Helmets

Just a few thoughts before we start mandating the wearing of helmets
in gliders.

1. How many glider pilots fly without parachutes? If you don't wear
a parachute, a head injury is the least of your worries in a mid-air.

2. What about canopies that are already fractions of an inch above
the pilot's head when he just wears a normal hat? Not everyone can
put their fist between their head and the canopy (I can't and I'm not
tall).

3. In a moving aircraft, what are the chances of getting a head
injury vs. (for example) a broken leg?

4. Other than the canopy (which should break but may not), if you are
strapped in properly, what is your head going to hit?

5. In a glider with reclined seating, won't the weight of a helmet
will cause more neck strain than it will provide safety?

6. If the glider ends up in an inverted wreck with injury, the injury
is likely to be serious with ot without a helmet.

Haqving gone through a motorcycle accident where I was wearing a
helmet, I have nothing against wearing a helmet if it will do some
good, but I just can't see any advantage of wearing a helmet in a
glider.

You mention the helmets used in kyaking, skiing, and motorcycling, but
these are endevors where the head is out in the breeze and can run
into things. Also, these helmets are not neceassarily small. A DOT
legal motorcycle helmet is quite big and can be very heavy. Mine,
made with kevlar, costs almost $500 and is one of the lightest made
but it still weighs 3.7 lbs while some can weigh up to 6 lbs. As it
is federally licensed, in an aircraft (unlike kayaking or skiing), to
provide the sort of protection you are talking about, if it is
mandated to wear a helmet, you would HAVE to have a DOT certified
helmet similar (or identical) to a motorcycle helmet.

To extrapolate this a little, why don't you wear a helmet in your
car? There is just as high (if not higher) risk of serious head
injury in a car accident even if it has air bags.

As to the wire guards, remember in Europe their farm fields are
typically A LOT smaller than they are in the US or Canada. Therefore
it is more likely that a European will hit a wire than an American
(although it is certainly not beyond the realm of possibility here).

But having said that, if you want to wear a helmet in your glider, by
all means wear one. If you want a cow catcher on your glider, put one
on it. Just don't start making me do it too.

And I haven't even talked about any CG, weight (could it put you
overgross?), or space problems of wearing a motorcycle-type helmet in
an aircraft.

Tim Taylor wrote:
I will move this out of the "Stay in, or get out?" thread for clarity.

I have long thought about helmets for several reasons. I will state
up front that I have not had access to the accident reports/pictures
and autopsy reports of several of the accidents that I have seen over
the last 25 years, but there appears to be opportunity for improved
safety from use of several things in the sport. The two that I have
thought about are helmets and the wire guards used in some Northern
European countries to guide wires over a pilot in event of hitting a
stranded wire fence.

We are the only sport I know of that does not use helmets for the
speeds/energies we deal with. Possible types of accidents where a
helmet would be useful include midairs were the cockpit is damaged, in
air incapacitation due to head trauma from turbulence, take off and
landing accidents where the glider impacts objects, and accidents
where the glider ends up inverted.

Possibly someone can tell me if a helmet that protected the back of
the head could have saved Robbie Robertson in 1986. We had a pilot in
the west bailout of a glider after being knocked unconscious after
hitting her head on the canopy. There was significant head trauma in
the accident at Minden a few years ago when the PIK-30 hit both barbed
wire and a fence post. Could the European wire guard coupled with a
helmet have saved the pilot? Just in the past few weeks we had an
accident in Utah where an 2-33 was hit by turbulence on short final
and ended up inverted on a road. The front seat student pilot had
significant head injuries.

I think this is an area where we as the soaring community from around
the world should be keeping records and at least providing information
that would help pilots make an informed decision on which safety tools
to choose to use.

New helmet technology is making helmets that are lighter and smaller
(not needing the 1" of padding). One company, Head Trip Helmets
(www.carbonfiberhelmets.com) is making a carbon fiber/kevlar helmet
that is only 23 onces (0.65 kg). I have seen new full face carbon
fiber at around 1 kg. We do not need the headset areas used in most
pilots helmets, so there are many fields such as kayaking, skiing,
motorcycles, etc that are already making helmets that would
potentially meet the needs of glider pilots.

To those that say they don't need helmets that is fine with me. At
this time it should be left to individuals to decide what they choose
to use, but we have to provide good data to make informed decisions.
We need to encourage the soaring organization around the world to
collect the data and provide information. The soaring Safety
Foundation in the USA and other similar groups should sponsor studies
in the area.

Tim

On Thu, 13 Sep 2007 16:38:08 -0700, raulb wrote:

Just a few thoughts before we start mandating the wearing of helmets
in gliders.

snip

Nobody has even suggested mandating the wearing of helmets. The
question was just that maybe the data should be collected to make an
informed decision on if the voluntary wearing of a helmet may be
beneficial.

I have worn a military helmet for wave flights, also.

