Paddock refuelling, mountain-top landings and bushfire diversions

The past couple of days have been challenging with steep learning curves yet probably some of the most enjoyable and rewarding flights I have done to date. On Thursday we flew the longest flight yet, 3.7 hours of engine running time. I arrived at the hanger at 7am to give the aircraft a good look over, checked the weather forecast and winds en-route, finalised my flight planning and submitted my flight plan and SARTIME with Airservices. We departed at about 9:30 towards the Perth hills again before flying "Victor 66", a route which takes you through controlled airspace to the east of Perth airport. At the end of 66 we tracked southeast over farm after farm toward Narrogin, yet another country town southeast of Perth. This time I found Narrogin airport on time, did all my necessary radio calls, lined up correctly and landed on the appropriate runway. Compared to the previous nav, this was already off to a flying start at being a much better flight!

This was only the beginning of the fun. We couldn't get fuel at the airport so Rotorvation has a fuel dump at a farm east of the township. So we took off from the airport and I had to find this location that I've never been to before and is basically a house and few sheds amongst paddocks, power lines, roads and trees. Again I was able to find it without a hitch, do my confined area checks and put the machine down next to the shed where the fuel drums are kept. This was surreal for me; flying to another location in a plane had always been from one runway to another, but this was the first time I had gotten out of the helicopter in a random paddock. 

After refuelling we departed and not two minutes into the flight my instructors said that he wanted to go to Pumphreys bridge, somewhere different from my planned route, to take a photo. What a pain in the arse! Part of my navigation training is to ensure that I can deal with a diversion in flight. As you can expect there's a few things that need to be considered:

• Find the location on the map and start tracking towards it with a rough compass heading taking into account the wind. This needs to be done properly with a protractor and ruler if doing a long leg but rules of thumb often help out for short diversions.
• Ask the passenger if they just want to fly by it (i.e. in this case for a photo) or spend some time flying over the area. The longer they need there, the more fuel you will burn so you need to ensure there's enough to get home safely or to another place with ready fuel. You may also be limited with daylight if the flight is at the end of the day so you need to know when the end of daylight is and plan the flight to be back 10 minutes before last light for legal, if not common sense, reasons.
• What level should I fly there? Am I going to be impinging on controlled airspace, am I at least 500ft above the ground or 1000ft above populated areas? How high can I be before I have to worry about any cloud bases? Am I flying at a hemispherical level?
• Do I need to be on a different radio channel now? Am I going to fly near any other airstrips that I need to inform traffic in the area of my new intentions?
• Do I know where I am as I'm flying along this new route? Can I pinpoint myself on the map and ensure I'm heading towards this new location?
• We also need to let Airservices know that we have changed our flight plan and potentially our SARTIME so that if we don't cancel our SARTIME they are able to search along the route we have flown for our aircraft.

Once the big checklist is done you relax and enjoy the new view:) I found Pumphreys bridge by more or less following a road there and once the time that I estimated we'd be there came up on the clock we were overhead a junction of roads and a creek that the map said was Pumphreys bridge. I then did a steep turn over the bridge so the passenger could take his photo of very non-photogenic concrete bridge before commencing my new track to the next destination.

We then practiced an engine failure and found a clearing in the trees to put the machine down safely. During climb out of the clearing in the trees my instructor described a scenario where the radio operators asked if anyone in the vicinity of Mt Cooke (our next location to fly past) could help an injured hiker. I gave a (fake) radio call that we were in the area and could render assistance. So we flew to Mt Cooke and I did a recce over the mountain top to find a safe location to put the machine down. There were a few prescribed burns going on around the mountain which was pretty awesome and gave a very clear indication of the low-level wind flow over the area. I set the machine into wind and, flying along the ridge-line on final approach, put the machine on the ground. 

Now those of you that know me know that I would love to be a rescue chopper pilot. This was basically it and a bit. I imagined dropping my Instructor off there (I promise I'll be back mate!) and taking the injured back to Jandakot for medical assistance, well in reality I'd probably drop him at a hospital helipad:) 

We took off from this ridge and my Instructor said that another person was on a burning mountain and if no one helped he'd be burned alive (I know, graphic right!). So I found this new location on the map and did another recce around it and it looked really rocky, like I didn't think it was safe to put the machine down anywhere. I thought maybe this was testing my "command decision making" processes and so piped up and said that I don't think it's safe to put the machine down on top of the peak but could land over there and you could run up the slope. Well my instructor reminded me that the flames were approaching the top and he'd be burned alive very soon. Yeah righto, made me feel like a proper dick. So I looked harder and there was just a very small and relatively flat bit of land that would be suitable. I set up the approach twice (the first time I came in too shallow) and landed on this slightly sloped landing area. Now in reality we wouldn't have been able to do anything at that point as another body would have put us over weight but with some prior planning I could have dropped my passenger in a safe location and picked up the perilous hiker.

