wearing a helmet flying

[Mike67]

Thinking about getting a helmet for bush flying. Why does it seem pilots disapprove of helmet unless your flying warbirds or ultalights???

[gbrasch]

Who knows....we always wear one flying helicopters. One word of advice. Know what you want it for and research accordingly. I know one person who wears a HGU-55 for crash protection, but they are not made for that. Maybe good for a bird strike if the visor is down only. Do your homework. Hope this helps. Glenn

[martymayes]

A number of Ag pilots wear helmets, not convinced it helps much. Was a period when some aerobatic pilots wore helmets.

[Mike67]

Looking at the David Clark K10 helmet, for off airport landings

[WLIU]

Helmets are good when you are doing a type of flying that stresses the machine or puts you in close proximity to ground hazards. Ag pilots run into posts, trees, powerlines, etc more than your average pilot so most wear helmets. And their airplanes are built to provide plenty of crash protection. Helmets also help with noise.

Acro pilots like myself fly the equipment really hard. So we face an increased likelihood of having some part of the airplane break that can make landing problematical, or we have a recent incident where a non-participating pilot failed to check NOTAMs, zoomed through a NOTAM-ed, waivered aerobatic box too fast for the ground observers to pick him up in time, and took the tail off a Yak in the middle of doing a hammerhead. My friend Kirill had a nice gouge in his helmet after he bailed out, so his helmet likely prevented the impact from rendering him unconscious. Can't get out if you are lights out. I will note that the NTSB report put the full probable cause on the non-participating pilot and none on the acro pilot.

So some segments of civilian aviation find helmets very useful.

I will note that the acro pilot who works for Gentex would dispute the suggestion that an HGU-55 is not built for crash impacts. He reports that the visor qualifications involve impacts like shooting a .22 bullet into it. The helmet shells are made from kevlar and carbon fiber so they can take a lot of abuse in a sudden stop that you would rather not take on your naked head.

All of that said, I have never seen a "bush" pilot wear a helmet. Most are very casual about their attire, which varies depending on locale. The Maine and Minnesota based pilots that I have known dress like fishing guides or go with shorts and t-shirts. I think that maybe some of the Mission Aviation Fellowship guys wear a helmet, but all of the JAARS pilots that I have met go casual. And if you like flying into little bush strips, you will be in absolute awe of the JAARS guys. You won't believe what they call an airport.

So as for image, I think that each segment of aviation has a normal pliot "image" based on the type of operation, the type of aircraft, and maybe factoring the hazards. If you are flying people in a floatplane out to a fishing camp in the woods, those nice folks might wonder about the pilot putting on a helmet. If you are roaring around the pylons at Reno going the speed of heat 50' above the desert floor, folks might look at you real funny if you do NOT wear a helmet. Go with the flow.

Best of luck,

Wes
Noorduyn Norseman 13340

[gbrasch]

Wes, what I learned about HGU-55's came from a Canadian government study a few years back when I was attending a safety seminar. The man from Canada worked for their equivalent of the NTSB. He kept calling them the "bump" helmet. When I finally figured out his english he explained that they were designed for F-16 pilot types who did high g maneuvers and it protected them from bumping their heads against the canopies. He had a 3" study that compared helmets that backed up his claim with hard data. So since them I feel compelled to pass that on to fellow pilots thinking about buying one, just because they look cool. For whatever any of that is worth..........

[JimRice85]

Lots of Ag guys wear SPH series helmets. Hello helmets are designed more for the type environment of ag work than fighter types with bang seats.

[WLIU]

HPU and SPH helmets are build to US military and NATO STANAG specs. Those specs speak to impact and to flying objects like shrapnel.

Different military aircraft use somewhat different helmet designs due to the services using different comms, NVG's, and assorted other gear that they are hanging on the helmets these days. And they live in different threat environments.

All of the military helmets are very crash worthy and the differences are in the last few percent of protection calculations.

I will suggest that anyone who says that any particular helmet is just a "bump" protector, when all of the comparable helmets are built to the same spec, likely has an agenda.

Wes second rule of crashing is "wear a helmet, any helmet". Rule three is "wear a good helmet". Of course rule number 1 is "don't crash".

Now for flying acro, in an airplane with a canopy that is a little tight, I actually wear a Bonehead Composites skydiver helmet made of carbon fiber, with a Clarity Aloft headset under it.

But I still have never seen a professional "bush" pilot wearing a helmet at work.

Fly safe,

Wes
N78PS

[gbrasch]

I will suggest that anyone who says that any particular helmet is just a "bump" protector, when all of the comparable helmets are built to the same spec, likely has an agenda.


No agenda at all, just passing on what I learned at one of the best aviation safety programs in the world, USC. I personally wear an SPH-5 in our helicopters. But I am done commenting now.

[WLIU]

Sorry if what I typed did not express what I meant. I suggest that the presenter at the seminar was looking at the last few percent of performance and that all of the subject helmets perform in the 95%+ percentile of desired performance. IF you are looking at that last 5% then you can validly argue that this helmet performs better than that helmet, but you are still talking about helmets that all do their designed job.

Helmets are a trade-off. I spent many years wearing a fiberglass helmet and the size of my neck reflects the weight of that helmet vs the G loads that I experienced while wearing it. All of the newer helmets are MUCH lighter while providing the same level of protection. But the point is that to gain additional impact resistance requires thicker material (more layers of kevlar etc), which translates into more bulk and weight.

So I appologize if my typing did not come across well, and I sincerely hope that this discussion about helmets remains an academic one and that no reader here obtains real field experience with these products.

Fly safe,

Wes
N78PS