vhaac11b220

Robinson Safety Course Coming Up in Chesapeake Virginia

Tue, 21 Apr 2026 01:18:20 GMT

Hampton Roads Helicopters to Host RHC Safety Course at KPVG, Sept 21-25 2026

September 21-25, 2026, Hampton Roads Helicopters will be hosting a Robinson Factory Safety Course. The Safety Course is the same one taught at the Robinson Factory, and will be taught by Robinson Instructors. This course is a great refresher on lots of material specific to Robinson Helicopters, and offers a unique opportunity to engage and fly with Robinson Test Pilots and Instructors.

Many insurance companies will either require the RHC Safety Course, or offer discounts to pilots that have completed this course. If you haven't before, make sure to specifically inquire with your insurance company if they can offer a discount for completion of the course. For those who use the Robinson Starr insurance program, this flight automatically counts as your annual flight with an insurance auditor. Also, for any individuals who have purchased a new Robinson helicopter in the last few years, this will fulfill the requirement in your purchase addendum to complete the Robinson Factory Safety Course before carrying passengers in your helicopter.

If you have any desire to fly Robinsons for work, many companies will make factory training a requirement, or at least a huge benefit to see on an application.

Even if you have been to the course before, the material is continually updated and you will find the content engaging and useful. Especially if you have not been to the course in the last 3 years, the content has been rapidly expanding since then.

The course consists of 2.5 days of ground instruction, taught by Robinson instructors, covering a wide range of topics. After the ground course, there is an approximately 1.5 hour flight with one of the Robinson Test pilots. This flight can be counted towards an SFAR/BFR if you wish.

The course will be offered in both the R22 and R44. The ground sessions are combined and share material, with the main difference being which aircraft you will fly during the flight portion. The course will be held at Hampton Roads Helicopters located at KPVG, with an expected start in the morning, and going until the afternoon each day. Flight day schedules are TBD.

The final cost of the training is determined by how many individuals sign up for the course. However, the cost for the course will be no higher than:

$3000 for owners flying their own helicopter

$3500 for individuals renting an HRH R-22

$3800 for individuals renting an HRH R-44

And of course, remember this saves the travel expenses of flying all the way to California and staying for 5 days ;)

These prices are highly likely to drop fairly significantly as more people sign up for the course. The more attendees, the cheaper it is per-person. All individuals will receive the cheapest rate, even if they signed up early when prices were quoted higher. A non-refundable deposit of $500 will be taken to reserve your space in the course. A $200 discount will be offered to individuals who have signed up and paid their deposit by the end of April 2026. An additional $75 discount will be offered to individuals who have joined and paid 2026 dues to the Virginia Helicopter Association.

If you have interest in the course, or any further questions, please don't hesitate to reach out to HRH Chief Instructor Mitchell Hynes at mitchell@hrheli.com. If your are thinking about taking the course, make sure to get that early discount by paying your deposit before the end of the month!

Next VHA Meeting: June 7, 2026

Sun, 12 Apr 2026 16:20:53 GMT

Next Meeting: June 7, 2026 @ 10:00am

The Q2 Virginia Helicopter Association meeting has been scheduled for June 7 at *10am*. We will be meeting in the usual spot above Charley's airport restaurant at KJGG.

*Please note, we are meeting 1 hour earlier than usual at 10am due to some scheduling conflicts.*

On the docket for this meeting, we plan on discussing some in-progress event planning for the VHA in 2026.

We also are evaluating a few guest speakers and their schedules, with the ultimate goal of having a safety-related presentation for the membership.

As usual, our meeting will be streamed via Zoom, the information for which can be found here.

If you have any questions, don't hesitate to reach out to us via our Contact page. See you in June!

VHA First Meeting Wrapup

Mon, 23 Mar 2026 00:10:47 GMT

A Successful First Meeting to Start 2026

Today the VHA Had it's first meeting of 2026 above Charley's at KJGG, and overall the mission was a great success!

We covered some interesting news from Verticon, heard a great presentation from Steven Burge about the shortage of A&P Mechanics that is starting to become a real problem for the industry, and Mitchell then discussed some accidents and trends from 2025 in the helicopter industry.

We also had lots of exciting announcements for the VHA itself, including an announcement that later this year, the VHA will be throwing a public event to celebrate 20 years since the first VHA meeting in June of 2006. More details to come!

If you're interested in hearing any more VHA announcements, Steven's talk, or Mitchell's talk, all are captured in the Zoom recording from the meeting, found here: ZOOM RECORDING LINK

Our next VHA meeting date is still TBD, but expect something to be announced in the coming week or so, with a likely date around June. Everyone, fly safe!

