Low Flying

[Over-Talk]

...............but don't make it a habit, (even in the Territories). Do it only when it's needed.
You have two friends in aviation,.....altitude and airspeed.........you should try to always have some of both, or lots of either one......especially if the engine quits........(even in the Territories).




Oh yeah......don't forget Glen Livet. He can be a damn good friend too !!

 

[Bush Bunny]

OT,

That's exactly what I'm not saying. If you are going to be engaged in LL ops, you should know how you and your a/c react to various situations. That knowledge cannot be be learned in a book, here, or the bar.

Engine failures are soooo rare, that if that's the primary thing you're guarding against, you'll never dare to be in the air. But if you are stuck in low weather which tends to happen a lot in the VFR world, the last thing you should be stressed about is handling the a/c.

I personally think that the TC flyer with the "LL Checklist" is very misleading, but I guess that's another post. 😀

 

[Over-Talk]

I agree that low level ops are a part of our industry, and therefore pilots should be familiar with the rights and wrongs, and how a helicopter will react.
Teaching this to new pilots was discussed earlier in this topic. It can only be beneficial.

My point was "don't make it a habit, (even in the Territories). Do it only when it's needed."

Bunny, you said in another thread that you were new to the heli industry. You will shortly find how different our world is from the fixed wing world.
Good Luck, Captain.
If you don't have altitude or airspeed as often as possible, you'll need all the luck you can find.

 

[412driver]

my first boss said it right "two things of no use to pilots, runway (space) behind you and altitude above you".

i heard another and that's empty space in the gas tank, but that's another thread...

 

[Bush Bunny]

OT,

Yeah, I certainly agree that being prudent about it is very important, and I do look forward to learning it all over again in the rotary world. I guess the main issue I have is that flight schools so rarely teach real world habits to the young guys that it gets frustrating froma operational point of view for the operator.

The whole "runway behind, sky above" thing is nice if your flying for fun from A to B, but up North where you're operating out of REALLY short strips and working with game branch all the time, those same edicts can get you in trouble. Packing too much fuel for example in off-strip work will get you nowhere fast, and as I stated before, the capacity to feel a level of comfort down low is vey important whwn slogging along in the soup in an airplane when you can;t stop and wait it out. Of course moderation, maturity and common sense are always the overiding factors, but TC's blanket approch to LL ops is backwards in my view.

Thanks for the welcome to your side, I am truely excited and humbled all over again. As I said before, if there is any rules of thimb you guys live by, I'd love to hear them. have a great weekend.