357 N881KE R44 Houston Tower Collision: What All Pilots Can Learn + GA News
49:50 Share

You've probably heard about a helicopter that crashed into a tower at night in Houston last month, killing four people. And if you fly a fixed-wing aircraft, you may think that accident isn't relevant to you. But stay tuned, because today we'll talk about the external factors that we know about, and about some general factors that can affect any pilot.

Also in this episode, there's a new app for DPEs to reduce the time you spend scheduling check rides and collecting information. And we have a tip on a new way to use the Pathways features that you'd find in Garmin's Synthetic Vision. There's a clever new Airbnb-like service for renting hangers. And we have a new video of the week. And if you could use a new headset sometime in the coming months, you may want to jump on a discount that Lightspeed is offering during the holidays that will save you money. So let's get started.

Hello again, and welcome to Aviation News Talk, where we talk in general aviation. I'm Max Truscott. I've been flying for 50 years. I'm the author of several books and the 2008 National Flight Instructor of the Year, and my mission is to help you become the safest possible pilot.

Last week in episode 356, we talked about the crash of a beach baron that departed from Catalina Island in dark night conditions. So if you didn't hear that episode, you've been able to check it out at aviationnewstalk.com slash 356. And if you're new to the show, welcome. So great to have you here. Now, if you would, in whatever app that you're listening to us in, touch either the subscribe key or if you're using Spotify or the Apple podcast app, touch the follow key so that next week's episode is downloaded for free.

And yes, this is a listener-supported show, all kinds of ways to support us. So when you have a moment, go out to our support page at aviationnewstalk.com slash support, where you'll find links to support the show via PayPal, Venmo, Zelle, and Patreon. And when you make a donation, I'll read your name on the show. Coming up on the news for the week of November 25th, 2024...

The FAA relaxes basic med limitations. And the FAA adds more DPEs but also loses some. And an airliner is grounded for several days after its cargo gets loose. All this and more in the news starts now. From Aerotime.aero, FAA relaxes basic med limits to let pilots fly larger aircraft.

Traditionally, pilots in the U.S. need at least a third-class medical to fly. And in order to get this, you need a medical exam from an aviation medical examiner or AME. BasicMed, which took effect back in 2017, is an alternate way to fly. The FAA Reauthorization Act required the FAA to expand BasicMed to increase the number of allowable passengers from five to six and the number of occupants from six to seven.

Increase the maximum aircraft takeoff weight from 6,000 pounds to 12,500 pounds. And to allow pilot examiners or DPEs to conduct flight checks using BasicMed in aircraft that are covered by BasicMed rules. BasicMed still includes certain limitations, including that pilots cannot fly for compensation or higher and are restricted to flying at or below 18,000 feet and at speeds no greater than 250 knots.

From avweb.com, FAA adds more DPEs. During this year's 2024 Flight School Association of North America, or FASANA, DPE Symposium, FAA leaders highlighted ongoing efforts to expand the DPE pool, noting that more than 100 DPEs have been added to the system.

The increase in DPEs is good news for the industry, as that number has become stagnant in recent years, causing delays in student certification, creating a bottleneck affecting commercial pilots trying to advance in their career. By the way, I was talking earlier this week with DPE Jason Blair, who was at that meeting where this was announced, and he said that doesn't quite tell the full story. Apparently, the FAA also lost over 60 DPEs last year, so the net gain was somewhere between 40 and 50 DPEs.

The FAA says it's working to expand the number of DPEs eligible for initial training in fiscal year 2025 with the goal of further increasing the overall capacity of the system. From GeneralAviationNews.com, FAA stays controversial Moss interpretation.

The FAA has issued a stay of the Moss interpretation following significant opposition from aviation leaders. This controversial legal interpretation, issued in September 2024, redefined supervision requirements for uncertificated mechanics, mandating the physical presence of certificated supervisors throughout all work, a move that critics argued was impractical and disruptive.

coalition of 16 aviation organizations led a unified effort to oppose the interpretation. They argued that the new mandate would harm workforce development and that training uncertificated mechanics would become unfeasible, stalling their path to obtain A&P certification. It would also disrupt maintenance practices, eliminating owner-assisted annual inspections,

and that it was economically unsustainable. Repair stations would face prohibitive costs in maintaining constant on-site supervision. The FAA's stay provides temporary relief to repair stations, mechanics, and aircraft owners while the agency reviews the policy. From GeneralAviationNews.com, pilot crashes after failing to check position of fuel selector. The pilot reported that his mechanic had just completed an annual inspection on the Cessna 180 and he was flying at home.

While en route at 1,000 feet AGL, the engine experienced a total loss of power. During the forced landing to a road near Colotus, Washington, the airplane stalled about 40 feet above the ground and hit the ground hard, resulting in substantial damage. The pilot sustained serious injuries. After the accident, the pilot learned that the mechanic had moved the fuel selector from the both position to the left position. The pilot further reported that he did not check the fuel selector position before takeoff.

A post-accident examination of the airplane revealed that the fuel selector was in the left tank position. The left fuel tank was nearly empty of fuel and the right fuel tank was full. Probable cause, the pilot's failure to check the fuel selector position before takeoff and his improper fuel management, which resulted in fuel starvation and a total loss of engine power.

