While we might not be Star Trek and “go where no man has gone”, the places you’ll land your ultra-light helicopter may make this true. Landing and taking off in places where airplanes don’t go is one of the great adventures we realize with helicopters. This means we should be more responsible than some pilots when clearing landing areas and the surrounding environment, knowing the ingress/egress to a landing spot and the actual composition of the dirt and its slope or smoothness.
Hazards like power lines or telephone lines may not be likely around an airport runway, these things are always considered when building airport runways where you’ll often be operating your ultra-light helicopter. The pavement is usually pretty level, may not have loose debris that can be stirred up by the rotor or affect your visibility in a helicopter. This makes airports the best training sites to start your helicopter skills, but operating your ultra-light helicopter off-airport is just as important for us to know how to assess the area risks and the ability to get in and out safely on our adventures.
There are a number of instructional videos on YouTube and probably some acronyms to help us remember the inventory of checks we should do operating helicopters, but it’s also important to always apply common sense, helicopter pilot sense. Find your own pre-approach inventory that raises the score for you personally. If we think about the approach to land, touching down and lifting off, exit path and the prevailing winds, we start thinking about what’s going to be important to see or find to stay safe operating our helicopter. Find them, the risks along each step, and be prepared for each with an alternative so you’re ready to make the call early. What-ifs are great here. What if I encounter a power line I didn’t see, what if there’s a big rock in the spot where I planned to set down, what if the small trees are now tall enough to encounter the main rotor, what if I can’t make enough power on climb out. Thinking through these can provide the second step needed for each one as the safe out, should they come true.
Thinking about the approach to the spot you’ll fly your helicopter and how you’ll escape is a great way to look at surrounding terrain slopes, power lines & telephone lines or other hazards along the desired path in or out. Trees often mask things well, especially power lines or cables. They’re not always on tall towers, sometimes they’re following a road or trail through dense vegetation and the only evidence is where some gaps might exist in the trees. How steep is the approach, how slow will I have to be to hit the spot and how slow can I descend to assure performance. Forearmed is forewarned so just thinking through the different elements to get in and out is a great start toward bringing you and your ultra-light helicopter home safely.
Keep your adventures safe and go to all the places you intended when you started flying helicopters. Make the place you “go where no man has gone” be the spot you land on, not an unanticipated encounter with your new helicopter.