www.chopperstories.com

[Francis Meyrick]

WWW.CHOPPERSTORIES.COM

 

If you accomplished Sky Wallahs don't mind, I'd like to use a column to humbly ask for input, feedback, rotten eggs & stories related to some of subjects covered above. Whatever you feel like, write it, or chuck it! It's the bar stories that keep us alive. The passing on of information to fellow pilots.

 

. "But if I had never had any help, never had any advice, never had mentors...
I would be stone dead by now.
I have waltzed -innocently- into many situations where...
a small amber caution light...
...flickered on inside my retarded brain. Where a little voice said to me:
"Hang on! Jimmy was telling me about this! This is where I have gotta watch it! Hold on here now!"
And it is only in hindsight I fully realize how important those informal bar flying sessions actually were."

 

Moggy (a.k.a. Clod Hoof)

 

[Francis Meyrick]

and for what-it's-worth, probably not-a-lot, I posted an alternative Introduction today, called, unbelievably, "An Alternative Introduction to Moggy's Tunaboat Manual - An Ancient Chinese Poet"

 

and here is the link. Yep-yep-cauliflower-and-roses

 

 

Moggy

[Whistlerpilot]

Moggy what the heck? This is a serious safety thread.

 

I followed your link and found myself reading about "God in a box". Don't you know God is everywhere and everything? How can you fit him in a box, and what does that have to do with helicopters?

 

You sir are seriously confused.

 

E

[Little Bird]

Confused is right. Moggy, stop blowing your horn. Your next post belongs on the Website Errors thread...

[Francis Meyrick]

@ whistler greetings! No-no-no. You can dangle that juicy worm all you like, but I'm not biting....

I do however have a nice, tranquil, pastoral Tao scene for you to consider.

 

Here-you-go.... enjoy!

[Whistlerpilot]

Holy Moggy, I bow to thee. O great one of whirling wisdom I am cowed.

[Francis Meyrick]

Hmmm..... no cow, me. Just one who is slow to learn.

 

More stupid stuff I did, and I ain't EVER doing THAT again...

 

[aeroscout]

Do they still use that belly hook ?

[Francis Meyrick]

@ Whistlerpilot & Little Bird.

 

Greetings.

 

The purpose of this thread that I had (have) in mind:

 

I suggest that every pilot has some peak moments of learning, that make him a safer pilot. On a wide range of different issues. When the theoretical input(s), absorbed in a class room setting, or dutifully from a book, suddenly -based on vivid experience - takes on a much more colorful, immediate and pressing urgency. Leading to much more mental clarity on the issue. A much safer, knowledge and experience based approach to flying. Lasting, more than likely, for the rest of your career. That make sense? I'm not sure if I'm putting that into words very well.

 

Not trying to toot my horn here at all, 'cos there's been a lot not worth tooting about. Not in the "pride" aspect anyway. I'm mostly curious as to how we learn, and what we learn from others.

 

here's an example:

 

"Sudden winds are bad. Beware gusts. Be careful."

 

How long did I go through my flying career thinking: "Uh-huh. Of course. Yep. Sure..."

 

THEN came the day, I really, really learned that lesson.

 

The hard way.

 

Here's the story. "Runaway Blades"

 

Is that, and other stories, "tooting my horn?" I'm lost how you come to that conclusion.

 

Are you suggesting the great learning sound of silence?

 

I think I've been lucky to have learned from other people, from stories, anecdotes, just like the one I offer here.

And I think, I do it respectfully. If you feel it is done in a proud or mean, judgmental, superior spirit, then I am truly sorry. However, I also suggest you need not worry. Karma in Aviation is a fickle mistress, and payback is almost a guarantee -eventually - for the un-humble pilot....

 

Respectfully

 

Moggy

 

[Francis Meyrick]

@ aeroscout

 

No, it seems, from what I hear, to have gone out of fashion. That is a great puzzle to me. Those who have never used it, don't seem to miss it, and puzzle about my adamant insistence that it should be part of the ship's equipment. It costs money of course. The release hook mechanism, being aviation approved, costs thousands.

 

Go figger....

 

[Francis Meyrick]

Ho-hummmm....

 

Humbly begging indulgence from the great discussion Imams...

I tweaked an old story about at-risk behavior, involving a Penguin, a Dromedary, and a-soon-to-be really pissed orf Polar Bear.

