FROM THE ARCHIVES | The Terrible Truth About Wire Strikes (1995)
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- čas přidán 3. 05. 2020
- Pulled from the AOPA Air Safety Institute archives, this VHS provides great tips for seeing and avoiding towers and wires which are still relevant today.
Original Press Release from 1995:
ASF Produces New Training Video on Avoiding Wire Strikes
The AOPA Air Safety Foundation has produced a new video to teach pilots how to avoid wire strikes. The Terrible Truth about Wire Strikes debunks many misconceptions about these accidents.
"Most pilots assume wire strikes happen on 'scuddy' days or during unauthorized buzzing," said John Steuernagle, ASF's director of program development. "But during some 90 percent of wire strike accidents, reported visibility was three miles or better. Nearly 85 percent of strikes occurred with ceilings higher than 1,000 feet."
Steuernagle said the majority of accidents involve experienced pilots operating legally. Fixed-wing aircraft were involved in four times as many wire strikes as helicopters.
An average of 115 general aviation wire strikes are reported each year, but wire strikes are known to be under-reported: Only an estimated 10 percent of strikes are reported. Dangling wires and interrupted service are mute evidence that many more aircraft hit wires but are able to continue flying.
Pilots can't expect aeronautical charts to alert them to wires. Although 70 percent of wire strikes occur below 100 feet agl, charts don't show lines built less than 200 feet above the surface.
The Terrible Truth about Wire Strikes was developed in cooperation with the California Wire Strike Prevention Working Group, a non-profit committee of aviation and utility company interests from California and around the nation.
Other "From the Archives" episodes:
"Single Pilot IFR" - • FROM THE ARCHIVES | S...
I remember reading an aviation safety letter years ago about this float plane pilot who was asked to fly an owner to his lakeside cottage. After they landed.. the owner-who normally went by car-mentioned to the pilot that he always wondered whether a plane would fly over the wires or under them when landing.
_(WHAT............ WIRES??)_
That’s scary lol
I always fly under.
@@braininavatnow9197 I always fly over but inverted so I can see them.
I always fly between them
@@seagie382 skills.
I really like the idea of pulling old VHS tapes and putting them on YT.
Flying Ragilein just published!
phục êwê 😂😂
AOPA does Dallas.
Rumble would be better the ccp has taken over yt
Now I know what wires are actually used for. This is very educational. Always thought they were for squirrels and places for birds to hang out. Had no idea the voices and that electrical stuff he talks of went through them!
On point!
Really? I thought people used tin cans with strings attached to them.
They keep those big metal towers from tipping over.
@@a1c3c3u Oh, great, thank you!!! I thought what I had heard was correct. Thank you again!!
I don't know why this was npt brought up but the reason fixed wing aircraft have more strikes recorded against them is because there is something like 1000x more fixed wing than rotary aircraft.
But also most of those fixed wing aircraft are flying at 1000 AGL or higher.
yes but they all start and return to 0' AGL at a place where wires are very likely to exist
I am not even a pilot and I watch this channel for years because so interesting and educational
Then you should probably start flying, don't you think??
I watch it for his stylish fashion.
Well you are not a pilot------*yet! Learn to fly, it is the most fun thing you can do!
TheAllaksion : Agree, their education about making good decisions, and the consequences for making bad decisions is priceless.
I flew when I was younger, but after my kids were born, a busy life left little time for flying. Now nearly 30 years have passed in the shuttering blink of an eye.
When it comes to wire strikes, there is an old phrase that my instructor taught me... Stay high, and you won't die!!
My philosophy...oh...you mean when flying.
I hit a phone line on takeoff in a float plane many years ago. Lost a little power, bad timing. Damn plane just stopped midair when I hit the cable. Landed on a car. The floats took the impact. Just opened the door and stepped out. The bar felt good that night.
Seriously?? A phone line stopped a 100+mph airplane dead in its tracks and you walked away? Uhh that must’ve been some tremendous G forces. I mean I can see it would act like a giant rubber band or aircraft carrier arresting cable system, but man..
Syclone0044 The plane was a Cessna 150 on floats. 105 hp. Way underpowered. The G force was very little. Both inflight wire strike and collision with the car. I was 15 feet and at stall speed when I hit the phone cable after scraping a high power line. I was pretty low and slow. I tried to post a photo here but I am unable to. After I landed on the car’s hood (Lady just driving down the street without a care when I landed on her car), the plane feel off. A truck ran into my left wing which started a fuel leak. I went thru the check list and shut everything down. Then step out of the plane. I had to walk several blocks to make a phone call. I had knocked all the phones out area. I was pretty cool with it at first and It really didn’t hit me until I got to the bar that night.
@@oldmech619 can you post a link to the picture, to imgur.com or something? Really interesting story!
@@oldmech619 Bump, upload an image to www.imgur.com and then post any of the links to here, I want to see! Glad you could walk away from that one and hit the bar that night...
