Champion Citabria Undifferentiated
Flight Crew Flight Engineer; Flight Crew Flight Instructor; Flight Crew Instrument; Flight Crew Multiengine
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 30.6; Flight Crew Total 25000; Flight Crew Type 225
Communication Breakdown; Situational Awareness
Airspace Violation All Types; Conflict NMAC; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural FAR; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
Flight Crew Took Evasive Action
Human Factors
Turning left toward downwind at approximately 1;000 MSL; front seat Trainee observed helicopter nearly head-on that had been blocked by lower wing in turn. [I] performed steep right turn to avoid collision. During a total of 5 landings at this airport; we observed helicopter in apparent orbit overlapping the airport's flight pattern while maintaining approximately pattern altitude. The track of the helicopter's orbit placed it potentially head-on to downwind traffic when turning from east to west. We were unable to contact the helicopter on CTAF. We switched to an adjacent airport's Tower frequency and inquired if they had contact with him. They did not but the helicopter pilot came on without an identifier and stated that 'you have to maintain clearance from me'; to which I replied 'helicopters are to avoid flow of fixed-wing traffic.' He responded 'I can't help it if I received a call in this area.'I do not believe the helicopters' right of way over fixed wing traffic includes the right to intentionally interfere with an established traffic pattern at an airport. In this case; we cut our intended training short by at least 2 patterns to avoid further conflict.
The student and instructor pilots aboard a Citabria suffered an NMAC while in the traffic pattern of uncontrolled airport X49 with an orbiting helicopter pilot who elected not to identify and declare his intentions on CTAF. The helo pilot was; however; monitoring the Tower frequency of a nearby LAL airport but was unapolgetic for his behavior and refused to identify his aircraft when he overheard the reporter's inquiry to the Tower.