company aircraft, from a capsized migrant vessel. That was in the winter of ’05. A few months later, we pulled folks off of rooftops following historic Hurricane Katrina.
In a bigger sense, my greatest accomplishment has been giving instruction. There’s nothing like helping someone succeed. Having reached a point in my career where I can pay back through mentorship and instruction is the pinnacle in my eyes.
HAVE YOU EVER HAD AN “OH, CRAP” MOMENT IN A HELICOPTER? CAN YOU SUMMARIZE WHAT HAPPENED?
Funny, I did literally have an “Oh, crap” moment in a CH-47D after departing Pisa, Italy, enroute to Sicily. I ate at the chow hall that morning— bad headwork! Luckily, the Boeing Hilton was adequately stocked (sorry to my CP, Lt. Mark Beckler). Aside from that, I’ve lived a fairly charmed and lucky career.
Inevitably, if you fl y long enough, there will be moments. To keep it
short with a few easy lessons; here is one. We were launched out of Air Station Miami for an overdue vessel at about 11:00 p.m. Their reported position was off of Marathon. The problem was an ugly line of thunderstorms between them and us. No problem, we had RADAR, right? When we arrived at the line we picked the point with the weakest returns, set turbulence penetration airspeed, and off we went. Solid plan…we thought.
We entered the storms and continued to use RADAR as a reference.
The rain was coming down in buckets and you could see fl ashes of lightning and hear claps of thunder around you. Then the RADAR painted
something that resembled one of those 3D pictures that you have to stare at to make out. Now, fl ying completely blind, we got our back ends handed to us for what seemed like lifetimes, but it was probably only a couple minutes until we saw a dim light though the NVGs. We immediately turned about 30 degrees left towards the light and came out the backside of the storms. We later found out that the overdue vessel had moored up safely at a bar. A couple of takeaways: First, risk assessment cannot be overstated. Second, don’t rely too heavily on technology; it will fail at the most inopportune moment.
IF YOU COULD GIVE ONE PIECE OF ADVISE TO A NEW HELICOPTER PILOT, WHAT WOULD IT BE?
Avoid sketchy dining before a long fl ight! Seriously, practice continual
ORM. You must put all decisions in a risk management context. For the unexpected, I’ll steal HAI President Matt Zuccaro’s words—“Land the damn helicopter!”
When people fi nd out I fl y helicopters, they often ask, “Aren’t they
dangerous?” I answer, “No, they often work perfectly… until the end.
IN YOUR VIEW, WHAT IS THE GREATEST CHALLENGE FOR THE HELICOPTER INDUSTRY AT THIS MOMENT IN TIME? Near-term, it’s managing noise. Please fl y with respect. Looking longer
into the future, the industry will be fi ne. But from a selfi sh viewpoint, I’m concerned about job security in the age of drones and optionally-piloted aircraft. How long is it before the “helo-bubba” joins the long list of jobs lost to technology? In the meantime, keep your head on a swivel!
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