Pilot News

[Aviafora Newsdesk]

Irish Helicopter Pilot Fined €20,000

Businessman and quarry owner pleaded guilty to five breaches of the Irish Aviation Authority (Rules of the Air) Act 2004.

A helicopter pilot has been fined €20,000 for flying dangerously low over thousands of people attending the busiest day of Ballinasloe Horse Fair three years ago.

Imposing the fines at Galway Circuit Criminal Court, Judge Thomas O’Donnell said it was “an absolute miracle” the pilot was not killed or an appalling catastrophe had not occurred if the helicopter had crashed while flying low over 40,000 to 60,000 people attending the fair.

Businessman and quarry owner Michael Mannion (40), of Castlesampson, Bealnamulla, Athlone, Co Westmeath, pleaded guilty to five breaches of the Irish Aviation Authority (Rules of the Air) Act 2004.

Mannion was fined €10,000 for operating a helicopter in a public place at a height less than 1,500ft over a congested area of Ballinasloe town on October 2nd, 2011. He was fined an additional €10,000 for flying the helicopter within 150m of the radio mast at Ballinasloe Garda station.

Other charges

Three other charges relating to flying the helicopter in the vicinity of the town centre at such a height which would not have permitted, in the event of engine failure, for a safe forced landing to be carried out; to flying the helicopter over the centre of the town where a large crowd had assembled for the horse fair without the consent of the Irish Aviation Authority; and to flying it closer than 150m to a Ferris wheel at a funfair in the town where people had congregated were all taken into account.

Sgt Tom Horkan told the sentence hearing that numerous calls were made to gardaí and other emergency services that evening between 7.30pm and 8pm by people to complain about the low-flying helicopter.

Mannion, the court was told, had consumed a beer shandy with a meal in Athlone earlier that evening before flying home.
He then decided to fly to Ballinasloe and landed in a car park 30m from the Moycairn Lodge and Hotel near the town where he consumed almost two pints of lager.

He got back into the helicopter at 7.20pm, and took off in the direction of Ballinasloe.

The helicopter crashed in a field at 7.36pm, 10km from the town and 2km from Mannion’s home. He was found by neighbours in a shaken and disorientated state not far from the crash site, and chose to be taken home rather than seek medical advice.

Mannion told the court his licence had been suspended by the Irish Aviation Authority and he had no intention of applying for a new one. He said he knew he was lucky to be alive and he apologised for his behaviour.

Weather closed in

He said the weather suddenly closed in seconds after he took off from the hotel, and he began to panic as he went into cloud and could not see the ground.

He claimed he used the lights of Ballinasloe town on several occasions to get his bearings, and that was why he flew low over the town.

At times, he said, visibility was down to zero and he was panicking.

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/crime...0-1.1788986

[Aviafora Newsdesk]

Warnings of North Sea Helicopter Pilot Shortage

NORTH Sea helicopter operators are struggling to attract experienced pilots to operate crucial offshore flights.

The once steady stream of trained crew, drawn from former military personnel, has “all but dried up”, forcing operators to look for people willing to pay £100,000-plus to fund their own pilot training.

Flying helicopters in the North Sea remains an “aspiration career”, according to Captain Colin Milne, chairman of the helicopter affairs committee of the British Airline Pilots’ Association, but unless fresh recruits can be found the industry will face a shortage of skilled pilots.


North Sea helicopter pilots needed

“The Central and Northern North Sea, operating out of Aberdeen and Shetland, is the helicopter equivalent of long-haul Boeing 747 flights for fixed-wing pilots. It is highly demanding and we need people of the top calibre,” he told Scotland on Sunday. “But I’d say we have mopped up everybody at all suitable for that very top layer of the industry. Where are the next lot of pilots going to come from?”

Significant new investment in the North Sea is expected to increase the pressure on operators to have a healthy supply of qualified pilots. Milne said the industry should be braced for a “huge ramp-up” of demand for their services.

The pilot shortage has arisen because fewer armed forces-trained pilots are available. “The traditional sources of supplies – the armed forces – have pretty well dried up, although clearly when the civilianisation of Search and Rescue starts in two years’ time, there will be guaranteed places for quite a large proportion of military SAR pilots,” said Milne.

Up to 80 per cent of applicants for a pilot’s post in the UK oil and gas sector fail to make the grade, an industry source said. Recent helicopter crashes, including the Clutha tragedy in which a police helicopter crashed into a Glasgow pub and the Super Puma disaster in which four oil workers lost their lives, highlight the dangers involved.

For those who can afford it, pilot training is available at an initial cost of £100,000 but loans are difficult to come by. “The only way this is going to be financed in the future is the bank of mum and dad. Flying becomes a career reserved to only the few men and women who can afford to fund the training,” warned Milne.

Three operators employ most of the pilots in the North Sea: Bristow, CHC and Bond Offshore Helicopters. Bristow sponsors four through training each year and runs an academy in Titusville, Florida. A spokeswoman said: “Academy recruits make up some 30 per cent of the Aberdeen intake.”