@@Nords555 i think the lack of link proves my skepticism to be valid
I was watching a crop duster here in California Central Valley spraying crops at night avoiding high voltage lines and some trees had to be the most bad ass thing ever witnessed.
I started crop dusting around 12-13 filling hoppers with my grandma and grandpa in the summer. I was flying solo by 16 and crunched my first plane at 18 because I was a bit cocky. That's when my family convinced me to go fly for uncle Sam where I flew mainly EA-18 growlers. By the time I finally retired I thought I'd settled enough for the airlines. But man was i wrong 😆 and I was bored to death. Thankfully my dad kept most of my grandpops stuff and it didn't take much to get going again. Because AG flying is about 2 steps below performing in airshows for a living.
Music industry legend Bill Graham died in a helicopter tower strike, darkness, poor visibility/rain, as the pilot ran VFR parallel to a highway (1991).
Collateral damage: 23,000 homes lost power. Aircraft totaled. Highway closed for days. Aircraft was welded to the tower. Altitude approx. 200 feet; tower 223 feet. Pilot: 4,500 hours, including F.I. and commercial rating.
Tower was charted - height and location.
Pilot of Graham's aircraft was incompetent & due to that incident two innocent lives were lost plus his.
Gottoget thereitus!
Definitely pilot error. I saw him everywhere, newspapers, radio and tv. A loss that hurt tens of thousands of music lovers, a true pioneer in the music industry.
Apart from the content, the filmography here is nostalgic - very VHS-era. Would be fun to see modern video filmed and edited with modern digital tools but with the aesthetics of video like this.
2 years ago we lost a crop duster pilot after he misjudged and hit a power line...
At the end of the video, a pilot is shown starting a Mooney. He yells "Clear Prop" and immediately engages the starter. Why yell "Clear Prop" if you're not going to give a person that might be near the prop enough time to vacate the area. Remember to shout "Clear Prop" and then wait several seconds while visually clearing the area, before engaging the starter. Couldn't agree more with the statement about watching for supporting wire structures more so then wires. Look for both, but with a more emphasis on the easier of the two to spot........the supporting wire structures.
Excellent observation and comment. I see the same often on ramps and try to offer the same coaching when able. Thanks for the comment!
Yep, they need to do a video on proper starting.
That's a great point. however, i think the reason was more for the cinematography aspect.
I see this also, it seems to be more of a cursory announcement.
I see people do that all the time at my local FBO, it drives me crazy. I was taught to yell "clear prop", then look and clear left, straight ahead, right, and behind you if cabin visibility allows before cranking.
I imagine these vids save soooo many lives. Bless u guys.
We based our family plane at Livermore KLVK when I was a kid in the 70s. It was common in the summer for the bay area marine layer to reach Pleasanton and Livermore, sometimes getting as far as the Altamont Pass. It was pretty common for pilots to scud run along the freeway to get under it when arriving into Livermore from the east. A family from Pleasanton took their Mooney on a trip to Canada in August of 1989. While they were gone, two days before they returned, a new electric transmission line was put up across the pass, about 400’ above the freeway. You know how this ends. 22 August 1989 at about 11PM, about six miles from landing at home, the family of four was killed when they hit the lines that weren’t there when they departed days earlier.
Thanks for the video! I'm a retired helicopter instructor pilot and taught low level navigation and wire avoidance for many years. You might want to mention that the wires on the very top of the high power lines are much smaller and are very difficult to spot as ones attention is diverted to the large wires. The smaller wires are to dissipate lightening strikes and carry no voltage. There have been a few moments when we went to the control stops to avoid wires and I hope this does not happen to anyone else! Best of luck and thanks for saving lives.
Those wires also ground the towers where the geology beneath is less conductive,
This has been a recurring nightmare for me, I am a low time private pilot, and I have woken up in a sweat after attempting to dodge a maze of wires in my plane!
I'm not even a pilot but that sounds terrifying.
It’s actually pretty common for pilots to have the wire dream (nightmare) at some point. I’ve had a couple of those dreams in close to 20 years of private and professional flying.
This won't change. I've been flying for decades and STILL hate to be anywhere around wires. I was taught to treat any big mast, pole or tower as "congested area" and stay 1000 feet away.
Well, you shouldn't be sleeping while flying, obviously. 😉
Unfamiliar airports at night can get you tangling with wires. A pilot late at night in Oklahoma low on fuel diverted to an airfield I was flying out of and died hitting the power lines.
These were so well made, that they(I mean ABC Wide World of Flying series, and the like) don't come across as dated as I thought they would. But the typical camera work and editing of the time; with the cut to profile view as narrator turns toward the camera to make the next point, does make me smile. I'll bet many people assumed that collision with power lines would mean death by electrocution even if the airmen would have survived the impact itself. But not if they didn't become a path to ground. If anyone ever did become the path to ground when tangling with a 500kv power line in their plane, their friends and family would at least be able to say that they didn't suffer.
I love this video! Not only interesting content, but also the VHS feel. Would be cool to see more of these from time to time.
