Helicopter takes out power lines in Whitehorse - May 28/12

[snoopy]

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/sto ... ml?cmp=rss

A helicopter pilot is safe after running into a power line Monday morning in the Whistle Bend area of Whitehorse.

The Heli Dynamics employee managed to land the helicopter in McIntyre Creek and walk away.

He told CBC News that he is "feeling okay", but otherwise said he can't talk to the media.

The helicopter hit a power line which spanned the mouth of McIntyre Creek where it drains into the Yukon River just before 7:00 a.m.

Power was knocked out in the Porter Creek area and along Mountainview Drive, affecting about 400 customers. Yukon Electrical said power has now been restored.

James Paterson, the chief of fire operations at the Whitehorse airport, visited the scene this morning. He said he is impressed by the pilot's skill.

"Impressive landing, tremendous skill by the operator of this machine to be able to put it down considering the circumstances – instantaneously. Whatever happened out there with the power wire, he reacted right away and put the machine down. Probably within a few seconds. Amazing. Amazing job by the pilot," he said.

The helicopter was contracted by the City of Whitehorse for mosquito control work.

[North Shore]

Glad to hear that no-one was hurt, but seriously,

contracted by the City of Whitehorse for mosquito control work.

isn't that like having a 'no peeing' area in a swimming pool?

[snoopy]

LOL...
As an aside, someone just told me it was actually a Bell 407 and not a 206 - an anyone confirm? *Thanks STL - glad to know it wasn't a factual error. Usually I'm defending the CBC!
Cheers,
Kirsten B.

[sky's the limit]

It was not a 407, it was a 206. Very happy this ended without a fatality, it certainly was very close.

[shimmydampner]

tremendous skill by the operator of this machine to be able to

...fly into a stationary object?

Really?

[maDDtraPPer]

Ever have the sun in your eyes through an aircraft windshield? How well do unmarked powerlines show up in the twilight of the early morning? With a long line do you always look ahead or divide your time between what's in front or what's under you?

Leave the pilot alone. There are two kinds of bush pilots. Those who have crashed, and those who are going to. Next time could be me, or could be you.

Given the nature of the accident and the statistical history of that kind of accident (its quite common) its a miracle that he survived and instead of turning on each other why not make no comment or how about some support.

I know him well and you'd be hard pressed to match him in the air or on the ground, and if it were you or I he would never make a comment like that. In fact he'd be the first one on the phone or extending a helpful hand.

[single_swine_herder]

[quote="maDDtraPPer"]Leave the pilot alone. There are two kinds of bush pilots. Those who have crashed, and those who are going to. Next time could be me, or could be you.

Given the nature of the accident and the statistical history of that kind of accident (its quite common) its a miracle that he survived and instead of turning on each other why not make no comment or how about some support.

quote]


Now there's the kind of post that will make the senior managers at Marsh Insurance very happy. A few sentences that say volumes about corporate culture. No wonder that one of their senior VP's told me a few months ago that the rotary wing sector of the business is in need of a lot of help with respect to attitude, education, and pilot supervision.

[sky's the limit]

Given that most of you save mad trapper don't have a clue what happened, or could relate to the type of work performed amost everyday in the rotary world, I think making broad sweeping statements about bush flying or safety in rotary is somewhat unwarranted.

When you work in the wire environment day in day out you are surrounded by extreme hazard, but like anything else, we become comfortable with it and are able to carry out a great deal of work safely. Are there things we can do to further mitigate these hazards? Of course, and we do. That said, the level of hazard is somewhere well north of what the average fixed wing pilot can comprehend, and as an industry we have made some great strides in this area. There are plenty of publications and videos for reference if anyone should so wish.

I am extremely releived the pilot is ok, and at the end of the day that is all that matters.

Stl

[ScudRunner]

Glad to hear that no-one was hurt, but seriously,

contracted by the City of Whitehorse for mosquito control work.

isn't that like having a 'no peeing' area in a swimming pool?

Never found the Yukon all that bad for mosquito's, heck Winnipeg is far worse than anything I encountered in the Yukon or Whitehorse for that matter.

[Cat Driver]

There are two kinds of bush pilots. Those who have crashed, and those who are going to.

That has to be one of the most insulting generalities in aviation.

I flew for many decades in the " Bush " and flew thousands and thousands of hours in almost every airplane in use for bush operations including thousands of hours of off strip flying in DC3's on wheels and wheel/ski's.

I never crashed nor did I ever damage an airplane.

So I'm not a "Bush Pilot " yet?

I still have to crash one to qualify as a bush pilot?

[sky's the limit]

Absolutely agree ..

[Cat Driver]

Mornin S.T.L.

For sure low level flying in any aircraft has its own unique problems and accidents happen.

I still believe that accidents can be avoided by being extra careful when flying in the danger zone....the greater the danger the more careful I am.

If only luck is involved how does luck work, I did eight years of Ag. flying both fixed and rotary wing and also fifteen years as a water bomber captain...then eight years in the air show circuit in Europe.

All of the above is low flying with a higher risk than say following a radar vector thousands of feet above the ground.

So why was I so lucky not having wrecked one?

By the way it looks like we will soon be looking for a 206, so if you come across a good one let me know.

[flyinthebug]

Mornin S.T.L.

For sure low level flying in any aircraft has its own unique problems and accidents happen.

I still believe that accidents can be avoided by being extra careful when flying in the danger zone....the greater the danger the more careful I am.

If only luck is involved how does luck work, I did eight years of Ag. flying both fixed and rotary wing and also fifteen years as a water bomber captain...then eight years in the air show circuit in Europe.

All of the above is low flying with a higher risk than say following a radar vector thousands of feet above the ground.

So why was I so lucky not having wrecked one?

