Helicopter Association International’s Pilot of the Year, U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) Lt. Cdr. Robert McCabe, did not set out to be a pilot. He joined the Coast Guard to become involved in humanitarian and search-and-rescue work, HAI said. But when assigned to a ship in Astoria, Oregon, he was inspired to become a pilot after watching Sikorsky MH-60T Jayhawks perform rescues. He attended flight school and returned to Astoria in 2012, this time as an MH-60T pilot.
Since then he has accumulated 2,700 flight hours, performed countless rescue missions, and helped change the course of Coast Guard pilot training through his airmanship, HAI said in announcing his selection as the 2021 Pilot of the Year Award recipient.
Following his stint in Astoria, McCabe was stationed in Sitka, Alaska, and ultimately the USCG Air Station Cape Cod, Massachusetts.
It was there that McCabe demonstrated his full skills. On the evening of Nov. 24, 2019, a fishing vessel, “Leonardo,” capsized 24 miles southwest of Martha’s Vineyard, tossing all four crew members into the 50-degree water. McCabe’s crew was dispatched to the scene in their Jayhawk. They found a survivor in a life raft floating amidst a debris field in 10-foot seas and 30-knot winds, HAI said. The survivor was hoisted aboard and successfully stabilized.
But conditions worsened during the rescue, HAI said. “The sun set and a squall with sleet came in, reducing visibility to a quarter-mile and raising the seas to 15-foot waves.”
McCabe had directed the other pilot to fly a low 80-ft sweep to search for remaining crewmembers. During this search, with focus outside of the aircraft and spotlights on flying sleet, both pilots became disoriented. “The aircraft started to bank 40 degrees, simultaneously pitching more than 14 degrees nose up and rapidly slowing while descending,” HAI said.
“The visual inputs we were getting were inconsistent,” McCabe told HAI. “The sleet gave that Star Wars warp-speed illusion in the searchlight beam, making us feel we were flying at 50 knots. The waves gave us the sensation we were drifting right. Neither was right. I soon realized we had ‘the leans.’”
McCabe recognized that they had become disoriented within 10 seconds. Announcing the aircraft’s state, he coached the flying pilot through an instrument transition, returning to stable flight. “McCabe’s situational awareness, decisiveness, and assertiveness were instrumental in leading the crew to avoid a near-catastrophic situation,” HAI said.
“Admitting disorientation, then [making] the transition from it to correction is very, very difficult,” he said. “It’s extremely difficult to convince yourself to trust your instruments and make the correct inputs. That experience really brought home that we as a community need to fess up and do everything we can to learn from our mistakes.”
McCabe briefed the event to the air station’s safety department once he had returned. The USCG’s Aviation Logistics Center helped gather information from the flight data monitoring system to create an animation of the flight for training. And, the USCG took several steps in response to the lessons learned, including standardizing training on night-vision goggle illusions, developing a manual addressing aeromedical factors of flight, and adding a discussion of spatial disorientation to every annual check ride.
In addition to serving as a pilot-in-command, McCabe is an instructor pilot and flight examiner, as well as a mentor to young pilots.
The Pilot of the Year recognition is part of HAI’s Salute to Excellence awards program. The association typically holds the program during its annual convention, but this year is hosting a series of topical webinars highlighting each award winner.