Small Aircraft; Low Wing; 1 Eng; Fixed Gear
Flight Crew Instrument; Flight Crew Private
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 30; Flight Crew Total 500; Flight Crew Type 30
Confusion; Situational Awareness; Distraction; Communication Breakdown
ATC Issue All Types; Conflict NMAC
General None Reported / Taken
Human Factors; Procedure
Thirty minutes after a VIP TFR ended at a Class-C airport; I was cleared to land while on an ILS approach in IMC. A few miles from the airport; I emerged into marginal VFR conditions. During my flight; I received no traffic advisories to advise of a helicopter operating near and above runways. Before my flight; in a telephone briefing from FSS; I was read a list of NOTAMs at my destination; and these did not include any that warned of helicopter operations. As I touched down on the runway; I heard the Tower advise a Cessna; which was number two for landing behind me; to go around. At the same time; my Skywatch traffic surveillance avionics (similar to TCAS) called out 'traffic! traffic!' I discovered the problem by looking over my left shoulder; where I was surprised to see a military helicopter flying parallel to me at approximately 100 AGL and 300 FT from the runway centerline. The helicopter was faster than me as I was landing at less than 80 KTS; and it overtook me as I slowed down on the runway. The helicopter continued circling the runway vicinity at low altitude for at least another fifteen minutes. Occasionally I heard Tower or Ground make calls to '[X] Helicopter;' but I never heard any warnings given to traffic of the conflict that the helicopter posed. I believe the helicopter's operations endangered my safety by presenting a significant hazard to traffic.Contributing factors include: a lack of a NOTAM; a lack of an ATC advisory to alert inbound pilots to the presence of the helicopter; and marginal VFR conditions that made it impossible to visually discover the helicopter until late in the approach. I do not believe that I was given adequate separation. If ATC is unable to keep adequate separation of general aviation traffic from a helicopter performing a mission after a VIP TFR; then the FAA should at least issue a NOTAM to advise pilots of the hazard. This NOTAM should indicate the nature of the hazard and it should define how long the hazard will persist; so that pilots can plan their flights to avoid the hazard.
A pilot emerged from IMC on the CID ILS to see a military helicopter 300 FT from him on short final with no communication from ATC about the near miss traffic.