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Helicopters landing on uninspected surfaces

Often while flying in Scotland or off the Irish cost, I’ve looked down on tiny islands and fantasised what it would be like to land on one and spend the night in my tent on an island only a few 10’s of meters long.

Obviously in the Arrow, that is impossible.

Am I correct in assuming that even in a helicopter landing on an unprepared, uninspected surface (that might not have had a human set foot on it in decades) is a “big no no”? Does such a fantasy remain the domain of sailors?







EIWT Weston, Ireland

I’m not knowledgeable on helicopters but I don’t see why not?

Rescue helis fly and land everywhere here, impossible to inspect everything beforehand. I’m sure they have trained eyes though and can decide before touching down if it’s safe to do so.

always learning
LO__, Austria

In training a lot of time is spent doing exactly this. For a Class 6 ULM in particular, it’s exactly what the machines are used for.

It’s really no different in principle than landing an aeroplane where nobody has set foot. Kind of like walking across a bog: inspect carefully and then feel and be ready to reverse each part of each step.

Glenswinton, SW Scotland, United Kingdom

At least in FAA-land, off-field operations are very much part of helicopter training. The big advantage of a heli is that you can inspect the terrain from a six foot hover, and even when you set down on it you can “feel” to see if it feels solid as you slowly lower the collective.

LFMD, France

I would assume in many European countries it is more a legal question: Most of this Islands should be public land and therefore one needs to get landowners permission from some kind of government. That could prove difficult.

And more seriously: Many of such small rocks in the sea are important habitats for birdlife and therefore are either officially protected or at least should only be touched after careful consideration…

Germany

Much of my helicopter training was “off” landing training. The first thing my instructor briefed me was to inspect the proposed landing area as though it was a lady in the pub you had your eye on: Surroundings, Obstructions, Shape, Surface, Slope, and Wind. If all those seem okay, it’s worth a try, though with constant re-evaluation.

It would take pages to write what I was taught, so instead, some photos of where I landed during training:

Home runway, in central Ontario, Canada, Canada

The last one – are you hovering, sitting on a rock, or perched over the stream on two rocks??

Upper Harford private strip UK, near EGBJ, United Kingdom

Pilot_DAR wrote:

though it was a lady in the pub you had your eye on: … Wind.

The other ones I get, but checking the wind before you talk to a lady in the pub sounds … smelly. ;-)

Germany

Buckerfan wrote:

The last one – are you hovering, sitting on a rock, or perched over the stream on two rocks??

In the last last one, as the mountain perch also, I was “toe’d in”, so just the toes of the skids firmly held against the surface, so the helicopter is in contact with the ground, and a person could step off the front of the skid. It took me a couple of minutes to find two different rocks which I could line up level to toe in to. Room was tight behind me, so I could not back up for a better look ahead, it was all looking down and around to pick my spot.

Landing in the deep powder snow with “bear paws” requires lifting and dropping the helicopter with collective pitch, to pack the snow. If not, when you set down, it can tip back on the skids and get the tail rotor in the snow – a bad place for that to happen!

In any case, remote operations require consideration for what you’ll do if something doesn’t go as planned. I’ve flown repair parts and charged batteries into remote lakes to help out stuck pilots. One of my friends was one of a team of three floatplanes to fly a replacement IO-520 engine in to a remote lake, to replace the one which had blown during a takeoff attempt. You have to have a plan, and some help in the background. My personal remote record was a camping night at an arctic lake, which was 93 miles away from the nearest other person. But my buddies, who were at a remote fishing camp, knew where I’d gone, and when to expect me back….

Home runway, in central Ontario, Canada, Canada

I doubt if any Scottish islands are public land. If owned by the Government, it’d likely be M.of D. Uninhabited islands likely belong to some estate. Below high water mark is Crown Estate, and I’ve never heard of them bothering anyone regarding access.
I’m not sure about Rockall. Is it Barra?
Disturbing protected birds, even outside the breeding season, is likely a problem.
I’ve spent a night alone on an uninhabited island when canoeing.
The rats made a noise chasing one another across the glassfibre canoe, but otherwise didn’t bother me.

Maoraigh
EGPE, United Kingdom
11 Posts
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