Flight Crew Instrument; Flight Crew Commercial; Flight Crew Flight Instructor
Flight Crew Total 3160
Communication Breakdown
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural FAR
General Release Refused / Aircraft Not Accepted
Company Policy; Weather
I am no longer an active helicopter pilot; and the following is part of the reason I have bowed out.The regulations prohibit flight in known icing conditions in an aircraft that is not equipped for icing. The Rotorcraft Flight Manual (RFM) for each of the above aircraft (Robinson R44 and Sikorsky S76) also clearly state that flight in known icing conditions in their aircraft is prohibited. The SOPs for my last employer prohibited flight in known icing conditions (the employer before that had no SOPs). For both; my coworkers and I regularly flew in what would be considered by definition 'icing conditions;' in one instance; I called my fellow pilot after he landed; and he explained that although they had indeed accumulated some ice on the airframe during the flight; he 'knew it wouldn't accumulate too fast.' (He has been flying this area for the last couple [of] decades.)My training department had almost nothing to say on the subject. Everyone in both the R44 and S76 jobs (news gathering and EMS respectively) treated me as if I were being far; far too conservative; and 'we would just never fly in the winter if we did it that way.'As far as I can tell; all published material from the FAA and otherwise concerning aircraft icing is exclusively applicable to airplanes. There is usually some disclaimer stating that no one actually knows how quickly ice may accumulate on a helicopter main rotor system (but it will definitely be bad when it does). It seemed to me at the time that I was flying these missions that we were dancing blindfolded in the vicinity of a canyon; and I was called a chicken for pointing it out (I was the most junior pilot in that program. My co-pilot; who was only my senior by about a year; was the only one who listened). That flight on which my fellow pilot experienced icing was a mission that my co-pilot and I had turned down.There is a lack of knowledge concerning icing in helicopters in general; and in the two professions I was in (EMS and news); there seemed to be an across-the-board lack of respect for what that phenomenon can do. I know that NASA has been conducting tests of helicopter rotors in their icing tunnel...can those results be made public? Even if they aren't conclusive yet...if they will raise awareness; reach out to these industries; and maybe drum up a little more conservatism in our helicopter pilots; it might save a life or two.
Helicopter Pilot reported that multiple times aircraft were flown in known icing conditions even though the aircraft were not equipped for icing.