FAA Issues GENOT JO 7110.801 Restricting Helicopter Visual Separation

Thu, 19 Mar 2026 21:21:43 GMT

New Restrictions on helicopters in the wake of the DCA Helicopter Accident

After the serious tragedy that took the lives of 67 people over the Potomac River in January 2025, the FAA has been working on ways to improve helicopter safety to avoid future similar incidents. The latest decision, FAA General Note (GENOT) JP 7110.801 revises the guidance given to air traffic controllers on how they can and cannot handle traffic using 'visual separation'.

The GENOT Modifies FAA 7110.65BB, a short 916 page document that outlines many of the procedures and phraseology for air traffic controllers. The relevant section is 7-2-1, "Visual Separation" specifically in the TERMINAL phase (paragraph a).

Visual separation is an often-used measure between ATC and Pilots to 'shortcut' other means of separation, namely radar separation. You're familiar with this procedure if you've ever had an ATC exchange such as:

ATC: "N123AB, do you have the King Air on final in sight?"

Aircraft: "Yes, N123AB has the King Air in sight"

ATC: "N123AB, maintain visual separation with the traffic and pass behind them."

These simple exchanges offer a much easier path than identifying both aircraft on radar, applying radar separation, and keeping aircraft often miles apart. Especially in very busy helicopter areas like DC, New York, or LA, visual separation is often the only thing that makes some kinds of helicopter operations possible.

However, the technique can certainly lead to trouble as well. When Visual Separation becomes the 'norm' it can often lead to pilots accepting responsibility for visual separation when they may not even have the traffic in sight. Pilot's (even subconsciously) learn that they may be subject to lengthy delays if they don't get traffic in sight 'in time' meaning that they may call for visual separation with a 'Get accepted first, find the traffic later' mentality. The DC crash seems to be an unfortunate example of this.

This image is from the NTSB's simulated visibility study of the Potomac crash. It represents the time that ATC first gives a traffic callout to the UH60. Note that the simulation is from the perspective of the right seat, looking out of the right window, and how it displays the extremely narrow field of view that NVGs provide. Crucially, PAT25 reported "traffic in sight, requesting visual separation" after only 6 seconds from the initial callout by ATC. A callout, by the way, that said "Traffic just south of the Wilson Bridge..." That means, that if the instructor truly had the traffic in sight, he took only 6 seconds to mentally process where the Wilson Bridge was, turn his head 90 degrees towards it, and pick out one of many airplane lights on the horizon as the correct traffic target. It is widely theorized that the crew of PAT25 likely ended up mistaking another aircraft for the airplane they would eventually hit.

This simulated image comes from just 15 seconds before the collision. Notice how many other background lights are visible, as well as other aircraft.

The environment during the accident over the Potomac was clearly not viable for safe visual separation. Unfortunately, 'close calls' had become such a norm there that it took until only 10-15 seconds before the accident that the controller started questioning PAT25 again whether they truly had the traffic in sight. It's easy to see that visual separation (or the misapplication of it) was certainly a core factor in this accident.

...however...

Does a blanket disapproval of all visual separation between helicopters and landing and departing traffic really seem like a prudent solution?

On the surface, it definitely seems like a logical temporary solution. Which very well may be the case, as the FAA GENOT is scheduled to cancel Dec 24, 2026. Perhaps the FAA is just working on a more permanent solution to the "Visual Separation" problem. Because while cases like the Potomac are textbook cases of visual separation being misapplied, the wording of the new order seems overly restrictive and doesn't always logically make sense.

The GENOT rephrases the paragraph that precludes when any visual separation can be applied to aircraft in a terminal phase, adding "EXCEPT FOR HELICOPTER OR POWERED-LIFT AIRCRAFT CROSSING THE FLIGHT PATH OF ARRIVING OR DEPARTING AIRCRAFT WITHIN CLASS B, CLASS C, OR TRSA AIRSPACE". What this means essentially is that NO visual separation is allowed for Helicopters or powered lift (just helicopters for the rest of this article) with traffic taking off or landing from a Class B, Class C, or TRSA airport. This brings up many pertinent questions:

- Why just helicopters? If anything, helicopters are probably less likely to have issues with visual separation due to generally better visibility, slower speeds, better maneuverability, and lower altitudes. Shouldn't these restrictions just apply to any VFR aircraft?

