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July 25, 2022

Virtual Reality to Aid Aerial Firefighting Pilots

“Talent is a Flame; Genius is a Fire” — Bernard Williams

Aerial fire-fighting is a dangerous, high-stakes business with little room for error. It’s also a big business—tragically so. In 2021, 58,985 wildfires blazed across 7.1-million U.S. acres. Since 1983, when official record-keeping began, the occurrence of wildfires in these United States has increased by a staggering 223%. Humans cause 90% of wildfires; Californian humans primarily. Among the myriad challenges presented by wildfires is the matter of training the valorous lunatics who pilot their aircraft into the turbulent, smokey miasma of backwoods infernos for purpose of combating the flames. Urban firefighters train in concrete structures filled w

Flight Review Being Conducted By The Helicopter Manufacturer’s Flight Instructor

On April 26, 2022, at 1300 eastern daylight time, a Bell Helicopter Textron Canada, 429, N507TJ, was substantially damaged when it was involved in an accident near Elba, New York. The instructor pilot and company pilot were fatally injured. The helicopter was operated as a Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91 instructional flight. A representative of the operator, Mercy Flight Inc., stated that the instructional flight was a flight review being conducted by the helicopter manufacturer’s flight instructor with multiple flight reviews planned throughout the day; the accident flight was the second flight of the day.