Wires - strikes, cutters and detectors
Join Date: Oct 2004
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It was On Air's EC130 and I spoke to Genass this morning and they were on their way to look at the wreckage, seems like they were very very lucky to get out of it alive. Rego was ZS-RRP and it was their newest machine.
Genass said the pilot was Shaun or something similar as phone connection wasnt that great.
Genass said the pilot was Shaun or something similar as phone connection wasnt that great.
Join Date: May 2004
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Is it just me or is the writer (Barbara Cole) trying to make the Pilot look like an idiot and this Lambert guy like the hero?
At the end of the day, the Pilot was in control of the aircraft, and he executed the safe landing. He might've initiated the problem, but we're all human, and he certainly saved his own as well as the lives of his passengers.
It's also clear that there is major exaggeration in the article. Ticks me off!
My praise goes to the pilot.
At the end of the day, the Pilot was in control of the aircraft, and he executed the safe landing. He might've initiated the problem, but we're all human, and he certainly saved his own as well as the lives of his passengers.
It's also clear that there is major exaggeration in the article. Ticks me off!
My praise goes to the pilot.
Join Date: Feb 2003
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If the pilot is Vaughn, then it must be Vaughn Gouws. Vaughn is a great pilot, ex SAAF & Sapphire. For him to end up in this catastrophy, something must have gone seriously wrong. I have a lot of respect for Vaughn, and it is highly unlikely that he would have deliberately done something stupid. There are a lot of possibilities, but I'm sure we will get the real story pretty soon.
Thank God there was no fatalities. Good luck to you guys. I hope you're all OK.
Thank God there was no fatalities. Good luck to you guys. I hope you're all OK.
Join Date: Oct 2004
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Vaughn
Clipboard & Microflyer
I can't agree more with you guys!
I worked with Vaughn at Sapphire, flew with him and seen him perform under pressure in Madagascar under terrible conditions.
Vaughn is not just a positive, conscientious and a nice guy; he is also a very professional and extremely capable pilot! He is someone I will send my wife and 3 month old baby with tomorrow to go and fly! (She might fall victim to his charm though!)
The article did distort the story as I heard it. Unfortunately that is the sensationalism that goes hand in hand with journalism.
Last time I checked the Eurocopter EC 130 only has 3 blades... Thus she got the story second hand or she can't count... If she can't count, well let’s just leave it at that, enough bad writing done already...
Well done Buddy for putting the machine down safely and saving everybody’s lives!
Congratulations and best wishes to the wedding couple! If this is the worst you will have to endure in your marriage, my only wish will be to be there to share in the joy of your 50th wedding anniversary!
I can't agree more with you guys!
I worked with Vaughn at Sapphire, flew with him and seen him perform under pressure in Madagascar under terrible conditions.
Vaughn is not just a positive, conscientious and a nice guy; he is also a very professional and extremely capable pilot! He is someone I will send my wife and 3 month old baby with tomorrow to go and fly! (She might fall victim to his charm though!)
The article did distort the story as I heard it. Unfortunately that is the sensationalism that goes hand in hand with journalism.
The glass shattered and imploded. The cable snapped and then wrapped around one of the four rotor blades. The helicopter began spinning and careered straight down the gorge at high speed.
Well done Buddy for putting the machine down safely and saving everybody’s lives!
Congratulations and best wishes to the wedding couple! If this is the worst you will have to endure in your marriage, my only wish will be to be there to share in the joy of your 50th wedding anniversary!
Join Date: Oct 2004
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Had a chat to a friend of mine who is very much involved with On Air. Yes it was Vaughn Gouws and he did a hell of a job landing the 130. Seems like he hit a 'flying fox', you have some other name for it in south africa. Basically where you hold onto a tbar and go for a ride down the side of a hill or across a river etc.
The wire hit the top of the window and broke, then played havov with the starflex and caused major damage to one of the blades to where it wasnt creating lift anymore. Havent seen the pics yet. He said there was also damage to the tailboom. Vaughn did a heck of a job to get the machine down on the ground.
At least they are all alive.
The wire hit the top of the window and broke, then played havov with the starflex and caused major damage to one of the blades to where it wasnt creating lift anymore. Havent seen the pics yet. He said there was also damage to the tailboom. Vaughn did a heck of a job to get the machine down on the ground.
At least they are all alive.