Also, calls it was the pilot's loss of control, which resulted in an aerodynamic stall. And that was a private pilot who was 70 years old with about 540 total flight hours.

From NYTimes.com, two dead after Civil Air Patrol crashes in Colorado Mountains. Two people died and one was injured after a CAP plane crashed while conducting an aerial photography training exercise amid the rugged peaks of Larimer County, Colorado this past weekend. The crash, which killed the pilot and an aerial photographer, happened at about 11-12 a.m. on Saturday in the area of Storm Mountain about 30 miles southwest of Fort Collins.

Emergency workers had to hike to the crash site. Responders located the sole survivor or co-pilot, according to the sheriff's office.

The team was carrying out a routine training exercise on a Cessna 182 in conditions that local news media described as very windy. The area where they were flying had been badly burned by the Alexander Mountain fire this past summer. And our condolences go out to the friends and families of the victims of this crash. The very first pilot that I knew who died in a crash was also in a Civil Air Patrol crash. That was Brian Perkins, who died in 1995.

He was a co-worker of mine at Hewlett Packard, and that crash also occurred in mountains, this time near Lake Tahoe. So please exercise caution when you fly. From KPLCTV.com, pilot in deadly helicopter crash had student license. The preliminary NTSB report came out a few days ago, and it says the man piloting a helicopter in a deadly crash was not authorized to fly without an instructor.

The Robinson R-44 crashed north of the town of Iowa, Louisiana around 9 p.m. on November 1st, killing its three occupants, pilot Jared Savant, his wife Tanya, and their two-year-old daughter, all of Kinder, Louisiana.

Savant held a student pilot certificate, according to initial review. The FAA had no record of Savant holding a medical certificate. Even with a medical, student pilots are not allowed to carry passengers. Savant had logged about 139 hours of flight time, all in R-44 helicopters, including 15 hours at night.

and a report from the NTSB details the flight path leading up to the crash and the condition of the wreckage. The helicopter, November 6-2 Charlie Delta, took off from a private property in Kinder around 6.13 p.m. The helicopter flew southeast and climbed to 800 feet AGL. Just before 6.30, Savant landed in a field near Pat's of Henderson, a restaurant in Lake Charles. He took off again just before 9 p.m. and flew northeast in the same path he'd taken before.

Around 9.01 p.m., the helicopter began making several changes in course and altitude. It then completed two irregular 360-degree right turns, continued to descend. Following the crash, the helicopter was destroyed by fire. The main rotor blades remained attached to the hub. One blade was broken with a tip found 200 feet south of the wreckage. The other blade was deformed but intact.

Now, it's sad that we have a few pilots who violate rules like this. If you see a student pilot flying illegally, you may want to report it as it could save some innocent lives. From GeneralAviationNews.com, time building flight ends with deployment of parachute. The two pilots were conducting multiple cross-country flights the day of the accident with the purpose of building flight time as part of an air carrier pilot development program. So, yes, this is two future airline pilots we're talking about.

They departed for the fourth leg of the day, and the left-seat pilot was flying. Both pilots reported that while en route, they noticed the fuel level was low. Subsequently, about 15 nautical miles from their destination, the Pipistrel Viris' SW engine lost all power. The left-seat pilot reported that the right-seat pilot took control of the plane, and at about 600 feet AGL, the right-seat pilot deployed the parachute when it became clear that they would not be able to glide to an airport.

The impact with the ground near Cross City, Florida resulted in substantial damage. Post-accident inspection of the fuel system showed no visible fuel in either wing tank and no fuel visible in the inline fuel filters.

The left-seat pilot reported that there were no pre-accident mechanical malfunctions that would have precluded normal operation. Probable cause? The pilot's inadequate pre-flight fuel planning and improper in-flight fuel management, which resulted in a total loss of engine power due to fuel exhaustion and subsequent deployment of the ballistic parachute recovery system. And from GlobalAir.com, Beechcraft Bonanza hits parked Cessna during go-around.

Last week, a beach Bonanza A-36 hit a parked Cessna 310 during a go-around at the Doylestown Airport, that's Kilo Delta Yankee Lima in Pennsylvania, injuring two of the three occupants on board. The FAA said the Bonanza struck the unoccupied Cessna parked on the ramp at around 12.20 p.m. local time.

Bucks County spokesperson James O'Malley told AP News that three people were on the plane and two were taken to the hospital. A local pilot told ABC6 Action News that he believes weather was a factor with strong wind blowing across the runway and other pilots complaining about turbulence. The pilot told ABC6 that there was a bad crosswind.

The incident occurred during a go-around attempt. Buckingham Township Police Department said that when first responders arrived, all occupants were out of the plane. Now, I've looked at the airport on Google Maps, and the nearest ramp area is about 250 feet away from the runway through a grassy area. So, this sounds like a significant loss of directional control during the go-around. Remember, during go-arounds, as you add full power, always add right rudder as well.

