It's very sad that he had such a poor attention to detail in terms of his logbooks and licence:
"The pilot did not hold a valid flying licence or a valid type rating for G-CBHL (or indeed for any type of helicopter), and had not done so for a considerable time, in contravention of Articles 26 and 29 of the Air Navigation Order. The type rating could only be renewed by passing an LPC on the helicopter type. The LPC was a check of the pilot?s continuing competence and fitness to hold the type rating, and included handling of simulated emergency scenarios such as engine failures and hydraulic system malfunctions. Therefore, the lack of a current type rating was relevant to the continued safe operation of the helicopter.
The investigation into the pilot?s licensing history revealed several cases, between 2004 and the time of the accident, of non-compliance with existing regulations. When the pilot flew from Scotland to London in March 2006, he would have known that his type rating had expired, since the purpose of the flight was to meet with an examiner to renew it. Therefore, whilst the flying licence lapse could possibly be explained by confusion over validity periods, and may be seen as an administrative oversight by the pilot, the same is unlikely to be true of the type rating."
"Under existing regulations, the pilot was required to maintain details of each of his flights in a personal flying logbook, which he did until March 2004. Although he continued to fly regularly, individual entries ceased after this date, being replaced with block entries of flying time (presumably transferred from the helicopter?s technical records) and entries out of sequence. There was only one entry for 2005, a Licence Proficiency Check (LPC) on 3 May 2005, which was to renew his AS350B2 type rating; after this, the pilot closed the logbook. No other logbooks, either hard copy or electronic, were found. Archived pages from G-CBHL?s technical log provided a record of the pilot?s flying hours in the helicopter until 27 May 2007, at which time the pilot had a total of about 900 flying hours, including 440 hours in G-CBHL."
Edited by oldnotbold on 12/02/2009 at 14:07
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All the out pourings of grief and tales of what a lovely man he was at the time yet now we learn that he didn't give a fig about the rules and regulations, put in place to protect himself and, more importantly , others .
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I must admit, I was disappointed to learn that he was slap-dash in his record keeping. He would not have got away with rallying without an appropriate licence.
However, the report also states that CMcR was a more than competant pilot, so the lack of a piece of paper should not have caused the crash, just as much as it would not have saved their lives had he had one.
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The report also states he flew lower than regulations allow, and theres is implied criticism of his rather cavalier and spetacular manouevers in the fatal flight.
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"so the lack of a piece of paper should not have caused the crash, just as much as it would not have saved their lives had he had one."
Agree, there is too much reliance on whether the correct piece of paper is held in too many things imo.
If the report states he was a more than competent pilot that bit of paper wouldnot have made any difference.
RIP
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What delightful company you must be, X, always so jolly and good-natured, always looking on the bright side. I bet your appearance clears your local pub in seconds. Or perhaps you have found a coterie of like minds?
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At least its cheap when its his tiurn to buy a round Lud.
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Mr x is allowed his feelings an opinions.
They may not agree with every body, the same as I dont always. Opinions formed by ones self are probably better in many ways than those just folowing the majority opinion without any real thought or comment of their own.
Dont agree with you Mr x but please carry on ! I remember your recent comment about the moral high ground in here. I think its re appearing!
But once we all have to agree then its the wrong place for all !
But this is not the post to slate anybody !
Make a fresh post if you want to snipe at anybody!
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Used to see Colin, Alister, Malcolm Wilson(I think) and Murray Grierson flying around in their helicopters spectating at car rallies in Galloway. I often wondered why there were no controls over flying and landing. They did seem to play about a lot.Fly close to one another and land in small clearings in dense forestry.
This is an observation not critisism of what I saw happen I was pretty upset when I heared about the accident. Colin was one of my sporting heroes plus to lose the lives of children is tragic.
Edited by loskie on 12/02/2009 at 15:07
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i think this excert from the report is particularly damming as it seems to discribe a pilot 'showing off'.
"During the periods of flight captured on the video recording, the helicopter did not fly above 500 ft agl, and it was considerably lower for most of the time. Other aspects of the pilot?s handling of the aircraft were noteworthy: these included instances of very low flying, valley flying and other manoeuvres, as described below.
