F A T O

[Flying Pig]

Final Approach Take Off Certified!

WooHooo....I am now a Cal-Trans FATO designee.  O bruther!...What load of bureaucratic red tape.  Excluding emergencies any helicopter landing on or within 1000 ft. of a K-12 school must have a site survey performed by a rep from the Cal Trans bureau of Aeronautics or a law enforcement officer trained and designated by cal trans.  Do any other states have this requirement?  I recall somewhere a dad landed his kid on his first day of school in his helicopter.


Pursuant to Public Utilities Code (PUC) Section 21662.5, no helicopter may land or depart in any area within 1,000 feet of the boundary of any public or private school maintaining kindergarten classes or any classes in grades 1 through 12 without approval of either the Department or a public safety agency designated by the Department. This law does not apply if the landing or departure takes place at a permanent heliport that has a valid Heliport Permit issued by the Department or the site is a designated emergency medical service landing site being used for emergency medical operations.

Anyone proposing to land a helicopter at such a site must submit a completed Helicopter Landing Authorization-Application (Form DOA 0204, Rev. 5/97) to the Department or the designated public safety agency at least 2 weeks prior to the proposed landing. Upon receipt of the completed application, the Department, or the designated public safety agency, will contact the helicopter operator and school officials to schedule a site evaluation and coordination inspection. The inspector will issue a Helicopter Landing Authorization after this inspection if the inspector is confident that the helicopter operations can be conducted in a safe manner.

[bosshawk]

Rob: you either don't work enough or you have too much energy and your wife wants to keep you out of the house.

[RiverAux]

Seems like an odd rule to have.  Just what sort of things are you supposed to be looking for on these surveys?  I can't think of anything about landing near a school that would be any different than landing other places, except perhaps for seeing if there is some sort of physical barrier present that would prevent kids from running over to the helicopter and getting whacked.

[High Speed Low Drag]

Brother Blue, WTH?  You been sniffing a little too much Breakfree?  I know - you've been wearing your shoulder hoslter too tightly again, haven't you?  I think you need a little asphalt time pushing a sled with over 175,000 and a broken front seat again.

But - Congrats!

[Flying Pig]

I was more poking fun at myself than anything else.

Its not another duty.  If I do one, its while Im working.  So it isnt taking any time away.  When you do the surveys, you are looking for approach and take off routes, obstacles, looking for any unusual conditions on the ground.  They didnt want helicopters dropping into schools without someone on the ground looking at it first and documenting the findings.  You have  form where the Principle has to authorize it, and then you do a sketch showing the compass headings in and out and the route the pilot is to fly when he comes in.  You have to be an LE Pilot to do the survey.  And what RIver said, that is a big part of it.  Making sure the spectator areas are set up and just evaluating the over all safety.  You get an inclinometer and a compass to make sure the helicopter can fly a proper glide slope into the LZ.  At a school, you have to fly a normal approach.  No Max Power take offs or landings.  I can see its usefulness. 

For example, when the local EMS company does their simulated DUI crash scene at the local High School, we do the site survey and help them set up the simulated car crash and tell the helicopter where it needs to land based on obstructions, etc. I saw one once where the site survey wasnt done and the helicopter couldnt land because the crash scene was in such a confined area.  The people who set it up had no idea how big or small the helicopter was.   Sorta screwed up the scenario when the helo flew away without the patient.