By the way it looks like we will soon be looking for a 206, so if you come across a good one let me know.

Well ., I can ask the question..."why was I so UNlucky". I flew 15 years accident/incident free and several thousand hours. All on Navajos, King Air, DHC2/3T etc etc, and my luck ran out on a beautiful Northern Ont spring day. The plane was destroyed and my body was too.

I dont know why some people like yourself have the good fortune of never having put one in...as much as I dont know why my luck ran out? I guess we all should just count our blessings that we are here to still talk about it. Flying comes with a certain level of risk associated with it. We mitigate that risk to the very best of our human ability, and at times, we fail.

Am I any less of a Bush Pilot because I DID put one in? Not at all IMHO. Nor are you any less a Bush pilot for not putting one in! I agree completely that a Bush Pilot is not an "accident waiting to happen" thats an irresponsible statement by the poster above. Anyways I hope im making some sense here . lol.

Back to this thread... I know very little about Helicopter ops in general, but i did just have this conversation with a Chopper pilot at one of our Arctic Camps a few weeks ago. He explained that long lining/slinging (sorry I dont know the exact term he used) lowlevel with flat light can be tricky for the most experienced pilot. He was a 10,000 hr pilot who was flying up to camp to replace a younger and less experienced pilot that was having problems with the flat light.

Im glad this one turned out well and the pilot is ok. Thats what matters most!

Fly safe all.

[Cat Driver]

So why was I so lucky not having wrecked one?

My question is genuine, because there were flights where I have no real idea how I survived.....one was bombing down the side of a mountain where I realized I was in descending air that was going to smack me into the mountain side, so I quickly dropped the load of long term retardant and still could not stop the loss of height and disappeared into the smoke from the fire, next thing I saw was trees above me and on both sides of me on fire and I popped out of it with the valley floor a few hundred feet below me.

So how did we survive that one?

So for sure some things are beyond our control.

It is as weird as sharing your conquest at the Gold Range with your crew member and he ends up with the clap but you don't.

[Rowdy]

It is as weird as sharing your conquest at the Gold Range with your crew member and he ends up with the clap you you don't.

Maybe you're immune from all the previous close encounters, built up a resistance you know

As far as accidents, they are exactly that, accidents. They arent 'on-purposes'. A series of events causes an accident, not one single or simple occurence. Some seem to have fate on their side, some dont. flyinthebug, myself and a few other avcanadians happened to be of the latter. Actually, all things considered, for everything going wrong to lead to my wreck, there were countless unexplained things that went right to keep me alive and afterwards to leave me with the ability to walk and talk.

Im still under the belief that there is far too much arrogance and ignorance in this industry and I wont comment any further than that

[maDDtraPPer]

Ya sorry I was pretty mad and I meant to say accident not crash. I still stand by my comment.

If you are a high time bush Pilot, and you haven't holed a float on a log or rock, got some greenery on a rotor, tore a tail ski off or broke a ski or station 60 a twin...the list goes on and on then that makes you one of two things.

A. Your a liar. or
B. You need to take a self portrait, frame it in gold, take it down to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and hang that picture up beside John Glen and the other Mercury 7.

[Tanker299]

[CFR]

Is the mast supposed to be bent forward like that?

[old_man]

Is the mast supposed to be bent forward like that?

Yes, the 206 has a teetering main head. It's a bit of an optical illusion, the mast is not bent but the blades are just leaning back.

[Cat Driver]

If you are a high time bush Pilot, and you haven't holed a float on a log or rock, got some greenery on a rotor, tore a tail ski off or broke a ski or station 60 a twin...the list goes on and on then that makes you one of two things.

I haven not done any of the above, then maybe I was not considered a high time bush pilot.

What do you consider a high time bush pilot?

A. Your a liar.

Am I?

Is your avatar your claim to fame as a pilot?

[Rudy]

You've really never scratched an airplane .? That's pretty impressive.

[Cat Driver]

Actually I have scratched a couple.

The first one I scratched was my Grumman Cheetah, I ran the lawn mower into the horizontal stab.

Then I clipped the wing tip of a Beaver on a sail boat bow sprit in Vancouver harbor not enough damage to bother fixing.

Then shortly after that a water rudder cable went wonky turning around in a bit of wind in Sechelt and I once again clipped a wing tip on another Beaver, this time on a dock piling across from the dock I had left...once again just cosmetic damage.

Fortunately I never did any costly damage to an aircraft.

Bottom line is I have never had to fill out an accident / incident report.....so the insurance companies don't have me on record as a known risk.

The insurance companies are the only ones that matter to me.

[Beefitarian]

Well...

Not enough damage to bother fixing.

Is still damage so even if you and I think "liar" may be too strong of a word. Let's go with selectively forgetful.

[Cat Driver]

Ahhh...selectively forgetful.

That kind of covers it.....but by concentrating I remembered " damaging " a couple of machines.

I guess there are many different kinds of accidents / incidents and sometimes they are way beyond a pilots being able to do anything about it...like an engine failure in a critical stage of flight with very limited places to put it after the failure.

The subject is very interesting though because some pilots are just accident prone, I knew one who wrecked about seven or eight airplanes, and walked away from every one.

So where do we put him?

In the lucky category or in the lacking in skills / decision making category?

I like to think of myself as a reasonably good pilot that tried to use a good decision making process " before " I got myself in a dangerous position.....and when I did put myself in a dangerous position I was lucky.

[maDDtraPPer]

My crash and burn avatar does reflect my aviation career, but only in connection with my dismal attempts at relationships with women. But I would never claim to have never made a mistake or scratched an airplane. Also since my license doesn't also say M1 or M2 I also wouldn't be the one to decide how serious "cosmetic" damage was.