On the outbound flight the helicopter flew as low as 155 ft over open farmland, as indicated by the altimeter and, at one point, it flew over farm buildings at a height estimated from the video to be 275 ft. The pilot then rolled the helicopter rapidly into a brief but steeply banked right turn, before reversing the turn to the left, at which point a true indicated height of 335 ft was recorded.(1)
When the helicopter departed from the farm on the accident fight, the pilot flew a ?zoom? climb(2), before descending into a narrow, steep-sided valley, next to the town of Larkhall. The valley is about 250 ft deep, and densely packed with trees along its length. This section of the recording showed the helicopter flying over trees at the valley?s edge at speed, with a separation from the trees estimated from the video
Footnote
(1) Rule 5 of the Rules of the Air Regulations 2007 prohibits any aircraft from being flown closer than 500 ft to any person, vessel, vehicle or structure.
(2) A steep climb, in which aircraft speed is exchanged for height.footage at between 20 ft and 30 ft. It then pitched nose-down and descended into the valley, coming into similar proximity to trees on each side and below. The pilot then flew a further zoom climb out of the valley, which was seen by witnesses on the ground. The passengers appeared to enjoy the manoeuvre, with laughs and shouts audible on the video.
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Just been trying to read this report, only for a Service Unavailable notice to appear on-screen.
Edit
Service now back.
Edited by Stuartli on 12/02/2009 at 15:13
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My father (40 years RN, senior Captain) had a 10% theory.
You can get away with taking risks, and doing things slightly sloppily, so long as no one area is more than 10% down. When too many things are more than 10% below the normal level, the chance of a foul-up increases quickly.
McRae was way out of date for his proficiency checks (LPC), the passing of which grants a type-rating - these are in place to ensure that pilots are up to date, and using the correct techniques for normal and emergency procedures. As we can see, this was not the first time he'd fallen out of date - it was perhaps the third or fourth. What does that say - cocky, arrogant - I'm better than the rest and I don't need checking, perhaps?
Ditto the log-book issues - for the sale of 30 seconds per flight, why not? Again, there is an implied arrogance and sloppyness there.
I'd have expected far better from him- and I know that the McRae legal team have been working very hard to water-down the report to minimise the impact on him.
I followed my Dad and flew rotary in the RN - I can not imagine how anyone with Mcrae's money and success could act as he did - it was totally avoidable.
Edited by oldnotbold on 12/02/2009 at 15:25
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If I want to drive on our roads, I have to have all the correct pieces of paper ... MOT, Insurance, Driving Licence.
Doesn't matter how good my driving is ( or I THINK it is ) I have to have the paper.
If I don't, the police are there to make sure I cease driving or go to prison.
Looks like those in charge of allowing people to take to the air need to introduce some tougher checks and penalties.
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Same in the RAF - must have been in the flight simulator within the last 30 days, must have a simulator trip before flying an aircraft when returning from leave, annual medical, currency checks, check flights with squadron supervisors, annual blind flying test (Instrument Rating) Anything out of order = no flying until sorted. Same sort of reguirements for McRae, up to a point, but no infrastructure to ensure compliance.
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With regards to the issue of bits of paper and whether important or not.
The fact is he wasnt authorised/qualified/licenced/used to flying this type of chopper.
To those who think a piece of paper isnt important i give you a scenario.
Your flying at 36000 feet in Boeing 747 when your told the two pilots are not licenced to fly the 747 but only the Boeing 737.
I assume that would cause you no problem.
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Not surprising, is it, really? As in so many well-sponsored 'sports', the ones at or near the top are subject to different rules from the rest. Must be something to do with plenty of money and access to effective lawyers.
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Given the circs, most notably two dead children, what purpose is served by this discussion on a motoring forum? Yes I do know that Colin McRae was a former rally driver.
I'm sure a quick Google search will throw up helicopter forums for those wishing to continue the debate.
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Spot on Nsar. So sharing the same thoughts this thread is about to be locked.
A tragedy happened a while ago and this debate/discussion in my opinion is inappropriate. He dies along with others in the accident and this lack of paperwork probably not the cause. Who knows.
Aanyway debate it elsewhere. Thread now locked.
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