The Most Critical Emergency Procedure

What is the most critical emergency procedure? 

To answer this question, you need to evaluate the frequency with which the emergency procedure is executed along with the severity of the subsequent consequences of its improper execution.  

Provided my 20+ years of experience as a life-long student and practitioner of maritime search and rescue missions in all types of weather twenty-four hours a day, the most “critical” emergency procedure is our Inadvertent Instrument Meteorological Conditions (IIMC) procedure.  

As pilots are aware, IMC has two different definitions. The first describes weather conditions that require a pilot to fly primarily by reference to the instruments. The second is expressed in visibility and cloud height and is relevant to determine when Instrument Flight Rules (IFR) are required. I encourage pilots to always refer to this procedure as “lost visual cues,” meaning we have lost the visual cues necessary to maintain helicopter control using references outside the cockpit, thereby triggering the use of an instrument scan to maintain helicopter control. Because we are conditioned to fly with visual cues in visual meteorological conditions (VMC), the loss of visual cues in dark, hazy, over water VMC is often unexpected, and consequently, recognition is delayed. In this situation, the requirement to announce and establish an instrument scan is no different than in IMC. 

Between 2010 and 2012 there were two class A mishaps and three other near miss events, where the helicopter was recovered below 35’ AWL, following a loss of visual cues with a delay in establishing an effective instrument scan. Subsequently, we refocused on the fundamentals of recognizing a loss of visual cues, announcing and committing to the instruments, and being proficient in rapidly establishing an effective instrument scan. While this has led to improvement, that over the past several years there still have been multiple near misses, demonstrates the threat of losing visual cues “low and slow” must continue to be a point of emphasis in training. I prefer the term “lost visual cues” over IIMC because many of these near miss events occurred in dark, hazy, over water, but VMC conditions, in which pilots relied too heavily on a night vision device image that did not have the necessary cues to orient the aircraft appropriately.  

Granted, some poor weather units’ crews affect rapid transitions from VMC to IMC so frequently that it is deemed a “non-event” or normal ops. Whereas, in other instances necessitating the use of the IIMC procedure, we have lost crews. Because the difference between a positive and negative outcome in the “low and slow” flight regime in which we operate can be a few moments, the rapid transition to an effective instrument scan needs to be as visceral as maintaining Nr, turning on contingency power, or adjusting airspeed following an engine failure. To accomplish this, a proficient basic instrument scan must be a training priority. Although I have trained hundreds of malfunctions requiring practice autorotations and single engine operations, fortunately, I have never experienced an actual helicopter malfunction forcing me to use this training. Moreover, even though I have studied “land immediately” hydraulic malfunctions and transmission emergencies day after day, up to this point, I have only experienced minor malfunctions with respect to those systems. Conversely, I have experienced lost visual cues, mandating the establishment of an instrument scan, dozens of times.  

All the practice emergency procedures and study mentioned above is necessary because we never know what the next significant system malfunction will be or when it will occur. However, as we prioritize tasks, it is incumbent upon us to recall the most important sentences in the flight manual, “The most important single consideration is helicopter control. All procedures are subordinate to this requirement.”  The ability to efficiently execute our IIMC emergency procedure (or “lost visual cues”) and establish an effective instrument scan is paramount to our aircrews’ safety.