Driving home with the wife last night we saw a Schweitzer helicopter taking off from a field. She looked over and said, "That's a really tiny helicopter!" I, while thinking that I'd take it in a heartbeat but wanting to get laid at least once more in my life, said, "Yup, its very small, you sure are right." and then took her the rest of the way home. After that I headed out to fly the 180 around for a while. Eventually I had to call it a day and so pointed it back toward KBVS.
The wind was favoring the smaller of the two runway's, 22. At BVS, the approach ends of 22 and 29 begin at very close to the same point, basically a vee shape. I set myself up for landing on 22 but kept it high, then slipped in with pretty much the right pedal mashed to the floor. When I rolled out of that slip I was very low and extremely surprised to see that very same Schweitzer helicopter, dead level with me and about 100' straight off of the nose and it was no longer the slightest bit tiny. Obviously the hard right turn and go-around went off well and here I am to tell the tale.
During my second approach, the helo did contact me. Apparently his radios were not working too well.
So my thought is this, he wasn't in the wrong, no radios required. I was checking for traffic like crazy and I'm sure he was as well. I also was not in the wrong technically speaking but I also could have done things differently. I was slipping left wing low, the side that the most acute traffic conflict could, and did, come from, the approach end of 29. I could just as easily have slipped right wing low and have had my vision of the approach end of 11, one mile away, blocked instead. I have often looked for some criteria for which way to slip and now have a new thing to consider. Just thought I'd share.

Thanks for sharing, that's a good point to be aware of which wing is down in a slip.

Helicopters fly lower patterns (Army, at least) too, which fortunately deconflicts most of the pattern but unfortunately makes them harder to pick out, being below the horizon.

Glad yours was just a close call and not worse!

Forward slip to lose altitude doesn't care if we change sides on the way down. In side slip into crosswind, we can over bank to move upwind a bit and then level to see the other side.

Standard pattern we teach for helicopter is 500'. Most towered airports specify an altitude and pattern to separate fixed from fling. And lots of radio if an uncontrolled field and in the way of the fixed guys that can only use the runway. Survival odds on a midair favor the airplane.

There seems to be a lot of helicopter ops at Skagit, in spite of there no longer being a helo school there.
Based there, I assume, as I used to see those towable landing platforms pulled out in front of Corporate Air all the time.
I'm curious if that helo was landing, taking off, or just "hoovering"?
Either way,appropriate radio calls would have increased safety, as is usually the case.

Re slips, I've never felt the need to do a hard slip in a Cessna which had 40 degrees of flaps available.
A better descent-enhancer for me is to pull the nose up to about halfway between normal approach speed and stall speed--
it'll come down like the proverbial rock then.
Of course, with the nose way up like that your forward viz is somewhat diminished -- just like in your slip.

Karmutzen wrote:Standard pattern we teach for helicopter is 500'. Most towered airports specify an altitude and pattern to separate fixed from fling. And lots of radio if an uncontrolled field and in the way of the fixed guys that can only use the runway. Survival odds on a midair favor the airplane.

Army uses 700' AGL

The main thing with helicopter or Ag ops is to stay away from normal traffic, go slow, and look left right up down. We are in aircraft designed for good visibility.

flyingzebra wrote:Driving home with the wife last night we saw a Schweitzer helicopter taking off from a field. She looked over and said, "That's a really tiny helicopter!" I, while thinking that I'd take it in a heartbeat but wanting to get laid at least once more in my life, said, "Yup, its very small, you sure are right." and then took her the rest of the way home. After that I headed out to fly the 180 around for a while. Eventually I had to call it a day and so pointed it back toward KBVS.
The wind was favoring the smaller of the two runway's, 22. At BVS, the approach ends of 22 and 29 begin at very close to the same point, basically a vee shape. I set myself up for landing on 22 but kept it high, then slipped in with pretty much the right pedal mashed to the floor. When I rolled out of that slip I was very low and extremely surprised to see that very same Schweitzer helicopter, dead level with me and about 100' straight off of the nose and it was no longer the slightest bit tiny. Obviously the hard right turn and go-around went off well and here I am to tell the tale.
During my second approach, the helo did contact me. Apparently his radios were not working too well.
So my thought is this, he wasn't in the wrong, no radios required. I was checking for traffic like crazy and I'm sure he was as well. I also was not in the wrong technically speaking but I also could have done things differently. I was slipping left wing low, the side that the most acute traffic conflict could, and did, come from, the approach end of 29. I could just as easily have slipped right wing low and have had my vision of the approach end of 11, one mile away, blocked instead. I have often looked for some criteria for which way to slip and now have a new thing to consider. Just thought I'd share.

I want to commend you on a very thoughtful response to a potentially very bad situation. A lot of folks would fly off the handle, want to wup some ass, etc. Instead you're looking at it in the right light, in my opinion, which is one of "it takes two to tango" if you will, and started a good discussion about solutions.

Good job!

Yes, all that, plus it was funny as hell, the way you told about the tiny helicopter getting much larger, HA! Good job all around.

There's a helicopter flight school at KFNL with some of those same Schweizer "bugs". All sorts of aberrant things happen, as can be expected of students, so when I go there and they're up, I tend to be extra careful. The most aberrant thing is that many of the students pick reporting points that don't tell anyone where they really are--and I'm not sure that they know where they are, either.

Good story, and it looks like you handled the whole issue well (like you said, you're here to tell of it).

For myself, I hardly ever slip, except to compensate for a crosswind. I don't like slips, passengers don't like slips, and with 40 flaps available, I just don't need them much.

Cary

Thanks for sharing. We have a bunch of heli traffic at my field (they do right traffic) and one has to keep the head on the swivel.

hotrod180 wrote: I've never felt the need to do a hard slip in a Cessna which had 40 degrees of flaps available..

+1 I cant remember the last time I used a slip in the 180. In the cub yes, but pretty much no need in the wagon. I keep a super tight pattern, pop 40 degrees, pitch for 55mph from TPA and sink on in. Super slow, stabilized, and drops like a rock. A hard slip in the Wagon with flaps can blank out the horizontal and make for a bad day. LOL