And finally, from PaddleYourOwnCanoe.com, passenger plane grounded after 130 hamsters escape from cages and evade baggage handlers for days.

An Airbus A321neo belonging to Tap Air Portugal was grounded for several days in the Azores after a horde of as many as 130 hamsters managed to escape and went missing inside the plane. The incident occurred after the flight arrived on the largest island of the Azores, located in the North Atlantic Ocean. The plane departed Lisbon at about 10.30 p.m. on November 13th with a shipment of hamsters as well as ferrets and several birds destined for a local pet shop.

Upon arrival of the plane two hours later, baggage handlers opened up the cargo hold and quickly spotted a hamster running loose. They then discovered that the cage used to transport the rodents was damaged and that the vast majority of the hamsters had escaped.

While ground workers were able to quickly trap most of the errant hamsters, some remained on the loose and the plane had to be grounded until they could all be found. Rodents are a particular safety concern for airlines as they can chew through wiring, which could result in serious problems. Three days later, on Saturday, the aircraft remained grounded because 16 hamsters were still missing.

But by Sunday, the aircraft had been cleared to fly again and returned to Lisbon. And if you think that's the first time this has happened, in September, a Scandinavian Airlines flight from Oslo was forced to make an emergency diversion after a mouse jumped out of a passenger's food tray and started to scurry around the cabin. So watch out for those rodents.

Well, that's the news for this week. Coming up next, a few of my updates, including our video of the week. And then later, we'll talk about the Houston helicopter that hit a tower and crashed. All right here on the Aviation News Talk podcast.

And now let's get to the good news. First, congratulations to Vaz Rajan. He says, Max, I passed my CFI checkride. Like my instrument in commercial, I did it in the SR-22. Thanks for all you do for the GA community and for keeping me in company in the gym. Your show has helped me stay in a checkride mindset. Up next, Double I, so instrument instructor. He says, I've made a Venmo donation to help you keep up the good work. Well, congratulations to you, Vaz. Sounds like you're doing a lot of good work, too.

And congratulations to Chris Fenelon. He says, recently obtained my commercial and instrument is next. If I ever win the lottery, I'll be booking for Cirrus Vision Jet training with you. Still loving the show and been on board since day one. Wow, that would have been over seven years ago. He says you're an inspiration to all of us pilots out there. Thanks from Melbourne, Australia. I certainly enjoyed my visit to Australia about five years ago. So congratulations to you, Chris.

And now let me tell you about our video of the week. This comes from a preliminary NTSB report. It says, "On October 27, 2024, about 8:30 Central Daylight Time, a Robinson R-22 helicopter, November 7521 Zulu, was substantially damaged when it was involved in an accident near Pearland, Texas. The pilot sustained minor injuries.

Pilots stated that he increased engine power to about 18 inches of manifold pressure to lift off and started a pedal turn toward the adjacent taxiway. He recalled a violent lurch to the right lowered the collective abruptly, but that did not seem to make any difference. He did not remember anything further.

Airport surveillance video footage depicted the helicopter lifting off and translating a short distance to the right. The right skid appeared to make contact with the ground again, and the helicopter immediately began rotating to the right. This was accompanied by pitch-up and pitch-down oscillations.

The aft portion of the tail boom impacted the paved ramp surface, which resulted in the empennage separating. Rotation of the helicopter continued until it collided with a nearby parked airplane. The helicopter had substantial damage. Now, the helicopter is just out of view of the camera at the beginning of the video, though you can see its shadow as it starts to rotate.

Now the first part that comes flying into camera view is that helicopter tail boom. And then immediately after that you see the helicopter come into sight and then hit a, looks like a Cessna 152. So a rather remarkable video.

The links for all of our videos of the week are on the same page with links you can use to become a supporter and start supporting the show. And when you go to view the videos, look at the bottom of the page for the video links. And up at the top of the page, you'll see four options for supporting the show. If you sign up monthly to support the show via Patreon, you'll see various tiers starting at $8 a month. You can also make a monthly donation via PayPal, and you can make one-time donations via PayPal, Venmo, or Zelle. And of course, when you do, well, read your name on the show.

So to see all of our videos of the week and or to support the show, go online to aviationnews.com slash video.

And I talked recently with a young man named Cole who was frustrated with how difficult it is to schedule a DPE for checkrides. And so he decided to do something about that problem, and he's created a new platform called Checkrider that's aimed at helping DPEs manage their scheduling and student intake. It also collects all of the information that DPEs need ahead of time, such as FTN numbers and other data.

And he gave an example in which one DPE he's worked with, an airline pilot, put his availability on the system for the following month. And 32 minutes later, all of the slots were booked and he had all of the information that DPEs need to get from students ahead of time. So if you're a DPE and interested, go check out this website, checkrider.io.

And I had an email from Jeff Manasco. He's the Truckee Airport Director of Aviation in Truckee, California. Now, we talked with Jeff a few months ago back in episode 344 about challenges flying in and out of Truckee and about their FlySafe program. And I also wrote an article for the October 2024 issue of Flying Magazine that talked about several of the innovative programs they have at that airport. Now,

Now, Jeff just sent me this email that says, speaking of GA innovation, we are rolling out an overnight hangar program to include an airplane-like Airbnb program. Everyone is short hangers and a certain percentage are vacant on any given day, particularly with a large number of second homeowners that we have here.

