Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Situational Awareness
Conflict Ground Conflict; Critical; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
Flight Crew Took Evasive Action
Human Factors
After landing and while taxiing in towards the FBO ramp at ZZZ (uncontrolled airport) a helicopter while practicing hover operations over the grass was dangerously close to the edge of the taxiway that we were on. The helicopter was to our 11 o'clock position over the grass. It was facing away from us during this part of the maneuver and drifting towards the taxiway. I being the left seat pilot sensed trouble and brought the aircraft to a stop. The helicopter is now continuing to drift towards the taxiway and now at most 50 feet from our aircraft. The helicopter now pivots the nose towards the right where the 2 pilots now see our aircraft stopped. At this point; they are a third over our taxiway; ahead of us and still 50 feet out front. Without a second thought or any kind of evasive maneuver; the helicopter just proceeds straight across the taxiway and over to a ramp for refueling. Not a word from them on the Unicom; nothing. Not even an acknowledgment of their mistake of any kind. After the helicopter had passed we proceeded to the FBO ramp which was only another 200 yards away. All ramp personnel had seen what had just happened. They were astonished though not really surprised as this helicopter pilot who is a regular there at the airport apparently does this sort of thing quite frequently. I spoke briefly to the manager of the FBO and he was going to contact the airport manager and file a complaint.
Landed on runway 13 and exited runway at the end to the left. Taxied to Runway 23/5 where we turned right onto runway 23 to back taxi. At approach end of runway 23 we turned left to exit runway and taxi to FBO. During the back taxi on runway 23 I called out to the Captain a helicopter that was hovering between runway 23 and the taxiway. He acknowledged. While on the taxiway we slowed to a crawl to exercise caution with the hovering helicopter that was facing away from us; but hovering close to taxiway. We observed helicopter slide towards runway 23; so we began our taxi with a little more urgency. At a split second the helicopter turned right and crossed our taxi path within 50 feet of nose of our aircraft at eye level. Helicopter landed at a fuel farm located to our right on vacant ramp. Pilots of helicopter upon cutting us off looked at us with no concern. If we did not stop with urgency helicopter would have most likely contacted aircraft.
Embraer Jet flight crew describes a conflict with a helicopter doing hover practice over the grass at an uncontrolled airport. The helicopter is facing away from the Embraer Jet and slowly drifting backwards toward the taxiway. The helicopter crew finally pivots to the right and sees the Embraer Jet and continues across the taxiway to the fuel ramp.