RPMN: Have you ever had an “Oh, crap” moment in a helicopter? Can you summarize what happened?
One incident required an entirely different decision-making process. I was flying an S-61, single ship in the Congo transporting 12 passengers (which included a mother and her 1-year-old child) for a Part 135 operation. The first 70 nautical miles (NMs) of the trip were over an area where the South African Army had been stirring up rebel forces. Flying high enough out of trouble, I noticed my main gear box pressure slowly and continuously drop through 35% then to 0%. With no safe place to land, we turned the helicopter towards the Ugandan border, but we didn’t get close. I sat it down in an open field near a dirt road in case we had to run, knowing the woman and her child could not run through the bush. Upon landing and shutdown, I asked the crew chief to buy us some gearbox pressure. Normally landing in safe areas in the Congo, the locals would approach the helicopter due to curiosity. Not this time and in this place. There were about 50 locals standing off 100 yards with three or four on their cell phones counting the number of crew members and passengers. Staying in that place, and with
the mother and child with us, if captured by the rebels, it would have been a bad ending. Weighing the options, I decided to risk flying the helicopter at 50 feet AGL and as fast as it would go for 35 NMs to an Indian army forward operating base (FOB). The entire flight the pressure was between 10% and 0% with the gearbox temperature through the roof. We landed at the FOB without incident.
RPMN: If you could give only one piece of advice to a new helicopter pilot, what would it be?
Listen and learn from your experienced instructors. The skills and knowledge they taught me made me be a better helicopter pilot throughout my career. Next, stay in the books and continue to learn every day.
RPMN: In your view, what is the greatest challenge for the helicopter industry at this moment in time?
The pilot shortage in the airline industry, coupled with the ease of obtaining fixed-wing training compared to the
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very high cost of helicopter training. For these reasons, there are fewer and fewer choosing a career as a helicopter pilot.
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