So we are working a beta program with a handful of people where the airport district, through our vendor, will be able to sublet their hangar to transients, but the airport does all the work. The tenant will get a profit share of rent credit. The transient gets an easy online booking experience up to six months in advance for up to 14 nights.

And the airport accommodates more aviators and likely reduces some position slash depositioning legs during inclement weather. And what he means by that is that if they're expecting snow or bad weather, a pilot might have to fly into Truckee, drop off their passengers, and then fly to some other place like Reno, leave the plane there, and then when they're ready to leave, bring the plane back to Truckee to pick up passengers.

And they'll want to do that because if you leave the airplane at Truckee and you don't have a hangar and the weather is inclement, you may have to dig your airplane out of snow and ice, which won't be any fun, especially because snowfalls there can sometimes leave four or five feet of snow on the ground. Continuing on, Jeff says, I'm hoping we have this operational by December the 18th. So another innovative program. Who knows? Maybe that will work for your local airport as well.

And here's an interesting email that I got from a local pilot. I'll read you my response to him. He had written me and said that he just purchased a flight design CTS-W and wanted to know if I would fly with him in it. And I wrote back, kudos on your purchase of the CTS-W. I did a demo flight with a flight design sales rep in the CTLS perhaps 15 years ago, and I absolutely loved the plane. It was much better than the Skycatcher, which I didn't really like, and which of course has since been discontinued.

Virtually all my teaching is in Cirrus Aircraft, and I try to stick to flying the aircraft I know best. That way my clients are learning the most from me, and we're all safer since I know the plane well. In general, accidents decrease after a pilot has more than 100 hours in a particular aircraft type. So I'm going to decline your offer since I don't specialize in your aircraft and don't know it very well. Hopefully you can find a CFI who has some experience in your plane. Thanks so much for your email.

And in a moment, I'm going to talk about the Pathways feature found in Garmin Synthetic Vision and the G1000, Perspective, G3000, and other glass cockpits. But first, it's the holiday season, and if you'd like to have a new headset or two, and who wouldn't?

You may want to do what I occasionally do, and that's to buy a Christmas present for yourself. And you could save some cash if you buy now during the holiday season. Here's the deal. For a long time, Lightspeed's top-of-the-line headset was the Zulu 3. And I still have one of those that I use often. And that's the model that's being discounted over the holidays.

Now, the headset is normally $899, but from November 22nd to January 13th, 2025, you can get $100 off, which brings the price down to $799, which is a great price for a full-feature noise-canceling headset.

And here's what you need to do to get the discount. Go out to aviationnewstalk.com slash lightspeed and click on any of the links there to get to the Lightspeed ordering page. Then order a Zulu 3. And when you check out, use the promo code Z3100, which would be short for Zulu 300 bucks off.

And if you want to order two of them, well, then you'll save $200. Just remember to go out to aviationnewstalk.com slash lightspeed, use the code Z3100, and order before January 13th. And now let's talk about a valuable use for the Garmin synthetic vision feature called Pathways. Now this is a tip for how to use Pathways for flying visual approaches. And I learned about this when I was in Scottsdale last month.

for the Cirrus Symposium that they put on for vision jet pilots. And best of all, this valuable tip works in any Garmin glass cockpit with synthetic vision. So you can do it in anything from a G1000 equipped 172 up through Cessna business jets equipped with the G3000 and G5000 glass cockpits. Now the following comes from my Max Truscott's G1000 and Prospective Glass Cockpit Handbook. Quote,

Pathways, also known as Highway in the Sky or HITS, guidance is provided by displaying a series of rectangles that a pilot flies through to maintain the desired course. NASA originally developed this concept and their testing showed that it let pilots fly a more precise path, though at the cost of a higher pilot workload.

positioning the FPM, now that's the flight path marker, that's that little green gun sight that you see in the middle of your PFD, positioning the FPM in the center of each rectangle should reduce the workload. Though Garmin's own testing showed that some pilots still find it easier to fly with a conventional flight director, which, by the way, is my preference. I use the flight director, and most of the time I have pathways turned off because I don't particularly like it.

Now, the rectangles are magenta when flying the active legs of a GPS flight plan. They're white when flying a GPS leg that is not active and green when flying an ILS or localizer. Pathways are not displayed when leg sequencing is suspended, such as after the missed approach point, before the suspend key is pressed, or on any flight plan leg that would lead to intercepting a leg in the wrong direction.

Now, before I give you the tip, let me mention my experience with pathways. I find that most pilots don't use pathways, and when pilots do use pathways, they're often, but not always, younger pilots. Older pilots like me seem to be less likely to use pathways, and I'm guessing, and this is totally a guess, that younger pilots may have more experience with video games, and so they might be more used to the depiction of moving boxes in the sky.

