No Light Abnormals-Heli

No Light Abnormals,

It’s been almost a decade now since we initiated a focused approach to helicopter accident prevention.  The information provided by the International Helicopter Safety Team (IHST) made a strong case on elevating the knowledge and skills of the crews in order to prevent accidents. Statistics were given showing which were the issues that were causing the incidents and accidents in helicopters, and there it was, crews could have prevented the overwhelming majority.

The task wasn’t easy since at that time the IHST was pitching for an 80% reduction in the total accidents in a decade. (This has changed now) I felt overwhelmed and knew not where to start.  I have been giving instruction since the beginning of the 90s and this stopped me in my tracks.  How do I change the point of view of what I have been teaching?  I have been selling a product that now has to change, but how?

When I began flying helicopters, there were not enough helicopter jobs, so I had to learn to fly airplanes.  At that time no one wanted to fly a small Maule M5 in the mountains, long story short I ended up flying for an airline, but never left my love and passion for helicopters.  I continued to fly and receive training for many years until it was too expensive and I decided to instruct to keep proficient and reduce my expenses.

Airplanes you know are quite docile compared to helicopters; they will fly for themselves and help you fly as much as their design allows them to.  As I tell people and students: in my experience every helicopter pilot can fly airplanes with little to no instruction, but no fixed wing pilot can fly a helicopter without proper training. (This is no recommendation, if you are going to try, do it with an instructor) And that perspective gave me an idea of how we could approach our training and cope with what was now expected from the helicopter industry and specially the training departments.

A great deal of difference can be found when dealing with emergency situations in airplanes.  Usually a light and even a sound accompanies faults, a caution or a warning will advise you very much which procedure to read or accomplish.   In many cases an autopilot is engaged to help the crew deal with the abnormality.  But helicopters are different. Crew of one, almost always no autopilot, and the abnormal situation that will cause the accident will not always have a light or a caution.

Helicopter abnormalities causing many accidents were brought to the crew with no warning system advising them of what was developing or happening and that was the case we had to make.

In that regard the causes of the problems were: Settling with power, “LTE” loss of tail rotor effectiveness, dynamic rollover, low rotor RPM (Has warning but too late), autorotation training, mast bumping, and performance issues, by now you get the idea.

All of these happenings will develop silently and will if undetected cause and incident or accident, which is as the IHST proposed, preventable.

“ NO LIGHT ABNORMALS” was the way to make it palatable to the pilots, we were going to teach high time, immensely experienced pilots, information from the most basic book of helicopter flying.  And so we did.

We gathered statistics, incidents and accidents from reputable data bases and went on to revise those accompanied by information on each of the subjects presented at a level that would be adequate to the pilots experience level.

At that point the focus of the effort were the Bell 206 and the AS350.  Various commercial operators utilized them.

  Almost 20 pilots received the first course and we had such success that we went on to teach that approach of CRM/ADM to general aviation operators.

Pilots who received this course came from different backgrounds and experience levels, but they all concur in something.  It is in the eyes of trained, knowledgeable airman that the cautions and warnings appear crystal clear well in advance.

But I always made a correction to that statement.  By being there they demonstrated what it takes to be a great aviator, it takes the right attitude.  They all sat there to revise basic information and by doing that contributed to lower incidents and accidents related to preventable causes.  I can’t tell you how much joy it brings to me when an aviator approaches me and says: You know what? I saw that one coming from a distance and we were able to avoid it!

Helicopter pilots have to always be vigilant to where the no light abnormal is coming from. Are the circumstances changing? Is our performance what we planed for? Where is the wind coming from?  Go ahead and re learn your basics under this light, situate your actual environment to look for the factors that unfold an event, position them in your mission and take note of where and when you are able to find the translucent abnormals that are apparent only to your trained eye.

With practice you are going to be able to shine a bright light on every one of them and hopefully be able to prevent an accident every time.

I wish you all safe flights under your safe and bright shining light.

Luca Pineda