One Nearly Killed Me! Watch for helicopter vorticies.

It had happened to me!

There was a story in the news yesterday about a collision between a police helicopter and a Cessna 150. When I saw the video, I knew what had happened. The same thing nearly got me killed before my first solo.

The video showed that police helicopter hovering off the side of the runway. As the Cessna went by on the runway, it pitched up and rolled into the blades of the helicopter. Almost the same thing happened to me.

I was on short final in Luscombe 8A and a helicopter student pilot was making low level, slow passes off the side of the runway. My little plane hit the residual vortex of the helicopter. I pitched down. The only thing I saw in the runway was pavement. I shoved the throttle in, got the nose up a bit, bounced a couple of times off the runway and skipped over a fence and back in the air.

This is one of those; I learned about flying from that moment. If you see helicopters operating in the area at low altitudes near a runway, take care. The rotor vortices can linger long enough to kill you. Watch it.

https://youtu.be/CenhPNv6Gls?si=YOR6Xrs-uxV13Dnu