Helicopter Flight Information

Does your instructor have you flying low on Fuel?

I have heard these stories countless times by students coming from other schools. Often they ask me if this is normal, and they speak of instructors who made light of the situation or even laughed and joked about it. I have even heard stories of practice forced landings or autorotations that suddenly became the real thing. Many students feel that this among other unsafe factors are the price they must pay or the risk they must take to achieve their goal. This may be true from a convenience standpoint alone, but the truth is, you do have other options.

The NTSB accident data base is full of accidents which were the result of fuel exhaustion. The vast majority of these accidents are fatal; why then, do so many people push this event? An actual emergency is created when the aircraft is low on fuel; not out of fuel, but low on fuel. This is the stupidest occurrence in helicopter aviation since a helicopter can be landed virtually anywhere. Why is this so common?

• Foolhardy instructors not taking aviation and flight training serious ultimately risking YOUR LIFE! This ultimately passes on the same attitude to others.

• Poor planning

• Trying to save costs of fueling

• Get-home-itis - wanting to fuel at home base.

• Just plain not paying attention

• Trying to save face - to save from embarrassment of having been dangerously low on fuel.

It is not worth dying for! How then can you eliminate this situation? First and foremost, take your own life more seriously and don't let some moron risk it. Complain to the school where this occurred and get something done about it. If that don't work, go to a different school; it is your life at risk, can you put a price on that? If nothing else works, make a formal complaint with the FAA about the situation.

Some rules of thumb for flying with a safe reserve.

• Know the burn rate of the aircraft you are flying and know how much fuel you left with.

• Do not blindly trust a fuel gage that you have not personally verified as accurate.

• Inquire as to the last verification of the fuel indicator accuracy.

• Never, never, never see the required reserve as an optional use quantity to get you back to base or home. The required reserve is that which you are required to plan to land with. Anything less is negligence.

• Know the fuel system of the aircraft you are flying in detail.

• Obtain a piece of clean doweling from a hardware store to use as your actual measuring device to verify for yourself the accuracy of the fuel indicators on the aircraft you will be flying.

• Know how many gallons the required reserve equates to in the aircraft you are flying, and know what level this is in the tank. This is how much fuel you must land with if you have met planning requirements. This is a safety reserve, not a get-home reserve.

Do your part to help weed out the bad instructors who don't take safety and aviation as a whole serious and who are consequently risking the lives of others by teaching poor technique and bad habits.

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Last modified: 08/24/10