Utilities / Aviation Specialists
Stay in the yellow!Training:
Utility Flight Operations - Parts I & II
Utility Flight Operations is a TWO-DAY course
which must be taken together on CONSECUTIVE days.
Part I is a single full-day training course designed to train pilots and patrolmen to work together as a team and is applicable to all utility helicopter operations in the wire and obstruction environment. The course establishes basic awarenesses vital to safe low-level utility operations.
Summary of course contents (slight changes may occur due to audience needs):
- How risk enters into utility flight operations
- Applied situational awareness on patrol
- Basic awareness utility crews must have and maintain while operating in the wire and obstruction environment
- Understanding your exposure to the wire and obstruction environment
- Utility helicopter accident analysis
- Crew Resource Management: what the pilot and linemen need to do to act together as a crew in the wire and obstruction environment
- Why the patrolman is so important regarding safety during patrol operations
- The responsibilities of each crew member
- In-flight communications
- Flight critical information all patrolmen/lineman have that they seldom use
- Where the wire and obstruction environment really is
- Dynamics of the wire environments
- Traps waiting for untrained patrol crews
- Visibility engineering: what you can and cannot see and why
- How patrol crews can forecast the presence of wire long before they can actually see it
- Illusions while on patrol in the wire environment: what causes them and how to manage them
- The high wire reconnaissance: how it differs from a regular recon
- Additional dangers during patrol operations
- How patrol crews allow the accident chain to develop
Part II of the Utility Flight Operations course takes all the main points established in Part I and goes into much greater detail on how and why utility helicopter accidents happen to experienced flight crews. It starts with a review of basic awareness techniques taught in Part I but expands the flight crew's skill level by addressing the other flight-critical issues such as human factors, decision making on patrol, and accident causation in the wire and obstruction environment.
Summary of course contents (slight changes may occur due to audience needs):
- A review of the basic awareness low-level flight crews must have and maintain while operating in the wire and obstruction environment
- A detailed look at which factors work against safe operations while operating in the wire and obstruction environment
- Why the lineman is often in the best position to stop an accident from happening
- Communications breakdown: how to spot it and stop it in time to prevent an accident
- How short-term memory loss causes accidents during utility flight operations and how to short circuit it
- How to scan in the wire environment effectively
- Analyzes actual utility accidents, how crews allowed the accident chain to develop, and what the crew should have done in time to prevent the accident from happening
- How the loss of one or more of basic awareness techniques led to an accident
- Human factors responsible for patrol and utility accidents
- Expanding your knowledge on "Visibility Science"
- Advanced wire and hazard forecasting
- What tools you have that work in your favor in the wire and obstruction environment
- Pre-flight preparation for utility flight operations
- Staying in “Condition Yellow”
- Pinch points
- Minimum distances for safe helicopter approach
- Noise abatement
- Emergency procedures
- Utility flight crew qualifications
- Spotting hazardous attitudes before it is too late
- Basic survival in the event of an accident or forced landing
- Why standard operating procedures are vital to a utility flight crew
COURSE CATALOG:
Click on the images below to learn more about a particular safety training course or contact us for other options.
Flying in the Wire & Obstruction Environment (FIWOE)
Foundational course for all audiences that other more specialized editions are built upon.
Online FIWOE & CRM Edition
Designed for all audiences and as a summary course for recurrent students.
Specialized FIWOE Editions:
Agriculture Edition
Aerial Firefighting Edition
Aerial Line Work Edition
Utility Flight Ops Edition
EMS edition
Lineman / Trim CRM Edition
Low Level CRM Edition