- Only in Class B, C, TRSA areas could also be interpreted as 'in a terminal environment where a radar is present'. So during takeoff or landing at a Class D airport, a tower may apply visual separation, but at a Class C they aren't allowed to? Sure, maybe this could also have to do with traffic levels, but anyone flying in or out of KLYH, KHEF, KNTU, or any of the hundreds of other busy Class Ds all over the country can tell you that traffic levels there can often exceed those at many Class C airports. Keep in mind as well that the way this is written, this also disallows Tower Applied visual separation, where a controller themselves looks out the window and confirms aircraft are separated.

- Does "Crossing the flight path" involve altitude restrictions too? What if a helicopter were to pass 2,000ft above an aircraft's final approach path?

Other wording brings about some certainly annoying scenarios. For example, "Crossing the flight path...within (airspace)" is broader than you may think. Take a case today, where I was flying inside of the KORF Class C surface area. I was going to pass South of the airport, at the very edge of the surface area of the airspace, while an airliner was landing on Runway 05 (to the Northeast). While both the tower and I could clearly see that I was passing 3-4 miles behind the airliner on short final, because I was "Crossing the flight path of arriving traffic" I had to be instructed to remain East of the centerline until the traffic was on the ground. The only other option would've been to have the controller radar identify me, (usually involving multiple radio calls and changing squawk codes). In this case, it only delayed me 30 seconds, but imagine the same case when, say, a medevac helicopter is trying to cross the multiple approach paths into and out of a busy airport. Radar separation between subsequent aircraft on final is usually at minimums already, meaning that even if the medevac is radar identified, there may not be any radar 'gaps' wide enough to get through. ATC usually relies on visual separation in these cases, but that tool is now gone.

While most pilots can probably agree that the rules surrounding visual separation needed some revision, this seemingly rushed response (1 year after the accident) seems poorly thought out. It invites more questions than answers, and only time will tell what sacrifices will need to be made by ATC and helicopter operators nationwide to keep their operations running smoothly.

Next VHA Meeting: March 22, 2026

Mon, 02 Mar 2026 21:11:33 GMT

VHA Meeting: March 22, 2026 at 11:00 at KJGG

Our next Virginia Helicopter Association meeting will take place at the usual meeting location, the meeting room above Charley's Airport Restaurant at KJGG. Meeting will begin promptly at 11am. Don't worry, Charley's will be open for lunch :)

Being that this meeting will be our first for 2026, we have quite a few things planned, so this will be a meeting you don't want to miss! Meetings are open to anyone, VHA member or not. As usual, the entire meeting will be streamed via Zoom for anyone to join in.

The Zoom information to join the meeting (open to the public) can be found here .

Up on the docket we have:

Verticon 2026 Discussion

We have many VHA Members that will be travelling to Verticon in the weeks prior to this meeting. Members will report back on interesting announcements/information from the event.

Review of Accidents From 2025

VHA President / Safety and Training Chair Mitchell Hynes will present on accident trends from 2025, as well as discuss some specific accidents with lessons that can be learned.

State of the Maintenance Industry

VHA Membership Chair Stephen Burge will give a presentation on the current aviation maintenance industry and how it relates to A&Ps.

Virginia Helicopter Association Announcements!

The VHA has exciting plans for 2026, and the officer board plans to share them with the membership at this meeting.

Dues for 2026 will also be collected at this meeting, so if you plan on joining for the 2026 year, don't forget to bring your $40! Cash is fine, or checks may be made out to "Virginia Helicopter Association".

Man Steals Robinson R-66...Crashes Seconds Later

Fri, 13 Feb 2026 03:11:02 GMT

Yeah, flying helicopters is tough!

A video of a helicopter accident from Brazil on Sunday Feb 8, 2026 has just been released by Brazilian authorities. The video shows the suspect, Luiz Gustavo Fonseca Aires, attempting to steal a Robinson R-66 helicopter from the Caxambu Airport in Brazil.

The video is taken from the in-cockpit camera onboard the R-66 helicopter, and shows the "Pilot" lifting the helicopter from the ground, but crashing almost immediately. The video seems to indicate that the individual was able to start the helicopter (albeit forgetting the plastic guard for the fuel cutoff). However, in a scene familiar to any helicopter flight instructor, immediately began to wildly overcontrol the helicopter, leading to a crash after inadvertently contacting the ground.

While this accident certainly doesn't have any obvious lessons to take away (other than Karma is a b**** and helicopters are hard to fly without training?!), it certainly offers yet another compelling argument for Robinson's decision to add cockpit cameras to all of their helicopters.

