Upon his retirement as a non-routine flight operations captain from a fractional operator in 2015, Dr. Veillette had accumulated more than 20,000 hours of flight experience in 240 types of aircraft—including balloons, rotorcraft, sea plans, glides, war birds, supersonic jets and large commercial transports. He is an adjunct professor at Utah Valley University. In June 2023, he won the prestigious Bill Gunston Technology Writer of the Year Award.
When pilots are asked to perform a tough assignment, they should be provided the tools necessary to conduct the mission safely. Assigning a single pilot to a single-engine, VFR-only helicopter with insufficient weather information and without instrument system protection certainly seems contrary to that rule and, indeed, statistics show such circumstances make such operations among the highest risk sectors in civil aviation.
Since helicopters generally operate at much lower altitudes than airplanes, the risk of collision with an unmanned aerial system (UAS) is much higher. In recent months the FAA has established an interim policy to speed up airspace authorizations for commercial UAS operators. Since March 23, 2015, the agency has granted authorization for flights at or below 200 ft. to any UAS operator with a Section 333 exemption (in simplest terms, someone using a UAS for commercial purposes).
Officials from the helicopter industry and FAA will meet in Washington, D.C., Feb. 11-12, 2016, to discuss improving weather information availability, heliport standardization and IFR infrastructure. Despite some welcome new elements, gaping holes remain in the country’s weather information “grid.” There are many Non-Federal AWOSs that need to be added to the weather collection and information dissemination system.
