airport/heliport landing, diverting to better conditions, or initiating an emergency transition to IFR. Pilots should be able to readily identify the minimum initial altitude and course in order to avoid CFIT. Current IFR en route and approach charts for the route of flight are essential. A GPS navigation receiver with a moving map provides exceptional situational awareness for terrain and obstacle avoidance. 

Training for an emergency transition to IFR should include full and partial panel instrument flight, unusual attitude recovery, ATC communications, and instrument approaches. If an ILS is available and the helicopter is equipped, an ILS approach should be made. Otherwise, if the helicopter is equipped with an IFR approach-capable GPS receiver with a current database, a GPS approach should be made. If neither, an ILS or GPS procedure is available use another instrument approach. 

Upon entering inadvertent IMC, priority must be given to control of the helicopter. Keep it simple and take one action at a time. 

• Control. First use the wings on the attitude indicator to level the helicopter. Maintain heading and increase to climb power. Establish climb airspeed at the best angle of climb but no slower than V$_{MINI}$. 

• Climb. Climb straight ahead until your crosscheck is established. Then make a turn only to avoid terrain or objects. If an altitude has not been previously established with ATC to climb to for inadvertent IMC, then you should climb to an altitude that is at least 1,000 feet above the highest known object and that allows for contacting ATC. 

• Communicate. Attempt to contact ATC as soon as the helicopter is stabilized in the climb and headed away from danger. If the appropriate frequency is not known, you should attempt to contact ATC on either very high frequency (VHF) 121.5 or ultra high frequency (UHF) 243.0. Initial information provided to ATC should be your approximate location, that inadvertent IMC has been encountered and an emergency climb has been made, your altitude, amount of flight time remaining (fuel state), and number of persons on board. You should then request a vector to either VFR weather conditions or to the nearest suitable airport/heliport that conditions will support a successful approach. If unable to contact ATC and a transponder code has not been previously established with ATC for inadvertent IMC, change the transponder code to 7700. 

A radio altimeter is a necessity for alerting the pilot when inadvertently going below the minimum altitude. Barometric altimeters are subject to inaccuracies that become important in helicopter IFR operations, especially in cold temperatures. 

## IFR Heliports 

AC 150/5390-2, Heliport Design, provides recommendations for heliport design to support non-precision, approach with vertical guidance (APV), and precision approaches to a heliport. When a heliport does not meet the criteria of AC 150/5390-2, FAA Order 8260.42, United States Standard for Helicopter Area Navigation (RNAV), requires that an instrument approach be published as a Special procedure with annotations that special aircrew qualifications are required to fly the procedure. Currently, there are no operational civil IFR heliports in the U.S., although the U.S. military has some non-precision and precision approach procedures to IFR heliports. 