I've tried Pathways and I find it more difficult to use than the Flight Director. Also, conceptually, I just don't like things that are constantly moving on my PFD that don't add any additional information. For example, in cruise while flying with the autopilot on, Pathways really adds no additional information, but there are constant distractions since they never stop moving. Now, I prefer a clean PFD as I feel that moving objects and blinking cursors tinkers

tended to sensitize pilots from noticing new things that appear on the PFD, such as changes in autopilot modes and new cast messages. So candidly, I've never really liked Pathways.

So I was delighted to find a truly good use for them. First, let me add that when I'm working with pilots in the Vision Jet, there are two areas that pilots are generally weak on. One is flying arrivals, and the other is flying visual approaches. Most of the time, jets fly long, straight, and instrument approaches, so pilots just don't get much practice approaching the runway from other directions. And when approaching an airport on a long base leg,

they have a hard time judging at what altitude they should be when they join the final. And without tools to assist them, they end up high or low on final. Now, there are some simple tools that you can use in an airplane with a moving map. What I've coached pilots to do is to figure out roughly how many miles you'll be from the airport when you turn on final. For example, if you're aiming for the outside of a class delta ring on the moving map, you're typically going to be joining the final at four miles from the center of the airport.

On a normal approach, you'll descend at a 3 degree glide slope, which is about 320 feet per nautical mile. So if you join the final 4 miles out, 300 feet, just to make it simple, times 4 miles is 1200 feet. So as you join the final, you'll want to be roughly 1200 feet above the airport elevation as you turn to join final. Now that works really well for short runways, say 3000 feet or less.

But for really long runways, say 10,000 feet, if you turn final 4 miles from the airport center, you're actually closer to 3 miles from the runway threshold, so you may have to make some adjustments to your calculation for long runways. But the pathways trick takes care of that problem even with long runways. And here it is. If you're flying a visual approach, load an approach with some kind of vertical guidance to the runway.

It could be an ILS or even one of the Garmin visual approaches. Then, activate vectors to final. When you do, synthetic vision pathways will draw a series of moving boxes along the glide slope or glide path. Now, as you're coming toward the airport on, say, a base leg, adjust the pitch of the aircraft, and you're probably doing this manually, so that the PFD's flight path marker is aimed at the moving boxes on the glide slope.

By the way, as I mentioned before, the flight path marker is the green circle that looks a little like a gun sight near the center of the PFD. And it always shows the current path of the aircraft. It's part of synthetic vision. So if you don't see it, either you don't have synthetic vision in your aircraft or synthetic vision is not turned on.

Note that this technique works no matter where you choose to join the glide slope. If you aim a little further out from the airport, you'll be joining a final at a higher altitude. If you aim closer to the airport, you'll join the final at a lower altitude. Best of all, this technique works equally well for short and long runways, as the glide path is always aiming to you at a point about 750 feet beyond the runway threshold.

And you don't have to do any math. Just aim the flight path marker at the moving boxes on the glide slope. I've tried this in both a simulator and an airplane, and it works equally well in both.

So next time you're on a visual approach, try it and see how you like it. And a quick update on that backpack closeout deal that I mentioned a couple of months ago. You and other listeners have bought over 60 of these backpacks and there's still some left. And I've already heard from a listener who really likes the backpack he bought. Now these will make great Christmas gifts, so listen up.

As I've mentioned in the past, Brian Schultz is closing out his inventory, and you can get one of his backpacks for half price, which is $99.50 plus shipping, if you use the promo code MAX. For the full description of the backpacks, go back and listen to episode 345. And to get the backpack, I've created an easy-to-remember URL for you, which is aviationnewstalk.com slash backpack. Then use the promo code MAX.

And aviation is a small community, so see if you know any of these people who've signed up to support the show over the past month or so. First, we've got a new mega supporter. These are the folks who donate $50 a month, and after two months, I send them a signed copy of one of my books. Thanks so much to Richard I.D. for signing up to support the show. And these other people have signed up at various levels to support the show via Patreon. They include helicopter training videos, and they also have a Patreon page.

Patrick Testerman, Angel Negron, Matthew Haas, Art Hernandez, and John Quattrochi. And the following people have made one-time donations via PayPal. They include Brendan Donovan, Ken Anson, Brett DeMoy, and Seth Alvis. And thanks to these people who have made one-time donations via Venmo, including Foss Rajan and Richard Teresevitz. We also have a new monthly PayPal donor. That's Douglas Allred.

And finally, two people who made one-time donations via Zelle, including Sergio Corral Jr. and Bradley Houston. Thanks so much for supporting the show. And if you'd like to support the show, head on out to aviationnewstalk.com slash support. Coming up next, we're going to be talking about the crash of an R-44 that hit a tower in Houston. All right here on the Aviation News Talk podcast.

And now let's talk about the crash of November 881 Kilo Echo, a Robinson R-44 helicopter that crashed in Houston on Sunday, October 20th, killing four people. And by the way, most of what we'll talk about today applies not just to helicopter pilots, but to all pilots flying any type of aircraft.

Now, you've probably already heard that the helicopter crashed into a radio tower at night, and you may have heard that the helicopter was giving an air tour. So the proximate cause, the helicopter hitting a tower, is obvious. The bigger question, though, is how could this happen? And I'll talk about the external factors that we know and about some general factors that can affect any pilot. First, I was sickened to hear about the crash for several reasons. First, any time there's a fatal crash, it's tragic.

