Aviation Helmets

[Rob Sherlin]

  I've seen a post here (and have heard other people say outside of CAPTALK), that they'd rather have engine failure in a rotary wing craft, rather than a fixed wing. I know when I'm flying a sim, and I have good altitude, I can point the nose down, gain some airspeed and glide in (most of the time). I can't see doing that in a rotary wing.
  This also leads me to the thought........Most rotary wing pilots and crew I've seen wear helmets (even in the smaller craft), while most fixed wing pilots and aircrew (other than fighter pilots and some aerobatic flyers) don't
  There has to be a reason behind this! Am I not seeing something?

[heliodoc]

Mr Sherlin,

The wearing of helmets SPH-4, SPH-5,and HGU-56 series is a military, agency, and EMS aviation thing written into policy whether it is their crews or a contract crew such as wildland rotary and fixed wing retardant and water delivery.  The fixed wing arena such as Air Tractor operators for both fire and ag operations require helmets in their contracts also.  Some individual operators in these industries may wear helmet at their own discretion

Msr Flying Pig and SJ Fedor can comment further on the whys on their helmet wear.  But again it is policy and safety driven and they can fill you in on their agency reasoning.

The training of rotary wing pilots is pretty intense with autorotations being the primary recovery method for engine out and is as completely a safe operation as gliding a fixed wing to a safe landing

[NIN]

100% concur. 

In gliding a fixed wing aircraft to a landing, one arrives at the point of impact with a LOT of airspeed.  Let me just say that I'd really rather not have an unscheduled arrival in a car, with airbags and other neato safety equipment, at touchdown speeds, let alone doing it in a little aluminum spam can.

In a helicopter, however, when a power loss is recognized and reacted to (and honestly, that's half the battle right there), you can enter an autorotative descent where you flatten the collective pitch on the blades and use the aircraft's forward speed and weight to help "keep things turning" up top.  Most helicopters I'm aware of allow the pilot to carry more rotor RPM in an autorotative descent situation than you would in normal powered operation.  At the bottom of the autorotation, you begin to convert that stored energy in the rotor system (potential energy, if you will) into dynamics (kinetic energy) as you trade rotor RPM to nullify forward and vertical speed.

Done correctly, a helicopter can arrive, sans engine, at zero altitude and zero airspeed with plenty of rotor RPM remaining.  Try that in a plane!

[NIN]

Oh, I forgot to mention:

Helmets are worn because when things do go wrong in a helicopter, they go VERY wrong.  Also, helicopters are operated with doors opened, slow, close to obstacles, etc, and these environments demand a higher degree of protection.   Crewmembers move about the cabin, etc. 

And, with a typical helicopter "accident" you might roll the aircraft into a small aluminum ball, but if your melon is protected, its probably a survivable arrival.   

In many fixed wing accident cases, the addition of a brain bucket to the equation merely means that your hair will remain nicely coiffed for the funeral director....

BTW, while I've not had the pleasure of a fixed wing "unscheduled arrival," I have been in the aircraft for one or two autos in a helicopter (one or two that were not of the "lets train for autos" variety, mind you. One started out as a training event and wound up as a true touchdown auto... Surprise!)

[Rob Sherlin]

  Got it! That clears things up quite a bit.....Thanks!

[Flying Pig]

Often in the helicopter business, wearing the helmet is almost for what you are doing outside the helicopter.  Getting out on unstable ground, rocks, walking around in the wilderness.  We use them for visibility and have canary yellow helmets.   My helmet is covered in scratches and dings.   I spend a lot of time with my head stuck out of the window and am always hitting my helmet on the door frame.  Also, we have had bird strikes where the helmet and visor saved the flight officer.  Flying at 500ft vs 10,000 you inclined to hit a few more birds on occasion.

When doing SAR though, I would like to wear a lighter weight fixed wing helmet.  I have been in turbulence where my head has hit the door and it really hurt!  Could you imagine getting knocked out?