Anyone who flies should watch this. Excellent information.
Half expected to see Ponch and Jon in this film .
This is great. I hope you find some more from the archives.
I’ve dreamed of flying ever since childhood. Trouble is, many of those dreams turned into nightmares of close calls with power lines. I guess I’m probably better off staying on the ground lol.
Yes, it's definitely a tradeoff.
It depends on how much you could still enjoy flying while following a checklist.
Like how playing a sport is more than just running with or kicking the ball, you have a lot of rules and refs and game calls, even the plays are often out of your hands. Though there may be rules on what you can do inside and outside of the game when playing professionally, a lot of players love it every day.
Others prefer just playing ball with friends or batting against a machine.
Maybe you'd love to ride in a flight, rather than pilot it. You just have to figure which kind of person you are.
I hope you continue to enjoy flight, even if it's from the ground.
A sergeant I knew in the Marines told me about an incident that occurred during an annual combined arms exercise at Camp Pendleton in California. The infantry was briefed that there were no friendly aircraft. If a plane or helicopter is sighted conduct immediate action for attack from the air, which means fire at it with every weapon. The idea is even though small arms fire is unlikely to bring down a plane, pilots don't like being shot at and the wall of lead will make him keep his distance. Of course, this was an exercise and everybody was firing blanks.
Sure enough, an OV-10 Bronco (small fixed wing observation plane) flew low over the column. All the grunts opened up, blazing away when the plane suddenly erupted into a fireball. "CEASE FIRE, CEASE FIRE!" The Marines ran to the crash site, but there were no survivors. A helmet on the ground still contained the head of the pilot.
Investigation revealed the OV-10 was flying below minimum altitude and struck high tension wires. But until that finding was announced the Marines were all wondering who had live ammo and shot down the plane!
I love old VHS training videos, please upload more!
Old but gold 👌🏼😊
I'm not a pilot and I have no interest in flying; however, this channel is extremely educational and enjoyable. Thank you for uploading these programs.
I used to fly a Pawnee sprayer. After I returned to school my successor flew into a wire between a small island and the mainland. The aircraft broke up and caught fire when it hit the ground. The pilot did not survive.
Very sad 😔
Still relevant. Thanks for posting.
Thank you the nostalgic, yet incredibly informative and potentially life saving video.
I know of four wire strike stories. Three are helicopters at low level by experienced pilots. Here they are briefly covered. The first was an agricultural operation. The helicopter had a bucket suspended below. It was on the way to a job. I don't recall the altitude, but it was probably under 200'. The bucket went under the wire and the helicopter went over. The wire became the pivot point round which both the bucket and the chopper arced - meeting together on the other side. Then falling to earth as a debris pile.
Another was putting a sign atop of a tower (no more than 100'). It got tangled in wires and fell to the ground. There is a Video around about this case.
The third chopper's pilot was regarded locally as a "Rockstar pilot". He was out in a gully helping police locate an escaped felon. He got tangled in high tension grid lines.
he last case is a Cherokee training flight. They did a forced landing practice from East to West late in the day. They will have been well aware of the national grid lines crossing their clime out path. There was sun-strike, they hit the cables, exploded and fell to the ground in a burning heap. Both initially survived, but the instructors burns doomed him. The student was seriously injured but did survive. In fact he was the one to crawl some distance to raise the alarm. All these accidents occurred in New Zealand. Safety is a global concern.
Oof. As a Kiwi I can all too well imagine 😬 The combo of largely mountainous terrain, plemty of remote properties & settlements in hilly areas (often with tower-supported electrical supply in over long distances), and the notorious "she'll be right mate" attitude... I'm surprised it doesn't happen more often tbh, although based on the vid I do wonder how many incidents might go unreported if they don't actually take out a major line?
Once knew an instructor who started showboating on a trial lesson, tried a loop but struck a wire on the entry. (School rules: Recover from aerobatics by 3500' AGL. Hmmmm.) According to the passenger, he completed his aerobatic routine with a length of cable trailing from the aircraft before landing illegally at an unlicensed strip to remove the evidence, coil it up, and throw it behind a bush. He brought the bird back home with a huge S-shaped crack in the windshield and a slash in the leading edge clean back to the spar, claiming he hit a buzzard. They threw the book at him. Jury found him not guilty!
They wouldn’t waste a jury on a trial like that.
A jury for a civil action? Seems far-fetched.
@@wurzzzz Criminal, not civil.
@@calvinnickel9995 They would, and they did.
Excelent video, clear and simple to understand. Keep the good work
I LOVED dramatically taking off the sun glasses...
Bid difference between general aviation and crop dusters. My dad said the unwritten rule was if you hit them once go back and hit them again. The reason? If cost was under one thousand dollars, the pilot pays, over one thousand dollars pilot only pays the five hundred dollar insurance deductible.
The power to weight ratio of these work horses was incredible!