Another take off from another peak and we still had time to do another practiced forced landing before making tracks back home. 3.7 hours! After a late lunch and a thorough debrief I got out of there with the clock approaching 4pm. I'd been there since 7am and it had been an intense day of concentration, pressure and enjoyment and I was wrecked. I think I would have blown over 0.05 in a breathalyser despite not touching a drink, I honestly felt that delirious! The whole flight gave me a massive confidence boost in my skill for pre-flight planning, navigation and in-flight changes. Something that would set me up perfectly for my flight the following day.

Landing to refuel in the paddock at Narrogin.

The fuel dump is in a farm of a past student of Rotorovation and regular drives are done out here to ensure there's fuel here when required.

Today I flew solo to Northam. I arrived for the afternoon slot around midday with my maps ready and got stuck into the weather forecast of blue skies, smoke and light southwesterly winds. Not a drama; as long as the fires aren't too intense. This was my first solo flight through controlled airspace, of refuelling and of going somewhere (on my return journey) that I haven't been before. Blades were rotating at 1:30pm and many smoke columns could be seen on the eastern horizon. My instructor warned that the fires may require an in-flight diversion so I was ready for what could eventuate. The flight to Northam occurred without a hitch, the now familiar landmarks approaching when they should be. However there were some good fires occurring along Victor 66 but since I was essentially upstream of the fires the smoke was being blown away from me. Finding the airport this time was much easier, once you've been somewhere once you always seem to remember the layout of a place. I landed and refuelled the machine.

It was the way back when my skills were tested. My return route wasn't the reciprocal of the first and it was becoming clear that the smoke was going to be an issue as I headed towards my first waypoint. I could see that where the smoke was blowing over my track the visibility was really low, but since I had flown through some smoke on a previous nav I thought that I'd get a bit closer to take a look. I noted a main road that, if need be, I could return to that and it would take me back to the entrance of the Victor 66 route. Sure enough, even with the advantage of a closer perspective, I estimated the visibility in the smoke to about 1-2km or so, well below the 5+km that I need to navigate with reference to the ground. I returned to the road and followed it towards Victor 66. I made my radio calls and requested an airways clearance. I then had to do numerous calculations in flight to ensure that I'd be back in time to cancel my SARTIME and wouldn't run out of fuel. As it worked out I arrived around a similar time that I'd calculated whilst on the ground at Northam and so didn't need to amend the SARTIME. Fuel wasn't an issue with full tanks on this route.

This flight gave me a further boost in my diversion skills and a real reason to do one! Things are now starting to approach the end of the licence and after flying some more solo hours I will fly with the chief flying instructor to brush up on any emergencies that could occur in flight and get me ready for the flight test.

Refuelling at Northam.

A good view of the fires from upstream but you can see that the smoke is highly concentrated in the low levels downstream.

Check out that balance Nick! ;)

From A to B; dotting the i and crossing the t.

Navigation is easy. I wish this was the truth for me but at this stage navigation is difficult, stressful, lot's of time in the chopper getting lost, running close to using all the fuel and ripping holes in my pockets. Ok this isn't entirely true. I'm four "navs" in now and it was really only the latest one that feels like I've taken a step backwards.

The first nav, designated as "nav 1", we flew down to Boddington, a small country town about 100km southeast of Perth. We departed east to the Perth Hills and upon reaching the escarpment we tracked direct for Boddington to the southeast. It was a beautiful flight flying over forested areas, past "Mt Solus"(more like "pimple Solus", WA doesn't really have mountains) and over one of Australia's biggest gold mines. At Boddington we turned the chopper west towards the coast and turned north over a slightly larger town, Pinjarra, inbound for Jandakot. This was 1.9 hours in total.

Nav 2 took us east to the hills again but upon reaching the escarpment we continued travelling east for basically a kink in the road and some silo's, a place called West Dale which I can't really manage calling a town. Over West Dale we turned southwest and had to fly through some smoke as there was a large prescribed burn occuring upstream. The sun shone it's orange colour into the cockpit and the aroma took on the bushfire smell as the visibility dropped to around 5-10km. I found our next turning point, North Bannister (no more than a roadhouse), before commencing our return leg home. This flight was 1.7 hours.

