Helicopter crashes after stopping at convenience store, 1 fatality (pilot), Pittsylvania County, VA

Llewtrah381 said:
About 24 hours and 13 posts on an aviation forum about probably a VFR-into-IMC of a helo that landed and took off from a grocery store and not a single post that’s aviation. :dunno:
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Not really much to discuss on that. Pilots haven’t really come up with new ways to kill themselves for at least a hundred years. And it’s not like this one involved any external factors like ATC or other aircraft.
 
Llewtrah381 said:
About 24 hours and 13 posts on an aviation forum about probably a VFR-into-IMC of a helo that landed and took off from a grocery store and not a single post that’s aviation. :dunno:
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why would "from a grocery store" be relevant? (not being argumentative, just asking)
 
I will go so far as to say that landing a helicopter to nip into the grocery store is pretty badass.

My condolences to his family and friends.
 
AvNavCom said:
I will go so far as to say that landing a helicopter to nip into the grocery store is pretty badass.
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It was before I lived here (airpark), but it’s confirmed that a couple of our neighbors flew their Rotorway helos (that they’d built) into town for lunch and landed in an empty lot next to Sonic.
 
Aw, man. That's the pilot that used to do helicopter rides for Lakefest here at Buggs Island.
 
AvNavCom said:
I will go so far as to say that landing a helicopter to nip into the grocery store is pretty badass.

My condolences to his family and friends.
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He's landed at the Food Lion in Clarksville probably thousands of times, taking paying guests for rides over the lake.
 
www.sovanow.com

‘I can’t believe he’s gone’ - SoVaNOW: Home of The News & Record and The Mecklenburg Sun

Widely-known local helicopter pilot Paul Jackson never met a stranger and was beloved by many, say those who knew him best. Jackson, 72, died on Saturday when his helicopter crashed in Pittsylvania County around 3 p.m. In tributes posted on social media, the Chase City resident, entrepreneur and...
www.sovanow.com www.sovanow.com

Here's a local interview about Paul what he's done for the last 13 years.
 
Pilot held commercial/helicopter

KDAN reporting 6 mi, BR, OVC004
KMTV reporting 1 1/4 mi, BR, OVC004 (15 miles W)
Active Airmet for IFR conditions

From a news report:

He was heading his good friend’s Steven Tickle’s restaurant outside of Danville, texting just minutes prior that he was on the way.

“He told me that he had to land at a gas station because of fog and I told him it looked fine over here,” said Steven Tickle, Owner of Tickle’s Table. “We don’t know what happened.”
 
AquaLand said:
Pilot held commercial/helicopter

KDAN reporting 6 mi, BR, OVC004
KMTV reporting 1 1/4 mi, BR, OVC004 (15 miles W)
Active Airmet for IFR conditions

From a news report:

He was heading his good friend’s Steven Tickle’s restaurant outside of Danville, texting just minutes prior that he was on the way.

“He told me that he had to land at a gas station because of fog and I told him it looked fine over here,” said Steven Tickle, Owner of Tickle’s Table. “We don’t know what happened.”
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Lol. That's the dude from the Moonshiners show.

I would not have trusted his pirep.
 
My wife is a speech-language pathologist (aka speech therapist). Part of her field is correcting and teaching language.
She tells me sometimes that this sort of thing is considered dialect or some such thing, and is not considered incorrect in her field. It's NOT something that she's supposed to correct. I might have some of this concept wrong. I don't fully understand it because I think the idea that bad English is ok is hogwash and I don't want to understand it. Also, I'm an engineer by education, not an English major...

Bringing it back to the aviation topic... RIP to the pilot, and prayers for his family and friends. "Rookie move" or not, I hate it for anyone!
Anyway, I've always wanted to fly helicopters. The ability to land almost anyplace is appealing to me...but even if I could do it I would probably never really fully enjoy the privilege in doing things like that...landing off airport I mean...for fear of either tangling with some unknown laws or otherwise just annoying others. Sort of the same reason that I've never seriously considered getting one of those nice quad-copter drones. I've thought about how I might be able to get some of my aviation "fix" by flying one to get that aerial view in some of the places we travel while on vacation. We travel to a lot of state parks and other tourist attraction places and I figure that even if there aren't "no drone" rules, most folks won't really appreciate one of these things buzzing overhead when they are just trying to enjoy the place just like I am...
 
There has been an amazing supply of criticism of word use and grammar, and hardly a thought on how this accident came to occur. There are some poorly worded, but clearly informative facts available, from the State Trooper, convenience store clerk, and a customer.

Highly educated persons rarely take jobs at convenience stores, and their customers are generally in a similar wage group. My son and I have stopped in similar stores in that part of our country, and found similar grammar, but otherwise very good people.




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by BRITTANY SLAUGHTER | WSET

Mon, March 17th 2025 at 5:53 AM

Updated Mon, March 17th 2025 at 11:30 AM

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PITTSYLVANIA COUNTY, Va. (WSET) — We're learning more information about a fatal helicopter crash in Pittsylvania County on Saturday.

Virginia State Police said the pilot was

FACT 1 72-year-old Paul Jackson and he passed away in the crash..

FACT 2 According to Virginia State Police, Jackson was on a tour and dropped off the passengers.

FACT 3 VSP said he stopped at Jones Market convenience store on Mount Cross Road.

FACT 4 After he left the store lot, Police said Jackson crashed about a quarter mile later on Campview Road.

