HANDS ON FLYING — Three Pounds

Tracy Thurman | thurmantracyt@gmail.com

“They call them crash helmets don’t they” The pilot asked.

“Yes, I guess they do.” I answered.

The guy shrugged and grinned. “Well, I don’t intend to crash.”

With that he walked out to the airplane strapped in and went to work bare headed, save for a Dave Clark headset. I always thought that was a pretty stupid thing for an otherwise intelligent man to say.

As far as I know, the guy never did crash which is very good. Especially since he never wore a helmet. There’s been a lot of guys who haven’t been that fortunate. And it doesn’t matter how good a pilot you are, or think you are. The worst can happen to you. I’ll go out on a limb here and surmise that there haven’t been very many crashes where the pilot intended to crash. And I’ll bet most thought it would never happen to them. Arrogance won’t save you in a crash. A fat log book won’t cushion the impact.

A helmet should be required equipment. There, I said it. I know, there’s a lot of pilots who work without them. It’s their choice to do so. I know operators who don’t care if you wear a helmet or not. Others will not allow you to fly one of their airplanes without one. Chinstrap secured at all times.

Consider this; Everything that is you, your ideas, your personality, your dreams, the way you walk, talk, eat and sleep, everything that is your life and essence is completely, and only contained within three pounds of gelatinous goop floating around in grease encased in about a quarter inch of bone. That’s it. There’s no back up, no saved files, nothing, nada, zilch. That’s all you have. The good Lord built us to withstand some pretty significant bumps and bruises, He didn’t design survivability of being slammed into the ground at high velocity surrounded by steel. There have been more than several ag pilots who have walked away from crashes because they were wearing their helmets. There’s been some who might have walked away but didn’t because they weren’t wearing a helmet, or their helmets weren’t worn properly.

A fatal crash isn’t survivable no matter what you’re wearing. That’s true, there are some wrecks that a human just can’t live through. There’s not much we can do about that. However, the reason for a helmet is to aid in keeping a survivable crash from becoming fatal. That’s a big difference. Life and death.

There’s a lot of hard surfaces in the cockpit of an airplane. The violent dynamics of an airplane crash will slam your skull into any part of it. Bone is pound for pound stronger than steel, however, you only have a little bit of it. Research shows that it takes 520 pounds of force to crush a human skull. Five hundred and twenty pounds… If a guy weighed two hundred pounds, a 2.6 G impact would be enough to break his skull. 2.6 G ain’t much my friends, especially when you consider most crashes involve much greater G forces than that. Much greater.

After the bone is gone brother, the rest is history. Of course, you may not die. You might survive the crash. Then you’ll have to live through the aftermath.

I spoke to a former soldier once at the V.A. He had suffered a traumatic brain injury. Was it enemy fire that caused it? Nope. He fell off of a truck and hit his head on the ground. Busted his skull. A simple accident. He had to learn to live again. His vison is impaired. He gets migraines. He walks with a hitched gait having to concentrate on making his legs move. His wife drives him where he needs to go. Mostly doctor’s appointments. He said he once was strong and fast, a regular badass he was. Now, he has to have help in just about everything he does. He said he got lost once in a grocery store. “I was scared to death man. Scared. I ain’t never been scared and here I was in a damn grocery store about to cry like a little kid because I couldn’t figure out where I was. Hell, I can’t even make a living anymore.” The man’s face was contorted in shame and sadness. He clenched his fist and slammed it on his thigh. “I wish I had of just died.” That’s a hell of a place for a man to be. Three pounds. Surrounded by a quarter inch of bone…

You need to protect the most important part of your body. Your head. Within it is contained everything you need to function. Everything you need to live is tied directly to what’s floating around in your skull. Take care of it. Protect it. It’s where you keep your memories and your future. Once its broke. It’s broke for good.

Ag pilots have a wide selection of helmets and gear available to them these days. Helmet technology has advanced greatly since the days when pilots were wearing old football helmets. New, light weight, custom fitted and comfortable with top of the line sound systems installed. Noise cancellation, bluetooth, stereophonics and any color combination you want. Get one or two visors and use them. No, they aren’t cheap. Some cost as much as a pickup truck did back when grandpappy was hauling dust in Stearmans. It’s a very worthy investment. Anything you spend on your survivability is money well spent. It’s not the cost of the helmet you should worry about, but the value of what’s contained inside. Keep that in mind.

Fly well and stay SAFE!