Source: https://g1.globo.com/mg/sul-de-minas/noticia/2026/02/12/video-homem-que-invadiu-aeroporto-e-tentou-decolar-helicoptero-em-mg-passou-mais-de-1-hora-na-cabine-da-aeronave.ghtml

FAA NOTAM System Contributes to Fatal Helicopter Accident in Arizona.

Mon, 05 Jan 2026 05:03:13 GMT

Would you have hit the wire?

On January 2, 2026, a professional pilot and 3 passengers were killed in Arizona when their MD530 helicopter struck a wire on a sightseeing flight. However, even just 2 days since the accident, it is clear that this accident is far different from the wire-strike accidents we are used to seeing in the helicopter industry.

The wire struck was a 'slackline', specifically a high slackline. A high slackline allows enthusiasts to balance on a line in a similar fashion to a tight-rope walker for sport. In this case, a line was strung over a canyon in Arizona, about 45 miles ESE of Phoenix. This low-level canyon route was one familiar to the pilot. While at this time it is unclear exactly the altitude he struck the wire, ADSB data suggests he may have been as high as 500-700 feet AGL. This is corroborated by the NOTAM for the wire (more on that later) which states that the wire is at 600AGL.

Helicopter pilots are no strangers to the low level environment. There are whole classes devoted to the topic. While we can never totally eliminate the risk of flying low-level, there are certainly many things we can do to mitigate the risk. One of the primary mitigations we can take is to be familiar with the areas we operate low-level in. In this case, the pilot had flown this route many times before, and likely didn't expect there to be sudden new obstacles to his path. It also seems that while he was flying below the altitude of ridgelines to the sides of him, he may have been over 500 ft AGL, the oft-quoted start of the 'low level environment' that we try to stay out of.

So if the pilot flew at a relatively high altitude along a known-safe route and still hit a wire, what could've potentially saved him? The NOTAM issued for the wire.

Hobbyists who put up the line did report the line to the FAA, who issued a NOTAM for the line:

PRC 12/234 E81 OBST TIGHT ROPE WI AN AREA DEFINED AS 1NM RADIUS OF 331412N1110714W (3NM S E81) 2800FT (600FT AGL) FLAGGED AND LGTD 2512261400-2601060200

And a quick note on those hobbyists too: I feel really bad for them. They did the right thing. They knew that the wire they were putting up would potentially be a risk, so they reported it to the proper channels. I don't fault them for this accident at all.

The problem, however, is that the FAA NOTAM system is notoriously difficult to understand and has significant 'information overload' when used to try and plan flights. This NOTAM, for example, only has E81, Superior Municipal Airport, as a facility designator. That means unless the pilot specifically searched for NOTAMs for E81 or did some kind of route-NOTAM search, he would've completely missed it. If you search the FAA system for NOTAMs from his nearby departure airport, a private airport, you yield no results:

In order to get this NOTAM to show up in the FAA system, you'd have to input the Airport along his route, E81, into the search directly, or you'd have to use the 'route' plan function. Now, what would YOU type into the route planning option in order to accurately describe this route?

This planner clearly doesn't work for any kind of routing that doesn't follow strict waypoint-to-waypoint navigation. So what other tools do we have at our disposal? Foreflight! Might I remind you first, that Foreflight is not an FAA-approved source of getting NOTAMs or TFRs, so technically we'd still need to call flight service or check the FAA site to CYA here, but this is definitely easier to work with:

And there it is. The small gray circle just below E81 is the NOTAM for the wire. Now, had the pilot used this 3rd party app to check NOTAMs, he may have been saved.

But...we still run into issues stemming from the NOTAM system as a whole, even if we look at 3rd party sources like Foreflight. This kind of thing look familiar to you?

Welcome to the Jungle! When the NOTAM system is constantly filled with so many things that are not necessary to pilot's day-to-day operations, it immediately gets messy and hard to plan around. What's more 'fun' about this situation too, is that you must realize that every single one of these NOTAMs' graphical depictions are automatically generated by Foreflight based on the official NOTAM's text. Usually it gets things correct, as it will easily pickup on the correct location when the text says something like 'An area defined as a 3.1NM radius of <LAT/LONG>', but sometimes that isn't how NOTAMs are worded, especially with 'Military' NOTAMs.