FACT 5 Angela Glenn, a cashier that works at the shop, said she wishes Jackson would have stayed.

"I just said why didn't he stay where he was landed at. Our regular customers come here, we're all like one big family. Somebody would have helped him get to where he needed to go or get him some help. Why didn't he just stay landed?" Glenn said.

FACT 6 Jones said he saw Jackson leave the convenience store in his helicopter.

FACT 7 "I seen him over there, he was talking on the phone at the time I came outside and he jumped in the helicopter. Sounded like it was running rough, he proceeded, he took off, he went behind the house, circled back around, came up towards Campview and I lost him in the fog," said Tyler Jones, who called 911 and reported the crash.

FACT 8 "I just heard a big explosion and I didn't hear the helicopter no more, so I jumped in my truck, came up here, seen it was on fire, called 911. In the process of calling 911 it exploded," Jones said.

Now, I will begin my suppositions and opinions.

The ‘Fog’ referred to by Jones was not on the ground, but actually low lying cloud, since road traffic seems to be normal, including timely Police and Fire response.

Fact 2 indicates that Jackson had dropped off paying passengers successfully, either nearby, or at the convenience store. This leads me to believe the layer was thin, and had clear spots, allowing him to land VFR to drop the passengers.

Fact 3 has him at the convenience store, 4 has him leaving, and 5 quotes the clerk’s attempt to get him to stay, get a ride with a customer, and recover the helicopter later. The hole he had landed through was gone.

Fact 6 and 7 has Jones seeing Jackson leave the store, make a phone call, and depart in the helicopter.

Jackson describes the helicopter rising, passing over a house and circling back, (clear of fog) and climbing into the ‘fog’ or base of low hanging cloud.

The sounds of the helicopter continued until

Fact 8 there was a loud crash, and no motor noise.

It seems fairly clear that at the location where the lucky passengers departed the helicopter, and the convenience store, if it was a different place, the ground was not just visible, but geographically identifiable for a landing.

Apparently, the layer drifted while he was in the store.

It is quite possible that at the convenience store, the layer was less than 100 feet thick, and Jackson anticipated climbing quickly through it to VFR conditions on top, and return to his desired stop for the day.

With no passengers, and less than full fuel (Unless he filled up with car gas at the convenience store) he should have had a quite good rate of climb.

Since he had just landed there, he knew how thick, or thin, the layer actually was, and anticipated just how long he would be on gyro horizon before he was safe on top.

Obviously, he got it wrong, and died, but it did seem reasonable to him at the time.

Note that the Sate Police helicopter flew in to the crash site, and the related pictures seem to show half a mile visibility at the crash site. Landing in those conditions is harder than departing.

I have been in that part of the country when I could see the runway from directly overhead as I did the missed approach, but not from slant on the instrument approach. This may have been one of those days.

RIP MR. PAUL JACKSON, AND CONDOLENCES TO HIS SURVIVORS.

The Geezer's grammar may not be the best, but he can see both the forest and trees, at the same time.
 
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From Geezer's post, this reminds me a bit of the way a friend's father passed away. He wasn't a pilot, he was a farmer.

Ben was a co-worker and a good guy, we didn't meet until we were both in our 30's. When Ben was a kid, he and his sister were on the family farm, riding in a wagon pulled behind the tractor their dad was driving. I think he was about 6 or so. His dad stopped the tractor, told the kids to get out because they were going across a hill and it was a little dangerous. I guess he'd done it before. This time, the tractor rolled over, pinned and killed the dad. The kids were physically fine.

My thinking is the pilot knew it was dangerous, put down his passengers, and figured it was safe enough to make it. By what I've read the pilot was a well respected guy. I won't criticize someone I don't know for taking a risk, but I'm wondering if, like my friend Ben's dad, he didn't take into account the emotional impact to others of the risk he was taking. Lots of speculation here, and I don't mean any negative judgement on the pilot or his character.
 
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Albany Tom said:
His dad stopped the tractor, told the kids to get out because they were going across a hill and it was a little dangerous. ....

My thinking is the pilot knew it was dangerous, put down his passengers, and figured it was safe enough to make it.
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That was my thought, reading the report. I did the same when I was into rockcrawling with my Jeep, have the kids get out for the dicier sections. Never did roll it, but there were a few times I wasn't sure.

A similar thing happened to me when flying as a passenger in a 2 seat "ultralight". Engine was running funny, the pilot landed in a field a couple of miles from the airport and told me to get out, then he took back off and flew back to the airport, he didn't want to chance crashing with a passenger. A guy on a motorcycle saw what happened, said, "Wow, that's the coolest thing I ever saw!", and gave me a ride back to the airport.
 
Dana said:
That was my thought, reading the report. I did the same when I was into rockcrawling with my Jeep, have the kids get out for the dicier sections. Never did roll it, but there were a few times I wasn't sure.

A similar thing happened to me when flying as a passenger in a 2 seat "ultralight". Engine was running funny, the pilot landed in a field a couple of miles from the airport and told me to get out, then he took back off and flew back to the airport, he didn't want to chance crashing with a passenger. A guy on a motorcycle saw what happened, said, "Wow, that's the coolest thing I ever saw!", and gave me a ride back to the airport.
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That kinda wisdom works on some of the threads here on POA. When you see them getting wonky and ready to crash, get out ... ;)
 
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