A CHC spokesman said: “The market is competitive and may become more so. We are employing new ways to bring highly trained people in, including a unique partnership with Wings for Warriors.”

The charity assists former soldiers and marines injured in Iraq and Afghanistan to get civilian jobs. The spokesman added: “We have already employed one pilot and hope to employ more Wings for Warriors candidates.”

A Bond spokesman said: “We continue to employ pilots from military and civilian backgrounds. In 2013 we recruited an additional 35.”

http://www.scotsman.com/news/transpo...tage-1-3299559

[Aviafora Newsdesk]

Canadian Pilots Not Pleased

Canadian helicopter pilots are displeased by the federal government’s temporary foreign worker program.

Pilots say they’re being denied jobs in favour of cheaper temporary foreign workers.

Dozens of so-called labour market opinion applications for temporary employees from private helicopter companies across Canada say they’re unable to find domestic pilots.

One longtime helicopter pilot says temporary foreign workers are typically paid half of what their Canadian counterparts make, and accuses helicopter operators of capitalizing on the program to increase their profit margins.

He says he applied to several jobs at companies and was told each time there were no openings, only to later learn they had applied for temporary foreign workers.

One aviation industry expert says when companies say they can’t find qualified workers, federal officials are unable to confirm the claims and rarely investigate further.

Gilles Hudicourt, a longtime Air Transat pilot who’s spent years crusading against the temporary foreign worker program in the aviation sector, says “the poor helicopter pilot in Canada” is particularly victimized by system.

Most of them aren’t unionized, he says, and are afraid to complain publicly for fear of being blacklisted by helicopter operators.

http://lethbridgeherald.com/news/nat...gn-workers/

[Aviafora Newsdesk]

Thai Pilots Not Pleased

A labour union representing Thai helicopter pilots is making an appeal to Thailand's National Council for Peace and Order in an attempt to see the number of foreign pilots employed in Thailand's offshore helicopter industry reduced.

The labour union has complained that out of the 105 pilots currently employed offshore only 57 are Thai nationals leaving 48 foreign pilots. The unions has also complained that foreign pilots earn more than national pilots.

Full story

[Aviafora Newsdesk]

Pilots Taking Risks

Most Tier motorists know enough to stay off the roads when a sheet of ice coats the highway. Even the most macho truck driver knows to pull over at the nearest rest stop when weather makes it too dangerous to navigate treacherous road conditions.

Drivers aren't forced off the road by state or federal law. Common sense warns them of the real potential for catastrophe if they dare to continue driving at normal speeds and fail to slow down when faced with less than ideal road conditions.

Evidently, some novice airplane and helicopter pilots are either too proud or too self-assured to observe the same caution as most motorists. They hope to "beat" the weather, or they believe their piloting skills are more advanced than they actually are. Some pilots are overconfident; others underestimate the weather conditions on takeoff and still others run into an unexpected turn in the weather while in flight. The results are often fatal for themselves and their passengers.

A recent analysis of National Transportation Safety Board data by reporter Steve Reilly revealed that at least 533 general aviation accidents between 1983 and 2013 were the result of pilots who lacked the proper credentials to fly in less than ideal weather conditions. Those accidents resulted in 955 deaths.

No one, air traffic controllers or any regulations from the Federal Aviation Administration, can stop these less experienced pilots from taking off when weather conditions worsen. Although federal regulations mandate non-instrument-rated pilots stay grounded in inclement weather, experts and officials say it is virtually impossible to keep pilots from violating them.

The unqualified flights cost uncounted millions of dollars in property damage and expenses for emergency responses and investigations.

When non-instrument-rated David Jenny took flight in a helicopter from Endicott's Tri-Cities Airport on the night of July 27, 2013, he apparently failed to obtain pre-flight weather briefings prior to takeoff. When he encountered bad weather about a half-hour into his flight that required skills beyond his level, he made a desperate call to air traffic controllers, looking for a safe landing spot. It was too late. Moments later, the helicopter went down in a wooded section of Pennsylvania's Wyoming County. The resulting crash took the lives the pilot and his four passengers, including a 3-year-old boy.

Though pilot training stresses the dangers of flying in instrument conditions, many still ignore the advice, thinking they can get by on their wits and their limited skills. Too often, they are wrong. The results, as they were in this case, are tragic.

Most pilots exercise sound judgment. Those who do not put their own lives, and often the lives of others, in danger.

The Federal Aviation Administration needs to develop a system to protect these unqualified pilots from themselves. Give amateur pilots an identifying code that would show air control if a pilot had sufficient qualifications for instrument flying. If adverse weather conditions exist, they can refuse to provide further flight information. Or, the FAA could develop another procedure that would protect passengers and those on the ground from amateur pilots who fail to exercise good judgment.

http://www.pressconnects.com/story/o...risk/17048769/