A brand new Agusta Westland AW-109 Power, from Italian military police "Carabinieri", takes off from a local grass field to aid in a fugitive hunt. It has a FLIR turret on the bottom of the fuselage.
Yes it is. The flight crew has to do their outside "pre-flight" checks, walking around the bird, looking at & checking the aircraft fuselage & lookin at & checking the main & tail rotor blades all before intering the helicopter. Then the pilots will enter & get strapped in the cockpit & then they will begin their "internal pre-flight checklist" procedures. Starting with flight crew safety equipment & procedures, electrical power & battery voltage checks, check for proper radio communications & frequency channels of radio equipment as well as call in to the airport tower for aircraft I.D. checks, check for smooth & proper movement of the anti-torque tail rotor pedals, the collective & cyclic flight controls check all the instrument flight console gauges for proper working order, proper & safe jet turbine engine ignition startup & check & monitor all jet turbine engine instrument gauges, making sure all gauges are in the green during the ignition, engine idle, & full engine power, get a physical feel of any unusual in-cockpit noises & aircraft vibrations. . . .then the flight crew has to get "takeoff clearance" from the tower before lifting off. This is why it takes so long from "outside preflight" safety checks to "final liftoff" of the helicopter. Take care.
Yeah, Leonardo is the new name of former 'Finmeccanica" which is a massive Italian company that does fighter jets, avionics, staellites etc. The new IRST for the Gripen is also made by Leonardo.
Aircraft (and helicopters in particular) are complex machines, pilots follow a checklist with items that must be tested, switches to set etc. Some of these things can only be done when the engines and rotors are within certain parameters (RPM, oil temps, EGT etc.)
preping a helicopter for flight is not like turning the key in a car and driving off. The pilots have to have certain temps and pressures on their instruments, flight checks have to be carried out prior to lift off failure to do so could be fatal
I think the whole standard/routine of wearing helmets when flying non-military aircraft is absurd. And what's the point of having a crewman stand outside? It's not like somebody but a deranged tool will walk up to get chopped into pieces. Totally stupid stuff.
Can you say "BIRD STRIKES?" That is why you should ALWAYS wear helmets in helicopters, oh and for dumb a$$ drone pilots whom think laws don't apply to them.
Da milite dell'Arma posto in Congedo Assoluto per Riforma che ha anche cooperato da personale di terra negli Eliporti e al Raggruppamento Elicotteri transitando direttamente nell' attuale Polizia Locale condivido personalmente e pienamente questo video raffigurante il supporto dell' Arma che ho letteralmente vissuto iscrivendomi al canale da Appassionato
Well, there is a walk around with any airplane before every flight. It all depends also on the level of complexity of the aircraft at hand, if you watch any jet fighter startup you’ll notice plenty of ground crew going around to check many things before, during and after startup. Smaller GA aircraft usually have just the pilot doing a walk around before getting in, but again, airliners have at least a couple of ground crew monitoring startups. Helicopters are inherently more complex than fixed wing aircraft, and this particular helicopter, while not being the most complex flying machine out there, is a pretty advanced rotorcraft and certainly requires more attention than your average Cessna or R22. Plus, they’re military so they like to do things in a “big” way, if you get what I mean.
I understand they do walk arounds on planes but not when there running ? I just have always been curious why with helicopters as there starting up there is a guy walking around looking at everything for awhile ?
