Ask d10 about flying helicopters and win $$$

[mason55]

d10 -

I'm surprised that it's so common to put an entire chopper full of people's lives in risk because you're too lazy to do things safely. Your post seriously shocked me.

[vulturesrow]

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d10 -

I'm surprised that it's so common to put an entire chopper full of people's lives in risk because you're too lazy to do things safely. Your post seriously shocked me.

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Anyone who does something like that in a training mission ought to lose their wings IMO. On the other hand, sometimes the necessity of completing a mission in a combat scenario entails taking risks like that. I am surprised to hear that Army helo pilots take IFR flight so lightly considering the most likely scenario of a guy getting in a bad spot is exactly in the conditions that d10 outlined. FWIW, the Navy has pretty strict guidelines on how much instrument time you need to stay current and they apply to all platforms, fixed wing and rotary.

[2/325Falcon]

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And besides, you all wear berets now, that trumps any cool points you might have had in the bank.

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Vs.

[d10]

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d10 -

I'm surprised that it's so common to put an entire chopper full of people's lives in risk because you're too lazy to do things safely. Your post seriously shocked me.

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It's not so much laziness as it is denial. Nobody wants to admit that they inadvertently punched into the clouds. When you're flying VFR, you're expected to maintain a certain amount of visibility and at a minimum remain clear of the clouds, sometimes stay a certain distance away, and if you want to start flying IFR you need to get a clearance first. You just screwed both of those up. ATC will still take care of you, but only because you're in an emergency situation. Once you get on the ground, you're going to have a lot of questions to answer. Before you start climbing and calling ATC to tell them you need help, you need to admit to yourself that you just screwed up and put you and your crew in a very dangerous situation. If you were flying a few hundred feet above the highest obstacle, it's tempting to think "I can descend a few hundred feet before I need to worry about hitting anything, let me come down a little bit and if I still can't see the ground then I'll climb and call ATC." We fly through light layers of fog and stuff all the time, I imagine it's easy to trick yourself into believing that you'll be able to see the ground if you wait just a little bit longer and drop down just a little bit lower. I'd like to think that if I got myself into that situation I'd be smart enough to make the right decision, but I haven't been there so I can't say for sure.

[d10]

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BTW, what's the protocol when flying through the airspace of a civilian airport in a foreign country (assuming you're not dropping off teams to take the airport ofcourse)? You have to follow local ATCs, who takes command over your flight path?

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Forgot to answer this one, we follow the rules of whatever country we're flying in. ATC all over the world speaks English, and the rules are pretty standard everywhere, so it's not a big deal. The pilot is ultimately responsibile for where the aircraft goes, if ATC anywhere tells us to do something we don't want to do we can ask for something else. If we're in controlled airspace, we'll need to get clearances for whatever we want to do, but you should know what you can reasonably expect to get clearances for before you take off and plan your flight accordingly. If I had to carry some troops to the other side of Atlanta, I would not plan my flight over Atlanta International Airport and expect to get a clearance to fly over, I'd plan to fly around their airspace.

[d10]

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you all wear berets now, that trumps any cool points you might have had in the bank. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

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FWIW, there's not anyone in the Army that likes wearing them. And we might not have them anymore, people are wearing that new ACU uniform now and I see most guys walking around with the ACU patterned field cap, but then again I still see some people wearing berets with the ACUs, so I don't know what the deal is. Uniform standards are a mess right now, some people wear ACUs, some people still wear BDUs but with the tan ACU boots, I don't know what's going on with the flight suits, it's pretty much just wear whatever you want at this point.

[2/325Falcon]

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FWIW, there's not anyone in the Army that likes wearing them.

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You dirty, nasty leg. Let me fix my previous post for your unit.



Vs.

[d10]

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You dirty, nasty leg.

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[img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] It always amuses me when Airborne guys call me a leg.

[d10]

So I ended up passing the check ride, for anyone who was curious. It was pretty laid back, not much different from any other flight. I'll still answer more questions if anyone has them.

[2/325Falcon]

Good to hear you passed.