YouTube episode (Coffee with Kenny, Day 74) in which Kenny Keller discusses helicopter operations over large bodies of water (lakes, coastal flying, and ocean). He emphasizes risk-awareness: be brave but not stupid, always follow POH/company/FAA regs, use appropriate safety equipment (life vests, ELTs, flotation devices), maintain flight-following or flight plans so someone knows your route, and prefer routes within gliding distance of shore. He gives examples: an EMS 135 twin operation choosing to route around Lake Michigan rather than cross it; summer coastal/boat-race flights over Lake Erie with full gear and company DVFR filing; and a long coastal flight from LAX to Seattle while staying near shore. He also briefly promotes his Helicopter-Airland ground school membership near the end.
Chapters
Flying over large bodies of water, lakes and coastal areas sent in by one of our members, one of our helicopter online ground school members that is gonna sit down here with you in a minute and give you a couple scenarios, a couple examples to think about. So today, be brave, but don't confuse being brave with being stupid. Coffee's almost finished. It means it's day 74. Time for coffee with Kenny, named by our daily video followers. If you think flying over large bodies of water without the proper safety gear and particularly cold water, if you think that's a good idea, okay, down and dirty. And if you think my shirt's a little scary. So it could be flying over water in the event you had a problem and you weren't prepared. You know, I do believe anything that breaks up complacency is good. And yes, I'm a Marilyn Manson fan. Recently watched an interview with Marilyn Manson. He said, if you're not upsetting people along the way, then you're probably not doing anything worthwhile. So. So I'm Kenny Keller, creator of Helicopter Airland ground school and one of our helicopter airline ground school members sent me a message. He said, good morning Kenny. Possible topic, flying over water, large lakes, in ocean or cross country or coastal flying. Being on the west coast, I've been asked about coastal tours. Alright, we know flying over water is fun, right? It is the funnest thing, one of the funnest things you can do in a helicopter. An absolute blast. Now that being said, you know, we started off with be brave, be stupid. Flying over water can be just fine if you have equipment, you're prepared, you're on flight following or some type of a flight plan where somebody knows where to come look for you in the event something bad happens. Flying over water can be cool and fun and can be great and can be fairly safe with the right precautions. So I'm gonna sit down here in the computer and give you the first scenario I'm thinking about. And you might be surprised on this one. This one's gonna be going from South Bend to Chicago, flying over Lake Michigan. And as an EMS crew, they left it up to us in this 135 operation, they left it up to the pilot and crew to make the decision. We were legal to do it, we had the proper equipment and they left it up to us whether we wanted to make the track across the water to Chicago or go around the south side of the lake. So let's go to the computer. So what you think about, we're an EMS Provider 135 twin engine aircraft, DC135, and we're going frequently from South Bend, Indiana over here to Chicago. Now, we were a 135, provider to an engine aircraft, safe aircraft, they left it up to us as the pilot and crew. Did we want to just go around the lake or did we want to go across the lake? Now, as a pilot in ems, you're not in a hurry, you're hauling cargo safely from point A to point B. In EMS crew, of course they're in a hurry, they have a medical patient. And if we're going to Chicago, it means they're, they're a problem, means their condition is critical. You may be surprised when I tell you that everybody as a crew, the pilots, the nurses, the medics, we all agreed we would only go around the south side of the lake, up Chicago same way on the return flight. So just think about that for a minute as professional people with a quality aircraft, twin engine, the whole crew, everyone, all pilots, all medics, all decided we didn't want to go across the water. Regardless of time of year, temperature of the water, it didn't matter. Because if you think about it, if you went down in the water, number one, are you gonna be able to get out of the aircraft? And number two, how long are you gonna wait for help to get there? So again, don't take me wrong. I'm not saying there's never a time to do it, but you gotta look at the possibilities of what if you have some kind of failure, your fuel tank gets ruptured and you're going to run out of full fuel before you get to your destination. There's a lot of things to consider. On the flip side of that, I'm going to go back to computer and show you where I did cross a pretty big body of water where I felt really comfortable doing it. Okay, next scenario. We worked here in Cleveland. We very often did boat races out here flying over the water. We had all the gear, all the protection, we had all the protective vices, life vests, little fancy ELT things, flashlights, and somebody knew where we were at all times. And then we would occasionally cross Lake Erie and go over