Because helicopters fly at lower altitudes where fog is a significant safety hazard, pilots must be extremely cautious to avoid flying into fog-prone conditions. Any time the temperature and dew point are within 4 degrees of each other, extra caution is utilized.
Helicopters need to stay out of flight paths used by fixed wing aircraft and tend to follow more irregular paths, such as highways. When flying in dense clouds, the absence of visible ground markers, even if there is decent instrumentation, increases the risk of pilot disorientation, even for experienced pilots.
All helicopters are able to fly in the rain, the water droplets do basically nothing to the aircraft and the machines ability to fly is not inhibited at all. The rain does however affect the pilot's ability to see outside depending on the rain's intensity. This concept is known as 'flight visibility'.
As a general rule, helicopters can fly in most bad weather; however, there are exceptions to this rule. For instance, helicopters are unable to fly inside of clouds when the temperatures are in the freezing range. Nor can they land safely in dense fog or other low-ceiling situations.
With an overcast sky or no moon and without sufficient lighting, the horizon is invisible and it becomes impossible to visually maintain control of the helicopter. These are instrument flying conditions for which the pilot is not trained and does not have the necessary equipment. On top of that, it is illegal to do so.
The Effects. The part of the helicopter struck is almost always the main or tail rotor blades. Although the immediate effect on safety has so far appeared to be limited, the amount of damage caused has often been high with affected rotor blades found after flight to be beyond repair and rectification expensive.
To answer the question simply, yes, a helicopter can fly to the top of Mount Everest. A helicopter-based summit to the top of Everest has been successful as well. In 2005, Didier DelSalle flew to the top of Mount Everest.
The answer, based on a TPG analysis of a decade of safety data: Like almost every other mode of transportation, flying in a helicopter is considerably more dangerous than airline travel. But it's far safer than riding in a car.
Each helicopter has a maximum endurance of approx two hours. The aeroplanes can stay airborne twice as long as the helicopters, and have been known to remain in the air on operational tasks for over eight hours.
Humans are not physically designed to fly. We cannot create enough lift to overcome the force of gravity (or our weight). It's not only wings that allow birds to fly. Their light frame and hollow bones make it easier to counteract gravity.
Question: How do pilots avoid anvil-head clouds and other signs of thunderstorms while flying at night? Answer: Pilots use onboard weather radar to remain clear of thunderstorms during day and night operations. Lightning is actually easier to see at night, which shows the pilots the location of the storm.
Airline pilots will normally take action to avoid any cumulonimbus clouds, but particularly those bearing mammatus formations, as these indicate especially severe turbulence within the cumulonimbus.
In usual situations, Air Traffic Control and Pilots can maneuver aircraft movements through maps and visual cues. However, when fog hits the airport and visibility drop under 600 meters, airports switch to Low Visibility Procedures or LVPs. These LVPs ensure more space and time on the airfield for safe operations.
The BK117, the helicopter we fly most, has one particular wind-related limitation: It is unsafe to start up or shut down in wind speeds over 50 knots (about 90 km/h) due to the risk of the overhead blade striking another part of the aircraft when it's rotating at a low speed.
Depends on the type of helicopter. Some attack helicopters such as the AH-64 and Mi-24 have bulletproof windows, most non-attack helicopters have not (except some VIP transport helicopters).
The fatality rate of helicopter crashes is 31%. Poor. If you're in a helicopter that has actually crashed, you can be severely injured by the impact, by parts of the helicopter that break apart and by fire.
Helicopter operations are much less complex than that of airplanes, but they require a greater skill level and demand more airmanship. Most of a professional fixed-wing pilot's time is spent in the flight levels above FL180 (Flight Level 180; 18,000 feet).
If the helicopter engine fails and nothing is done, the rotors will stop. So we need something else to prevent the decay of the rotor RPM, and we need it quickly. So long as we can restore the rotor RPM, the helicopter will keep flying – it will not fall out of the sky and crash.
The summits of the world's 14 tallest mountains are all found in what is ominously known as the “death zone,” which is typically identified as 8,000 metres (26,000 feet) above sea level. At these altitudes, the oxygen levels are insufficient to sustain human life for an extended period.
The Pacific Ocean is a massive body of water that will require an extremely large amount of fuel to fly across. Rather than flying directly across the Pacific Ocean, most commercial flights take curved routes because they are actually shorter than shooting straight across a distance.
When the helicopter surpasses its maximum operating envelope, the helicopter becomes incredibly unstable. It is likely to pitch upward and roll to the left. The blades may also stall, causing the helicopter to become powerless.
Careful engineering protects them. Most plane bodies are made of aluminum, which conducts electricity around the shell of the plane without letting it in, according to Lightning Technologies, Inc. Electronics and navigation equipment are grounded and protected from electrical surges.
Two Ohioans made the first successful crossing of the Atlantic Ocean in a helicopter. In 1953, Harold Moore, a native of Cincinnati, and Harry C. Jeffers, who was from Newark, left Westover Air Force Base in Massachusetts in two Sikorsky H-19 helicopters, which were named Hopalong and Whirl-o-Way.
Unlike strong winds, lightning doesn't really pose a problem for pilots, as planes have in-built protection against electricity and can fly unscathed through thunderstorms.