And now with turbocharged engines they are even more powerful. And turbofan powered ones exist. They should try new versions of German WW2 stukas or A10 warthogs for agricultural dispersing of chemical goodness. Do some heavy lifting. Fire bombers! Aviation must progress.
@@darrellcook8253 my Dad did have some experience with turboprop crop dusters. they were sensitive to the shock of hitting power lines, and would fall out of the sky, the old fashioned radial air cooled engines were much more durable. but he stopped flying 30 years ago. I imagine today's turboprops are much more resilent
Ag planes are a lot more likely to have wire cutters. Taking a wire with the gear strut, the wire will either break, or it will ride down to where the wheel catches it.
Poor Albert Mooney ... He never *did* get the hang of putting the vertical stab on right-way-forward.
The underlying pattern I'm picking up is that pilots who aren't really paying attention consciously and are in 'auto pilot' themselves are more prone to making mistakes...
Let's combine the factors:
1. Experienced pilots (these pilots are more typically more calm and collected - they've been through this before).
2. Clearer weather (Weather that doesn't force the pilot to pay attention will usually relax the pilot, making them less likely to focus on the details that matter)
3. Distracted pilots WHO KNEW they were near wires STILL collided with them;
So essentially, stay conscious, and know WHEN it's okay to autopilot yourself (not to be confused with actual autopilot in planes) and when it's a good idea to be paying complete attention to your surroundings!
In Poland, EVERY high-voltage wire is required to have those warning balls, and to blink red lights at night! Only last-mile, low-voltage "neighborhood" wires are exempt, but that's because they hang lower than a roof of an average house. It's reassuring to know, that many safety precautions were undertaken to make general aviation safer here.
Ok im from California and I'm jealous because we Americans learn slowly
Those are there so military training flights enable the pilots to memorize the locations of wires. Then, when the war came, they could fly lower (or under) using memory. I guess
@@darrellcook8253 HAHAHAHA even a Pole is smarter than a Kalifornian.
I love how he yells "Clear prop!" with a video camera less than three feet from the prop.
My thoughts exactly!
@@Barabyk Cameras dont often walk around and step into the prop..
its a single engine prop plane the risk is never being Sucked into the prop the risk is only walking into it or being in the way.
As the camera and plane are not moving and no people there "Prop is cleared"
Oh look, it’s another jackass trying to criticize a safety video for the smallest infraction. You’re not trying to educate others, you’re trying to show how much better you are at safety than a professional made 30 year old video. Imagine being so insecure you try to dominate a VHS tape 🤦🏽♂️
Sorry, but this is a common type of comment I see online. It’s not meant to help anyone despite it being disguised as a safety tip. It’s almost like knowledge flexing. Strange behavior, don’t know why so many independent strangers do it 🤔
@@Mr_Bones. First of all, it's a 25 year old video, not 30. Second, I was learning to fly at Embry-Riddle BEFORE this video came out and we take engine start-up VERY seriously. Third, if you don't have a degree from ERAU, or you have never flown in the military, or you are not a professional pilot, DON'T RESPOND TO MY POSTS WITH YOUR INEPT, BUSH-LEAGUE WISDOM!
@@charlesmoore456 Not to mention egotistical, narcissistic, and arrogant. 🤦♂️
Interestingly, power companies are having to consider line burial for forest fire concerns, in California. 2:24 Now that maintenance is states like Virginia is downright awful, it's hard to blame a broken wire on an aircraft.
The pole serving all 6 of my neighbors has split like a banana, and lines fall yearly beneath power company marked trees, slated for removal, twice on my property in just 2 years.
This is a never ending issue in Slovenia. My family home is in the countryside, and not a goddamn winter passes without at least a full day of power loss. Small wonder when the power lines are literally running through trees!
My town finally grew a pair and radically trimmed all trees near wires. We'd lose power at least once every 1.5 months. Sometimes for a week! In 2020!
Dominion Virginia Power is well known for doing as little maintenance as possible.
Had a wire strike at my Grand Parents farm. The pilot caught a wire with his mains. He was showing off for his son. The wire he hit was almost 1000 feet from the runway. He hit a 4 foot barbed wire fince. Plane flipped in our pasture. Serious damage to the C152. Minor injuries. He was buzzing our cattle. Claimed he wasn't.
Nicely done
I remember this guy from the Aileron series. So 80s.
A blast from the past, CHP BBH and Compton PD MD 500
Thank you for the information.
I'm an excellent pilot. My aviator sunglasses and leather jacket proves that I am.
"All roads have wires".
Crazy how a kid at home with a basic laptop and freeware can put together a video more polished with higher production value than professional companies 30 years ago.
Hats off to all the power line crews that work on wires from helicopters.
2 teenage boys and an instructor died north of Indianapolis a couple of years ago when they clipped a wire on approach to a small airfield. A 3rd occupant survived with severe injuries. I worked with the mother of the 2 boys and hearing the story broke my heart...
Wires anywhere near approach lanes should be marked...to any airfield.
