Kenny Keller answers a member question about whether a pilot can land at an airport ramp when the NOTAM lists the runway as closed. He stresses that the pilot-in-command must make prudent decisions, recommends erring on the side of caution (avoid landing if the runway is closed unless explicit arrangements to clear the ramp are made), and describes differing approaches for helicopters versus fixed-wing aircraft. He also announces a new private community for Helicopter Ground School members and closes with typical CTAs (like, subscribe, visit helicopterground.com).
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Pilot in command. It's up to you to make the right decisions. And I also always think about what would the FAA say when I land on the ramp. Gotta think about that one. Could just be that particular day. You just never know. And sadly I always think about what's that? How's the accident report gonna read? Think about that one. When you're making some of these decisions, what would the accident report read? Coffee emergency. I got up. No coffee at home. How many of you is your day just completely screwed up when you get up and you don't have coffee? I knew I was supposed to go get coffee yesterday. So today this ground school member's question was Kenny, I went to an airport and noticed this airport was snow covered. He checked notams noticed that the Runway was covered with snow. The notam said Runway closed. And he said he wanted to know if he could still land at the ramp. Does that mean the whole airport's closed after the fact? He asked a fixed wing DPE if it would be open or not and the DP didn't know. So the first thing that comes to my mind is if you're doing the pre flight planning, you've checked the airports where you're going, probably should have already known about the notam but you know notam could pop up last minute. So let's give credit there. He then says, you know, he flew away, decided to err on the side of caution and just keep on trucking. Just need one large coffee with two creams and one sugar please. So it does fall back to what does a safe and prudent pilot do? Always err to the side of caution. Always do as much pre flight as possible, including all of your planning along your routes, where you're going, make the call, find out if they're open. But when it comes to snowman and considering you can see a lot out here, we're used to it. That's just something that we don't really mess around with. You know, you don't want to take chances landing in snow. I wouldn't land at an airport if the airport was closed, Runway was closed unless you made specific arrangements and they were going to clear a path for you on the ramp. I wouldn't do it. So this does bring up lots of great questions about airplanes versus helicopter at airports. There is a lot to that. There are some things that you need to know and you know, basically bottom line, like what I do if I'm going in on my home airport, I'll go directly to the ramp. If I'M going to an airport that I'm not familiar with. I'm probably going to go to the Runway and then use taxiways and go to the ramp. Just kind of depends. There's a million scenarios of how this could play out. So I'd love to hear your feedback down below, what you do or things you've seen that might be helpful for someone on these making these decisions about landing at uncontrolled airports. And P.S. before I forget, we have something new to helicopter airline ground school. We have a new community. This is something that just went live for us and it's something that's going to be free for all of our helicopter land ground school members. And the community is somewhere where you can go in and you can post pictures, post links, have discussions. And I'm kind of liking it because it's. Instead of sending you off to the Facebook group, which we have, but isn't really, really active, a community is somewhere you can go chat with other pilots. We can have discussions amongst everybody. But it's still kind of in a controlled environment, not, you know, direct social media. So check that out. It'll be in your library for paid members. Check out the community and let's get some good conversations going in there. Thank you. Ah, the world is right again. So remember you are pilot in command. It is up to you to make good decisions. Always err on the side of caution. I mentioned previously in the video when I first became a police officer, they said, you know, if you don't know, don't do it. If you're not sure about the rest, don't make it. You know, if you're not sure about landing and you can get somewhere else safely, don't do it. Always be as knowledgeable as you can. Always err to a side of caution. Pilot command. It's up to you to make the right decisions. And I also always think about what would the FAA say when I land on the ramp. Gotta think about that one. Could just be that particular day. You just never know. And sadly I always think about what's that? How's the accident report gonna read? Think about that one. When you're making some of these decisions, what would the accident report read? Okay, time to get on with the rest of my day. I'm Kenny Keller, creator helicopter on ground school. We do a daily video coffee with Kenny. Go below to check out helicopterground.com has all of our courses. You can take a 24 hour test flight, 100% money back, no hassle guarantee. So give us a like on this video. 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