Here's an example of a military NOTAM issued for a 3 mile radius of the Fort Story lighthouse (about 5.5 miles North of NTU). However, since the Military NOTAM text is different than civilian, Foreflight doesn't recognize its location properly and just displays a 5 mile ring centered around NTU itself. (Luckily in this case ORF has a repeat NOTAM that gets the location correct for Foreflight to display.) This same location issue often comes up with parachute operations too, with NOTAMs issued around the base airport, but not the dropzone itself.

And remember how I said that Foreflight bases it's locations on the NOTAM text for lat/long...?

...well it's a good thing they do, because while the lat/long for this erected Obstacle is correct, the human readable description "7.5NM SSE ORF" is absolutely not. So Foreflight displays the obstacle icon correctly (since none is charted on the sectional), but notice this obstacle sits Southwest, NOT South-South-East of ORF like the NOTAM text actually reads. Funnily enough too, I only know this to be wrong because I know exactly the structure being constructed, having flown to the job site multiple times. Knowing it otherwise would actually be impossible, because the crane the NOTAM is talking about doesn't even exist yet . If you fly to this area, you'll find no-such 735ft AGL crane. So every time I fly over this spot I only know there is a potential crane in the area, but it has yet to appear in the 4 months the NOTAM has been active. I hope I actually remember this NOTAM the day the crane does decide to appear.

While on the topic of "NOTAMs I deal with on a daily basis", more military NOTAMs:

Here's an example where multiple military NOTAMs for drone operations aren't shown graphically at all! The only way you'd know about them would be if you selected KNTU and checked the NOTAMs tab. And why, you might be wondering, would you ever need to be checking NOTAMs at an airport you'd never be landing at?

Ah, and if you think the NOTAM system only has issues in the low-level environment, think again!

This military NOTAM closes the airspace from the surface to 15,000ft above KNTU while an aerobatic demonstration happens. Mind you, this is not a TFR, but just a military NOTAM for NTU. If you were flying direct from Miami to Newark at 14,000 feet, you'd violate this NOTAM, and probably scare the crap out of an F-18 pilot. Who during their flight planning would be checking NOTAMs for every single airport along their entire route of flight? Especially at high altitude!

How about very general NOTAMs as well?

Take this NOTAM near Cherry Point for example. UAS operating during all daylight hours, in this 50-mile-across ring, from the surface to 17,999 ft...very helpful!

And for the 'big airport' folks, one of the biggest complaints of NOTAMs: The fodder.

At any big airport, the list of NOTAMs is so long and full of next-to-worthless things that it makes sorting into usable information nearly impossible. CLT returns 80 results. LAX, 85. EWR, 126 NOTAMS! That's 126 vague, barely english reports that you technically would need to read before landing at EWR. Hope you've got Foreflight or some other tool to help you with that. Fun fact, if you plan a flight from EWR to JFK (an 18 mile route if you bribed the controllers to let you fly direct), the FAA system returns 374 NOTAMs that you should read. Good luck!

The big takeaway here should be that the current NOTAM system does not have your back. We as pilots have to take the final responsibility for our planning. While it is easy to whine and complain here about the system and hope it gets better, we have to live with the way it is currently.

And just to be crystal clear: I'm not saying the NOTAM system caused this accident. Low-level flying will always be risky, no matter how well-informed the pilot is. The easiest mitigation is to fly higher. However, what I am saying is that a better NOTAM system could've saved these 4 lives, while making the rest of our daily lives a whole lot easier and safer.

Looking at this accident specifically was a bit eye-opening for me. I think of all the times I go out for a photo flight, tour flight, training, etc and simply rely on the graphical representation on Foreflight and/or the NOTAM list for the aiports I'm taking off and landing from. Had there been a NOTAM for a new wire in my area, would I have caught it, or would I have ended up just as unlucky as this flight in Arizona? I hope I never have to find out.

Mitchell Hynes

Chief Helicopter Instructor, Hampton Roads Helicopters

President, Virginia Helicopter Association

VHA Members Receive Recognition for Actions During 2024 Hurricane Helene Relief

Mon, 05 Jan 2026 02:58:40 GMT

The "Tip of the Spear" Award

At the latest VHA Meeting on December 7, 2025, VHA Members Mitchell Hynes and Dan Bulke received their "Tip of the Spear" awards from VHA Vice President Bob Tamplet and VHA Member-at-large Ray Jarman. The award was also granted to current VHA member Justin Dix, who was not present at the meeting, and former VHA President Paul Jackson, who unfortunately passed away in 2025.

The VHA's Tip of the Spear Award Recognizes actions taken by VHA members to use their aviation skills for the good of their community. In this case, these members offered their volunteer flying services during the Hurricane relief efforts after Hurricane Helene in 2024.