Mom took out the wires off the end of the runway (usually not an issue) due to engine failure.
Luckily the prop was turning fast enough to cut the wires and it was the old 3 wires across a T, not multiple levels of wire.
Walked away and the airplane was fixable.
The sad thing about this is that they train you to pull up and stall rather than flying under the wires . Breaking the law by flying under the wires could be the safer option.
Only in a few circumstances. Remember, if you put it under the wires, you're flying low for several hundred feet at a minimum, down where there are rocks, trees, buildings, cell towers, and most of the birds in the world. If you go up, you have a lot fewer potential conflicts.
I'd love to know how much of an effect the initiatives talked about in this video had in reducing wire strike rates.
It’s nearly impossible to count how many times something did NOT happen, especially when many have over a 1,000 hours logged and most likely are not going to self report to the NTSB they were violating FAR 91.
I knew a Huey and Blackhawk pilot way back in the early 80s who said they'd be running at treetop level and then, pull up, wires!
Still very good fundamental information
1:50 "More recently, both pilots were killed when…"
Took me a moment to realise they're not the same pilots as in the inverted Cessna.
10:45 This clip is more frightening than anything else in the video!
Might not be as bad as it looks. Flying towards wires in the sun is not a good idea though! Might just ruin your day! I once saw to fighter jets flying towards a TV mast, at the very last second they realised how close they were, they were playing at dog fighting I think, but not sure, Anyway, they went into a hard over and flew through the wires holding the mast up. One was so close he was almost a victim. How do I know they were not just doing it for kicks? One, the chasing jet went out with such a roar and the black smoke that came from it was unreal, he was so close you could see the wire bounce when he went past them. Both jets went straight up after that and stopped the dog fighting, they circled checking each other over, then flew back the their base. I wonder if they told then in the debrief? I very much doubt it. Everyone on the building site stopped to watch, they heard the jets and when they looked up knew there was going to be a problem. Luckily both pilots were fine, but I bet they changed their underwear when they landed! This was in Scotland many years ago.
@@BoB4jjjjs If it was going at high speed I would imagine a big heavy military jet would just snap most wires.
@@thedave7760 still, for such a machine catastrophic damage to the leading edge is very likely (the wire snaps, but in the time it takes to do so it still cuts a good portion of your wing... compared to the moving jet, the wire elasticity (& ability to disintegrate quickly) is fairly low), though, since the wing damage will unlikely be total, a fighter pilot may quite likely keep control long enough to successfully eject
@@BoB4jjjjs cool story and just throwing this out there, but the battle damage check they did is a standard operating procedure
@@thedave7760 they don't. In1989 we had an F16 doing night ops he snagged a wire and he cartwheeled down the centerline .
Loved Bill Cox on Wonderful World of Flying
I stared in one of these videos back in the. 90’s . My wife was in it too! It was for AOPA. Too funny.
Is your eyesight OK after _staring_ into one of those vids? Did the vid _stare_ back? And you say your wife *starred* in some type of vid too? 🙄
At the end of WWII a group of misfit airmen wanted to go stateside. They would have to wait for a troop shipp. They asked their commander if they got a plane together from all the wreckage could they fly it home. Thinking it would keep them occupied the commander said Ok. Well they put together a B17 and one kid said yep I will fly it. So they loaded up that plane with contraband including some english lasses. So they fly this Hodge Podge plane across the Atlantic. And make a approach after dark to land in New York. Suddenly the plane sudders and that pilot gives it all the power it had and it takes off again. And all the lights in The Area go out. The pilot forgot about the landing gear. it wouldnt retract and caught the high tension lines. Tore them down. So eventually vehicles where lined up on the runway with the headlights on allowing them to land. The Pilot was a 19 year old kid named Beyers he told that this was his first time flying a B17. He had only flown Corsairs.My Father Norman Watts was the radio man on the plane. He like all the others lost all his rank & was discharged as a private.
"...Wires carry most of our phone conversations..." Well THAT changed!
Still, everything here is still relevant today but am I correct that in the US you can now fly as low as you want over non built up areas and as long as you remain clear of obstacles and 500 feet lateral separation.
Over ocean or sparsely populated areas, yes.
500 feet _from_ anything man-made (not “clear of”, not “lateral”): 14 CFR 91.119 Minimum safe altitudes. (c) Over other than congested areas. An altitude of 500 feet above the surface, except over open water or sparsely populated areas. In those cases, the aircraft may not be operated closer than 500 feet to any person, vessel, vehicle, or structure.
We still need wires to get the conversations and internet to the towers used to transmit to our mobiles.
@@thedave7760 Not necessarily. A lot of these links are microwave. I once worked with a guy who'd helped install a network in China; he told me about sitting in the operator's control room, watching a line of red alarms sweeping across the country as the rain from a storm front knocked out the microwave links.
@@6yjjk That's China. You don't often see microwave antennas on cellular towers in the USA. Most commonly, the backhaul from the cellular tower is fiber, and Comcast provides a lot of these fiber links (in areas where Comcast has service, like the Chicago and DC metro areas).
