A diverse team of helicopter industry safety experts discounted the effectiveness of inadvertent instrument meteorological conditions (IIMC) recovery training in favor of an emphasis on avoidance during a recent Helicopter Association International (HAI) webinar.
Tim Tucker, the longtime head of Robinson Helicopter’s safety program, summarized the effectiveness of IIMC recovery training in stark terms: "[If] you end up in the clouds, my suggestion is that you take your hands off the controls and put your palms together underneath your chin because you now have 56 seconds to discuss things with your creator and maybe say goodbye to your family.” The mention of 56 seconds was a reference to the average amount of time that elapses between helicopter entry into IIMC and crashing. (A new U.S. Helicopter Safety Team video on the topic is entitled, “Fifty-six Seconds To Live.”)
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