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:

A helicopter pilot nearly ran out of fuel during a night training flight due to a silent GPS failure, compounded by copilot navigation errors, strong winds, and the pilot's initial decision to bypass an earlier, safer fuel stop.
After multiple navigational corrections and facing critically low fuel warnings, the pilot executed an emergency off-airport landing in a cow pasture, narrowly avoiding a catastrophic fuel exhaustion mid-flight.
The crew's predicament was resolved by a stroke of luck: the farmer on whose property they landed was related to the local refueler, who promptly arrived to supply fuel.
The incident highlights critical lessons in aviation safety, including the necessity of rigorous pre-flight planning, continuous navigation cross-checking, effective crew resource management, and prioritizing immediate safety over mission convenience.

See a mistake? Contact us.

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.