Helicopter Rides at KJGG, September 20

Mon, 15 Sep 2025 21:15:16 GMT

Williamsburg Fly In: Sat, Sep 20 @ 10am-4pm

The VHA will still be helping give helicopter rides at the Williamsburg Fly-In on September 20!

Come ride along and see the Williamsburg area from the air while enjoying the rest of the Fly-In event!

VHA To Offer Helicopter Rides at Williamsburg Airport's 55th Anniversary Airshow

Fri, 08 Aug 2025 18:35:05 GMT

Mark Your Calendars, September 20/21 2025!

We are extremely excited to announce that the Virginia Helicopter Association will be offering helicopter rides at the Waltrip Williamsburg Airport's 55th Anniversary Airshow.

The show will take place on Saturday and Sunday, September 20 and 21, and rides will be offered from 9-12 and 16-18 each day. Exact format, costs, and details for rides will be announced soon, but there will be blades turning!

The rides will be offered via Hampton Roads Helicopters in a Robinson R-44 helicopter. All proceeds will benefit the VHA and other KJGG-based non-profit organizations.

Make sure to check back in here for more updates as they come available.

Come out and take a ride!

Robinson R-66 Accident Leads to Updates to Safety Notices

Thu, 24 Jul 2025 03:08:19 GMT

New Updates Describe Old Problems

As of June 30, 2025, the Australian Transportation Safety Board (ATSB) released its final report on the fatal accident of an R-66 helicopter after an encounter with turbulence led to a low-G mast bumping accident. A summary of the report can be found on the ATSB's website here . A link to the full report can be found on the right side of the page.

I found this accident particularly interesting for a few main reasons. Firstly, it's the exact use-case for the cockpit camera that Robinson and others had envisioned when it came to accident investigation. A crash that, on the surface, may have been difficult to investigate and find a true cause for, is now on full display for the world to learn from. While the ATSB doesn't show the video fully, it shows enough to put together the pieces in the rough timeline that they occur:

The pilot is cruising at very high speed (110-120kts) with the autopilot engaged
The pilot's hands are both removed from the controls, and his right hand is holding a sandwich as he eats
Upon encountering a significant amount of turbulence, the pilot begins to make inputs with his left hand on the top post of the T-bar cyclic, still holding the sandwich in his right hand
During the upset, the helicopter enters a Low-G condition with a right roll. Video analysis showed the pilot was moving the cyclic forward and left, the exactly incorrect action.

This accident report is frustrating to read, frankly. So much training we do is based around this exact scenario, and training to avoid the exact inputs that were made here. We as pilots need to heed the warnings that we are taught during training, and don't let our guard down.

Robinson has updated 3 of its Safety notices recently. Without specifically mentioning that this accident was the reason, I should add, but the timing is two weeks after the report was released, and here are the 3 updated safety notices:

SN-11 Low-G Pushovers - Extremely Dangerous
SN-32 High Winds or Turbulence
SN-41 Pilot Distractions

...seems pretty topical.

There are many lessons to take away from this, the first and 3 most obvious lessons all come from those 3 safety notices that have been updated. But to me, a bigger lesson to take away is to step back and examine yourself as a pilot. All of the factors that contributed to this accident are known factors. Low-G pushovers caused by turbulence and compounded by distractions are nothing new. I often muse that "It's really hard to find a new way to crash a helicopter".

The real problem here was a lack of knowledge and understanding. When was the last time you read through an aircraft manufacturers Safety Publications? When was the last time you discussed abnormal/emergency procedures with an instructor? Would you still be able to remember all of the safety items that you learned by heart for your checkride?

The only thing we can do in situations like this is to learn from the mistakes of others. Hopefully, if we found ourselves in a similar scenario, we would all now be better equipped to effectively deal with it...

VHA September Meeting Date Announced

Mon, 07 Jul 2025 15:51:53 GMT

The VHA Q3 Meeting will be September 7

The meeting will start promptly at 11:00am in the upper room at the Waltrip-Williamsburg Airport (KJGG).

The main topic at the meeting will be briefing/readying for the Williamsburg airshow taking place later in the month. The VHA will have a presence at the airshow, and this meeting will ensure all VHA Volunteers are prepared!

For any questions, see our Contact Page!

VHA Updates

Mon, 07 Jul 2025 15:47:51 GMT

VHA Website Will Now Feature Updates!

The VHA Officer team will now start posting regular updates on the VHA site, not just as emails to the membership. Be on the lookout for meeting dates, upcoming events, and more!