Flight-deck awareness guide reader update.

Danger areas around aircraft must be adhered to at all times. With the growing number of Sikorsky H-60 helicopters in the fleet, many personnel are not fully aware of the particular dangers of working around this airframe on the flight deck.

H-60s (all variants) are essentially the same airframe with a built in three-degree forward tilt in the main rotor system. The warning associated with the rotor system with regards to flight-deck safety, reads as follows:

WARNING: When AFCS computer power is cycled, trim is disengaged and an unguarded cyclic will allow the rotor arc to dip as low as four feet above the deck, prior to full control deflection, without pounding the droop stops.

For this reason, chock and chain runners for all variants of the H-60 (including Army) SHALL not enter the rotor arc from the 12 o'clock position relative to the nose of the aircraft. They are required to enter from the 3 and 9 o'clock positions relative to the aircraft.

Lives have already been lost due to personnel being inside the danger area at the 12 o'clock position of a H-60, don't let the next injury, or death occur to yourself or a shipmate!

If there is a hazard that you think has been overlooked by Mech, please e-mail your concersnto [e-mail].--Ed.

Lt. Hewlett is a pilot at HSL-44 in Mayport, Fla.