@Rick…. Better not come to AK pal! I would give my left nut for the weather that Maria had on her route that day through the Gorge. This so called “scud-running” is a way of business in the far north. If it were left up to the flight schools in the lower 48 none of us could fly for more than 30 days a year and we’d all file for a Chapter-7 by the end of the year.

You seem to have a problem with me flying at 200 feet. I don’t understand why. Have you ever flown in the empty expanse of flat desert at the border of Nevada, Oregon, and Idaho? A place where there are no roads, no poles/wires, no tall trees, no buildings, no sign of human life — for miles and miles on end? A place so big and flat and deserted that the wild horse herds, sometimes over 100 strong, hear you coming from miles away and are in a full gallop when you reach them? I suppose that if you have flown there, you’ve missed it all, cruising along at 1,000 feet, just to be safe. But study the H-V diagram and you’ll find that autorotation at 100 knots is still possible 200 feet up. That leaves what to worry about? Wires? Other obstructions? Not an issue in these places. If they were, I wouldn’t be flying so low.

My point: Not all terrain is created equally. Many pilots — maybe including you — who have never experienced a cross-country flight through the middle of nowhere don’t seem to get that. You think about where you’ve flown, with the terrain and obstacles you’ve experienced, and you think of the “safe flying rules” you’ve been taught or told to use in those places. You think those rules must apply everywhere. News flash: they don’t. Want another news flash? The FAA apparently agrees; they’ve assigned a minimum flight altitude for my Part 135 flights at 300 feet — not 500 or 700 or 1,000.

You sending me links as if I don’t read what’s out there really pisses me off. Throughout this blog, I’ve presented dozens of articles about safe flying, including many posts that analyze accident reports. I read the NTSB reports regularly. I know what’s getting pilots hurt or killed and destroying aircraft. I’ve written about accidents or referred to them in blog posts extensively here. You want a few links? Here:

Chasing Race Cars Isn’t for Every Pilot
What If You Crashed a Helicopter and Didn’t Tell Anyone?
The Challenges of Aerial Photography
Not Ready for Solo?
Airplanes and Helicopters Don’t Mix
Going Around
Autorotation is Not a Low Rotor RPM Recovery Procedure
Reacting to Low Rotor RPM
About the Cherry Drying Posts
Pilot Flying Fears?
Dangerous Flying: Abrupt Control Inputs

But why would you take the time to look around this site and discover that? Why bother when you can just take the chatter from PPrune and confront me with it here? Why get to know the person you’re going to attack when it’s so much easier to assume she doesn’t know or care about safety.

You have some fucking nerve sending me a few links as if I don’t know how to fly safe.

So stop telling me how to conduct my flights. Stop sending me links. In fact, just stop coming here at all. This blog isn’t for people like you — or for helicopter forum participants who have nothing better to do with their time than gossip about pilots behind their backs.

http://www.faa.gov/library/manuals/aviation/pilot_handbook/media/phak%20-%20chapter%2017.pdf

http://www.pprune.org/rotorheads/446140-cumbria-helicopter-crash-discussion.html

http://www.pprune.org/rotorheads/458333-crash-near-bude-cornwall-24th-july-2011-a.html

As for the photos, please understand that when I’m flying a helicopter, my primary objective is to fly — not document the flight with photos. Aviate, navigate, communicate — document isn’t part of that mantra. Photos are invariably snapped when I’m feeling safe enough to mess around with a camera — provided I have a camera with me. That might change now that I’ve got a GoPro that automatically snaps photos, but I don’t think any of the photos that appear on this site were shot with the GoPro while scud running.

Before you make judgements about flying at 200 feet AGL, perhaps you’d better know the circumstances. I’ll stand by the safety of that flight and many others. If you were on board — there was another pilot and a passenger with me on that flight — you’d likely agree that what we did was okay. But you weren’t — so how can you pass judgement?

And I’ll stand by my asshole comment as well. Apparently, he’s not the only one on pprune.

Delete the part about get there itis and you have what I think most pilots would agree is scud running. All kind of pilots (beginners to highly experienced) make the choice to scud run for a variety of reasons.

The photos posted on the blog do not appear to fit the definition of scud running as the ceiling and vis dont appear to be marginal. but its difficult to bve sure from these photos.

Maria, you comment on pprune about flying under 200 ft ceilings suggests to me that you need more life insurance. Are you proficient and current in autos from 150 ft AGL or so? How much time and range will you have to to get to the best LZ in the event of an engine failure in a helo with a low inertia rotor system? Can it be done? Sure, sometimes. Is it a good idea? No way IMHO. I think you were way out of line for referring to the poster (not me) who took you to task for this as an asshole. Your aviation experience is pretty limited in terms of credentials, hours and years to be so arrogant.

In my opinion, your practices were the responsible alternative to “scud running”.