Robinson R44
Flight Crew Instrument; Flight Crew Flight Instructor; Flight Crew Commercial
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 100; Flight Crew Total 1200; Flight Crew Type 350
Situational Awareness
Conflict NMAC; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
General None Reported / Taken
Human Factors
At LNA helicopters perform right traffic for all runways; while fixed wing traffic performs left traffic for all runways. After turning into a 1000 ft downwind and reporting position I observed a fixed wing aircraft passing close below us and just barely behind our track. I alerted my student to the traffic and we amended our path to the right in order to maximize clearance. It is unfortunately not uncommon for aircraft to enter left crosswind legs 'from the right' at LNA and I am keenly aware of the danger this poses. This aircraft however was not performing any standard pattern entry. I instructed my student to extend our downwind and amend the plan to perform a straight in autorotation instead of the 180 degree autorotation we had originally intended. As is my habit when I fail to hear any radio calls from an aircraft in the pattern I performed a comm check; to which another helicopter on field at the time confirmed we were loud and clear. We continued to observe the airplane enter a low left downwind; turn left sharply and land on runway 9. We performed a straight in autorotation to runway 9 after his clearance. After observing another full pattern without radio calls; my student and I were in a position to depart after the airplane. I made the radio call for departure for my student; specifically mentioning that we had the airplane in sight; identifying him by callsign. After our departure we observed the airplane turn to the west and depart the area.It is my opinion that the presence of heavy flight training traffic; and the right pattern for helicopters should be marked on sectional charts; and re-added to AWOS broadcasts in addition to their current presence in Airport Facility Directories. These types of problems arise not with traffic that is based at LNA; as the flight schools gather for meetings and discuss these topics regularly; rather they are most frequently involving transient aircraft that are completely unfamiliar with the airport and its typical operations.
R44 Instructor Pilot reported an NMAC with a light aircraft in the pattern at LNA airport.