to the Detroit area to do boat races. Now this was summertime, right? So we were on a company flight plan. We had all the gear. We were in a Jet Ranger, a helicopter that I felt good in. And we made sure that we are, we had company following. We were on a DVFR flight plan, defense, visual flight rules, because we had to actually cross through Canada we didn't land in Canada, but we flew through their airspace. So because it was summertime, we had all the gear that we needed. Everybody knew exactly where we were going, what time we were leaving, when we'd be back, and they knew our route direct over and back. So if something bad happened, they would know where to look for us. The water was warm, so we weren't in danger of hypothermia. We had all the gear. But even then, if we did go down the water, how difficult would it be to get out of the aircraft? That thing would sink pretty darn fast. And I personally have had no formal training and getting out of an aircraft that went into the water, but that is a situation where I would do it. So the scenarios are pretty endless. What do you think about flying over water? Put your comments down below. What do you think about the trips that I have done? What do you think about the EMS crew all deciding not crossing the lake, going to Chicago? Now back to finish up Clarence's question. Large lakes, a large lake. I'm always going to kind of divert to one side or the other, you know, when I was younger, did I do crazier things? Mmm, probably. Now, as a very conservative pilot, I want to go home at the end of the day. Always staying gliding distance for the shore. In this video, I'm not talking about regs. Depending on what country you're in, whether you're flying for fun, you're flying commercially, you're flying on a 135 operation. The regs can be different. I'm talking about in this video, about what you wouldn't do to be safe. And we're covering this video as what you're doing is legal. I would never advise you to break a regulation ever. So it's up to you, as pilot in command to know what the regulations are for you in the aircraft that you're flying for, the area that you're in, the country that you're in, and any regulations put out by your company along with FAA regulations or your country's regulations. You mentioned flying over the ocean. I've never done that. People do it. Not my bag of tea. And then flying along the coast, of course, flying along the coast is absolutely incredible. I've done it. We took a helicopter from LAX all the way to Seattle, majority of the time flying the coastline, with the exception of anywhere that we had airspace that we might not be able to fly through. But other than that, you know, we did it. But we always tried to stay gliding distance to the shore. It's never a good feeling to get out farther than what you could glide back to the shore. Right? That's what's always in my mind. Anytime that I'm flying over water, lakes, coastline, I want to know that if that engine fails or some other problem happens, I can get back to the shore. That's just me. I don't want to be out in the middle of a lake or in a river or whatever the case may be. I don't want to be out there bobbing in the water waiting for help. So today, be brave. Don't be stupid. Always take the safety precautions that are appropriate for any flight. Always Refer to your POH. Always refer to your company guidelines. Always refer to FAA regulations. So thanks for tuning in for Day 74 Coffee with Kenny again. I'm Kenny Keller, creator, helicopter land ground school. We just celebrated seven years online. We have a private pilot monthly membership, 49amonth. Keep it as long as you like. Cancel anytime. Last night I was talking to Brian Rutledge and he said, dude, do you realize it's like 18 hours of training? Somebody could go through that whole 18 hours in one month. That's $2.70 an hour. And we're laughing, going, yeah, and you fly a helicopter that costs you 2, 3, 4, $500 an hour, but you're going to skimp on $49 for a full course of training for the private pilot. If you went through it twice, it'd be like a $30 or whatever. A lot of value in that private pilot membership. You get a 24 hour test flight before you're billed. So when you sign up, you enter your credit card. You don't get billed for 24 hours. If you decide it's not right for you, you remove your credit card or end Your subscription and PayPal for the 24 hours and you're never billed. If you want to keep the training, keep it as long as you like. You get billed in 30 day increments. So you got 30 days to enjoy the training and then decide to keep it for another 30 days or your subscription before the end of that 30 days is up. So keep as long as you like. Cancel anytime. Please subscribe to our channel. Click the bell. Thank you everybody. This has been absolutely amazing. Day 74, it's crazy. Very soon we're gonna be doing some of these outside from the pontoon. Oh, yeah. Trying out a new road mic today. I just got this and they say this is so good, you don't even need a windsock over it. You can be out in the wind and almost a hurricane and you won't get wind noise. So look forward to some videos outdoors coming up. Spring is almost here, man. I'm having a blast. Like, subscribe. See you in the next video. Peace out.
