CHIEF WARRANT OFFICER 3 DANE BRINKER
B Company, 1st Battalion, 131st Aviation Regiment
Alabama Army National Guard
Mobile, Alabama
Like many teenagers, I wanted a fast car that would impress my friends. When I finally turned 16 and got my driver’s license, my parents would often say, “Don’t drive faster than your guardian angel can fly.” I’m sure a few of you heard those same words. But did you know that phrase could also apply to aviation, like when a pilot gets behind the controls of an aircraft they’re unfamiliar with operating?
After leaving active duty and while my airline career was delayed due to COVID-19, I was involved in a hard-landing incident that resulted in spreading the skids on a Robinson R-66 helicopter. For the R-22 and R-44 Robinson variants, there is a mandatory 10 hours of training that must be completed with a certified flight instructor before receiving an endorsement that allows a pilot to act as a pilot in command (PC). This endorsement was enacted by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in 1994 after crash statistics showed Robinson helicopters were 50 percent more susceptible to fatal accidents, mainly due to mast bumping caused from low-G maneuvers.
Robinson helicopters have been referred to as “doctor killers” because of their relatively low cost and the numerous physicians that died flying in conditions for which they were not trained. A 10-hour endorsement is not required for the newer R-66 model, although they have the same under-slung teeter-totter-type rotor system and are susceptible to the same conditions as their smaller variants.
In June 2020, I was offered a position to fly helicopter tours along Florida’s beaches. Since this was the first civilian helicopter I had ever flown (other than a Bell 206 in the primary phase of Army flight school), it was an exciting opportunity. On my first day, I met with the chief pilot and familiarized myself with the aircraft. We discussed preflight, capabilities, limitations and the general basics of the aircraft. After completing our ground discussion, we started one up and took off. Many folks say that attending the Army High-Altitude Mountain Environmental Training Strategy (HAMETS) is a great place for pilots to work on power management and control touch. While HAMETS is a great course to better understand your advanced airframe, I challenge that statement and raise you one underpowered Robinson R-66. The hydraulically assisted cyclic is one of the most hypersensitive controls I have ever used. The system works almost too well. Once I was able to “master” the art of hovering, we moved on to emergency procedures and performing autorotations. After four hours of familiarization and learning the flight corridors and tour paths, I was off to the races.
I showed up to the airport the next morning and couldn’t wait to get started. Following a morning meeting with the pilot group and a thorough preflight, I hopped in the R-66 and prepped for my first passengers. By 10:30 a.m., I had flown several groups of people and was feeling fairly comfortable.
During summer months, coastal airports become very busy. As I departed the small Class D airport, I could hear tower talking to numerous aircraft either in the pattern or transitioning. Tower was controlling aircraft in both left and right patterns while also getting planes in and out of the airspace. On a return trip to the airport, I contacted tower for sequencing. After receiving my clearance, I began flying inbound to the northern ramp to land. As I entered the downwind, one of the passengers inadvertently unplugged my headset by snagging their hand on the cord. While fumbling to plug it back in, I heard tower instruct that I cross over the active runway and make my landing “without delay.” I acknowledged and proceeded to the ramp.
During my race to get across the active runway and stay clear of a landing plane, I made my approach faster than normal. Throughout all the commotion, there was also a strong crosswind (about 15-17 knots). As the aircraft flared to bleed off airspeed, the tail rotor momentarily experienced loss of tail rotor effectiveness (LTE), which created a 20-degree yaw. Army flight school taught me that go-arounds are free, and it was beaten into all aviators. While the above-mentioned chaos was happening, performing a go-around was my first and only thought.
With only a few seconds to react to a high-stress situation, it is astonishing how many thoughts you can process. As I began to yaw from LTE, I considered my options. Flying out of the situation is what I wanted to do, but I didn’t. There were fuel tanks to the left, wires and downwind traffic ahead, and taxiing airplanes to my right. Going backward wasn’t an option due to forward airspeed we still needed to bleed off. The only option I had was to land.
So, what happens when you’re heavy and have low airspeed and a high power setting? That’s right … settling with power. At this point, I had bled off airspeed and lined up with the landing area. Now it was a matter of coming down 40-50 feet to land. Unfortunately, I was out of power to recover and didn’t have room to fly out of the situation. The collective was lowered to preserve RPMR, and at approximately 10 feet, I pulled every bit of collective we had to cushion the landing. Although we landed abruptly, no one was injured and the passengers didn’t realize what happened. I remained calm, smiled as they left the aircraft and thanked them for flying with us.
Once the customers left the area, I shut down the aircraft. No damage was caused other than a bent tube that connected the left and right skid. After speaking with the FAA safety inspector and reviewing the ramp video footage, I was told it was a miracle we landed safely and the helicopter wasn’t destroyed. Everyone I talked to complimented me on how I “recovered” from the situation. However, I was not feeling so great about what happened.
This event was the result of me being new to the airframe, task saturation, a busy airspace and, ultimately, overestimating the power the modest 300-horsepower (de-rated to 270 horsepower) Rolls Royce engine could produce on demand. After only flying UH-60s for more than 800 hours, you take the kinetic and potential energy of the GE-701-series engines for granted. How could this happen to someone with over 1,700 total hours of flight time? Actually, it can happen to anyone!
As a PC, it is imperative that you know and understand both personal and aircraft limitations. A simple reply to tower of “unable” could have prevented this incident from taking place. After flying medical evacuation and tactical missions (to include actual combat missions), we build up ourselves to think we have a firm grasp on a situation when sometimes we don’t. We must take a step back and really challenge ourselves to know what we can and cannot do. Our primary consideration should always be the safety of the passengers and not damaging the aircraft. Safety should never be jeopardized to appease someone sitting in an air-conditioned tower.
I was humbled by this experience and realized physics does not work the same way in real life as it does in Hollywood movies. Professional pilots must self-assess and know when to say “unable.” Confidence in your ability to manipulate an aircraft is something we should all aspire to do, but don’t fly faster than your guardian angel.