Most fatal crashes involve just one or two people, and it's less common to lose four people in a single crash. Second, almost all of my helicopter time is in the R-44, and I hate hearing about crashes in aircraft types that I fly, as I'm sure you do. And third, this was a helicopter tour.

Several of the helicopter instructors I've flown with have either left teaching and moved on to jobs flying aerial tours or are still teaching and fly aerial tours on the side to continue building time. These are all wonderful young people, and flying tours is a way to build time so they can eventually move on to better-paying jobs.

As we talked about in Episodes 323 and 324, about 13 jobs in which pilots build time, I mentioned that for future airline pilots, they are at greater risk in these time-building jobs than they will be when they make it to the airlines. Likewise, many helicopter pilots building time are at greater risk than they will be when they get better jobs flying twin-turban helicopters with more redundancy and better glass cockpits.

By the way, the weather doesn't appear to have been a factor in this accident. At the departure airport, the weather was reported as a few clouds at 4,100 feet and 10 miles visibility. Let's talk first about what we know about the flight, and then we'll talk more about general factors involved in these kinds of accidents. A key point I want to talk about is change and how it can affect your safety in mind when we fly.

When I was in USC's Aviation Safety Program, an important takeaway was that accidents are more likely to occur after some change has been made. In fact, companies with a robust SMS or safety management system will pay particular attention to changes in their policies and procedures, and they'll often do a safety review of all changes before they're implemented.

Change is one of the reasons it's hard to drive accident rates down to zero. Even if you have all the best procedures in place and everyone follows them all the time, a change in procedures or a change in the environment you operate in can poke a hole in all of the defenses you've organized to prevent an accident from occurring. Let's talk about two changes that occurred related to this flight, one of which apparently didn't play a role in the accident, and one that may have played a role.

Much has been made in the press of a notum that was issued three days before the accident for the tower lights being out of service on the tower that was hit. Yet oddly, the tower lights were probably never out of service. Here's the background on the tower. In the past, many broadcast stations have owned their own towers. However, the radio industry in particular has fallen upon hard times and many towers are being sold by stations as a way to raise money. They then rent back space on the tower from the company they've sold it to.

Coincidentally, I know of a radio station in Florida that did exactly this thing in the past year. Now here's information about the tower that was hit from ClickToHouston.com. The nearly 1,000-foot tower was built in 1987, and it was previously owned by Univision. The tower was sold in September to Florida-based SBA Communications along with several other towers.

According to their website, SBA is, quote, a leading independent owner and operator of wireless communications infrastructure, including towers, buildings, rooftops, distributed antenna systems, and small cells. The spokesperson for SBA told KPRC2, as part of the standard process for newly acquired sites, SBA ensures that a NOTAM was in place for the site in order to exercise caution during the change of ownership while they integrate the site into

into their network operations center for continuous 24-7 monitoring pursuant to FAA and FCC regulations. So it sounds like the company routinely issues a NOTAM whenever they buy a new property just to cover all bases.

Records filed with the FCC show that the federal agency was made aware of the ownership change on October 10th, about 10 days before the crash. The NOTAM was filed with the FAA on October 17th, just days before the crash. It was set to be in effect until October 31st. And by the way, the Houston sectional and terminal area charts show three towers located fairly close to each other, and all three of them are about 1,000 feet tall.

Now, I've seen a video of the crash, and the video appears to have been taken by an outdoor camera mounted on someone's house. You can clearly see a blinking red obstruction light on the tower, and you can see the landing light and strobes of the helicopter as it approaches the tower. There's then a large fireball that occurs close to the top of the tower, when the helicopter either hits a guy wire or the tower itself. As the fireball moves down the tower, it's clear that the blinking red obstruction light is no longer visible.

So it's clear that the blinking light you can see in the video was on the tower that was hit, not on one of the two other towers in the area. So despite there being a NOTAM in place for the tower lights, it appears that at least one of those lights was in service at the time the tower was hit.

However, a more significant change occurred about a week before the crash. The website for the company that operated the helicopter is based out of a different airport. When I checked their website, it said, quote, South location starting October 10th, 2024. We will offer new tours departing from Ellington Airport Signature Aviation. Now, why is that significant?

First, it's a change, and we know that changes can introduce new risk. I think the most obvious consequence of this change is that pilots flying the tours now had to fly a new route that they were probably less familiar with. The Houston metro area is quite large, so most likely the air tour pilots had less experience flying in and out of Ellington Airport.

While the tour they ultimately gave of downtown Houston was probably the same, getting to that tour area would be different as they'd now be approaching the tour area from a different direction. FlightAware shows that the first few flights from the Ellington location started eight days before the crash, and there had only been a few night tours from that location. As you probably know, the NTSB is required to stick to facts, which is why they usually focus on what happened in an accident and not on why it happened.

