Light on the Skids

Perception pervades over truth for heli safety

My father, who spent his entire career in the aviation industry, once said to me: "There is no such thing as truth, only perception." I think he'd just been on a course, probably to prepare him for his seat on the board.

Nowhere is this more 'true' than in the public perception of helicopter safety.

There are some friends of mine who will not get in a helicopter with me. They do not have a fear of airline flying. It's not a personal thing about my abilities as a pilot (though I would understand this if they were more aware of the gulf between a 95-hour and a 1,500-hour pilot). Instead, it is to do with a general perception that flying helicopters is dangerous.

So, I set about looking at the facts to see if they supported the perception.

From the CAA, I discovered the fatal accident rate for helicopters in 2005 was 15 per million hours flown. This is typical for recent years, the rate being very stable.

From the Office of National Statistics, I found the Department of Transport reported a road accident death rate of 55 per 100 million vehicle kilometres. 52 per cent of these were car users, the rest made up by pedestrians, cyclists, motorcyclists, bus users, lorries and other vehicles.

Assuming an average helicopter journey speed of 70 knots (130 km/hour), this works out as 15 deaths per 130 million kilometres travelled.

This extrapolates to 11.5 deaths per 100 million kilometres for helicopter travel, compared to 28.5 deaths per 100 million kilometres for car travel. You are two and a half times more likely to die in a car than in a helicopter.

I know how I'd prefer to travel.

Helidays - and why not?

I popped into HELiDAYS at Weston-super-Mare today. I just thought I'd check it out as it appears to be the only helicopter-specific event in the UK.

Getting there was a pleasant cross country nav on a beautiful summer's day. It was nice to chat to Yeovil Radar just prior to them closing down for a three week break (nice eh?). And once I arrived I found out how tricky it is to understand what a marshaller wants you to do!

It was a shame a few lads chose to ignore the beach wardens' instructions and stay in the sea, therefore causing the Navy Lynxs' display to be cancelled. But despite that hiccup I think it's great to see the UK helicopter fraternity getting together.

Maybe next year I'll stay for more than three hours and go to the pilots' barbecue, which is apparently 'legendary'.

In the meantime, check out the pics in my airshows photo album.

Mixed impressions from Farnborough

I'm not sure what I expected from last week's Farnborough air show, but I have to say it was a bit of a mixed bag.

The Bell/Boeing V-22 Osprey tiltrotor, making its UK debut at Farnborough this year, was the star of the show in my view. I have always been quite skeptical of this machine, thinking that despite it's design objectives it would be an inevitable compromise between the benefits of fixed-wing and rotary - an opinion hardened by the difficult gestation this creation has experienced.

But to see the V-22 zoom across the flight line in full 'fixed-wing' mode, then moments later be in the hover on the main runway, makes you realise how flexible this thing could be. It didn't seem to be as dynamic in the hover as a helicopter - spot-turns looked lethargic - but you could see how this thing could get a bunch of special forces in and out of a remote place with ease.

At the other end of the spectrum was the AH-64D Apache Longbow. A very dull display made up of maneuvres far to high off the ground to be exciting and puctuated by the momentary thrill of a couple of inversions. I'd like to see our helicopter display ace Dennis Kenyon come out of retirement to show Boeing how to show off an Apache. I think he'd do a lot more stuff sideways at 50 feet, that's what these machines are all about.

On the static display side of things, Agusta had the best range of machines on show. It was on this stand that I noticed what a lovely aircraft the A119 is in the flesh. Sleek, purposeful - a lot of the presence of it's 'twin' brother the A109. I guess this is up against the Bell 407, which is basically an upgraded LongRanger. What would you rather have, a four-bladed LongRanger or a single engine A109 with skids? I know what I'd choose, it's just a shame they called it the Koala.

The big trade show

It's the Farnborough International Airshow next week and I'm aiming to go along and take a look at the pretty reasonable selection of static helicopters which will be on display.

I'll take my camera too so expect some pictures on this site soon.

A lot is said about the Farnborough show having become more of a trade show than an air display - but there's nothing wrong with that. We may not do that much end-to-end aircraft development and manufacture in the UK any more but to have a major international aviation trade show in the calendar can only be a good thing for the UK aviation industry.

What do you get when you multiply 22 by 2?

I proudly presented myself at the Airport House, the CAA's Gatwick home, last Friday to get my R44 rating stuck in my licence.

I must say, I've heard people whingeing about the CAA - mostly professional pilots - but my experience has been excellent so far. I guess as a private pilot occasional interactions with the CAA's beuraocracy can be almost fun. But for the professional pilot, when your livlihood depends on the paperwork being right, dealing with the CAA could be almost as axiety-inducing as an engine failure.

Anyway, back to the R44. During my PPL training - on the R22 of course - I always thought of the R44 as simply a four-seat 22. How wrong I was. I admit my experience of types is limited, but the R44 is an incredible aircraft. Powerful and flexible. And autorotative characteristics that bear little relation to it's fiendish little brother. I guess that's a good job too - because I'm now looking for a baby seat that fits the R44.

Heli mags - what's there for UK pilots

Here's a first stab at a listing of UK helicopter publications. The aim here is to help me (and you, the reader) to assess what specialist media is out there for the British helicopter pilot.

In this first list, I've just included UK-published 'paper' publications. I've included the websites associated with each, but I've not attempted to list all UK helicopter websites - that will come later.

Title	Publisher	Frequency
Helicopter International	Avia Press	Bi-monthly
Helicopter Life	Helicopter Life	Quarterly
Defence Helicopter	Shephard Group	Bi-monthly

Question is: have I left any out? Please let me know if you think I have.

I'm not going to comment on the relative merits of any of these publications, not yet anyway!

It's worth mentioning the US title Rotor & Wing (www.rotorandwing.com) simply because I managed to get onto the mailing list of this 'controlled circulation' publication. I'll look into international heli publications later (please email me if you have a list).

Helicopters in the media

My original plan was to kick-off with a bit of an analysis of helicopter publications, listing all the ones I've come across. I would then follow with some analysis on helcopter coverage in the UK general avaiation press.

But, as must be the fate that befalls many a blogger, I have little time left after running my business, refurbishing my house and trying to get at least an hour in my logbook each week.

I'll get round to the above 'helicopters in the media' stuff soon enough, but not a million miles away subject-wise - how about all the helicopters we're seeing in TV adverts lately?

I can think of three just off the top of my head.

1. 118 118 guys in an R22, at the end of that crazy A-Team ad featuring a baby BA Baracus

2. A low, slow flying helicopter in the Vauxhall ad with the French Foriegn Legion theme. OK, so it was just the sound of a helicopter, but surely that's good enough

3. Another R22 in an the current Cornetto ad

OK, so my reasearch is a bit weak here, I'll retrun to this subject later on. In the meantime, if you spot a helo in a TV ad, let me know.

A step towards a fresh take on news and comment for helicopter pilots

Welcome to Light on the Skids. This is my tentative step towards a new source of news and comment aimed specifically at helicopter pilots in the UK.

Since beginning my PPL(H) training in February 2005, I have been looking out for a publication for British helicopter pilots that reflected the freedom and exilaration of rotary winged flight. I've yet to find it.

Most helicopter publucations seem a little stuffy, or focus too much on the industry rather than the experience of flying and the people who do it. And the general aviation press, although vibrant, treats rotary wing flight like a wierdo cousin - making contact now and then, but not too much for fear of a corrupting influence.

So, as a journalist - admittedly slightly out of practice since I launched my media company nine years ago - I felt driven to write about flying helicopters.

Here I am. I hope you like it.