The third navigation flight was nav 1 again but this time I flew with me, myself and I. Yep, this was my longest and furthest solo flight to date. It's an absolutely beautiful moment when you're flying through the atmosphere over the world below all alone. I didn't get lost, I didn't crash or miss a radio call and from this flight the main things that I need to work on is holding the heights and speeds that I plan the flight on. Without the extra body of the instructor the aircraft travels faster for the same power setting so I flew this same flight (that we did initially in 1.9 hours) in 1.5 hours.

This brings me to the latest flight that I flew a few days ago. It was my first flight into controlled airspace to the east of Perth airport where you are literally being dictated what level and heading you must fly by a radio operator due to it being a heavy traffic area (inbound/outbound jets). This added a bit of stress to the flight but I didn't feel too overwhelmed at this point. After exiting controlled airspace I flew on to Northam, one of the larger country towns I've flown to on my navs so far and where we actually intended to land (first time on any nav). I found the township of Northam OK but I couldn't find the airport! I was looking at the map, where it should be and could not see it at all. It was a scary feeling. I told my instructor I couldn't find it and, acting as clueless passenger, he said that neither could he. I had to pull my finger out and try harder. I eventually found it and joined the circuit and landed on this unfamiliar airstrip in a fairly flustered state. It was a Sunday so refuelling wasn't available (of course we knew this before we left so we'd planned to have enough fuel) but generally we'd have refuelled here.

After take off from Northam we departed south toward Dale River airstrip, a grass airstrip to the east of West Dale (from nav 2). I'd seen this airstrip in nav 2 so I knew what to look for on arrival, but when the time clocked over 32 minutes past the hour, the time I'd calculated that we'd be there, I again couldn't find it. I looked for West Dale, the kink in the road and the silos, but to no avail. Eventually I found what I thought was West Dale but it wasn't and as I followed the road along to the northwest I came to the actual West Dale... All very stressful and sobering. We calculated the fuel and had enough to just make it home if we made a dead-straight track for Jandakot. We landed at Jandakot and the low-fuel light flickered on (about 5-10 minutes of fuel left in the tanks). This flight was 2.7 hours! The longest time I've spent in a helicopter to date.

There's been some very big lessons I've learned from all of this. The thing about a flight is there's never too much you can do to prepare yourself for it. Of course I do prepare, but I need to do more. The following describes the basic preparation for a nav flight:

• Draw the route on a map and calculate distance and compass headings. 
• Choose the altitude that you will fly on each leg of the flight taking into account height above the terrain, lower limits of controller airspace and what we term "hemispherical levels" (basically eastbound flights fly at odd thousand + 500ft and westbound at even thousand +500ft in an attempt to minimise collision risks). 
• Check the weather forecasts and make the go/no-go decision based on the weather and cloud base - can you fly the heights you've chosen and still be able to navigate using the ground as a reference? My flights have to be completely visual - not in cloud or low visibility.
• Using the forecast winds calculate ground speed for each leg and hence how long each leg will take. Once you add these up you get the total estimated time of the flight which you can then calculate how much fuel you require. We also take an extra 20 minutes fuel on all flights for the just-in-case scenarios (such as getting lost and taking as long as I did to find where I'm at!).
• If the weight of the aircraft, the people on board and the calculated fuel all come up to (or less than) the maximum take off weight rated for that aircraft then you can continue with the flight plan, if not you may need to chuck a passenger out or look for fuel stops along the route. If you can take more fuel, do so! You can never completely know what will happen once you get up there. As my instructor said, the only time you can have too much fuel is when you're on fire. 
• Once the flight is definitely going ahead, you then must lodge the flight with Airservices Australia so they know what aircraft is flying where, when and how high it will be. This helps manage traffic but also gives them somewhere to look if you don't cancel your SARTIME. You must nominate a SARTIME for each flight, basically a time that you must be back by and if you don't cancel it they will (after trying to call you) assume that you've crashed and send out rescue aircraft along your route.

