Narrative:

Flight instruction in cessna R182; closed traffic. During an initial climb out on runway 21L at prc; student was having trouble tracking extended runway center line as is customary at airport. Gusty left quartering headwind was drifting aircraft to the right; past runway extended center line. During the initial climb; after passing the end of the runway; I was trying to help the student keep track of how much we had drifted after takeoff by pointing out a reference point on the horizon. Tower was managing a helicopter departure; but I did not have visual contact with said traffic. Tower controller attempted to have helicopter begin a turn to depart to the east; while we were supposed to continue right traffic. I heard the supervising controller jump on and give instruction to both the helicopter and us while we were still on the departure leg of the pattern; but I do not recall the exact instructions given. At that point I saw a low flying helicopter below and to my right. I called traffic in sight and maneuvered to keep traffic in sight to observe which way the helicopter was going. It was by then too late to safely maneuver to completely avoid overflying the helicopter. We made right traffic. While we were turning on crosswind; helicopter complained an aircraft flew directly overhead. Tower replied that our aircraft had drifted to the right while the helicopter hand drifted to the left. Helicopter retorted that he was tracking the taxiway. Due to the large blind spot directly underneath and in front our aircraft; it is hard for me to confirm or deny that we actually directly overflew the helicopter. It is also difficult to estimate the vertical separation for the same reasons above; plus the fact that we were still climbing. However; it was without doubt closer than routine traffic pattern separation observed at prc.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: C182 instructor pilot with student departing Runway 21L reports NMAC with helicopter departing Runway 21R. Strong quartering headwind causes student pilot to drift into the 21R departure path.

Narrative: Flight instruction in Cessna R182; closed traffic. During an initial climb out on Runway 21L at PRC; student was having trouble tracking extended runway center line as is customary at airport. Gusty left quartering headwind was drifting aircraft to the right; past runway extended center line. During the initial climb; after passing the end of the runway; I was trying to help the student keep track of how much we had drifted after takeoff by pointing out a reference point on the horizon. Tower was managing a helicopter departure; but I did not have visual contact with said traffic. Tower Controller attempted to have helicopter begin a turn to depart to the east; while we were supposed to continue right traffic. I heard the Supervising Controller jump on and give instruction to both the helicopter and us while we were still on the departure leg of the pattern; but I do not recall the exact instructions given. At that point I saw a low flying helicopter below and to my right. I called traffic in sight and maneuvered to keep traffic in sight to observe which way the helicopter was going. It was by then too late to safely maneuver to completely avoid overflying the helicopter. We made right traffic. While we were turning on crosswind; helicopter complained an aircraft flew directly overhead. Tower replied that our aircraft had drifted to the right while the helicopter hand drifted to the left. Helicopter retorted that he was tracking the taxiway. Due to the large blind spot directly underneath and in front our aircraft; it is hard for me to confirm or deny that we actually directly overflew the helicopter. It is also difficult to estimate the vertical separation for the same reasons above; plus the fact that we were still climbing. However; it was without doubt closer than routine traffic pattern separation observed at PRC.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 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.