SMA LOW FLT OVER ART DISPLAY ALLEGEDLY HAD CLOSE PROX WITH HELI.

1991-10 · NASA ASRS report 192139

Date: 1991-10 · Aircraft: Small Aircraft; High Wing; 1 Eng; Fixed Gear

Anomalies: conflict-airborne-conflict|deviation-discrepancy-procedural-far|inflight-event-encounter-cftt-cfit

Synopsis

SMA LOW FLT OVER ART DISPLAY ALLEGEDLY HAD CLOSE PROX WITH HELI.

Narrative

FLEW MY SMA IN A MOUNTAIN VALLEY N OF LOS ANGELES TO OBSERVE A LARGE SCALE ART WORK. NUMEROUS ACFT AND 3 COMMERCIAL HELIS WERE IN THE AREA; ALL ABOVE THE RIDGE LINE AND ABOVE ME. AFTER PASSING OVER ART WORK; I COMMENCED A CLB OUT OF THE VALLEY AND OVER THE RIDGE. I FLEW 2 SLOW 360 DEG TURNS; EACH TIME PASSING CLOSE TO THE WINDWARD RIDGE TO OBTAIN MORE CLB RATE BY USING RIDGE LIFT. (RIDGE HAD NO STRUCTURES.) (MY 65 HP SMA DOES NOT CLB FAST AT 5000 FT MSL ON A HOT DAY.) UPON OBTAINING ALT OF 5500 FT I CLRED RIDGE AND PROCEEDED S TO MY HOME ARPT (WHITEMAN). DURING MY CLB AND CIRCLING I PASSED NEAR AND 200-300 FT BELOW ONE OF THE COMMERCIAL HELIS; WHICH I HAD IN SIGHT THE ENTIRE TIME. UPON CONTACTING THE TWR AT WHITEMAN; THE TWR INFORMED ME THERE WAS AN ACFT DIRECTLY BELOW ME. I FISHTAILED TO VIEW THE ACFT; AND A SHERIFF'S HELI APPEARED; SLIDING OUT TO MY SIDE AND REAR. HE PROCEEDED TO PARALLEL ME ALL THE WAY TO MY LNDG. UPON LNDG; A SHERIFF'S DEPUTY FROM THE HELI APCHED ME AND STATED THAT A HELI HAD COMPLAINED THAT HE HAD TO SWERVE TO AVOID ME; AND THAT HE CLAIMED I WAS FLYING TOO LOW. THE DEPUTY SAID HE WOULD BE INFORMING THE FAA OF THESE ALLEGATIONS.

Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.

Loading the flight search…

Frequently asked questions

How do I search flights by aircraft type on FlightFinder?

Pick an aircraft model — Boeing 737, Airbus A320, A380, Boeing 787 Dreamliner and more — enter your origin airport, and FlightFinder shows every route that plane flies from there with live fares.

Which aircraft types can I filter by?

We support Boeing 737/747/757/767/777/787, the full Airbus A220/A319/A320/A321/A330/A340/A350/A380 family, Embraer E170/E175/E190/E195, Bombardier CRJ and Dash 8, and the ATR 42/72 turboprops.

Is FlightFinder free to use?

Search and schedules are free. Pro ($4.99/month, $39/year, or $99 one-time lifetime) unlocks the enriched flight card — on-time stats, CO₂ per passenger, amenities, live gate & weather — plus My Trips with push alerts.

Where does the route data come from?

Live schedules come from Amadeus, AeroDataBox and Travelpayouts. Observed routes (which aircraft actually flew a given city pair) are crowdsourced from adsb.lol ADS-B data under the Open Database License.