Did you know that after six hours of flying, pilot fatigue sets in? Or that the 30-year-old vintage Chetak/Cheetah helicopters maintain 60 per cent serviceability despite their age? It's a little less for the home grown Dhruv ALH but as a young Army pilot pointed out, "All helicopters take time to mature and the Dhruv is only 10 years old".
The Chetak/Cheetahs and the Dhruvs are providing critical heli support as the Army/Air Force-led Uttarakhand rescue/relief operation moves forward despite bad weather. The risks are becoming increasingly apparent with the crash of an Mi-17V5, one of the IAF's most recent acquisitions from Russia.
More accidents could happen given the conditions in which the pilots are operating. Flying only stops when visibility is down to one kilometre. The risk is acute for pilots flying through narrow valleys where in many cases, collapsed and sundered electricity cables could get entangled in a helicopter's rotors. The Mi-17V5s don't operate in such valleys precisely for this reason.
26/06/13 Surya Gangadharan/IBN Live
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The Chetak/Cheetahs and the Dhruvs are providing critical heli support as the Army/Air Force-led Uttarakhand rescue/relief operation moves forward despite bad weather. The risks are becoming increasingly apparent with the crash of an Mi-17V5, one of the IAF's most recent acquisitions from Russia.
More accidents could happen given the conditions in which the pilots are operating. Flying only stops when visibility is down to one kilometre. The risk is acute for pilots flying through narrow valleys where in many cases, collapsed and sundered electricity cables could get entangled in a helicopter's rotors. The Mi-17V5s don't operate in such valleys precisely for this reason.
26/06/13 Surya Gangadharan/IBN Live