 

Here-you-go

 

Toot-toot! (Oops!, -cough- sorry)

 

[aeroscout]

Moggy, you're doing great. There is no need to be deferential to the odd straggler or two who happens to stumble into this forum from the impolite forum.

[Francis Meyrick]

Oh, no worries.

"Sticks and stones my break my bones,

but I've a volume on my phones".

 

Seriously though, isn't pilot etiquette a matter of professionalism? Don't we all need to project an image of calm deportment? Don't we expect helicopter pilots to be sober, serious, unsmiling people? Is it even possible to have a safe cockpit if you are inclined towards anything less than gravity? Doesn't the industry expect more from us?

 

I have made a very serious study of these imperatives. And how other pilots judge me keeps me awake at night.

 

May I offer two in depth psycho analytic treatises on these very issues.

 

1. Differential assessment of formal spatial delineation for Professional Helicopter Pilots

 

2. tangential velocity of cerebral cortex stress impulses

 

Humbly yours

 

Moggy

[Francis Meyrick]

A quiet day in the Gulf. A chance to fling some more convoluted pseudo grammar into the great white void of CyberGlob. Here's a story about Roses, and the career of a Librarian, which I always fancied. Ho-Hum...

 

Of Helicopters and Humans (20) "Ring-around-the-Roses, One Time, Darling"

 

Toot-toot!

 

(Oops! - cough - sorry)

 

[Whistlerpilot]

Moggy once again thanks for sharing your stories. That last one was a great reminder to me why we have recommended procedures and even with systems in place how we need to keep our eyes open and be ready for the unexpected.

 

Don't be sorry you've earned your toots! It's the advice from seasoned professionals like you that can keep us fat dumb and happy schmucks alive.

[Francis Meyrick]

@ whistlerchappy

 

Thank you for commenting, and that's why I started this column. Kind of hoping for some two-way dialogue that would spur along the Muse of Chaos and Creation. A notoriously fickle Lady. (looks a lot like a Bar Maid I once knew in Majuro. Oh! Another story...) I kind of thought I might pick up more ideas for scribbles and lies and so forth...

 

"Seasoned professional like you".... Hmm....

I kind of think I prefer being a "fat, dumb and happy schmuck".

Here's why:

The moment you start relaxing, in the knowledge of your own magnificence... guess what... here comes that damn, mangy dog. What's gonna BITE you.

"Twenty Years to build up a reputation, twenty seconds to blow it".

I've enjoyed so many awesome fun/brilliant/wow! experiences in flying, that the enjoyment factor is very strong. Put it down to limited I.Q. and always, from a little nipper on up, enjoying pedaling around on my little red three-wheeler. (It had a horn you blew by squeezing a black rubber ball, and at the age of three I had already figured out how to drive the neighbors plumb crazy.)

(Honk! Honk!)

At the same time as fun, there is the Dark Side. Tragedy strikes suddenly. You kind of learn, sometimes the hard way, that we, all of us, are very human, and we make mistakes. It's definitely NOT like you get to be so awesome good that you don't make mistakes any more. (are you kidding?) It's more that you see stuff coming ahead of time... on the lines of the quote I quote in RED at the beginning of this scurrilous series of off-the-cuff blogs. If you think of that famous image of the accident arrow, that has to successfully traverse a half dozen rings, before it nails ME in the butt. Well, being a Professional is not defined as never, ever letting that accident arrow through a single Ring. I wish. It's more that you kind of... recognize a situation beginning to unravel earlier and earlier. It's like : "Hang on a second here, now, Jimmy...." The accident arrow has already successfully traversed three rings, or four, but you then cop on to what's happening, and DO something about it. Back out. Turn around. Re-evaluate.

I thought I kind of got pretty close to the truth when I scribbled the introduction to "Moggy's Tuna Manual". Here's the link, if you're interested. I was truly awed, for five years, how beautiful it was out there, chasing Tuna. And horrified at what I saw happening around me. There were (and still are) some really, really good sticks out there. Many. Very experienced, safe, mature guys. Good, good pilots. Alongside them, were some... horrendous accidents waiting for a Place and Time to occur. I describe in the manual seeing one happen. Just watching, mouth open in helpless horror, as the inevitable occurred.

