#193 Visual Flight Rules in Instrument Conditions Can Lead to Death
Kenny Keller, a Cleveland-based helicopter pilot, explains why VFR pilots entering instrument conditions often die. He shares stories of pressure from news operations to fly in marginal weather and argues pilots need instrument skills or shouldn't fly at all.
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Visual flight rules and instrument conditions can lead to death. Yes, death. We're going to go into more into that in just a minute and give you some background about how I learned about the do's and don'ts and what some people do and others don't. It's late in the day. This video is coming out late. Been traveling with Gloria. We're currently in Cleveland, Ohio. This is where I spent five years of my early career was right over here at the Burke Lakefront airport. And this is where I got lucky enough to fly the instrument the Switzerland the jet range. Live news reporting 135 charger and it's where I learned a lot about what we're going to talk about. And first I want to mention right over here when we talk about being a road dog and you have to sacrifice for your career. Right over there is the Rock and Roll hall of Fame and Gloria and I spent the entire day there today. The five years I worked here, I never went in there. I flew around it all the time, day after day in the pattern flying past that. I could never afford to go there because I was working out of state, tr traveling, paying rent, had a home in Indiana, back and forth. That's what I did to sacrifice for my career and that's what many of you are going to have to do. Some of you may be lucky and you'll be financially stable and you don't have to do that. But when we talk about being a road dog, that's the time type of things you have to sacrifice. So many people whine and complain. It's oh, it's too expensive and I can't never do it. Well, yeah, if you're not willing to sacrifice, no, you probably can't do it. But sacrifice didn't get you to where you want. And so it's been a neat deal that I got to actually be here and bring glory all these years later. And we spent the entire day there today. So I did finally get to do it. But for five years off and on flying around it. Flying around it. I remember going in one day and looking at the price of tickets and was like, ah man, you know, it was all about having enough money in your tank or enough money in your pocket to buy gas at the end of the day. So back to this from the helicopter safety team. It's 2019. We're approaching record accidents. We just had another one since I started this series of videos. So when they say death, yes, death. This is the all too often result of previously mentioned Practice of flying too low. It is even more dangerous if the pilot is not instrument qualified or is unwilling to believe what the gauges are indicating. This action usually results in not knowing where you are and the inability to recognize deteriorating circumstances and or misjudgment of the rate of deterioration. Yesterday I talked about scud running. That's what we're talking about. But also in this context of this statement from the US Safety team, it's being in those conditions and not necessarily being rated instrument rated or not at least having instrument skills. I can tell you early on, I learned so many things here. But for example, flying the news, I'd get a news call and I'd look right over here. I'm gonna have Gloria make the camera go over here. You can see the tops of the buildings, okay? This is downtown Cleveland. We had like four news helicopters here, and I was flying one of them. Get a news call, hey, can you go south of downtown to an accident scene? You know, I check weather. I'd look outside. I couldn't even see the tops of the buildings. I'm like, nah, that's a little low. I'm not going. Short time later, the boss would call up because I would turn the news call down, right? So then the news station would come call and complain to the boss because I turned down the call. Call me up, hey, buddy. Yeah, new station said, you're not gonna take this call. Why not? And I'm like, man, I can't see the tops of the buildings downtown. He's like, yeah, but Fox is up, you know, channel whatever's up. And I'm like, I don't care. Those guys are out flying. I can't see the tops of the buildings. Freaking downtown. I'm not going. Okay, so, you know, to play into that little bit of go and no go and going out and flying when you shouldn't. At that time, I got my instrument rating, actually, after I'd been working here for a couple years. I got it while I was the CFI working here. So going out in those circumstances, because I could have taken the pressure from the boss and the news station, you know, and the news station always say, well, oh, you can't go right now. Well, can you go up in 15 minutes? Can you go up in a half an hour? These are the type of scenarios that we do get put ourselves or that we get put into as commercial helicopter pilots or CFIs or EMS pilots, regardless. So back to the statement from the US safety team. You know, if you're flying in those conditions, when you're a VFR pilot, it's deadly. And I already told you the scud running story yesterday about what I learned along the route and it was leaving this area, going back home. So I do have a video and actually tomorrow I'll put the link in because it's getting late in the day and we got to get out of here, start heading home or get a place to stay for tonight. But we recently did a FAA webinar and I'll talk more about that tomorrow. Make sure I have the link ready for you to go in the next couple days of video. So you got to think about this. If you're VFR pilot, you gotta fly in VFR conditions. And if you find yourself in an EVERTON imc, if you don't have the instrument skills, you're probably not going to survive. Or if your instrument skills are not up to par, you could most definitely lose your life. All right, I'm gonna wrap it up like and subscribe. We got three more to go from the U.S. safety team. The recommendations that they, that they made in response to these helicopter accidents. Do me a favor like and subscribe. Put your comments down below. We'll see in day 194. Oh yeah, and by the way, I am Kenny Keller, creator, Helicopter Land Ground School. I just got to make my daughter go. Oh my God, he's not gonna shut up. He's still going. I'm gonna put the link for helicopterground.com below. Private commercial CFI instrument. All those courses have 24 hour test flight on the monthly and yearly memberships. Then we got a big professional pilot package. I'm throwing out the good code today. KK 25 off if you want. 25% off. The big professional pilot, it includes private commercial CFI instrument, does not expire. You keep the training as long as you need. You know, I'm throwing that code out today. You know, inspired by where I got my start in the industry and what helped me move my career along the way. All right, my daughter's making weird faces, so I'm gonna wrap it up like subscribe, click the bell, put your comments up down below and give us a little like on that thumbs up or the thumbs up icon down below, click that. If you don't like the the video, click that dislike button twice, hit it once because you really hated it and you click it again because you hated it even more. Yeah, do that. All right, peace out. See you in day 90 194. Bye.
