Prior to a TFR, what was stopping the helo pilot from simply finding another place to land in the area?
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This here's my (flooded) county!
- Thread starter Griz882
- Start date
Then maybe he should have walked-in in uniform instead to offer his volunteer fire LZ establishing services.
Looks like he just wanted to flex his new ticket and be a hero in a situation that was way over his head.
How does credentialing even work in a situation like this? Can any Ex-(insert job here). Show up. Claim they know what's up and start executing in the same AOR as an established entity?
No doubt this story reeks of “govt bad” rage bait. And it’s doing a good job keeping up with the twitter disinfo bots…
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Can there be a balance? Like say it's been days and no authorities in any real capacity have shown up. So a private pilot with a small helicopter figures, "Well, can't help to go looking and see if anyone needs help," so they start flying around (I would assume they'd make sure the airspace is clear) and find stranded people. It isn't difficult for them to land and pick the people up and fly them to the town so they do so. Then an Army division shows up with a whole fleet of helicopters. At that point, the pilot realizes the Big Boys are here and he should fly away and land so as not to get in the way. That to me seems different than just deciding to start participating with said military/professional pilots.
exNavyOffRec
Well-Known Member
One of the articles I read was that he consulted with some officials that were on scene, they however were not from that specific county and did not tell him "no", while indicating his help was appreciated. There was another article that the larger "military" style helicopters could not get in to the areas there was a need, I just don't know how accurate that info is. There are also reports of other civilians using their private helicopters to get supplies into hard to reach areas.
Overall to me it seems as the coordination all around could be better and who knows how accurate the stories being told are.
I think the amount of social media content these guys are generating on themselves says a lot. Seeing tons of this “look at me I’m helping” type shit makes me wonder what really happened when they turn up with their indignant stories about some mean old govie.
Either they show up and are allowed to help and they're like, " the govt is doing such a bad job that they needed our help!" or they show up and are redirected or told to stand fast until the scene is safe and are like, "cant believe the government is turning away perfectly good citizens patriot rescue forces!"
These are the same people that got PHD's in epidemiology in 2020.
Smash that subscribe button!
I'm not a helo guy, and the only thing my 1.5 in the Huey sim taught me was, "holy fuck, helos fly different" as I kept getting a master caution for over-torquing the rotorhead.
But I'm declaring shenanigans that our dudes on the mil side in an H-60 with a winch and a hoist can't do what a PPLH in a Robinson thinks he can do.
What he did was cool and all. But he's still an amateur.
Just because you hit one ball from Randy Johnson's arm doesn't make you a major league batter.
Wait a minute….
This comment really nails it. There is zero doubt that the civilian lift capability is/was desperately needed. According to news sources in the last two days alone 350 supply flights by fixed-winged planes with another 215 supply flights using helicopters. Add to that some serious reconnaissance work done by civilian helicopters coordinated by the NC Army Guard . Volunteer aviation organizations are clearly having an impact here and should be a part of any organized response but the key word is “organized.”
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A lot of fair points made in this thread. I volunteer with local CERT, so I understand the concept of unified command in a crisis.
So the question becomes- how would a civilian pilot simply offering aid (before getting in the way) be received? How can pilots be educated on the best way to effectively use their airplanes to deliver supplies and/or souls in a humanitarian crisis?
I think there is a cadre of folks who want to help their neighbors, but don’t know how, and are afraid of “getting in trouble” for trying. Something we don’t talk about much, but we have a unique capability, even as light civil GA pilots. Offering would-be good samaritans a path forward might encourage people to help their neighbors, and help identify the virtue-signalers from the really helpful ones.
Chuck is the expert, but probably need to leverage the CAP, some local sheriff/PD/FD volunteer auxiliary, nonprofit SAR, or other existing organizational structure. Make it less about wearing a uniform and more about safety rules and SOPs. This can be done at the state and local levels. Lots of mountain towns out west have a pretty robust volunteer SAR group with helo assets on call. These are nonprofit orgs that technically aren’t FD/LE assets yet are authorized to operate in SAR scenarios. It’s a model worth looking into.
But the hard truth is FEMA needs to be doing this at a national scale for disaster response. They’ve been in existence since Jimmy Carter, they’ve had 19 years to get it right since Katrina, and their Helene response has been subpar.
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How so?
I’m partially with you on this. However, I think bolstering local/regional support would be a good thing for FEMA, and might even help streamline their role to safety and standardization. It’s always going to be a shit show if everyone is waiting for the “pros from Dover” to show up.
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