Once in the aircraft you must manage all of the above: ensuring you're on track; that your groundspeed and time for each route is in the ball park and if not, being revised; that the engine is working as it should be; that you're altitude is what you planned; that the fuel on board is sufficient and if not, taking action to ensure it remains sufficient to land safely at a place where you can get fuel; that you'll be back by your nominated SARTIME and if not amending it in flight on the radio. The radio is another big player, you need to ensure that you're on the right frequency and making the right calls at the right times. For example you need to make a "g'day I'm flying over your little airport" broadcast over any airstrip noted on the map, you need to get clearance to enter controlled airspace prior to entering, etc.

As you can see there's a lot to manage. I feel like I'm finally getting on top of the actual flying of the chopper, but this is a completely seperate skill that must be done whilst flying. Once overhead an area, if you're not completely sure of where you are, it's amazing how much you can convince yourself that that road is this one on the map, i.e. trying to make what you see fit on the map to prove you're not lost. 

Being a good navigator is akin to being a good detective. To be 100% sure that this place ahead is the place on the map requires a number of considerations: 

• I've been flying on this heading since x for this long at this airspeed with the wind from that direction, so maths says I'll be here now. 
• Ok so if I'm here I should see this, that and the other thing. If I do, beautiful. This is the "map to ground" mode. 
• If not, it's "ground to map" mode. 
• To convince yourself that features on the ground are those on the map the detective skills need to be at their sharpest. E.g. I see a road or train track. Flying along it will give you the track of it along the ground by viewing your compass. There's a few towns along it. This town has a creek running through it and the only town with a creek running through it is the one I'm after so it must be this one.

The training continues and we'll continue building and sharpening these skills. It will be nice when I'm feeling confident that I won't get lost out there enough to prove to an examiner that I'm 100% sure of my position and couldn't be swayed to think differently. Until then my dining room table remains barely visible beneath the piles of maps and navigation equipment...

The plethora of maps, measuring equipment, pens and the flight computer explode across the dining room table on a daily routine preparing for the following days flight.

The black line details the route on nav 1 to the southeast of Perth (the yellow blob).

We're landing there?

I'm now learning how to land in confined areas. After learning how to safely land and take off from a slope we are now venturing to the Perth hills to find relatively small clearings between trees to put the chopper down. Sounds simple enough when you think that helicopters can go up, down, forwards, backwards and sideways; surely you just manoeuvre it to wherever you want? More or less, yes, but there are myriad of important things to consider. Where a plane may be limited to only land at an airport or airstrip, a chopper does have a lot of options. However the airport and airstrip have been developed to be, through the planning stage and continually reviewed thereafter, as safe as possible and often have documents to follow to ensure the safety of all movements into and out of the landing area. In contrast, the responsibility for ensuring non-airport landing sites are safe and suitable in a chopper lies wholly with the pilot, hence to following steps.

Power: Do I have enough of a power margin (due to the weight of the aircraft, the ambient temperature and the elevation that we're landing at) to get the helicopter safely in and out of there? This will be different for every location, on different days, with different all-up aircraft weight and with different aircraft. If it's a small spot then you may have to approach and depart vertically and this requires a lot of power, whereas if it's a bigger spot then you have options to approach at a shallower angle and use less power.

Passenger brief: The passengers are stakeholders in the safety of the landing and have extra sets of eyes that can help ensure the pilot is fully aware of all dangers at the landing site. Hence we brief the passengers to look out for dangers such as buildings, people, wires, animals or anything that may pose a hazard to the aircraft.

The seven S's.

Surrounds: What's around the landing sight? Buildings, people, fences, trees, wires, etc? Size: Is it big enough to fit the helicopter? Do I have enough power to put the machine in there? Shape: If it's not super big perhaps I could take advantage of the shape so as to keep my approach as shallow as possible. Slope: Often hard to assertion from above but does it look to be within the safe operations of the helicopter? Surface: Long grass can catch fire when you land a hot engine on it, dry dirt can reduce visibility by throwing up dust, etc. Sun: Is it at an angle that means I'll be landing into the sun? This may change you're approach to the area as landing into sun obviously reduces visibility. Stock: Are there any animals around that could jump into fences or wires as we approach? What approach ensures that we don't scare them?

Wind: Where is the wind coming from? We need to try land into wind as much as possible to help with generating lift on the blades. As we fly we are constantly looking for signs of where the wind is blowing. We start the flight with a look at the forecast wind and also the observed wind at the airport so that we have a rough idea of winds in the area. Smoke, flags, wind waves on water, flocks of birds taking off into wind and aircraft drift can all help maintain an awareness of the wind at your location as topography can often create very localised winds and turbulence that changes the direction that you (particularly if you're a meteorologist!) expect it to be coming from.

