2- R22's down

[Goldy]

I haven't seen it mentioned, but we had 2 R22 crashes in the last 2 or 3 days. One was an instructor/student, I think I recall it being a training accident. The other was a low flying ship drying some crops (which takes a lot with the 22 downwash!) and struck a powerline and crashed. In that one I know there were some serious injuries to the pilot. I heard everyone was ok in the training wreck.

 

I only mention it to keep us all on our toes when flying or instructing.

 

Goldy

[adam32]

Yep, the one was doing frost on a vineyard in the Chowchilla area. The pilot I believe is still in the hospital with major injuries, but alive.

[Darren Hughes]

He's out of the hospital but will not be fully recovered for a few months. He's a real nice guy and I wish him a speedy recovery. The thing that really gets me about the wire strikes is that so many guys that are lucky enough to survive them say that they knew they were there, but hit them anyway. How do you defend against that? I guess you just have to over-compensate for everything obstacle related when flying in the vicinity of them, especially wires. I guess you have to become a borderline "Safety Nazi" in order to be on top of everything.

[Goldy]

so many guys that are lucky enough to survive them say that they knew they were there, but hit them anyway. How do you defend against that?

 

I ride motorcycles off road, when you see a rock, or a barbed wire fence..and you focus on that, you will steer right into it every time! So, I purposely focus off to one side of the obstacle just to miss it. ....now, maybe, if you look at that wire too long, you tend to fly right up to it. Just a theory, I plan to never test it!

 

Glad to hear he's out of the hospital.

 

Fly safe. Goldy

[AngelFire_91]

Yep, i think that's what it is, you concentrate on it so much you fly right into it. That's why they tell you when riding a motorcycle, If you're sliding or turning or anything they tell you to look where you want to go.

[thrilsekr]

It is called object fixation. Steering with your eyes/head.

When riding a motorcycle, you always look where you want to go. NOT where you are going. You want to look through the turn. When you are approaching a turn, you turn your head all the way to the end of the turn (or as far as you can see) and keep your head pointed that way. When approaching the end of the turn you keep your head pointed a bit further out into the straight away until you are on it. One of the first things they will teach you in a safety course (hopefully). It is quite amazing how much of a difference it actually makes. If you ride, try it sometime (hopefully you already do it though).

Along those same lines, I have been taught to look through the turn in heli as well. I believe it to have the same purpose. Also, it is why recon is done in right turn when appropriate as the heli is leaned in the direction and provides a better view to where you are going?

[kodoz]

The thing that really gets me about the wire strikes is that so many guys that are lucky enough to survive them say that they knew they were there, but hit them anyway. How do you defend against that?

 

40% according to the wire strike course I took at HAI. There were several reasons they talked about: the wire disappears (from one angle the wire's about as obvious as can be...from another direction or angle, it disappears) and the failings of human's short term memory (you see the wire, do something, and a few other things, and it's that wire is off your radar). The instructor showed some pretty incredible in-flight footage of how a wire that is easy to see can disappear with even the slightest change in angle.

[Goldy]

pretty incredible in-flight footage of how a wire that is easy to see can disappear with even the slightest change in angle.

 

Angle and background. When you have a wire against the blue sky you cant miss it, when the wire falls below the horizon and the background becomes the ground below...forget it, its gone until you're too close.

 

Which is why we should repeat for the new guys, never ever fly between towers only over them. I can count a hundred times that if I flew between towers I wouldnt be here right now.

 

Goldy

[kodoz]

So this was pretty shocking to see, but blue skies/CAVU are worst for wire strikes...Think unoxidized aluminum, or copper oxidized to blue-green against a blue background. During the course he got into copper vs aluminum vs steel, the different oxidation states, light angles, blue skies/gray skies, background complexity, field of view vs resolution distance, visual acuity, CRM...all very interesting, but the take-home message was that the visibility of the wire will never be constant, and seeing the wire is not the solution to avoiding a wire strike. (Some of this also applies to towers...a latticework tower can disappear in a complex background.)

 

What I took from this as a CFI was

• the lower you go, the greater your risk--minimize the time you spend below 500 AGL, and get really nervous below 200 AGL (higher if you fly the flatlands)
  
• do your off-airport work in areas that you know well and are free from wire hazards
  
• if you go into an area where there are wires, every other thought should be "Where's the wire?"
  
• don't fly below the treeline/terrain
  
• stay horizontally and vertically clear of radio towers (guy wires stretch horizontally, a burned out bulb could ruin your day)
  

In the Robbie course, there's an accident demonstrating 2 and 4...instructor/student did an auto to a clearing they weren't familiar with, and hit a wire stretched across two groups of trees. From their approach, the trees hid the poles. From their approach angle, the wire was impossible to see.