A suspended conductor has the potential to foul the aircraft. The propeller or rotor blades, landing gear and vertical stabilizer act like snags in altering the aircraft's flight attitude. Subsequently damage can result due to impact forces. An impact can adversely effect control of the aircraft and can sometimes result in an electrical arc. I've seen arresting cable effect several times and am amazed at how often it is successful - go figure.
"%75 of wire strikes result in damage or destruction of aircraft" but of course, you really really need to be scared of that FAA violation, man.
Scott Franco 75%
I grazed a wire in my 172 while flying low over the Red river in southeastern Oklahoma when out of nowhere the wheel pants on the left side were violently sheered/broken off. By some miracle there was no other damage! I landed back at my airport, got a drink and thanked my lucky stars.
Today if you see a 172 flying in Texas with non matching wheel pants, there’s a good chance it’s me.
Lots of good info, thanks. One question: You advised toward the end of the summary to reduce speed near wires and the next sentence advised to pull up rather than turn if a wire strike is imminent. Pull up at reduced speed invites a stall, which risks 2 problems instead of one. Please clarify. My advice would be no less than 1.5 x VSo.
If you glitch just right you can fly clean through wires and buildings.
Thanks for the comment and the observation. Both tips are accurate and helpful. Your comment helps put them in context. Slowing to allow more time for spotting wires and reacting is helpful, but not so slow as to give up maneuvering airspeed.
Low level stalls are bad. Very bad. Especially if you stall into the wires you tried to avoid. Very very bad...stuff happens. The invisible wire problem will always be a problem. So will gravity.
Even at low speed, pulling up is safest. First, you're not putting a wing down, so you keep all of your lift (not counting the tail, of course). Second, you're not getting a slow wing and a fast wing (stall/spin). Third, you're significantly reducing the time in the danger zone -- the width of the wire right of way, as opposed to all of the distance that the nose is pointing at wires while you horse it around. Fourth, if you KNOW that this is your plan, you don't waste any time, you're climbing while still realizing that you're seeing towers, so the climb isn't as steep as it would be if you wasted a couple of hundred feet trying to decide. Fifth, just because you see that wire crossing in front of you, that doesn't mean it's the ONLY wire -- you can turn away from one and right into another that runs at an angle to the one you spotted!
Good info. If I ever steal a chopper or airplane I will keep it above 200 AGL. (hopefully)
Co-worker of mine was killed by wire strike 6 months ago wires were 1 miles south of the end of the runway no lights 100 feet high.
Sorry for your loss. Do you know what the circumstances were that he was below 100 AGL a full mile from the runway?
Which Airport & city state was this in ?
A hundred feet AGL a mile short ? Sounds like he/she was having some trouble.
Gee... only 10% of wire strikes are reported, but you can expect FAA action if you hit one.
I wonder why reporting is so low?
What a change that 20-30 years makes in safety culture. Here in Canada we have the Transportation Safety Board that investigates accidents and incidents and by law their reports are inadmissible for Transport Canada enforcement or tort law cases.
1. A great video of a catastrophic & fatal helicopter wire strike video is on CZcams channel “What You Haven’t Seen”. It’s a helicopter stringing high voltage power lines from those very tall “Eiffel tower style” towers with at least 6 lines per tower. The copter uses this crazy giant needle device it has to thread 🧵 through each hole in the tower to begin stringing another section of line, which must require incredible skill and talent.
Unfortunately the needle got tangled with the tower and the wire became taut, at which point the helicopter was tethered to the ground and instantly became uncontrollable. The wire ultimately snapped with tremendous force and the pilot did an amazing job recovering from the wild swinging around this resulted in.
Sadly, the needle reached the end of the wire and violently whiplashed back towards the helicopter during this wild emergency maneuver, and suddenly the lines got kicked up into the main rotors and tail rotor and it was all over... the helicopter 🚁 did “the death rattle” so violently it broke into numerous pieces while it was only about 40’ AGL, the most absolute midair destruction of a helicopter I have ever seen. Even a hand grenade going off inside would not have caused this much destruction.
PS: The video includes a tremendous amount of trivial information from the NTSB analysis, the main videos are at both the beginning and ending 2 minutes each.
2. I am a remote pilot operating DJI drones as a hobbyist and I try to be as responsible as I can and I read everything fully including all manuals cover to cover, even the actual Congress legislation that governs drone hobbyist flights etc.
I live in a small city with a small 2 runway airport with mostly Cessnas but also some business LearJets, and a National Guard base.
However, a few times each year on average, I will witness an airplane flying WELL below the FAA 500’ uncongested area rule, and drones are allowed to legally fly up to 400’ AGL. This puts these lawless pilots on a potential collision course with my drones. Obviously I want to avoid any collision regardless of the fact I’d be the party who was flying legally at that altitude.
