| I was a commercial helicopter pilot for 35 years. In my | | | | not avoided him. |
| career, I racked up nearly 1.5 million miles across the | | | | There are those in the aviation industry, mostly |
| ground, carried, as near as I can tell, about 100,000 | | | | younger or inexperienced pilots, who subscribe to the |
| passengers, and finished up with 12,500 hours of flight | | | | 'little airplane big sky theory of midair avoidance. Simply |
| time in my logbook. The most important number? I | | | | put, those pilots believe that in so vast a region as the |
| ended up with an equal number of takeoffs and | | | | sky, and while presenting such a meager target, their |
| landings. | | | | opportunities for contact with another aircraft are |
| Kidding aside, considering the public perception of the | | | | nearly negligible. Even though instructors always |
| helicopter business, this may seem like an astonishing | | | | demand that student (and all other) pilots keep their |
| outcome. Most people truly believe that helicopters are | | | | heads 'on a swivel', some pilots keep their focus inside |
| dangerous contraptions capable of all manner of | | | | the cockpit for long periods, glancing up only |
| unpredictable, mostly nasty behaviors. The truth is, as I | | | | occasionally. So the first rule is to look outside the |
| often told my passengers, the dangerous part of my | | | | aircraft once in a while. A good rule of thumb would |
| job was driving in to work. | | | | be, oh, like, every ten seconds--okay five seconds. |
| But there is a real danger involved in the helicopter | | | | Another way to stay free of other traffic is to monitor |
| industry, partly because of the way helicopters are | | | | the radio. Listen to the chatter, pay attention to who's |
| operated, and that's the ever present peril of midair | | | | taking off, or who's landing, and from where. Called |
| collisions. Most helicopter operations take place from | | | | situational awareness, it's our best friend while flying, or |
| what the FAA refers to as 'unimproved areas', that is, | | | | looking for the car in a crowded parking lot. |
| unmonitored heliports, crude landing spots in rural areas, | | | | Know where you are all the time. This may sound |
| and generally remote places where radio or radar | | | | simplistic, but if you know where your aircraft is within |
| oversight is nonexistent. The general rule calls for pilots | | | | a quarter mile at all times, and other traffic reports in |
| to simply see and avoid each other. Seems | | | | that same box, you need to be looking. And don't |
| straightforward enough. Even so, there are a number | | | | assume they see you. One of the big killers in aviation |
| of midair collisions and near misses each year. Pilots | | | | is complacency. It's killed more pilots than running out of |
| do, of course, monitor radio frequencies, and ought to | | | | gas. A classic mishap several years ago involved a |
| be constantly aware of the presence of other air | | | | commercial 727 landing at San Diego which collided |
| traffic. But in the absence of an outside monitoring | | | | with a Cessna 172 in September 1978. The pilots of |
| facility such as an FAA control tower, or other ATC | | | | the big airplane reported that they had the aircraft in |
| facility, which situation is standard in the helicopter | | | | sight. But the plane they reported seeing was a third |
| business, it's up to the pilot to steer clear of other | | | | aircraft. They never saw the one they ran into, and |
| aircraft. | | | | 137 people died. |
| It goes without saying that a collision between two | | | | Another phenomenon that can cause midairs is called |
| aircraft almost always results in fatalities. When one of | | | | rate of closure. In free air the perception of speed is |
| those machines is a helicopter it always does. A fixed | | | | difficult to distinguish from a cockpit. Closing on another |
| wing aircraft has the possibility, albeit remote, of | | | | aircraft, an inexperienced pilot can misjudge the rate at |
| recovering from a midair, and possibly, maybe, perhaps | | | | which the two are approaching, and literally fly into the |
| reaching the ground somewhat safely. A helicopter | | | | other machine. It happens, especially when a pilot |
| does not. Any time the main rotor system of a | | | | believes he has plenty of time to react, and finds out |
| helicopter is disrupted the aircraft will crash. Done. So in | | | | otherwise. |
| many respects it's incumbent on helicopter pilots to be | | | | As for the little sky theory, just as in the San Diego |
| constantly aware of other aircraft, particularly so when, | | | | crash described above, the vast majority of midair |
| as was the case in the recent New York midair, the | | | | collisions happen on a clear day within five miles of an |
| fixed wing was likely operated by a private, possibly | | | | airport. In the New York City example, the helicopter |
| lower time pilot. In addition, though the investigation has | | | | had just lifted from the heliport along the Hudson River |
| just begun in New York, design factors may have | | | | and was ascending. It's speculation at this point, but it |
| played a part. Helicopters typically have much more | | | | appears likely that neither pilot saw the other, so there |
| visibility from the cockpit than a fixed wing machine. | | | | was no time to evade. This accident may have been |
| Airplane cockpits generally have more limited visual | | | | prevented by more vigilance from both cockpits, |
| fields, particularly a low-wing plane where the wing | | | | particularly considering the congested corridor along |
| itself acts as a blind spot to traffic beneath. | | | | the river. |
| So how to prevent midair collisions? How to keep | | | | Aviation accidents are not inevitable. They're the result |
| aircraft separated in flight when there's little or no | | | | of human oversight, complacency, lack of attention, |
| outside monitoring, no on-board technical prevention | | | | and disregard for limitations. As one of my instructors |
| mechanism? Here are a few suggestions for students, | | | | used to say, "We're not inventing any new ways to |
| or any other pilots with a desire to retire as I did with | | | | crash". Midairs can be prevented, with a healthy regard |
| no such ugly incidents in their record. I did have a few | | | | for just how congested the airspace really is--and |
| close calls: one near collision in Vietnam at dusk; | | | | getting more so all the time--cultivating a good habit of |
| another near Dubuque Iowa one cloudless, | | | | situational awareness, and using whatever resources |
| sun-splashed afternoon in July; and another reasonably | | | | are available in the cockpit and outside it, such as radar |
| close call with an impressively large offshore marine | | | | coverage, position reporting on the radio, and teaching |
| bird that could have taken out my windscreen had I | | | | passengers to look outside as well. |