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Wasnt there a EC120 that went rolling about a few weeks ago in Durban??
Hey what you banana boys doing to those Eurocopters??? Or are they too big for you to fly????
Hey what you banana boys doing to those Eurocopters??? Or are they too big for you to fly????
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Oz ag pilots call for power wires to be marked
ABC News Australia
Crashes spark plea for better marked power wires
The national organisation representing crop dusters has renewed calls for power wires to be better marked.
The Aerial Agricultural Association of Australia says electricity wires frequently pose problems for pilots and should be highlighted with markers.
President Peter Mackay says aerial spraying is risky, but accidents can be prevented.
"Well, we'd like to see these power wires marked more openly. They are very hard to pick up from the air and in low conditions perhaps when you've got sun in your eyes, or trees in the background, or that type of thing," he said.
"So we believe there should be a lot more attention paid to the marking of power wires."
The national organisation representing crop dusters has renewed calls for power wires to be better marked.
The Aerial Agricultural Association of Australia says electricity wires frequently pose problems for pilots and should be highlighted with markers.
President Peter Mackay says aerial spraying is risky, but accidents can be prevented.
"Well, we'd like to see these power wires marked more openly. They are very hard to pick up from the air and in low conditions perhaps when you've got sun in your eyes, or trees in the background, or that type of thing," he said.
"So we believe there should be a lot more attention paid to the marking of power wires."
I suppose the dayglo orange spheres common in the UK and ME in areas where aircraft low-fly might be a start, TC. Don't know who'd pay for them, though - a lot of real estate to cover. Perhaps the landowners requiring the services of the ag-aviaition industry could be persuaded to cough up.
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The chances of that happening are a ****es show in hell. The CAA here in NZ took nearly ten years just to get a program going, to LOOK at what type of program would work best, and we have lost a lot more helos to wirestrikes than any country.
Watch this space, in say 10 years time.
Watch this space, in say 10 years time.
No Markers
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Too expensive more likely.
Electricity company will never do it in Africa because:
a) people who live nearby want them harder to see not easier. They'd rather they followed the lead of the cell phone companies' masts - painting them green so we can't see them at all until we fly into them and;
b) it just puts up the cost when the locals steal them to melt them down to make cooking pots or flog them to the local scrap metal dealer for US$5.00 for 50m. The cables and installation are expensive enough but you want brightly coloured plastic balls on them as well ? Forget it ! Local authorities have minority, ethnic, HIV positive, disabled dwarf dance troupes to support, you know...
STOP PRESS: minority, ethnic, HIV positive, disabled dwarf dance troupe\'s funding cut off after group arrested for power line theft.
Electricity company will never do it in Africa because:
a) people who live nearby want them harder to see not easier. They'd rather they followed the lead of the cell phone companies' masts - painting them green so we can't see them at all until we fly into them and;
b) it just puts up the cost when the locals steal them to melt them down to make cooking pots or flog them to the local scrap metal dealer for US$5.00 for 50m. The cables and installation are expensive enough but you want brightly coloured plastic balls on them as well ? Forget it ! Local authorities have minority, ethnic, HIV positive, disabled dwarf dance troupes to support, you know...
STOP PRESS: minority, ethnic, HIV positive, disabled dwarf dance troupe\'s funding cut off after group arrested for power line theft.
aesthetics V pilot lives. Simple equation where the green lobby has more votes.
This call came after the recent downing of two helicopters in Oz whilst doing Ag - and the saying that it is often the wire you know about that you hit in Ag applies to this one. I spoke to a farmer who was involved with the accident near Mudgee and he says they had set up a base for a locust reduction program at the pilot/owner's place. The helicopter was being repositioned by high hover to let a second machine get fuel when he hit the line in his own backyard. Fortunately minor injuries only.
This call came after the recent downing of two helicopters in Oz whilst doing Ag - and the saying that it is often the wire you know about that you hit in Ag applies to this one. I spoke to a farmer who was involved with the accident near Mudgee and he says they had set up a base for a locust reduction program at the pilot/owner's place. The helicopter was being repositioned by high hover to let a second machine get fuel when he hit the line in his own backyard. Fortunately minor injuries only.
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A few points.
1. They can't usually be buried. The insulation required to maintain the current carrying properties of the wire makes the exercise ridiculously expensive.