The thing about engine failures, In an airplane, you are still hitting the ground at 70 kts or so.  In a helicopter, if you dont get the auto just right.....your done.  As far as reasons?  I think it may be more of a culture also.  Helicopter pilots seem to have adopted the helmet as their trademark.

[flyerthom]

Commission of Accreditation of Medical Transport Systems  requires us to wear helmets. If you follow the news, 2008 has been one of the worst for HEMS accidents and fatalities.

Personally I find them to be a necessary discomfort. They are heavy and hot. Add NVG's and it's a guaranteed headache. Of course if something happens they significantly decrease my chances of assuming ambient air temperature. 

[Pumbaa]

Just remember.. when you lose your engine in a 172/182 you always have enough glide to reach the crash site!

[ol'fido]

Yeah , you'll probably beat the paramedics there by 20 minutes. Sorry, Ron White.

[RiverAux]

The other reason they're not worn in regular civilian aircraft such as we use is that the cockpits just aren't tall enough for someone to wear a helmet in.  Helicopters have a lot more headroom in general than your average Cessna. 

[Pumbaa]

I think we should make helmets mandatory and part of the uniform.

Should we start a uniform thread on this?

[Pylon]

I think we should make helmets mandatory and part of the uniform.

Should we start a uniform thread on this?

Only if you promise to spend 20 pages discussing what insignia should go on the helmet...   

[aveighter]

In many fixed wing accident cases, the addition of a brain bucket to the equation merely means that your hair will remain nicely coiffed for the funeral director....

Actually thats not quite true.  An analysis of post accident (small aircraft) mortality data (which I have had the opportunity to do) shows that a significant percentage of deaths are secondary to head trauma.  Other post crash injuries are oftentimes survivable.  Helmets would make a difference, there is no doubt.

Whether they take up too much room, cause fashion issues or threaten your manhood are unrelated arguments.

[NIN]

Whether they take up too much room, cause fashion issues or threaten your manhood are unrelated arguments.

Yeah, we have a sufficiently bad enough rep at the gas pumps just in our "zipper suited sun god" outfits, let alone some numb nut prancing around the local muni in an HGU-55....

[DNall]

Our helmets are a little different for obvious reasons, but IHAADS are custom fitted & cost $10k/ea. I'm not sure what the cost on a fixed wing helmet would cost, nothing close to that I imagine, but probably more than we want to make members spend. So, it's a risk decision, drive on.

There's also a hearing protection issue that's more prevelant in helos, and helmets tend to do a better job with that. I probably wouldn't want to wear a helmet in a fixed wing aircraft I'm not planning to be upside down in.

I think we should make helmets mandatory and part of the uniform.

Should we start a uniform thread on this?

Only if you promise to spend 20 pages discussing what insignia should go on the helmet...   

Ooh, ohh... optional stickers. No unicorns, hearts, butterflies, or glitter - unless you think that's discriminatory, in which case they are mandatory for everyone. But college stickers are cool. Just ask half my BN.

[Flying Pig]

The helmet I wear is about $2000.  Its an MSA Gallet.  It has a set of ear plugs that come with it that fit in to a plug on the back of the helmet.  That way, you are listening to the radio though the ear plugs and not the head phones that surround your ear.  it allows you to keep the volume WAAAAY down and they act as ear plugs for outside noise.  They are not ANR (Active Noise Reduction).  Ive had an ANR helmet before and wasnt to impressed.

[CAPLAW]

I wear a USAF FLIGHT HELEMET I purchased off ebay.When I fly as a CAP observer I have not had a problem with height inside the cockpit of the 182.

[heliodoc]

^^^^^^ :clap: :clap: :clap:

[Flying Pig]

I wear a USAF FLIGHT HELEMET I purchased off ebay.When I fly as a CAP observer I have not had a problem with height inside the cockpit of the 182.

So your that guy??? :clap:

[PHall]

I wear a USAF FLIGHT HELEMET I purchased off ebay.When I fly as a CAP observer I have not had a problem with height inside the cockpit of the 182.

You're trusting your melon to a helmet you brought off E-Bay?  You are a trusting soul.