It seems like they’re just having fun or entertaining passengers with low altitude passes. But whenever I see this it makes me scared to fly my drones for days.
The first time I flew in the city nearer the airport, I called the airport manager as the original FAA rules advised (later removed), and I was surprised how lax he was in response to my call about flying my drone, but ESPECIALLY when I mentioned my concern that several local airplanes have been flying within 150-300’ AGL in my backyard where I fly my drone.
He basically just laughed a bit and blew it off like “haha, yeah.. they might have just been showboating, or something like that.” I was expecting him to react like I was giving a report to police.
What do you make of this? Is it really nothing to be concerned about? I know the odds are small of my drone causing a fatal wreck but still!
Further, about once a month we will have between 1-6 National Guard helicopters flying quite low like 200-350’ AGL over my backyard. Does that mean they are also breaking the FAA 500’ AGL minimum rule mentioned in the video? Should I be reporting this?
Are local airports typically “pilots best friends” who try to minimize anyone getting caught? The drone industry and DJI take potential drone strikes with manned aircraft EXTREMELY seriously like a matter of life and death. To fly anywhere within a few miles of a small airport, you need to do internet GPS-based authorization via identifying yourself and confirming via text to your cell phone to establish your identity and then must agree to numerous “I accept / I understand that etc etc”. If you fail to authorize or try to fly closer to the airport, the drone will either hit an “invisible wall in the sky” which it absolutely will refuse to fly beyond, or it will refuse to take off in the first place.
PS: I own a street/strip hotrod (mostly street) with 550HP so I’m no stranger to “showboating” etc. But when I take someone out for a ride to show them the power of wide open throttle, I always do it in a remote area where nobody is in sight and no traffic and no side-roads etc where someone could potentially pull out.
So yeah I can understand in the sense I would be pretty pissed if someone called and reported me for it because I wasn’t hurting anybody nor putting anyone at risk besides ourselves. But that seems a lot different than swooping down low over neighborhoods and dozens of houses.
Many pilots are idiots, but with money.
Helicopters have different rules than fixed wing aircraft. They can do what they want (but they aren't allowed to land just anywhere). The rules are spelled out in the Federal Air Regulations (in the US).
If you see a violation, you can call the Flight Standards District Office in your area. No airport operator is going to care.
The military answers only to the military. You can call the National Guard commander and complain, if that is what you want to do. He may do nothing. If that doesn't work, you can call your state representative and complain (not your federal representative, as I think they don't have the ability to perform a "congressional investigation" on a National Guard unit).
All in all, I understand your concern and annoyance, and if you do nothing but accept that the world is full of yahoos, you'll adjust your expectations.
Your complaints will probably be taken seriously, so don't over do it.
I totally KNEW it!!
I had no idea Mark David Chapman was an aviator!
Lots of crop dusting aircraft have a wire strike in their logs.
1:45 Didn't know those wires were strong enough to stop an airplane let alone carry one
There is a good reason that each section of the Aeronautical Charts have minimum altitudes for flights. It's to fly well above the highest obsticle in that sector. There is no excuse, except in rare circumstances, for a pilot to fly into guy wires.
Pilots who strike wires can expect the FAA to aggressively puruse and FAR violation. Wonder if that would hold true today with the compliance policy.
even if the pilot was dead, in the old days
My recurring dream is flying in a city and there are wires. Can't fly over them and there are wires below. Going between usually ends the dream. Weird. A friend, who retired from Delta said his recurring dream was a water landing.
That's Jerry Glanville!! You were a great football coach!!!
Stan Kakol “Just wind them up and let ‘em go!!”
Hey, hey, that’s what I thought, too.
You forgot sensational stock car racer, too. Oh, wait a minute...
@@sludge4125 LOL
2:50 Does that statistic actually mean what was described? The 70% is likely due to the majority of wires being below 100ft AGL. Its essentially the same as saying that at least 90% of all car crashes happen within 100km of your home. Its not cause driving near your home is dangerous, it's because the majority of people do not drive further that 100km from their home. Other than that great video, just try to check that your statistics are described truthfully.
Every public safety campaign ever misuses stats in exactly this way. I'm seeing the same thing with coronavirus. "50% of people hospitalized are under 60. Therefore we're all equally at risk." But wait aren't there way more people under 60? Shut-up stop thinking!
@@bhc1892 they so are. Honestly though, I don't fault them since they're doing their job at making a important point to the public. And yes, dumb c19 stat but it seems fair to scare people a little into doing the right thing, even if it's deliberately made to deceive.
Also, At 2:27 "Thousands of broken wires" unreported with
no wreckage compared to about 500 reported. Yer 75% severely damaged or destroyed aircraft at the conclusion ;- )
Wires should be equipped with a beacon that would give signal to aircraft transponder hence the pilot would avoid the wires
Hopefully the monopole structures my industry is specifying these days provide a more obvious visual than the old lattice structures.
Can;t wait for those wireless, monopole power distribution systems! :p
@@Nords555 going to be a long time.
