As an AMRM instructor, I used to peruse the aviation event reports from my company and incorporate these into case studies - there were lots - some of them were mine. As I work for a different outfit now, and am not permitted to release or discuss such events (even if they are redacted or scrubbed) I wonder about all the near-misses that are (or are not) occurring in our industry. I think talking about events that almost ended badly - aka hangar flying - go a long way toward increasing understanding, awareness, and safety. I know that telling on one's self can be uncomfortable, but many of us have had a friend who...
If you know of an event, near-miss, or "I learned about flying from that experience," you could contribute to HEMS safety by sharing a sanitized version ( no names, places names, etc) with the blog's readers in a comment.
Thanks in advance,
Dan
We had a transport request after midnight. We flew towards the patient's location and encountered low ceilings and reduced visibility and agreed to abort. As we turned back toward our base, our comcenter relayed a request by EMS to meet us enroute. We were over a suitable landing area so we stopped, shut down and waited. The estimated time of arrival of the patient was 10 minutes, but when 10 minutes went by they were not there. As the weather was getting worse we were making up our mind to leave just as the ambulance arrived. We felt stuck and obligated to take the patient, so as not to alienate the EMS service, and while we were getting him, the weather got progressively worse. Finally we loaded our patient and I took off. On climb out, I entered the clouds. The aircraft spun left, then spun right, then I got on instruments and regained control. We climbed into the clear, and proceeded to to the receiving hospital.
ReplyDeleteI was approaching an LZ I go to almost daily. Because of the local geography, the wind is always coming out of the west. No wind sock, but there are some trees and flags I should have been paying attention to.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, came in on a hot day heavy, and a little too fast. About the time my approach is normally a brisk walk I was moving way too fast, decent rate was way too high and I was about maxed out on power. I fortunately was able to get enough forward airspeed to get out of it and execute a go around approximately 75 feet above the ground.
I estimate I lost about 150' while I was identifying there was a problem. It happens really fast.
After going around and doing the proper high recon I should of done the first time I relaized I came in with a tail wind. Total rookie mistake. Complete and total complacency. A big wake up call for me and the way I fly.
We all think we are too smart to fly a perfectly good aircraft into the ground. Better pilots than me have done it. Stay safe and take your time with every approach.