Now one near a school! Ballarat

[Guest ozzie]

Comes from trying to build to a weight category.

 

 

[fly_tornado]

The emergency landing procedure I was trained with specifically stated to fly the site several times prior to landing to look for obstructions. I wonder how these guys missed seeing the power poles?

 

 

[Head in the clouds]

The emergency landing procedure I was trained with specifically stated to fly the site several times prior to landing to look for obstructions. I wonder how these guys missed seeing the power poles?

You're right in what you say FT but if it was a SWER, and it looks like one, then the poles can be as much as 500m apart, they're a constant cause for fear when mustering because the usual practice of spotting lines by seeing the poles doesn't always work. Also if the weather is rapidly deteriorating there's sometimes not time to do more than one pass for a look at the paddock.

 

 

[greybeard]

maybe power poles are like car keys, you can look for ages but can never seem to see them or maybe with an overcast sky, a little stress, no shadow to highlight thin objects, observing other power lines and thinking you've seen them all........ or perhaps something completely different as I wasn't there.

 

 

[fly_tornado]

To my mind it looks like target fixation, the engine quits and the pilot just aims for the closest paddock and thinks how at 65 what a good live they have lived...

 

 

[turboplanner]

The emergency landing procedure I was trained with specifically stated to fly the site several times prior to landing to look for obstructions. I wonder how these guys missed seeing the power poles?

We can all be clever sitting in the warmth of our homes FT - even so I see it has taken you 24 hours to come up with that one.

 

What you are referring to is called a Precautionary Landing, and can be carried out when weather is stable - say a lowered ceiling but visibility in all directions. There is evidence to say they were hovering around (not the helicopter sense of the word btw), but the weather in Victoria yesterday was broken cloud at times right down to the ground, so they may well have been caught between two walls of cloud where they only had time for a quick look and then had to do a forced landing.

 

 

[motzartmerv]

Exactly tubs. It's easy to judge from the comfort of our armchairs. There's a lot of things that can conspire to the end result we have here. If these guys had got stuck in Cloud and flew into a mountain we would all be saying "precautionary search" bla bla. We can't know the circumstances so until the pilot comes in and let's us know then we need to leave them be;)

 

 

[fly_tornado]

That being said though, the pilot did a fantastic job once they hit the power line to get the plane down safely. No injuries and the kids in the school had something to talk about on the bus ride home!

 

 

[David Isaac]

SWER (Single Wire Earth Return) lines are lethal. They are a single relatively small gauge wire running high voltage. They are virtually impossible to spot from any elevation other than ground level and very common in regional NSW, Vic and SA. I would suggest these guys were just plain unfortunate in their attempt to put the aircraft on the ground.

 

But hey, another one where two guys have walked away like the Luskintyre incident and again I am so grateful for that fact and I am certain their families are too.

 

 

[motzartmerv]

FT. That will probably do with the sarcasm. Ill give ya a bit of usefull info. Even 20000 hour AG pilots hit powerlines that they KNOW are there.. They fly under them all day and then wallop, out of nowhere, they bite one off. The same one they have been under 100 times already.

 

 

[fly_tornado]

Its all just speculation isn't it, we'll never know what the pilot was thinking. We don't even know if it was a SWER, we are all assuming that the single wire wrapped around the gear legs is the only wire involved.

 

But...

 

If you look @ the news footage the power pole is to the right of screen when they interview the principal and its a decent sized pole...

 

 

[fly_tornado]

plenty of photos here. I reckon the heavy tinted glasses the pilot is wearing would make it difficult to spot wires.

 

http://www.thecourier.com.au/story/1330334/photos-light-plane-crash-lands-at-cape-clear/?cs=70

 

 

[RKW]

Yeah, definately the glasses!

 

 

[David Isaac]

Sure looks like a SWER line to me you can see the pole with the single insulator on it clearly in slide #5 and in the background of slide #13 & 16 and in slide #11 you can see the single wire suspended over an other opposing SWER line.

 

You can see from the photos the line is barely visible against the sky contrast ... no chance of seeing it from the air, not enough contrast.

 

 

[fly_tornado]

I was trained to look for the poles not the wire. I can see the pole in slide #2 as it doesn't look like a tree. I don't think the pole in slide #5 is involved

 

 

[Guest Maj Millard]

Sometimes the right pair of dark-glasses can assist in defining and spotting items, glare on the other hand can sometimes help to hide things. Don't really think the glasses were a factor. ......................................Maj...

 

 

[Keenaviator]

Odds on those glasses are the type that automatically adjust the tint for given lighting.

 

 

[motzartmerv]

Ag pilots are trained to spot them too FT. Who cares what sort of wire it was. I don't think it's speculation, I'm pretty sure they hit a power line;) if I was the pilot I wouldn't be loosing sleep on why I didn't see the power line, i would be more concerned about learning all I could from the circumstances that lead me to be trying a PSL in the first place. Airshows have been pilots killers for years, both at the events but more so getting to and from them;) the lesson we can all learn from this accident is to never be locked into attending these events. I think the subject gets overlooked and valuable lessons are lost when we waste time sprooking about how you were trained to not hit poweines, and these poor missfirhunate lads must have missed that in their training. We are all trained no to crash FT ;)

 

 

[fly_tornado]

It just goes to show you how easy it is to make a small mistakes.

 

 

[Head in the clouds]

Yeah, I don't have anything critical to say about anyone who hit a powerline. I've done a lot of low level airwork and inadvertently come very close to wires including flying fox cables quite a number of times. I've been vigilant of course but mainly reckon I've been very lucky.

 

The yellow tint non-polarized sunnies really help with wires as they don't cut glare so you have a better chance of seeing any reflection the wire does make. They're not so easy on the eyes as green and polarized though.

 

In my airwork days quite a number of my peers tangled with wires, most survived gladly and I'd have to say all of them were far more experienced than me and overall better operators than I was, so wire strikes are not a case of how good you are...

 

 

[motzartmerv]

A bit if a different thing but check this out. This choppa hits a wire that it is working. So this guy knew where it was because it was connected to his choppa. You can't account for Lady Luck not being nice . Note the rigger who jumps up an grabs the wire;)

 

 

 

[octave]

what amuses me about this clip is when the pilot sits in the chair at 1:36 it is not quite fully opened, had it collapsed it surely would have been the last straw

 

 

[Head in the clouds]

Folks used to ask what rotary flying I liked most, and they also wanted to know what I thought was most dangerous.

 

For me the answer to both questions was the same (given that hot high heavy & humid PNG wasn't in my repertoire - those guys are GOOD) so it was filmwork, so many different locations, great people, always having to think. But the cameramen are the most fearless people on the planet. I mean it, nothing at all scares 'em, stick em in a hungry lions cage. Their only interest is getting the shot. So vortex ring tailrotor while ground stationary hovering downwind means nothing to them. Just put me THERE, they say (hanging off a skid).

 

Anyway I did one sortie of powerline inspections/insulator washing/repair like your video, and they're the real heroes, that's too much for me.

 

 

[Head in the clouds]

Oops - Couldn't see the vid on my phone so I thought they were a powerline servicing job...

 

There's also another astounding vid of a heli wirestrike which no-one seems to know quite what happened, I'll see if I can find and post it tomorrow and maybe some of you folks can work out what/how he hit.

 

 

[nong]

That being said though, the pilot did a fantastic job once they hit the power line to get the plane down safely. No injuries and the kids in the school had something to talk about on the bus ride home!

f-t. Do you ever look at what you post? This pilot did not do a fantastic job ONCE (meaning AFTER) they hit the wire. After impact he just "rode the octopus".