Because helicopters spend so much time flying low, many are equipped with wire cutters (see arrows) to protect the aircraft.

By Pat Veillette

I heard from a friend at the airport that the former owner of the flight school had died in an accident. He was “cruising” at 30 feet agl over the desert and snagged a wire with the landing gear. No, I didn’t miss a zero in that number. Thirty feet.

The list of pilots I know with wire strikes is quite long. If they survived, their stories all have a familiar sequence of events. Fellow cadets at the Air Force Academy were buzzing cattle and didn’t see the electrical cable until just a split-second before impact. The cadet in the left seat shoved forward on the yoke and…