HE3 Helicopter Off Airfield Landing Site Operations published on Jan 2012

By ehestuser | Published: January 30, 2012

Jan 2012 - The helicopters ability to approach, manoeuvre, land and take-off from an off airfield Landing Site or unprepared Landing Site is one of the most important aspects of helicopters operations.

The various landing sites such as hotels, golf courses, sporting venues, etc can vary in their dimensions, approaches, hazards, elevation, and location, the same basic principles should be employed.

Landing sites that are remote from an airfield offer various challenges to the pilot and consequently have resulted in a significant number of accidents. Unlike at an airfield there is generally, little or no assistance in the assessment of wind, guidance on appropriate approach directions or information on other traffic. Hazards not normally experienced at an airfield such as wires, obstructions, uneven landing ground, trees, Foreign Object Damage, livestock and pedestrians are quite likely to be found and require a heightened degree of situational awareness by the pilot who needs to expect the unexpected!

The brochure HE3 was developped by the EHEST Team and covers the:

  • Planning and Preparation
  • Landing Site Identification
  • Landing Site Recce
  • Types of Approach
  • Manoeuvring in the LS
  • Departure
  • Pilot Errors

 

Category Leaflets and Toolkits, Training

HE2 Helicopter Airmanship leaflet published on Dec 2011

By ehestuser | Published: December 19, 2011

Airmanship is defined by EASA Part FCL as: “The consistent use of good judgement and well-developed knowledge, skills and attitudes to accomplish flight objectives.”.  The EHEST review of helicopter accidents 2000 to 2005 revealed 140 general aviation helicopter accidents in Europe identifying the following (causal and contributing) factors:

  • Pilot decision making and risk assessment
  • Mission Planning
  • Pilot misjudged own limitations/capabilities, overconfidence
  • Pilot inexperienced
  • Inadequate consideration of weather/wind
  • Failed to follow procedures
  • Pilot control/ handling deficiencies
  • Failed to recognise cues to terminate current course of action or manoeuvre
  • Inadvertent entry into IMC, vision restricted by meteorological conditions
  • Wilful disregard for rules and SOPs

The majority of these factors are related to airmanship.

Comprehensive knowledge, careful pre-flight preparations, frequent flying practice and avoidance of complacency are the best insurance against becoming an accident statistic.

HE2_leaflet_helicopter_airmanship_v1

Category General, Leaflets and Toolkits, Training

2011 International Helicopter Safety Symposium (IHSS) – presentations availables

By ehestuser | Published: December 19, 2011

First day:

Second day:

Category General, Presentation and conference

Helicopter ground operations signals published on Dec 2011

By ehestuser | Published: December 8, 2011

the Team published a simple Helicopter ground operations signals leaflet that can be viewed and downloaded below.

HE2_Helicopter_Ground_Operations_Signals_v1

 

 

 

 

Category General, Leaflets and Toolkits, Training

Video – Degraded Visual Environment and Loss of control

By ehest | Published: July 11, 2011

The EHSAT analysis shows that spatial disorientation is one major cause of accidents. This video was developed for EHEST by the French ‘Institut pour l’Amélioration de la Sécurité Aérienne’.

Degraded Visual Environment & Loss of Control from IASA Institut.

Download: M4V version | WMV version | WMV ZIP version

Category Loss of control, Training, Videos

IHST Maintenance toolkit

By ehest | Published: July 11, 2011

The toolkit has been developed primarily in a bullet point format to allow helicopter operators to use as a checklist. It is important to note that the toolkit is written as a “what” to do and not a prescriptive “how” to do. The operator can decide how the maintenance checklist guidelines can be implemented in it’s own organisation. This Toolkit offers broadly accepted best practices for helicopter maintenance. While in many cases these best practices described in this Toolkit may exceed regulatory requirements, operators remain responsible for ensuring that all applicable civil aviation authority’s requirements are met.

IHST_Maintenance_toolkit

Category General

IHSS 2010 – International Helicopter Safety Symposium

By ehest | Published: November 14, 2010

The year 2010 was pivotal for IHST as industry, associations, the international government regulatory agencies and helicopter operators continue their effort to reduce the worldwide helicopter accident rate by 80% by 2016.   EHEST is part of the global initiative IHST and co-organised IHSS 2010.