You should put the year this was published in the description.
Maybe you should read the description you mouthbreather.
@@johncholmes643 The description has the year the press release, not of the video which may have more recent information. There is no need to be rude.
@@flagmichael
So just accept that as the date and get over it.
@@flagmichael I mean, its not a major motion film where principle photography is sat on for years while it's being edited. Its a thirteen minute safety instructional video. I think we can safely it was made in the same year it was released. lol
With that said, John Holmes is an overreactive pissbaby. lol
I’m curious if the numbers are lower now with education and awareness. I know GA flying still has a lot of safety issues that need better education, so I wonder if this was checked off the list.
Looks like a Members only jacket 😎
Wow, this one must be old! He felt the need to explain, with examples, why "electrical wires" are important. LOL
Also, "wires transmit most of our telephone conversations". That's definitely no longer the case. I haven't touched a corded phone (apart from the one at my job) in years. Even the connection between cities is likely to be fiber optic and not copper.
@@marc-andreservant201 Even your cellphone's calls are transmitted by cables. There is virtually no communication technology that is entirely wireless and part of modern communication networks. It is pretty much just the last mile that is wireless.
Wire you here watching this ?
I just remembered, another plain crashed across the street from the airport. Pilot didn't set the wire. Sheared the bottom of the plane. Most passengers fell out of the bottom of the plane. Several did not survive.
Another _plain_ what crashed? A _plain_ Jane ugly woman? Another flat expanse of land crashed across the street? One of those _plains_ or was it possibly a *plane* that crashed? 🙄
Complacency kills
Was this made after the lawsuit against So Cal power utility found that it was cheaper to pay beneficiaries than put up orange warning balls?
Reminds me of WWII barrage balloons
Reviewing satellite pics of the area might also be helpful. Google wasn’t around when this vid was made.
Balloonists have been killed hitting power lines, and when I was training with parachutes we lost one person that way too. But this really resonates with me because when I was learning to fly power I passed by a high radio tower and saw...something outside the corner of my eye. After landing an instructor mentioned that wires came out a long way from that structure. Oh. On the other hand, a member of our glider club carefully landed in a nice grass field he found. He flew a good pattern, kept the green in sight and smoothly slid in. Then he got out, turned around and noticed the power lines stretching to huge towers on either side of the field!
How did they go about testing that wire-strike protection cutter? At some point, it had to have been installed on a helicopter and a pilot flew it into wires. Who has a set of iron-clad male organs to test that out?
Look like it SHOULD work right ???
Iron man. He did that in a laboratory using huge elaborate machines that could turn you into paste if you got in the wrong place at the wrong time.
I can remember crop dusters landing with barbed wire fencing tangling in their undercarriage ... yeesh ...
0:40 I think you need an update on that one.
Wires are not the only thing that can snag a Chopper. Underbelly harnesses that dangle downwards that carry loads can be a danger as well. If not properly wound up or weighed down, depending on the rotor's downwash, and vortices created and prevailing winds or strong cross winds can whip up the loose harness up into the main rotor or tail rotor and cause an instant catastrophic event.
Not Good. The Pilot in Command also has to make sure the ground crews (fire crews, for example) are properly trained around Helicopters...
I have not flown in a while but as I recall my instructor warned me to always be on the lookout for power lines. I have a thought. All power line have a Hume as the power gooses through them. So a pick up of that hum sound like a fairly cheep way to help piolets out finding them. Now a raido has no power in them so it will not help there but the other line can be found. Am raido picks up hum as you go under them in your5 car. So it sounds like a simple job to make out a way to find them.
ADF will pick them up. But only high voltage AC transmission lines. Not high voltage DC transmission lines, not telephone lines, not data lines, not guy wires, and not the small lines at the top of transmission lines for lightning strikes.
2:20 I know that helicopter from anywhere. That's N911BL in the old hideous blue and yellow Compton police colors. That's helicopter was sold to Las Vegas Metro Police and converted into an F model in 1998.. It crashed In 2012 while practicing autos.
Hope the wires don't strike me. I have never flown and never will, so I got that going in my favor.
Dont forget balloonists that enjoy floating around helplessly at the mercy of the wind
That there is exactly why I'll never, ever, ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever (x1E99) get in an untethered balloon.
Maybe they should consider installing one of those wire strike protection cutters. 😎
Speaking as one of those balloonists, we're hardly helpless ;-) However, power lines are very much a concern for us as well. Another great video (of approximately the same vintage as above), focusing on the ballooning aspects of power lines, can be found at hotairballooning.org/community-resources/ And as a fun aside, this is a great video showing off what precision flight in a balloon can be like: czcams.com/video/W5lrvLpRzBo/video.html (I'm navigating one of the balloons in the background of a number of those shots)
@@SteeringWheelOperator back where I used to work everybody pitched in and bought a balloon ride for the boss in Hope's he'd float away and not comeback
At the end of 2021 there was a Lear jet accident with a wire... Don't know the details though.