For a self portrait at 21,000 feet, see
http://www.soarelsinore.org/graphics/126Jock.jpg

The helmet protects the noggin, also from the cold! During one flight
at 23,000 feet, the temp was -40, and that's where C = F, burrr! A
drafty (even with good canopy seals) 1-26 offers none of the (scant?)
insulation offered by glass birds. I later went to 28,300 feet, and
only my feet were cold.

That said, a helmet like this could be a liability, not a safety
feature, during hot summer thermaling.

Perhaps the way to added protection is for us to innovate before they
regulate: some bright and creative person could come up with an
active cooling lightweight head protection -- connect the helmet to
your Camelback? Integral visor with better eye protection than Sun
Tiger sunglasses? (And added protection during those annoying
birdstrikes...in my 1-26, I'm always hit from behind...). Integral
communication suite (mic and phone, connection input for your iPod,
cell phone, sat phone and the voice recognition features of WinPilot
12.6 on your turbo iPaq 9995). If you've got TCAS, the helmet can
project targeting (er, I mean advisory) information on your helmet
mounted visor cueing system. The built-in video recording device
would provide even more excitement on OLC...coming to SeeYou version
8.2: out the window video submenus...

Of course, they'll need to be stylish: Bad Boy, No Fear, racing
stripes...customized to your liking...

Just when you thought soaring couldn't get more expensive, the $975.00
helmet requirement will most certainly doom the sport.

While I feel so "cool" wearing my helmet, I think everybody would be
safer if they spent the money taking a couple more pattern tows to
practice landings (and off-field landings, too), or spent a little
more time getting some dual with a Constant Flight Interruptor (CFI),
even if you're a triple-diamond, thousand-k, two-time open class
champion.

So when are the champion race pilots going to start advocating this?
(Instruction, not helmets). I have to give a nod here to longtime
safety proponents like Knauff & Striedek (okay, I've left a few more
out, but I'm a 1-26er, so there).

-Pete
#309

Have to say that in the fatal accident reports I've read, the pilot
was invariably killed by multiple injuries, not head injuries alone.
That said there have been two accidents in the UK this year where
pilots survived but were left with serious head injuries, and believe
me they're the worst kind of injuries you can have. However I can't
say a helmet would have prevented those injuries - it depends entirely
on how the head was impacted, what by, what energies were involved
etc. My gut feeling is that helmets would be of little use and their
costs (fatigue, possibly reduced vis) too high.

BTW a correctly fitted four-point harness is as safe as a five-point,
although I do recall that the six is the best. As long as you *fully*
tighten the lap strap *first* on a four-point, there should not be any
issues with submarining. I seem to remember that if you do submarine
with a five point, you're going to be left with serious groin injuries
(that's why a six is best), so correct fitting is more important than
variant.


Dan

Dan G wrote:
BTW a correctly fitted four-point harness is as safe as a five-point,
although I do recall that the six is the best. As long as you *fully*
tighten the lap strap *first* on a four-point, there should not be any
issues with submarining. I seem to remember that if you do submarine
with a five point, you're going to be left with serious groin injuries
(that's why a six is best), so correct fitting is more important than
variant.

My recollection is "correct fitting" may not be good enough with "older"
gliders that have a shallow seat pan, compared to "newer" gliders, where
the seat pan has a substantially angled pan below the thighs. Really
"old" gliders with upright seating might also be OK.

I have talked to ridge runners that tell me it doesn't matter how tight
you make the lap belt on a 4 point harness, it simply doesn't work as
well as a 5 or 6 point harness while you are pounding along low and fast
on the ridge. That might be a different issue than proper restraint in a
crash.

--
Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA
* Change "netto" to "net" to email me directly
* "Transponders in Sailplanes" http://tinyurl.com/y739x4
* "A Guide to Self-launching Sailplane Operation" at www.motorglider.org

Dan G wrote:

Have to say that in the fatal accident reports I've read, the pilot
was invariably killed by multiple injuries, not head injuries alone.
That said there have been two accidents in the UK this year where
pilots survived but were left with serious head injuries, and believe
me they're the worst kind of injuries you can have. However I can't
say a helmet would have prevented those injuries - it depends entirely
on how the head was impacted, what by, what energies were involved
etc. My gut feeling is that helmets would be of little use and their
costs (fatigue, possibly reduced vis) too high.

Multiple injuries including head injuries in fatal or non-fatal gliding
accidents should lead us to ask an important question: did the head
injury limit the ability of the pilot to avoid further injuries from
delayed, slow, or no egress; from late or no chute activation; from
inability to steer away from a poor landing place; from inability to
make a correct PLF (parachute landing fall); etc.?

Canopy jettison is a known threat to the pilot's head, esp where the
Roeger Hook http://www.dg-flugzeugbau.de/roegerhaken-e.html is not fitted.



Jack