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#13 Helicopter Check Ride Ground School Training Weather Decisions

587 views · Published 30 June 2015 · 4:44 · Indexed 17 October 2026

Channel: Helicopter Online Ground School LLC · 2015 · Education

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Helicopter Check Ride Chapter 13  Weather Decisions

     I will have to say that I have done all the dumb stuff myself. I have done some things that, afterwards, I thought, man was that stupid! – I will give you an example.

     When I was a brand new Helicopter EMS pilot, I heard all the horror stories when I was at the company basic training. We heard about all the Helicopter EMS Accidents with many caused by pilots taking off in less than desirable weather!

Then I go back home and get started flying at my assigned base. I go out and we go land at a hospital. Then a storm comes through and I have a problem with the engine starting. The patient goes by ground, and the crew goes with the ground unit. The mechanic comes out, takes care of the aircraft problem. I check the local weather and it is reporting a 1000-foot ceiling and several miles of visibility!

     Oh okay, a thousand feet, you know, that's good. Two or three miles, okay. It is at night and I am thinking, “It sounds like it's going to be alright.”  Well, between where I was at, and home, the cloud level was low. I do not know what it actually got down to along the route of flight, maybe four or five hundred feet. I was not expecting that. I take off with the right intentions thinking, “Oh, I'm going to be okay.”

     The further I got out to the middle of nowhere, somewhere between where I was and getting back home, there is no weather reporting stations. After flying about forty-five miles, I am halfway in the middle of nowhere, and there is almost no ground reference lighting. I keep coming down and I keep coming down. I do not even remember how low I got (I do not want to admit how low I got), but I know that I kept flying, and I kept getting lower.

Helicopter Check Ride Chapter 13  Weather Decisions

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