Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

The following questions and answers are, for the most part, specific to St. Lucia Helicopters' operation, though a few general knowledge questions are included. These FAQs are presented in no particular order. If you have a question that is not addressed here, please contact us and we will respond as best we can.

If you have any questions please Email them. We may want to add them to these FAQs .

Q:	What passenger safety issues do I need to know?
A:	This is very important. There are a few specific safety issues which we ask that you review. They apply to any helicopter you might ever fly in, not just St. Lucia Helicopters'. Please click here for pictures and a discussion of helicopter passenger safety.
Q:	What happens if the weather is too bad to take the helicopter? Do I get my money back?
A:	Weather groundings are very rare in St. Lucia, but should it happen, we make the determination well ahead of time so alternate arrangements for ground transport can be made. Monies will be refunded provided St. Lucia Helicopters is the one making the cancellation call.
Q:	What about mechanical problems, what happens if they come up at the last minute?
A:	St. Lucia Helicopters has considerable redundancy in its equipment, and flights are scheduled to allow for last minute changes, and possible delays. After 15 years, and tens of thousands of passengers, the company has developed procedures that give it a near perfect performance record.
Q:	I get airsick in little airplanes, will I get sick in the helicopter?
A:	Not likely. The high angular moment of the helicopter's spinning blades, in effect a big gyro, make a helicopter's ride smoother than similarly sized airplanes. This is one of the reasons they are good as photographic platforms. Nevertheless, there are air sickness bags on-board.
Q:	I know airplanes can glide to the ground if they lose power, but helicopters scare me because they'll fall like a rock, right?
A:	Not at all. Helicopters autorotate - similar to a winged seed pod falling from a tree. All helicopter pilots must regularily practice autorotations. A proper autorotation will touch lightly to the ground with little or no forward speed. An airplane can't do that. You would much rather be in a helicopter than a airplane if the engine failed.
Q:	How do I know the helicopters are being properly maintained and the pilots know what they're doing? After all, St. Lucia couldn't have a big adminstrative body like the FAA policing you.
A:	St. Lucia Helicopters flies under the authority of the Directorate of Civil Aviation (DCA), an umbrella organization for most of the Eastern Caribbean, whose offices are based in Antigua. The DCA is itself supported by Britain's Civil Aviation Authority (CAA). St. Lucia Helicopters' crew and maintenance staff hold DCA qualifications which are recognized by the CAA. Most people in the aviation industry, wherever they are from, know the CAA to be the most stringent and demanding aviation authority in the World. We can testify to this as we've flown under the Canadian and FAA systems ourselves. The DCA is certainly the most exacting.
Q:	Are helicopters really as expensive to operate as they say?
A:	Yup.
Q:	If helicopters are so safe, why do I seem to hear of so many more helicopter crashes than airplanes?
A:	Two reasons: First of all, a helicopter crash is more likely to have a VIP or celebrity on-board making the accident more newsworthy. Second, and the more common reason, is that helicopters are often deployed to conduct inherently dangerous work such as rescues in bad weather, technical flying near electrical towers, lift work into remote, mountainous areas with unpredictable winds, etc.. These are missions well out of the realm of an airplane's capability and safety margin. The upshot is that you, as St. Lucia Helicopters' passenger, are not being exposed to these hazards. Scenic tours and shuttle flying are as safe as it gets. You are statistically safer in our helicopters than you are in a car or walking down the sidewalk.
Q:	Is it true helicopters are much harder to fly than airplanes?
A:	Well, if you ask a helicopter pilot, he or she is likely to say "yes!" and start embellishing from there. It's true that, at least at the student pilot level, the learning curve is steeper, and greater hand-eye co-ordination needs to be developed to fly helicopters compared to airplanes. The biggest challenge is learning how to hover. It is akin to balancing a broom in your hand - most people can do it given sufficient practice.
Q:	Are there medical issues I need to be aware of before flying?
A:	If you are in late term pregnancy, you should talk to your doctor. The helicopter shuttles and tours reach a maximum pressure altitude of no more than 3000 feet. If you have been SCUBA diving within the past 24 hours, you should not fly in the helicopter.
Q:	I'm interested in learning to fly helicopters, must I get an airplane license first?
A:	No, but consider one thing: If you're only interest is in flying for the fun of it - privately, a helicopter will be a pretty expensive hobby compared to recreational airplane flying. Even people of considerable means (and this may be you), will usually obtain a commercial helicopter license, lease or buy a helicopter (they're not as easy to rent as small planes), and set up their own helicopter business. The business may not be very lucrative but the cost of the hobby will be offset somewhat by the added income and tax relief. Check out www.amazonasoftware.com for more information.
Q:	How do the helicopter flight controls work and what are they called?
A:	Okay, here are some of the helicopter buzz words you can learn to impress your friends. Please excuse the gender specificity, there are many accomplished female helicopter pilots but for brevity, let's assume he also includes she : In the pilot's right hand is the Cyclic Control , push it forward and the helicopter goes forward, backwards and it goes backwards, from side to side and it goes sideways. The pilot's left hand controls the Collective Control . He pulls up on it, and the helicopter goes up, and down, down. In smaller and/or older helicopters that do not have engine governors to control fuel flow, the collective also has a Throttle Control which the pilot must twist as he pulls up and twist back when lowering the collective. In most helicopters, the left hand is also tasked with handling the instrument panel. The pilot's feet control the Torque/Anti-Torque Pedals (also called Tail Rotor Pedals ). These are connected to the tail rotor blade - pressing the right one points the helicopter to the right, the left one points the helicopter to the left . This motion is also called yawing. What makes a helicopter demanding to fly, more specifically to fly in a hover, is the number of different control inputs required. It isn't as simple as it may sound. Each change of a given control affects the equilibrium of the helicopter in such a way that adjustments of the other controls becomes necessary which in turn affects the original control input. It is a vicious circle in a manner of speaking. A physicist or engineer would described it as inherent instability . The pilot has to constantly make fine adjustments to his controls which are usually imperceptibly subtle (even to the pilot!). Other jargon: Machine : What helicopter people say when they refer to a helicopter. They don't often use the word 'helicopter' (too many syllables). Broom Closet : In some of the Bell Series machines, it is a structure with control rods inside rising up between the pilot and co-pilot seats which can block the rear seat passengers' view. St. Lucia Helicopters' AStars do not have a broom closet. Jet A: What most helicopters use as fuel in their turbine engines. It is actually refined kerosene. Swash Plate: A part of the main rotor control system which varies the pitch of the individual blades as they go around three hundred and sixty degrees of arc. The swashplate is linked to both the cyclic and collective control levers Tail Boom: The structure extending back to the tail rotor blade. Chin Bubble: The curved windows down by the pilot's and co-pilot's feet. Long Line : The cable dangling below a helicopter used to lift external loads. As a verb - the moving of payloads around by attaching them to the line under a helicopter. In an emergency, a pilot has a switch he can hit which allows him to "punch off" his load (in some helicopters it's a foot control). Chinese Hat: The hat-shaped metal plate that covers the main rotor's 'starflex' hub on an AStar such as St. Lucia Helicopters' machines Stinger : A metal piece extending down and back from the bottom of the vertical fin which is attached to the end of the tail boom. The stinger bounces the tailboom off the ground before the tailrotor blades hit the ground should a pilot make a very nose-high approach to land. Jesus Nut: The one and only nut on some helicopters which holds the main rotor blades to the rest of the helicopter. It screws onto the top of the main rotor mast. Some say it sports this name because you have to have faith that it won't fail, others say it's because it's the last thing you will say if it does fail.

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