CFIT, Powerlines and other hazards

[Brett327]

One of the problems here in New Zealand, especially in the mountains is that a lot of the farmers etc will string up a new wire overnight. I was out hunting with a crew in an MD500D a couple of years ago and the day before we had hunted the same valley we were in.

Then all of a sudden we hit a wire that wasnt there yesterday. Seemed the farmer had put it up to get power to a hut on the other side of the river. This sort of thing is very common here and accounts for at least three or four helicopters and ag aircraft a year.

Ned

That sounds like a regulatory issue.

Brett

 

[scoober78]

Thanks for the real world feedback gentlemen. Appreciate squaring thoughts with reality.

 

[lowflier03]

Good luck getting decent charts OCONUS. Google earth does the best job of any imagery I have seen, and thats not the best for picking out wires. Right now we just wire check routes constantly and chum up the few charts that we do have.

 

[Check Six]

We are going to be including a Wirestrike Prevention related story in an upcoming issue of HeliTac so keep an eye out for it.

Ned

 

[hscs]

We get ECHUM from NGA for our overseas stuff. It has been pretty accurate -- I have only found one set of wires that has not been on the chart.

I don't highlight my chart -- I study the route -- and print the chart directly from PFPS with tick marks on the route. This way I can tell my crew -- we will have wires x miles from the next checkpoint.

I am also lucky enough to have a good FLIR -- and no -- it is not something that will overload you during a complex event. If you lock the FLIR forward, scanning a few degrees either side of your course, you should see the stuff coming and you can still accomplish other tasks That way you can announce to the gunners -- wires in xx seconds.

 

[hscs]

Good luck getting decent charts OCONUS. Google earth does the best job of any imagery I have seen, and thats not the best for picking out wires. Right now we just wire check routes constantly and chum up the few charts that we do have.

You should try and get ECHUM and print the charts right from PFPS.

 

[TheBubba]

That's not always up to date either. I've been on a low level a couple of days after the ECHUM update/PFPS update with it annotated on my chart and have seen hazards that were not included...

 

[lowflier03]

We do print charts from PFPS, and I have tried ECHUM. Still not the most accurate, and I would have to say that the map support office out here isnt the greatest. I prefer a good wire check to some guy updating electronic charts anyway.

 

[phrogpilot73]

We do print charts from PFPS, and I have tried ECHUM. Still not the most accurate, and I would have to say that the map support office out here isnt the greatest. I prefer a good wire check to some guy updating electronic charts anyway.

I agree that reliance on ECHUM/PFPS/Satellite Imagery/Charts/etc. is not the best and only answer. Preflight planning only goes so far as well. Skidkid said it right:

I cant stress enough the well made map for a mission; in CONUS there is a pretty good tracking on wires in training areas on the Hazard Maps that every safety shop should maintain: before every flight does your map match the hazard map? after every flight does the hazard map match the hazards you saw? Did you highlight the obstacles in red before walking/briefing?

I said it before, and I'll say it again... HAZARD MAP. When I did an exercise in Albania, we had updated the Hazard Map the day prior, ECHUM 2 weeks prior, and had the most up to date DOD FLIP/NGA maps and charts possible. Coming back from the standby CASEVAC mission, we were tasked with certifying a TERF route. After flying the route once at about 200 feet, we ran it again between 50-100 feet. I was in lead, navigating with my head on a swivel and didn't see them - but all of a sudden my Dash 2 SCREAMS - "WIRES!!!" as the pilot at the controls pulled the nose up, I pushed mark and noted the orientation on my map. Went back and immediately updated the hazard map. Why didn't we see them? The towers were rusty, and blended into the terrain, and the wires were hardly high-tension. They were not indicated on ANY of the stuff we looked at during pre-flight planning, and even went back and looked for them again. They simply were not there. HAZARD MAP

 

[fudog50]

Power lines could have small "corner reflectors" attached to produce a large RADAR return. These devices are common and cheap and used in other applications. If a helo has RADAR, they would show up no problem. I can't imagine that they are not already in use.

 

[xnvyflyer]

I know the mission we do is different but we operate extrensively on the goggles in the back county and depending on moonlight available and experience level, in very dark areas. Our county is 4200 square miles and we know where every set of major powerlines is that can bite us. We routinely fly the same areas during daylight and reaffirm the locations. If there is any doubt, we fly high enough so it's not an issue.

Several of the guys in our unit have quite a bit of NVG time, much more than the military guys and the outside civilian vendors (former military) that we contract training with to keep us up to speed. It good to have outside input into our program to keep up fresh.

It's true though that on those really dark nights, even though we may know where a set of wires is, we still may not see them with the goggles on. I'll admit we don't typically use FLIR for wire detection. That might be something would explore a bit.