Wires: The big killer. Wires are responsible for a significant proportion of helicopter crashes as they are very hard to see. We need to look out for anything that requires power such as buildings, sheds or outhouses. We then look for cuttings in the trees to enable a power line to travel through the forest. Lastly we look for power poles. Looking directly for the wires will prove almost impossible. They may be viewable when on the ground with a blank sky behind them but from above with the ground as a backdrop 20/20 vision doesn't really cut the mustard.

Approach and departure: As stated in the above areas there are many reasons our approach and departure will be in the direction we choose them to be. We need to land into wind, we need to try keep things shallow if we are power limited, miss obstructions and wires and not fly over animals.

Turning points: To ascertain all of this information we are flying a reconnaissance circle around the landing area at 500ft above the ground level. Choosing turning points allow us to fly a normal circuit prior to landing and choose where we turn onto our base leg (second last leg) and final leg of the circuit. So, for example, we may elect to turn base at that rock and turn final over that hill.

I had been doing these with the instructor and then after one of the landings he jumped out and said the next one will be solo. Without the extra body the chopper instantly had a heap more power and I flew out of there and repeated all of the above, safely brought it back down and collected my instructor, just as I'd promised - such a dude. I've now been cleared to do these solo which includes taking off from the airport, departing to the hills, finding the area and putting the machine down. After a few takeoffs and landings I then point the aircraft seaward and return to the airport. The weather has cancelled a lot of my flying recently so I'm looking forward to racking up the hours again this week as the winds abate and the skies take on their cloudless view and beautiful shade of blue.

One of the landing areas from the ground. I'm basically in the centre of it here so think of the distance to the trees being the radius of the space.

This is the other spot, and this picture was taken on the far side of the location so you are basically seeing the diameter of the space. Some pretty big trees ahead!

The other chopper in the police airwing fleet, the BK117, also a twin engine chopper with winching capabilities.

Cracking the big 50

Today I completed both the furthest solo flight I've ever flown in a chopper, and also my fiftieth hour of total helicopter time, about ten hours of which are solo. The past week has been about progressively allowing me to do more and more flying solo in the form of a check flight with the instructor to ensure they're happy with my performance of the flight manoeuvre at hand, followed by a period of flying the manoeuvre solo. This essentially means that I can fly everything that I have learnt to date solo, bar emergency procedures which for obvious reasons we don't practice without the instructor.

This weekend we've moved onto practice forced landings (PFLs) which we practiced in the training area approximately 10 to 15 nautical miles to the south of Jandakot airport. The PFL consists of the autorotation manoeuvre discussed in an earlier post, looking for and choosing a place to land, ensuring you land into wind (this includes looking for signs of where the wind is coming from), looking out for wires and fences, a passenger briefing "brace, brace, brace" (which is code for the passenger to sit upright with hands on their seatbelt as would have been briefed to the passenger prior to the beginning of the flight), a simulated "Mayday" call on the radio (to communicate with air traffic control and other traffic of your predicament), troubleshooting the aircraft to see if it can be restarted, and setting yourself up for the landing.

Of course, in a real emergency, this becomes a game of prioritisation depending on how much time you have and things can fall off due to their relative unimportance. The most important thing is to put the machine on the ground safely; communicating your predicament would be beneficial but comes second in the pecking order, etc. This all happens very quickly. We were practicing from 2000ft, and descending at around 1500 fpm gives about a minute to do this (since we pull full power and "go around" at 500ft above the surface - so as not to scare the cows).

Once my instructor was happy with my PFLs I was set to embark on my furthest journey yet as Captain Jonno. I departed to the southwest, flew to the training area and practiced some steep turns (45-60 degree angle of bank) and compass turns (using some simple arithmetic to level out at the correct heading when turning with the compass - it has errors when turning since the centre of gravity is offset from the pivotal point). I then flew back, made my radio calls and entry and landed back at the hanger.

This next week I will be learning how to safely land on a slope and then move on to landing in confined areas, i.e. relatively small areas (compared to the airport I've been practicing on) surrounded by large trees. This is looking like it will be a lot of fun. After confined areas we'll be looking at doing navigational flights or "navs" which includes flying to places I've never been before, map reading, getting lost, finding yourself, etc.

Good old Romeo Alpha Sierra (RAS), the pilots choice out of the three R22s at Rotorvation