Fatal Fuel Crash

If you are not reading this gauge here properly, or if you cannot, you cannot believe that it's telling you the truth, you get it too, down there, far towards the bottom, you will kill yourself and can kill yourself. So one thing that was cool about Enstrom Helicopters is they have an actual factory fuel stick. Meaning when you take that stick and you put it in the tank and you pull it back out, you know exactly how many gallons are in that aircraft. And then you can take that knowledge that you see firsthand and you can check it to your fuel gauge. So, number one, it's nice to know that you have an accurate gauge. However, what we tell people is you never ever, ever, ever trust this gauge. You should be doing this by time. And we have a instructor here we want to show you up on the wall. This is Chris Hauser. Chris Hauser came to me over 10 years ago. I was flying EMS at the base that he is flying now. And when he came to meet me, he was on duty for the police department. I was on duty at the EMS base and he came out to talk to me about learning to fly helicopters. And he was an airplane pilot at the time. And we just put him up here four times because I know Chris will get a big kick out of this. So he started with me flying helicopters, brand new. And at that point, Chris had never wore a watch in his life. And he'll tell you that. And the last time I saw Chris, great big ol wristwatch, right? He religiously wears a watch ever since we were training back in the day. What I taught Chris was you're always timing the fuel, right? He chose to use a watch. Now, depending on the aircraft you're flying, you may have a timer right on the dash somewhere. You might be have a fancy. Some aircraft have an actual fuel meter that's showing you minute by minute how many gallons you're using. This particular aircraft right here has a timer right here. Very important to start that timer. When you start the engine, know approximately how many gallons you are burning per hour. And then learning to break it down into like 15 minute increments is the best way to track your fuel while you're flying. So whether you're using a clock in the aircraft, you've got a fancy meter shown how much fuel you were using, burning, how much is in there, whether you're using your watch or whether you're using all of those, tracking your time is critical. I have one story where again, early in my career they used to send us with an airplane pilot to go chase parts for the helicopter when it would break because it was quicker to jump in an airplane, weather permitting, go pick up parts, fly them back to the mechanic. So one gentleman who I knew that was a retired police officer, and we connected because I was an ex cop as well, someone that I flew with and I got to know killed himself flying out to the East Coast. He went to leave, he had enough fuel, had a problem after takeoff, his gear wouldn't retract properly. So he came back, landed, they did some repairs, he took off again without topping off, flew out to the east coast, went out over the water at night, did a 180 turn to come back in and land at the airport that was right along the shore. And he ran out of fuel just short of the Runway, short of land, and went in the water, died of his injuries. So there's someone firsthand that I know that lost their life, who was a good pilot, he was respected. Nobody said he was a hot dog or didn't know what he was doing. It wasn't like that. He made a mistake and tried to get in and was just short of landing and runs out of fuel. And we hear these stories all the time. You could research this and you'll find many stories. The aircraft runs out of fuel just short of the airport. And I have one time that I did it where I got really, really low and it wasn't an airplane. And it was about that same era. And I'm pretty sure it was before my friend died because I, back in the day when the boss let me take an airplane home on the weekends to fly back, misjudged the fuel, had more wind than normal, could have stopped in an airport before getting to work that morning on a Monday, but I didn't want to be late. And I remember calculating the fuel, and I can remember coming into the airport, worrying that I had enough fuel in the tanks and I made it on the ground. And after having that scare, getting really, really low, and then losing a friend who I had flown with and that I liked and respected, that's where my respect for the fuel really came into play. You know, it, we teach this, we talk about it, but until it happens to you or you lose someone that, you know, how seriously do we take it? I could give you more stories, but I think that makes the point. There are plenty of ways to track your fuel and time. You know, whether it's a watch, it's the aircraft, whatever kind of timers you have in the aircraft use two or three different things. I can't Stress enough. Like I said, I have more stories I could tell you, but I'm not. So let's see what we got open today. We've been getting packages just about delivered every day. It's almost Christmas right now. And so we put together some things for the Thanksgiving package. Whoever was right, the girls were guessing on what this was. And I said, that's not E6B's it is. So there's two E6B's to add to our little stock. We have over here, we have a Pro Pilot package where if you go for pro membership, you can go for just all the online courses, or you can go for. And this is available now on our website, you can go for ProPilot, and we will send you everything you're going to need. For those of you that, hey, I've made the decision. I've appropriated the money. I'm gonna go for this. I'm gonna be a cfi. I'm gonna build my time. But I'm just starting out. I didn't have anybody in the books yet. Guess what? With the Pro pilot, we're gonna send all to you. So here's the kind of things that just so happens I opened the right box. For the pro package, you're gonna need the Helicopter Instructor's Handbook, similar to the Helicopter Flying Handbook, which we'll send you. But you need this as well, because this is what they're gonna use. Let me rephrase that. This is what you want to use as a cfi because they point out to you common errors that you're going to see that people make. So you're going to need a copy of this. And let's see what else we got. So there's two of those. Oh, and I just mentioned Helicopter Flying Handbook. Worked out perfectly. Helicopter Flying Handbook. Whether you're a student pilot, private pilot, commercial pilot, cfi, dpe, the FAA wants us using this book. You can't get away from it. You have to have it. And yes, there are free PDF copies from the faa, which is great. So you can have easily have electronic copy. But I think as a cfi, you need a paper copy of every one of these things. And Alice also mentioned that's why we send you the E6B and the plotter, because we know people now use foreflight and iPads, and that's great. Even at the private level, our examiner allows you to use the iPad in foreflight. However, at the private level, he wants you to know how to use an E6B and a plotter. And he wants you to have a sectional chart as a backup with a line drawn on it and landmarks and wants you to know how to use these basic tools. So in an electronic world with foreflight at the CFI level, you need, you need these and you need to teach your students how to use them. There we go. Hey down below we got two Amazon bestseller books for you. We've been talking about those every day. You know what they are down below the free PDFs or we ship you either book for 9.95 should be inhaling in the US and then we have maneuver guide down below free PDF just a good way to help you refresh the maneuvers. You can look it on your electronic device, you can print it off, whatever you want to do. Click that subscribe button and we'll see you next video Peace out.

When you feel the pressure to fly but know the right decision is to stay on the ground, hit the hogs no go and live to fly another day. Helicopterground.com.