#263 - Helicopter Wire Strikes - Coffee With Kenny

All right, day 263. Coffee with Kenny. Helicopter wire strikes. We're gonna roll through a couple of videos here, take a look at a few. And the kind of point I want to take home today is why it's a good reason, if you can, if it's feasible. I know, I know sometimes this is not feasible. But if you can, and you're planning on landing off airport somewhere, go to that location by car, bus, bicycle, whatever. But you wonder going to go land somewhere, if you can, go there and visit that landing spot and make sure you see for yourself what exactly wires are in that environment. I want to share something with you real quick that I just read in a report this morning. It is a myth to think that more time in the cockpit will make you safer in the wire environment. An FAA report found that the average age of pilots involved in severe helicopter wire strike accidents was 43.5 years old, with 78% of the accidents involving pilots between the ages of 40 and 59, and with an average flight experience of 3575 hours. Personally, I find that pretty darn interesting. All right, maybe, or you, maybe you've seen some of these, maybe you haven't. Luckily, this guy walks away. This thing is violent. And I mean violent, Dang. And that just shows you how quick something bad can happen. And luckily the people around, nobody got injured. The pilot had some minor injuries and he went home. So the end result was. Okay, look at this. So this guy, this pilot knew he was working in a wire environment, right? I mean, he knew what he was doing. On this one, you're actually going to see the wires, you know. Why did the pilot not see him? I don't know. But that's the thing research I was doing this morning. Many times the pilot just can't see him for various reasons. Age of the wires, sunlight. There's a lot of reasons why you might miss a wire. Here they come. Snap. And he drops the load. Hope the people on the ground, I don't know if they went in the ground or the water. Hope they were alright. Here he comes. There's the wires and bang. All right, here is an air ambulance. One that many of you may or may not have seen. I know I've seen it quite a while ago. Wires is a particular danger, of course, in the EMS environment, right? With all the crazy places you go out and land, especially along roadways, man. Or it's always going to be wires. Always, always, always going to be wires. He's going to lift up and he's going to turn his tail into the wires. This is a big danger turn. Pilots turn their tails into stuff. Boom. I look like the rotor and tilt both went into it. I can't. I couldn't tell for sure. But boom. They set back down. Everything's okay. I mean, as far as nobody's hurt Anyway. Here's an R44 flight. All right, here he comes. There's the wire strung right across again. I have no idea why he doesn't see him. Who knows? Bam. And he gets it on the ground safely. All right, so hopefully that's a little wake up call for day 263. We know as pilots, right, we know wires are a danger. And I've reviewed this, you know, over the years, many times. This morning I was just reading some articles and they were talking about how, you know, in the world we live in, more and more power lines going up every day, more antennas going up every day, lines supporting antennas. And so many of these things are extremely hard to see. And they were talking about age of wires make them harder to see. Thin wires are hard to see. The sun, you know, coming through the windshield can be a problem. There are a lot of reasons why a pilot could be doing what he thinks is the right thing. And he's looking outside and being vigilant, but because of some other factor, he just doesn't see the wires. So I want you today to take away why, if you can go there and visit the place you're gonna land prior to, if feasible, take the time and go do that. I know one quick one. I want to tell EMS flight. We were told we're gonna land this intersection and they told us no wires. It's a rainy night. We're going in and I'm using the spotlight and I'm going around. There was wires on all four sides of this intersection. The people on the ground apparently thought the wires that were there were far enough away that it wasn't a big deal. But, you know, people on the ground aren't purposely trying to kill you. They just don't always understand the space that a helicopter really needs to be safe to get in and out. And you know, I was pre warned going into ems, they told us, they said, guys, the people on the ground aren't necessarily trying to kill you, but they sometimes just don't see things that are a danger that they don't perceive as a danger and they just think it's okay and they don't tell you about it. So There you go. Day 263 Like subscribe to the channel, click the little bell when you do and become a ground school member. Get through your checkride and we'll get you up on the Hogs Wall of fame. So proud of this darn thing. Just so cool. So helicopterground.com link below the video you can go and check out any of our courses, Private, commercial instrument and cfi. They all have monthly options. They all have a free 24 hour test flight and they all come with a 30 day money back ironclad, no hassle money back guarantee. So you want to check out our training? Go down below, click that link, subscribe, click the bell. See you in day 264. Peace out.