earned their skills through hard-won
experience—thank you for creating our
industry. We wish you a long, enriching,
retirement, at home with your families,
where you finally belong.
Know that those of us attempting to fill
your shoes take the training that is available, and that we pay for dearly, very
seriously. And we love to fly with the
same passion you possess. It is our hope
that the collective will of our society—
the customer, the operator, the manufacturer and the insurance industry will shift
to reshape our development model to better serve all of us. It is happening elsewhere in the world. It can happen here.
Editor’s Note: We addressed this issue at
length, last year, in Autorotate Volume 6, Issue 3
beginning with a feature article, “So You Want to
Be a Professional Helicoper Pilot!” And, the
December 2007-January 2008 issue of Vertical
also does a very thorough job exploring this
same topic.
Next Month’s Safety Corner
Question—
How do you feel about the
deployment of cockpit monitoring
equipment in helicopters to further
safety? (Please see Jeff Smith’s
IHST Update to find out why this is
increasingly important to you.)
END
21
Reader’s Photos
There’s nothing quite as photogenic as
a helicopter, and there’s not a helicopter
pilot alive who tires of seeing photos of
their favorite vehicles at rest, work or
play.
With that thought, we are introducing
what we hope will be a new regular column—“Reader’s Photos.” Below you’ll
find photos submitted from two of our
subscribers.
We’d love to include photos of you and
your favorite machines. So, reach back
into your archives, pick some intriguing
shots, and send them to me via email or
postman at the contact info. below. They
do not need to be professional quality.
We just want to see what you have.
Here’s all we need from you, in addition
to the pictures:
1. Your name, contact information, and
a brief bio if you’re so inclined
2. The photographer’s name
3. A brief description of the aircraft
and what’s depicted in the photograph
Ag work is photogenic
These photos were submitted by Doug Bowers
of Aspen Helicopters,
Oxnard, California—
photographer unknown.
The helicopter in the
ag turn is piloted by
Kevin Miskel. Kevin is
an ex-Army pilot with
over 18,000 hours.
The vortices aircraft is
piloted by Barrie Turner.
Barrie is a Vietnam veteran with over 26,000
hours in helicopters.
That’s it!
If you have your photos stored electronically, please forward them to my
email address at editor@autorotate.com.
Or, if you have hard copy photos (they
will not be returned so please send
spares)-send them to:
Tony Fonze
Editor, Autorotate
3160 N. San Remo Pl.
Tucson, AZ 85715
That’s all there is to it. So dig them
out, and send them in!
Tony
Sheriff gets a new R44
This photo was sent in by Matt Johnson, delivering a new R44 back to their local
Sheriff’s Office.
22
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