The exact reason why an accident happened, in this case, why the pilot flew into the tower, often can't be determined. And since the NTSB rarely speculates, we're often left to try to figure out ourselves why a pilot did what they did. A question I'd be asking if I were involved in this investigation is what kind of training, if any, the pilots were given prior to opening up this new location, and was there any work done to identify hazards flying tours to and from the new location?

I'd also be interested in knowing whether the company has a safety management system. SMS systems are not required for Part 91 operations, but earlier this year, the FAA issued new regulations requiring Part 135 operations to put a safety management system in place.

One thing we probably will learn in the final NTSB report is how much total time the accident pilot had. I think it's likely that the accident pilot was aware of the tower locations. However, some of my flight instructors moved across the country to take jobs flying helicopter tours. So you can imagine that when they first move to a new area, they're less familiar with obstacles in that area. So it's possible this tour pilot was new to the area and unfamiliar with the obstacles.

you probably know where large towers are located in the area where you fly. And if you're not really sure, this would be a good time to pull out a sectional chart and memorize the location and heights of towers in your area. I'm constantly pointing out towers to pilots when I fly.

For example, in Northern California, we have three 2,000-foot towers clustered together southeast of Sacramento. And there's a 1,500-foot-tall tower on a ridge just north of Watsonville, California, that tops out at 4,052 feet MSL. Assuming the tour pilot knew about the towers, hitting one of them suggests the pilot lost position awareness or was distracted. If you fly a modern glass cockpit airplane, you might wonder how that's possible.

But as an R-44 pilot, I can tell you that helicopters are often not as well equipped as airplanes. Let me give you some examples. The R-44 Cadet that I learned to fly in last year is a 2019 model, so it's a relatively new helicopter. But the accident R-44 was a 2002 model, a time which predates glass cockpits in GA aircraft.

Oddly, the then four-year-old aircraft I learned to fly in didn't have a good usable moving map. It was equipped with a Garmin 430, which has a very small moving map. And when you're flying a helicopter, both hands are busy, and it's not convenient to zoom the map to look for obstacles. Yes, I could have brought along my medium-sized iPad, but it was too big to mount on my leg in a way that didn't block some movement of the cyclic control.

The only really good moving map I've seen in an R-44 was a personally owned helicopter in which the owner spent extra money to equip it with a Garmin glass cockpit.

But most working helicopters I've seen aren't as well equipped, probably because owners try to keep their helicopter acquisition costs as low as possible to get the best return on investment. So it's likely this helicopter didn't have a good moving map, and the pilot had to rely on obstacle avoidance by looking out the window. But there can be challenges to spotting obstacles at night.

One big challenge is distractions, something NTSB lists as a factor in many accidents. You can well imagine that the three passengers were very excited about their helicopter tour, and there was probably a lot of talking among them on the pilot over the intercom.

The audio panel in most airplanes I fly lets me configure it so that I don't have to listen to passengers, which lets me focus on the task of flying. But every R44 I've ever flown has a more basic intercom that lacks that capability. So there's no way for the pilot to isolate themselves from passenger chatter. But tour companies wouldn't want to do that anyway. I mean, part of the benefit of a tour is interacting with a pilot to learn about the things you're seeing in flight.

So certainly there was chatter going on between the pilot and the passengers, which could have easily distracted the pilot. A good practice for all pilots is to advise passengers to keep chatter to a minimum when in the vicinity of an airport when you're taking off and landing. But even if this pilot had requested a sterile cockpit for takeoff, the helicopter was nine minutes into its flight when it hit the tower, well beyond where the tour pilot might have asked for a sterile cockpit for takeoff.

The preliminary NTSB report on this accident has come out, and it mentions that the accident pilot was in the middle of a radio call when the accident occurred. Here's what happened.

The pilot established communication with the local air traffic controller and requested the downtown loop. Several minutes later, the controller issued a traffic advisory for a company tour helicopter, November 233 Julia Delta. The accident pilot acknowledged that she had the company traffic in sight on her ADS-B. The controller requested the accident pilot to maintain visual separation from the traffic, and the pilot was reading back that instruction when the radio transmission abruptly ended.

No further communications from the accident helicopter were received, so the pilot may have been distracted by the radio call and by looking for traffic.

Distractions are something you need to be on heightened alert for whenever you fly. We've talked about a number of accidents that occurred this year because the pilots got slow on either the base or final, stalled and crashed. Yet all pilots know that airspeed is life. But somehow they weren't giving the airspeed indicator the attention it deserved when they got slow and crashed. So please be alert for distractions.

One time while teaching the G1000 to a pilot who had upgraded his Cessna Citation cockpit, I witnessed a great technique for dealing with distractions. Something occurred during the flight, may not recall what it was, and the pilot said, that's a distraction, I'll deal with it when I get on the ground. So he labeled it as a distraction and verbalized that he was done dealing with it for now. And you might want to use that technique as well. Another issue is that it's sometimes difficult for pilots to see outside of their airplanes and helicopters at night.

In airplanes, I often see pilots have their lighting and screens turned up too brightly, and when it's bright inside the cockpit, your eyes never fully adapt to darkness, and you won't see as well outside the cockpit. It can take up to 20 minutes for your eyes to adapt, and all it takes is one bright light to destroy your eyes' night adaptation. When I fly at night, I try to dim everything in the cockpit as much as possible, and as the night progresses and my eyes adapt, I turn the lighting down even further.

