Narrative:

It is possible that I may have landed within the boundaries of an area designated as wilderness. First and foremost; I apologize if I did something wrong; it was never my intent; and it was purely accidental. For context; the subject flight involves the first flight out of my local training area; and one carrying my family in a helicopter for the first time. I earned my helicopter pilot certificate approximately three months prior to the flight; I have a bit more than 90 hours total rotorcraft time. The helicopter itself is an aircraft X; and about xx years old; and lacks modern technology; including that required to definitively determine the wilderness boundary. The landing area also lacks cellular service.specifically; I took my family on our first overnight camping trip. We planned to camp and fish at ZZZ just to the north of the Name1 wilderness. When we arrived at ZZZ; we realized that it is perched on a steep cliff and the river to fish was situated considerably lower; down a steep cliff. With young children; that presented a real challenge; so I flew back to the south (the direction we came from) to find the first available gravel bar with ample room for landing below the high water mark. I had understood from my helicopter training that it was important to land below the high water mark in any area around a river. I had no intention of flying; and did not think that I did fly; back into the name 1 wilderness. I executed a safe landing; had lunch and briefly fished with my daughter. My son and wife relaxed 100 yards away; close to where I parked the helicopter. Approximately 30 minutes after landing; two armed men on horseback approached my daughter and I from above and started verbally assaulting me for 'landing in the Name1'. I told them that I believed we landed outside of wilderness and offered to discuss my logic if they would step away from their firearms. There was a house; corral and road that I used for landmarks right by where I landed; and I know those do not exist within wilderness. My helicopter is approximately xx years old; so it does not have the latest navigational technology to show whether I was across the wilderness boundary or not. The area also lacked cellular service. In any event; I apologized several times and tried to de-escalate the situation in any way possible. I suggested that they take a photograph of the helicopter if they would like; and to please stop using profanity and threats in front of my daughter. I asked them to please back up a safe distance so that we could leave the area as soon as possible - regardless of whether we were right or wrong; I wanted to resolve the situation. They proceeded toward the helicopter where my wife was standing; and she was so scared that she got her bear spray to protect herself if needed. At that point; I approached her and reiterated to them that it was our intent to leave as soon as possible and they needed to back up so that we could depart. They backed up only about 50 yards; which required me to perform a high-power vertical take-off to avoid overflying them; putting their safety above that of my family. We returned to ZZZ where we camped overnight.prior to the flight; I had done extensive research on backcountry and forest service regulations; and had fully briefed my destination. It is possible that I confused the relevance of the high water line to private property as relevant more broadly; including to the gravel bar where I landed. Nonetheless; I had absolutely no intention of landing in designated wilderness. If I did; I apologize; it was completely unintentional. My family loves and enjoys the outdoors; we live in state X and do all we can to respect it and the animals and people in it. The interaction that my family and I had with the two men was extremely upsetting; and I did the only thing that I thought I could do under the circumstance; which was to promptly vacate the area and file this report. Once again; my apologies if I did anything wrong.in the days following the event I have sought feedback on my actions from others with more experience; I have read and research regulations; and endeavored to better educate myself. I appreciate that as a pilot it is my responsibility to put myself of a path of continuous learning. If the FAA wanted to do more to prevent events such as mine from happening; it would be extremely helpful if someone published a complete directory of blm (bureau of land management); forest service and wilderness regulations; or alternatively maintained a website with specific links to those rules for pilots; a phone number for each region with a contact person; and relevant travel plans for each forest or wilderness area. I attempted to do this research on my own; but still may have made a mistake.

Google
 

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Private Pilot flying a Helicopter landed in a wilderness area by mistake.

Narrative: It is possible that I may have landed within the boundaries of an area designated as wilderness. First and foremost; I apologize if I did something wrong; it was never my intent; and it was purely accidental. For context; the subject flight involves the first flight out of my local training area; and one carrying my family in a helicopter for the first time. I earned my helicopter pilot certificate approximately three months prior to the flight; I have a bit more than 90 hours total rotorcraft time. The helicopter itself is an Aircraft X; and about XX years old; and lacks modern technology; including that required to definitively determine the wilderness boundary. The landing area also lacks cellular service.Specifically; I took my family on our first overnight camping trip. We planned to camp and fish at ZZZ just to the north of the Name1 Wilderness. When we arrived at ZZZ; we realized that it is perched on a steep cliff and the river to fish was situated considerably lower; down a steep cliff. With young children; that presented a real challenge; so I flew back to the south (the direction we came from) to find the first available gravel bar with ample room for landing below the high water mark. I had understood from my helicopter training that it was important to land below the high water mark in any area around a river. I had no intention of flying; and did not think that I did fly; back into the Name 1 Wilderness. I executed a safe landing; had lunch and briefly fished with my daughter. My son and wife relaxed 100 yards away; close to where I parked the helicopter. Approximately 30 minutes after landing; two armed men on horseback approached my daughter and I from above and started verbally assaulting me for 'landing in the Name1'. I told them that I believed we landed outside of wilderness and offered to discuss my logic if they would step away from their firearms. There was a house; corral and road that I used for landmarks right by where I landed; and I know those do not exist within wilderness. My helicopter is approximately XX years old; so it does not have the latest navigational technology to show whether I was across the wilderness boundary or not. The area also lacked cellular service. In any event; I apologized several times and tried to de-escalate the situation in any way possible. I suggested that they take a photograph of the helicopter if they would like; and to please stop using profanity and threats in front of my daughter. I asked them to please back up a safe distance so that we could leave the area as soon as possible - regardless of whether we were right or wrong; I wanted to resolve the situation. They proceeded toward the helicopter where my wife was standing; and she was so scared that she got her bear spray to protect herself if needed. At that point; I approached her and reiterated to them that it was our intent to leave as soon as possible and they needed to back up so that we could depart. They backed up only about 50 yards; which required me to perform a high-power vertical take-off to avoid overflying them; putting their safety above that of my family. We returned to ZZZ where we camped overnight.Prior to the flight; I had done extensive research on backcountry and forest service regulations; and had fully briefed my destination. It is possible that I confused the relevance of the high water line to private property as relevant more broadly; including to the gravel bar where I landed. Nonetheless; I had absolutely no intention of landing in designated wilderness. If I did; I apologize; it was completely unintentional. My family loves and enjoys the outdoors; we live in State X and do all we can to respect it and the animals and people in it. The interaction that my family and I had with the two men was extremely upsetting; and I did the only thing that I thought I could do under the circumstance; which was to promptly vacate the area and file this report. Once again; my apologies if I did anything wrong.In the days following the event I have sought feedback on my actions from others with more experience; I have read and research regulations; and endeavored to better educate myself. I appreciate that as a pilot it is my responsibility to put myself of a path of continuous learning. If the FAA wanted to do more to prevent events such as mine from happening; it would be extremely helpful if someone published a complete directory of BLM (Bureau of Land Management); forest service and wilderness regulations; or alternatively maintained a website with specific links to those rules for pilots; a phone number for each region with a contact person; and relevant travel plans for each forest or wilderness area. I attempted to do this research on my own; but still may have made a mistake.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.