Discuss the problems and solutions to all of the situations that Pilot X finds himself in.
By riverrock
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1905397
You are most likely trying to protect yourself from a sudden stop - so the biggest risk is face hitting the coaming. As such I'm not convinced that there is much point in an open fronted helmet. Anything that reduces your all round vision would make you more susceptible to a mid-air collision so I'd stay away.

Also a helmet will cause you to more easily bump your head on the ceiling if it is bumpy at all in many aircraft (depends how tall you are).

There is a place for them - but the number of injuries many of the helmets would have prevented is tiny (no stats available).
#1905464
Personally I don't wear a helmet but I know someone who does and it very probably saved his life when his aeroplane crashed following an EFATO.

His was an open cockpit type, he sat quite tall in the cockpit and I think, but for the helmet he'd most likely have suffered a fatal head injury from the windshield frame.

So very much depends on what you're flying, as acknowledged by Paul Bertorelli in the video.
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By SafetyThird
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1905823
Been thinking about this recently, I fly a skyranger microlight which has a variety of metal tubes around my head and which I've bashed against in turbulence once or twice. I operate out of grass strips mostly and in any sort of accident, there's a fair bit of metal to bash my head against. Seat belt should stop me hitting the coaming but there's other stuff to be careful of.

I've been considering a Sky Cowboy helmet and to fit my Bose A20 to it. https://www.skycowboysupplyco.com/produ ... ut-headset

For the average spam can pilot I'm not sure how much extra help it would be but for farm strip flying with a rag and tube aircraft, it has a fair bit of appeal.
#1906197
JAFO wrote:Would a bump cap not do the job @SafetyThird?

https://www.thesafetysupplycompany.co.uk/p/9541203/supertouch-bump-cap---black---8cm-long-peak---conforms-to-en-8122012---st-bc101.html?gclid=CjwKCAjwopWSBhB6EiwAjxmqDc3q5fgBb-IQYCeEVjpGxGMohzhel1iyNtS8QKBXl2RITFRzUjc4LxoCRJAQAvD_BwE


No side protection and not the sort of impact protection a hard helmet would offer. In the past year I know of several incidents where aircraft have gone into hedges or trees on grass strips during landing accidents in the south west. They’re the sort of thing that could get painful being rattled around in a rag and tube aircraft.
#1906237
I recently asked about GA flight helmets on a few social media pages. There were a few well constructed perspectives and opinions. But for the most part, I was laughed out the door in no unclear terms :roll: Giving the benefit of the doubt, I'd like to think it was all made in jest. As someone who can barely even say they've sat behind a yoke at this point, I had thought there'd be no such thing as a stupid question.

But I digress: I can't help but feel a sense of déjà vu. People scoffed at seatbelts, turned noses up at airbags, and chuckled at child's car seats. Could this be history repeating itself?
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#1906258
Gamatech wrote:As someone who can barely even say they've sat behind a yoke at this point, I had thought there'd be no such thing as a stupid question.


This is a rule strictly applied on the Student forum on this site. Step outside the protection it gives and it is open season.

I fly some aeros, I have had a significant accident (from which my head emerged unscathed). I have wondered about a helmet and I'm ashamed to say the cost deters me.

Also, I frequently fly with a passenger. I'd feel very uncomfortable donning my PPE whilst they are unprotected.

Rob P
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#1906264
Gamatech wrote:...I can't help but feel a sense of déjà vu. People scoffed at seatbelts, turned noses up at airbags, and chuckled at child's car seats. Could this be history repeating itself?

It is, and IMO should be, a personal choice.
It depends on your personal assessment and acceptance of risk, what you fly and maybe how you fly.
I have seen aircraft with an arc of fixings around the windshield frame that I reckon would be lethal in an accident and would justify wearing a helmet but others where I reckon the risks of injury lie elsewhere.
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By skydriller
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1906374
Rob P wrote:I frequently fly with a passenger. I'd feel very uncomfortable donning my PPE whilst they are unprotected.


This is my feeling also. If I have a headset on, my pax have them. Lifejacket, my pax have them. So if I were to have a helmet, I would want my pax to have one too. Headsets and lifejackets adjust to fit all. Im pretty sure this isnt the case with decent bone domes, because if you are going to do it, do it right. And unfortunately there isnt the space in some aeroplanes to be wearing a bone dome.

This is why I personally would rather more attention given to proper harnesses and their retro-fitment to older aeroplanes, and even airbag developement.

Regards, SD..
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By SafetyThird
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1906562
skydriller wrote:
Rob P wrote:I frequently fly with a passenger. I'd feel very uncomfortable donning my PPE whilst they are unprotected.


This is my feeling also. If I have a headset on, my pax have them. Lifejacket, my pax have them. So if I were to have a helmet, I would want my pax to have one too. Headsets and lifejackets adjust to fit all. Im pretty sure this isnt the case with decent bone domes, because if you are going to do it, do it right. And unfortunately there isnt the space in some aeroplanes to be wearing a bone dome.

This is why I personally would rather more attention given to proper harnesses and their retro-fitment to older aeroplanes, and even airbag developement.

Regards, SD..


The SkyCowboy helmet I linked to earlier in the thread is fully adjustable. It has one of those rotating gadgets at the back like a cycling or climbing type helmet. Adding one for a passenger does add to the cost though and they're not cheap at about £500. However, as I tend to fly mostly alone, I don't think it would be totally unreasonable to fly with my helmet and give just a headset to a passenger on the occasions I do fly with someone else.
By The Kissimmee Bum
FLYER Club Member (reader)  FLYER Club Member (reader)
#1911409
SafetyThird wrote:
The SkyCowboy helmet I linked to earlier in the thread is fully adjustable. It has one of those rotating gadgets at the back like a cycling or climbing type helmet. Adding one for a passenger does add to the cost though and they're not cheap at about £500. However, as I tend to fly mostly alone, I don't think it would be totally unreasonable to fly with my helmet and give just a headset to a passenger on the occasions I do fly with someone else.


I wear a cloth cap turned backwards, a pair of Mk iv goggles and a gabardine coat tied at the waist with string figuring that if my grandad survived all those years on his motorbike so attired then that's all I should need!

Seriously however, that SkyCowboy lid you linked to is bliddy expensive for what it is. The name alone sets alarm bells ringing within me. It also offers little in side of noggin protection other than that afforded by the headset ear shells.

If that however is the sort of kit you are looking for I should look at the Icaro Solar X paramotor helmet which is available in the UK at about half the price and was utilised by the crew of that electric round the world job a couple or more years back. I think MicroAvionics do them fully rigged out. I briefly considered them for use myself but took the cheapskate way out.