Helmets in GA aircraft?

I guess I should mention for those tall folks like myself, a helmet is impractical without raising the headliner (my seat is cranked all the way down). I should also mention a full face helmet severly restricts vision and ability to turn your head...kind of an important thing when seeing and avoiding.
 
I can hear better in a helmet, and the microphone is inside the face plate which means my radio communications are easier for others to hear -- no wind noise.
 
Brad Z said:
I guess I should mention for those tall folks like myself, a helmet is impractical without raising the headliner (my seat is cranked all the way down). I should also mention a full face helmet severly restricts vision and ability to turn your head...kind of an important thing when seeing and avoiding.
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I wear full-face helmets quite frequently and I don't feel like it restricts my vision or my movement.
 
Frank said:
I think a helmet might be most important when flying over water. Why go to the trouble of putting on an inflatable vest and packing a life raft, when hitting a wave is likely to knock you out.
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My published research shows this is 94% likely to be wrong. The successful egress rate after a controlled ditching is about on par with that of any controlled off-airport landing.
 
Ken Ibold said:
My published research shows this is 94% likely to be wrong. The successful egress rate after a controlled ditching is about on par with that of any controlled off-airport landing.
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I phrased that wrong- when hitting a wave could render you unconscious, not likely render you unconscious. My point was that there is a significant risk if you were to be knocked out in a ditching. Of course you need flotation if you get out of the aircraft in the water. I have read accounts of accidents where some occupants survived but others, who were not conscious after the impact, perished. Successful egress could depend on consciousness.
 
I am just a student pilot but I would think if you are that worried about wrecking maybe you should spend that money on lessons to get more confidence in your abilities


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Sweetts said:
I am just a student pilot but I would think if you are that worried about wrecking maybe you should spend that money on lessons to get more confidence in your abilities


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Crash avoidance is preferable to crashworthiness, I agree, but sometimes crashes are not avoidable using the technology and skills available. Confidence is not the issue. I would point out that very skilled bush pilots carry necessary survival gear. I was observing that there is a class of accident consequences that can be more severe than would otherwise be the case if the aircraft occupant loses consciousness. I also study accidents for a living, and I can tell you that some very skilled people with some very good equipment experience accidents as a result of the outcome of a stochastic process. The accident rate is 1 divided by some exposure, and as large as that exposure may get the rate will never equal zero.

What may be true is that I have overestimated the potential risk of accident consequences that leave an aircraft occupant unconscious when consciousness is a great boon to survival. The risk of becoming unconscious may be low enough that helmet wear actually induces other risks of greater magnitude than the risks that would be mitigated by helmet wear. That is why I did not say I thought that helmet wear is a good idea under most circumstances, but rather asked about it. I have not studied, nor had results published on survival after ditching. I have had some work on accident risk published, but not on this topic. I think that means I understand the kinds of questions to ask, if not the exact questions to ask. That does not mean I have the answers.

I do know that the risks I was describing are likely to be induced by engine stoppages, and that the most common reason for such stoppage is fuel exhaustion or mismanagement. I feel relatively certain I have training to avoid those risks. Other engine stoppages are harder to prevent, such as cylinder head separations or valve failures. I have been following articles on engine management, particularly those of Mike Busch, very closely. I still think that an engine failure over water, or where water is the friendliest environment around, are not out of the question. I don't see how to train that out.
 
I do wear a helmet a lot. First off, it was practically given to me, and it is NOT a problem to me to wear it even in the south Texas heat. Second, I do figure that with the tailwheel instruction that I do, it could easily be that someday some student gets me into a groundloop that I couldn't prevent and might cause a wing to hit hard in which case we could be looking at an situation where a wing crushes inward or a head gets slammed sideways. Third, while a lot of people have said negative things to me about it, it's not an issue to me because it's not an ego thing. I like it, it's comfortable, it could provide some valuable protection, and on a long day, it's actually a lot more comfortable than wearing a clamp, er vice, er, cheap headset.

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I do NOT want to see it mandated for all pilots to wear, anymore than I want to see it mandated that all Cubs be refitted with electrical systems, radios, or ADS-B. It is my choice, but it should be a choice, not a "sin" if you don't choose to wear it.

Ryan
 
CJones said:
I worked with a cropduster that refused to wear a helmet. He had a buddy (fellow cropduster) that crashed in the middle of a field. When they got to the plane, they thought he was unconscious but it turns out the weight of the helmet actually broke his neck and killed him. After that, the guy I worked with wouldn't wear a helmet any more.
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A human head weighs around 12 pounds. A flight helmet weighs around 3 pounds. I doubt that is a significant enough increase in weight to affect survivability due to deceleration.
 
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