The same principle applies in helicopters. But there's another challenge in helicopters, and that is that you're surrounded by a huge bubble canopy that reflects light everywhere. And that's part of the reason that laser strikes of helicopters are especially bad. When the laser hits the bubble canopy, it throws light everywhere around the pilot.

I've noticed in the videos that I've taken of my night helicopter flights that lights get reflected everywhere on the bubble canopy, and those reflections make it harder to see what you're looking for outside the helicopter. The situation gets worse if you have passengers who are taking pictures. How many times have you taken a picture at night and not realized that the flash on your smartphone or camera was on?

It only takes one of those accidental flash photos to destroy your night adaptation for up to 20 minutes. Years ago, a fellow CFI told a story about how he was on downwind, getting ready to land at night, when the pastor sitting next to him said, smile.

Well, the passenger then took a flash photo of him. When I first heard the story, my first thought was, stupid passenger. But later I realized the passenger didn't know that they were creating a dangerous situation. The CFI surely saw the passenger bring the camera on board, so it was really incumbent upon him as the pilot to brief the passenger not to take flash photos. Hopefully you'll remember this story the next time you take passengers flying at night.

Finally, towers are a bigger threat to helicopters than they are to airplanes. Obviously, if a plane hits a tower, the results are the same. But the difference is that helicopters tend to fly lower than airplanes, and hence they're often flying below the tops of towers. Airplanes typically fly at higher altitudes and are often above towers except for takeoff and landing. Why do helicopters fly so low? Well, the big reason is the same reason that seaplanes tend to fly lower.

They're slow, and they don't want to be hit from behind by faster aircraft. Also, the work of helicopters is typically done close to the ground, and they usually travel shorter distances, so there's little advantage to climbing higher. It's also worth mentioning that the air tour industry has gotten attention in the past for an accident rate that is somewhat higher than other commercial operations.

In a 2014 study published by the National Institutes of Health, the author wrote, "...the incidence of air tour crashes in the U.S. is disproportionately high relative to similar commercial aviation operations, and air tours operating under Part 91 governance crash significantly more than those governed by Part 135."

And it goes on to say that within the air tour industry, the crash rate among Part 91 air tour operators is 50% more than Part 135 operators, and that would be 3.5 versus 2.3 crashes, respectively, per 100,000 flight hours.

Since 1987, the NTSB has published over 50 air tour-specific safety recommendations to the FAA, industry-specific organizations, and air tour operators. The majority of air tour-related board recommendations fall into the following categories.

surveillance of air tour operations, pilot training, fatigue management, consolidation of federal air tour regulations, and maintenance quality assurance. And I'll include a link to that study in the show notes.

So here's some key takeaways to remember. First, change of any kind in your flying environment should be a red flag. When something is different from what you expected or different from what you're used to, pay particular attention not just to the change, but also to any second-order effects that may result from the change.

Change comes in many forms. It could be a new airport that you haven't flown to before, a new aircraft type that you're flying, or maintenance that's just been done on your aircraft. It could also be changes in weather or changes in airspace or regulation. Change comes in many ways, and it's impossible to state all the different kinds of changes you may encounter. So my best advice is to constantly surveil all aspects of a flight and be looking for changes.

and be on the hunt for distractions. And when you notice them, label them as distractions and minimize the amount of attention that you give them. If possible, delegate and let another pilot or passenger deal with the distraction.

When you fly at night, make sure you've dimmed all of your screens and cockpit lighting as much as possible so that your eyes will adapt to the darkness and give you the best possible view outside. And don't forget your iPad when you do that. I see lots of pilots who dim the cockpit lighting but forget to dim their iPad and it becomes the brightest thing in the cockpit.

Finally, know the obstacles in your area. It could be towers or wind turbines or hilltops or mountain peaks. Here in the San Francisco Bay Area, I tell my clients that the highest point between Santa Rosa and Monterey is Mount Hamilton, which is 4,400 feet high. And if you're ever unsure of your location, make sure you're above 4,400 feet. So know the highest obstacles in your area. And when in doubt about your position, make sure you're above the highest obstacle.

And just a reminder that I love hearing from you and I read many of your emails on the show. If you'd like to send me a message, just go out to aviationnewstalk.com, click on contact at the top of the page. That's absolutely the best way to send me a message. And of course, I also want to thank everyone who supports the show in one of the following ways. We love it when you join the club and sign up at aviationnewstalk.com slash support to

To support the show financially, you can also do that at aviationnewstalk.com slash PayPal. We also love it when you leave a five-star review on whatever app that you're listening to us on now. And of course, if you're in the market for a headset, please consider buying a Lightspeed headset and using one of the links in our show notes, because if you use those links, they will donate to help support the show. So until next time, fly safely, have fun, and keep the blue side up. And remember that you can always go around. Go around.

♪ Coming down ♪ ♪ Your silence baby ♪ ♪ Sliding upside down ♪