IHST Executive Committee (2011)

  • Matthew S. Zuccaro (Co-Chair), Helicopter Association International,
  • Mark Schilling (Co-Chair), FAA; Kim Smith, FAA (Incoming Co-Chair),
  • Sue Gardner, FAA, IHST Program Director,
  • M. E. Rhett Flater, AHS International, IHST Secretariat,
  • Directors for Europe: David Huntzinger, Eurocopter and John Black, European Helicopter Operators Committee, EHEST Representative
  • Directors for Canada: Somen Chowdhury, Bell Helicopter Textron Canada and Fred Jones, Helicopter Association of Canada
  • Bob Sheffield, Shell Aircraft Ltd.

IHST Update

Keynote Address

EHEST Updates

Regional Updates

Other

Safety Management Systems Workshop (SMS)

Helicopter Flight Data Monitoring

Training Session

IHSS gratefully acknowledges our IHSS 2010 sponsors:

Symposium Chair: Captain John T. Black, EHOC Secretary/Treasurer and EHEST Co-Chair

Administrative Chair: M. E. Rhett Flater, AHS International and IHST Secretariat

Program Chair: Sue Gardner, FAA

Category General, Presentation and conference

Analysis of 2000-2005 European Helicopter accidents

By ehest | Published: October 25, 2010

EHEST has released its final analysis report on helicopter accident analyses occurred in EASA Members States between 2000 and 2005.  The report presents the results of more than 300 accidents where a final investigation report from the Accident Investigation Board has been issued.

EHEST Brochure – accident report

The European Helicopter Safety Analysis Team (EHSAT) analyses accident investigation reports and, from this analysis, identifies suggestions for safety enhancement. EHSAT regional teams have been formed in Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. It is estimated that these States account for more than 90 % of the helicopters registered in Europe. The analysis results of the different regional teams are consolidated on a European level.

The top three Standard Problem Statements identified were:
• Pilot judgment & actions
• Safety Culture/Management
• Ground duties

The use of the HFACS taxonomy by the EHSAT provided a complementary perspective on human factors. In 78 % of the accidents, at least one HFACS factor was identified. In most accidents unsafe acts or preconditions for unsafe acts were identified. In fewer accident reports supervisory or organisational influences were identified. The potential
to identify such factors is very much dependent on the depth of the accident investigation performed and the accident data available.

For both the SPS and HFACS taxonomies, different patterns were observed for Commercial Air Transport, Aerial Work and General Aviation. Section 4.4 provides an overview of the factors for the different type of operations identified at the lowest level of the taxonomy.
Most Intervention Recommendations (IRs) were identified in the three areas of:
• Flight Operations & Safety Management/Culture
• Training/Instructional
• Regulatory/Standards/Guidelines

This efforts to prepare a European wide accident analysis of helicopter accidents was unique and is now serving to derive work priorities for the implementatino teams.

Category Reports and analysis

Training Leaflet – Safety considerations

By ehest | Published: October 12, 2010

This leaflet is the first in a series of safety related leaflets and publications aiming at improving safety by sharing good practises. These leaflets will be accompanied by web based training materials including videos, which will be available freely to all pilots in order to enhance flight safety by addressing recognised training related issues.

Data from the EHSAT review confirm that a continuing significant number of helicopter accidents is due to pilot disorientation in the Degraded Visual Environment, Vortex Ring State, Loss of Tail Rotor Effectiveness and Static & Dynamic Rollover. Therefore, the aim of this leaflet is to improve the safety of helicopter operations by providing pilots with the relevant information for each of these topics in order to allow a basic understanding of the causes, the prevention and the recovery actions thereby enabling pilots to make better, more informed decisions.

This Leafleat covers the following subjects:

  • Degraded Visual Environment (DVE)
  • Vortex Ring State
  • Loss of Tail Rotor Effectiveness (LTE)
  • Static & Dynamic Rollover
  • Pre-flight planning Checklist

Leaflet_Training_safety_considerations

Category General, Leaflets and Toolkits, Training