I Learned About Flying From That: Lady Luck

Sam Dawson

Friday, March 15, 2013 at 11:36 PM ET

Verified

** To see more of Barry Ross' aviation art, go
to barryrossart.com.**

Key Takeaways:

An instructor pilot, co-pilot, and crew chief flying a helicopter at night experienced multiple navigation errors, including a GPS failure and co-pilot mistakes, leading to critically low fuel over the Florida panhandle.
With fuel almost depleted, the pilot made a timely decision to perform an off-airport landing in a cow pasture, which fortuitously led to a rapid refueling thanks to a local farmer's connection.
The incident highlighted crucial lessons: the need for thorough pre-flight review, avoiding pilot task saturation, prioritizing traditional navigation over potentially faulty GPS, effective crew resource management, and knowing when to make an emergency landing rather than pushing on.

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How did I get myself into this position? Here I was in a $6 million helicopter, just minutes from running out of fuel, at night, over the swamps of the Florida panhandle. I was beginning to imagine the headlines that would greet my wife and children. “Sir, we’ve got about 10 minutes of gas,” my crew chief said. The airport was probably 10 minutes away.

The mission started off well. Our National Guard unit in Georgia was tasked to provide helicopter support to the U.S. Army’s Ranger Training Battalion at Eglin Air Force Base for a long weekend. As an instructor pilot in the Sikorsky UH-60, I would fly down ahead of time to coordinate the mission. En route, I would finish the night vision goggle training of a new pilot. First, however, I would have to finish my day job as a captain for a regional airline.