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Play it Safe

It was a clear, crisp day in New Hampshire’s White Mountains as we flew visual flight rules in our UH-60A. The pilot in command (PC) and I had departed the Army National Guard Concord Army Aviation Support Facility for some mountain training. The winds were light enough that we practiced mountain approaches to the helipad atop Mount Washington, not far from an observatory.

A Dangerous Business

As evening approached, the crews were preparing for their night vision goggle (NVG) training mission. The task was to conduct readiness level (RL) progression for hoist operations. As the crew adjusted their NVGs and cranked the UH-60, they had no idea a routine litter hoist training mission would result in something much more.

  • 14 January 2024
  • Comments: 0
Can We Overtrain?

Feedback from Army Aviation’s safety stand-down day this summer noted an increase in training task complexity in support of large-scale combat operations and challenges in training prioritization. These two factors combined could lead to an increase in levels of operational risk as training complexity increases without a corresponding increase in train-up and recovery/retrain time.

  • 10 December 2023
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Make the Right Call

Combat outposts on mountain pinnacles are used for observation points and located throughout the post’s training area. They usually are comprised of plywood shacks constructed from MRE boxes, sandbags and concertina wire. All of them present the potential for foreign object damage (FOD) and landing area hazards.

  • 3 December 2023
  • Author: USACRC Editor
  • Number of views: 257
  • Comments: 0
Not all Hazards are Obvious

Let’s face it, we aviators are can-do people. When confronted with adversity, we find a way to accomplish our mission. However, even with the best of intentions, we occasionally do things we later wish we had done differently.

  • 26 November 2023
  • Author: USACRC Editor
  • Number of views: 256
  • Comments: 0
Defeating the Vortex Ring State

A few years ago, as part of a Black Hawk crew, we encountered a close-call incident while conducting a routine training flight. We were returning to base when we experienced a phenomenon known as settling with power or the vortex ring state. This occurs when a helicopter descends too quickly and loses lift from the rotor blades.

  • 12 November 2023
  • Author: USACRC Editor
  • Number of views: 372
  • Comments: 0
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