 

So there's a lot to be said for "fat, dumb and happy" provided the mindset is focused on "Input". "Learning". I wish (maybe) safety was directly linked to Flight Hours. The more hours, the more safe? Not really... In the Tuna Fields, I saw all kinds of stuff that was preventable with Thought. Planning. Discussion. I had regular guys we could sit around and talk about Safety, and my nascent "Tuna Manual" all night long. These guys cheered me along, read the drafts, offered critique and support. Others... basically mocked and sneered at the whole idea of a Tuna Safety Project. To this day! You'll see some personal, nasty, denigrating comments in various forums. ("we don't need no stinkin' manual") I just laugh it off.

 

Flying is wonderful. What an adventure. What a view from the Office! What a blast. But "human error" is a significant causal factor in... what percentage of accidents? You pick a number. 95%?

It shouldn't be that way. When you lose friends, or land quietly beside the object of a SAR mission... and stand forlornly beside a crashed (smashed) helicopter... it's that awful Sound of Silence that hits you. It changes you. Makes you much more cautious and defensive.

 

Thanks for the feedback!

 

Honk! Honk!

 

[Whistlerpilot]

Of course I prefer to think I'm Fit, Smart, and Alert rather than Fat, Dumb, and Happy. Unfortunately my past record has shown the times when I was just plain Lucky, and still here to talk about my mistakes.

 

The danger is when nothing goes wrong that one can come to the conclusion that good decisions were made. Sometimes we don't know how close we actually were to disaster until things go bad and it becomes obvious we stepped over a safe line.

 

I for one really appreciate the stories from others so I can avoid that negative learning moment on my own. I can not possibly learn everything by trial and error and stay alive in this game.

 

So thanks again for all the stories. In this era of SMS systems we can be reluctant to share our close calls but it's those hangar and bar stories that are sometimes more valuable than a book of regulations.

 

I'm way to busy with my IFR training and starting a new job to offer more stories right now. I promise to share more in a few weeks once I'm on my first rotation.

 

I recently met an interesting guy who was one of the pioneering heliski pilots with CMH right when heliskiing started. He's over 70 now and still in the business (mostly fly's a desk) but he had some gems I'd like to pass on. The extremely short version is he thinks how many hours you have is way overrated, it's your attitude and willingness to learn that makes a good pilot in his opinion. That and not wiggling the sticks too much! He is a wealth of knowledge which I promise share.

[Francis Meyrick]

 

I can not possibly learn everything by trial and error and stay alive in this game.

 

An awful lot of truth in what you say there...

 

 

In this era of SMS systems we can be reluctant to share our close calls but it's those hangar and bar stories that are sometimes more valuable than a book of regulations.

Not all organizations would welcome their pilots admitting to anything else than total, flawless, perfection. "It didn't happen". Say, what? That makes it hard to get those truthful war stories out. The fact is, it DID happen, and it will continue to happen, unless the knowledge is spread through sharing. The EMS industry I think has more or less bravely started to face that reality, and is now more willing to tolerate those who poke curious fingers in sore spots. Which, by the way, as a former EMS jockey, I intend to do, down the road, with maybe a scribble or two... When I pluck up the courage...

 

 

Posted "Of Helicopters and Humans" ( Part 21) "People who fly in glass helicopters shouldn't fly low". A yarn about getting whooped with liquorice and punched out by angry Penguins. Just the usual.

 

Mogster

 

http://www.writersharbor.org/work_view.php?work=850

[Francis Meyrick]

Read a harrowing survivor story from a recent helicopter crash & sinking. Four drowned. A description of a degree of significant chaos, with people once again failing to execute the escape drill correctly. This is a common thread. How to address it?

 

I've been trying to gather some thoughts on paper. How to think the whole issue of training & preparedness through. Here's my attempt so far.

 

Of Helicopters and Humans (26A) Helo Underwater Escape (Part 1)

 

Of Helicopters and Humans (26B) Helo Underwater Escape (Part 2)

Edited April 19, 2014 by Francis Meyrick

[Francis Meyrick]

Posted a story about a terrifying, real life Emergency I encountered in Africa, for which there are no published Procedures. No simulator training, nada. There is simply no help available to us front line jockeys, and, believe me, it was a harrowing event. I lost a lot of sleep over it.

Any suggestions would be gratefully received. Thank you.

 

Humbly yours

 

Moggy

 

Here is the link

 

Edited August 19, 2014 by Francis Meyrick