Night Flying in Helicopters
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Flying a Helicopter at Night - By Rey Madrid This article gives you advice about night flying. It is only advice and does not necessarily mean that you should do what the pilot is saying. Be smart and think when you're flying.
Full moon nights are easy. It's those overcast nights that keep you humble.
(This advice is more for night flying over remote areas and not so much for the folks who fly nights over the city lights.)
Flying at night during a full moon is almost as easy as flying during the day. On those no moon nights, though, the view is a little different. When I first started flying EMS I had a little over 3,500 hours (most of it was utility work during daylight) with minimal night experience. I had done the "easy" night flying from airport to airport but I had never flown anywhere that demanded any "real" night flying. My biggest worry about flying EMS was the night flying. How do you see clouds at night? How do you keep from running into terrain when you can't see it? Luckily I had good night training from a pilot named Matt Coffey (my boss) and a lot of OTJ to learn how to safely fly at night.
One of the first things that I was taught about night flying is: KNOW THE AREA YOU ARE FLYING IN. To do this you must fly around a lot during the day and pay attention to details such as: mountain peaks and their elevations, good, BIG places for forced landings, the low spots in valleys, towers, wires, and other obstructions, and where there is ample light source.
Flying around at elevation can be different at night but landing in a Landing Zone (LZ) at night can be the real challenge. Another thing I was taught was Coffey's: "POOR MAN'S VASI". When approaching an LZ, (if you can) you pick two lights, one further ahead of the other. You keep both sets of lights visible during the entire approach. If you lose the bottom light you have something between you and that light so you need to climb to get that lower light back in view (climb above the obstruction between you and that lower light). If you can't get that lower light in view, go around and try it again at a higher altitude or from a different direction.
Night EMS Scenes can test a helicopter pilot's ability to use the poor man's VASI.
What do you do if you only have one set of lights in the LZ? (such as landing at a single ambulance scene in the middle of nowhere) I can't tell you what you should do but I keep the lights of the scene in view, slow to a very, very slow approach (basically hovering) and from a safe altitude, approach the scene cautiously, keeping an eye on my descent rate. If the LZ's lights disappear I go around. I've used the night sun on narrow beam (not all the helicopters I've flown have them) to spot an area just below and to my side. This way I have some sort of ground reference in addition to the LZ's lights. Without the night sun you just need to be patient in your approach and keep yourself oriented until your normal landing light illuminates the LZ. Remember there are a lot of things to run into at night. [I once flew into a canyon at night and had (by luck) approached the canyon the only way you could. A couple hundred feet to the right or left would have planted me into the side of a ridge.]
Weather: My biggest concern when I started flying at night was how I would deal with marginal weather at night. My first idea was to just cancel if it was remotely "crummy". This was a good idea for me at the start. I still have this attitude today, although it is a little more realistic now. If I'm dispatched to a flight I usually have the recent radar loop (if it's available) going through my head along with the normal FSS briefing. Knowing the area you fly in is very important. Once each of us have flown in an area for a while, we each have a general idea of which places get "socked in" or where the clouds tend to hang. When the weather is marginal and I get caught in it, I "connect the dots": I fly from lighted area to lighted area. If I can't see the next lighted area I abort. Sometimes there are not enough lights to "connect the dots". In this case I also abort. Sometimes I keep it low in crummy weather and use my spot light or night sun to follow a road or something else highly visible at night. If the combination of being too low at night and not seeing lights in front of me gets me feeling uneasy, I abort. (Powerlines and towers tend to feel a lot higher at night.) If I think that a flight will ever lead me to having to fly over a road with the spot light on, I abort before I even get into the cockpit. Another simple idea: if you lose the ground lights in front of you then there is something in the way of the ground such as a cloud. At night my weather minimums go up substantially because I can't see all of the weather. I always keep the idea of aborting a flight alive. This tends to keep me alive.
A side note on aborting a flight: Never think that a flight must go on. You can abort a flight at any time. To abort a flight you land where you are or turn around and land some place safe.
Enroute: Even just flying along at altitude can be tricky at night. I established some basic safe altitudes for the routes that I commonly fly. I check them during the day then add a few hundred to a thousand feet for night flights. (Even though I know the altitude is safe, I sometimes still find myself climbing to well over my safe altitude on dark, moonless nights) Be careful of being too high though. I once climbed up so high that by the time I saw the LZ, I was 4,000 feet over it! I had to do a lot of maneuvering over dark terrain to get down to the scene. It was more dangerous than if I would have just stayed at my safe altitude and had a straight, normal approach to the scene area.
Take Off: Departing the LZ may seem easy but there are still a few things to keep in mind. Sometimes the Landing Zone has vehicles or buildings with lights on. This tends to mess up your night vision. Also, if you fly EMS or fly with other crewmembers, the crew might have the lights on while loading. Have the crew kill the lights for take off if you can and make sure that your night vision is good for take off. When you approach an LZ you usually come in at an angle. What this means is that you may be underneath something that you might run into if you depart vertically. At night, anything overhead is very difficult to see. I tend to take off vertically at night because there is less chance of running into terrain but I do look for towers (and the lines which are difficult to see) during takeoff. I usually scan the LZ departure path prior to lifting with whatever light I have available (it can even be a flashlight if you don't have an adjustable landing light.) Take off slow and stay aware.
My method of night flying is different from the other pilots I know. I think we all develop a style and method that works for each one of us. - Contributed by Rey Madrid
About the Author
Rey Madrid is an active helicopter pilot in Alaska with 20 years of helicopter experience.
Rating: 5.00