2.It would be a lot easier for the regulators to simply make it illegal for aircraft to fly any closer than say 100 meters from any wire or even ban aerial ag totally, rather than go to the expense of marking all hazard wires with orange balls. You couldn't expect the average brain-washed city-dwelling Joe Voter to waste much time agonising over that!
3.Me, I don't want their markers on any but the worst of the hazard wires. ie; long spans across deep gullies. Ag pilots are trained to look for the indicators of hazard wires (a) a reason to be there. Houses, pump-sheds, any building that looks like it may have a need for an electricity connection. (b)Power poles. (c) Insulators on power poles to indicate which way the wire might run off the pole. The wire is always the most difficult part of the structure to see because human eyes are not equipped to detect long thin objects like wires. You will see them if you look hard enough but you definitely won't be able to tell how far away they are until you get some other cue. Reflected light on aluminium wire from your lights getting brighter as you approach (night), seeing the pole in your peripheral vision, that sort of thing. Once you start training pilots to look for little accessory orange balls rather than the primary indicators I outlined above you will have more accidents not fewer because there will always be lines missed by whoever is in charge of ball-fixing.
The problem is in training. Fixed wing Ag pilots per hour flown hit far fewer wires than other pilots even though they spend much more time in the wire environment. They are taught to respect wires early. Take an ag-pilot flying sometime. Get down around 50 feet or so and go as fast as you can without doing a thorough recce first and see what kind of a rsponse you get. Unfortunately this is exactly the type of action that kills so many new pilots. Like I said, training! A helicopter ag-rating in Australia requires much less training than the FW counterpart. Mustering pilots get almost nothing by comparison. Hitting wires is the number one killer for helicopter pilots and always has been. Why spend so much time teaching pilots to navigate and so little to avoiding wires. Getting lost in a helicopter is potentially so much less devestating than having a wire strike. Of course I don't advocate less nav training, its just that I'm trying to give some perspective.
1. They can't usually be buried. The insulation required to maintain the current carrying properties of the wire makes the exercise ridiculously expensive.
2.It would be a lot easier for the regulators to simply make it illegal for aircraft to fly any closer than say 100 meters from any wire or even ban aerial ag totally, rather than go to the expense of marking all hazard wires with orange balls. You couldn't expect the average brain-washed city-dwelling Joe Voter to waste much time agonising over that!
3.Me, I don't want their markers on any but the worst of the hazard wires. ie; long spans across deep gullies. Ag pilots are trained to look for the indicators of hazard wires (a) a reason to be there. Houses, pump-sheds, any building that looks like it may have a need for an electricity connection. (b)Power poles. (c) Insulators on power poles to indicate which way the wire might run off the pole. The wire is always the most difficult part of the structure to see because human eyes are not equipped to detect long thin objects like wires. You will see them if you look hard enough but you definitely won't be able to tell how far away they are until you get some other cue. Reflected light on aluminium wire from your lights getting brighter as you approach (night), seeing the pole in your peripheral vision, that sort of thing. Once you start training pilots to look for little accessory orange balls rather than the primary indicators I outlined above you will have more accidents not fewer because there will always be lines missed by whoever is in charge of ball-fixing.
The problem is in training. Fixed wing Ag pilots per hour flown hit far fewer wires than other pilots even though they spend much more time in the wire environment. They are taught to respect wires early. Take an ag-pilot flying sometime. Get down around 50 feet or so and go as fast as you can without doing a thorough recce first and see what kind of a rsponse you get. Unfortunately this is exactly the type of action that kills so many new pilots. Like I said, training! A helicopter ag-rating in Australia requires much less training than the FW counterpart. Mustering pilots get almost nothing by comparison. Hitting wires is the number one killer for helicopter pilots and always has been. Why spend so much time teaching pilots to navigate and so little to avoiding wires. Getting lost in a helicopter is potentially so much less devestating than having a wire strike. Of course I don't advocate less nav training, its just that I'm trying to give some perspective.
Join Date: Jul 2003
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I agree Lowlevldevl,
Part of a pilots training should include stringing half a dozen wires at varying distances and heights at an airport or narrow gorge then we could zoom along climbing and descending and practice not hitting them, that would be great fun and very educational.
Part of a pilots training should include stringing half a dozen wires at varying distances and heights at an airport or narrow gorge then we could zoom along climbing and descending and practice not hitting them, that would be great fun and very educational.