HELI Helicopter Training and Charters

As the student progresses through the PPL syllabus, the textbook procedure is religiously adhered to. It is repeated and fine-tuned to the diligent instructor's exacting standards. Any deviation is met with a stern admonishment and shameful tongue-lashing. Then, one day, the time comes to learn all about Confined Area Operations. All the previously taught procedures are forgotten as the main focus is now on how to take off and land vertically. The old Air Force derived procedure is read from the instructor's notes, and the happy duo blissfully take to the skies without any idea of how much information went untouched.

This is one of the few exercises in the PPL syllabus that gives the instructor a very rare opportunity to present a typical and very realistic case of how helicopters are operated in real world scenarios every day. During actual operations, whether in charter work, filming, game capture, rescue, or offshore missions, we hardly ever see the take-off and landing profile as presented in the Height Velocity Diagram. If we always had the amount of space available as dictated by the recommended profile, we would be better off using runways and, heaven forbid, fly a craft with non-rotating wings. Helicopters, by their very design, are operated from unprepared or confined areas almost all the time. It is therefore vitally important that we learn how to do this efficiently and safely.

Planning
With volumes of up to date information available to us, there is simply no excuse for poor planning. This planning goes beyond all the usual topics such as fuel, trip time and distance, weight & balance, and weather forecasts. These are very important aspects, but we are equally concerned with what to expect at our destination and the helicopter's performance when we get there. First, we need to decide why we are going to a certain destination. Every confined landing involves a period of flight in the shaded areas of the H/V Diagram. Although it does not pose a problem as long as we don't suffer an engine failure, it is still undeniably an additional risk. We just need to convince ourselves that the risk is justified.

Next, we need to decide what we are going to do there. Are we collecting passengers or taking on more fuel? Is our landing weight going to be different from our take-off weight? The performance implications are often overlooked. How long are we going to stay at the destination? It requires far less power to land in a confined area than to depart from the same spot. Many a pilot arrived at his confined destination early in the morning only to embarrassingly discover that he cannot leave the same spot later in the day due to increased temperatures and diminished aircraft performance.

Legal aspects of the flight should not be overlooked. If the destination is in or near a built-up area, we must be very clear on what the required procedures are to obtain clearance for the landing. Many pilots also neglect to adhere to effective noise-abatement procedures.

In our company we make a habit of consulting Google Earth before each flight to an unknown landing site. Although some information relating to obstacles may be outdated, we still derive very important information from satellite images. Specific coordinates and accurate terrain elevation are two aspects that form the backbone of the navigation planning and performance planning respectively. Coordinates are plugged into a GPS or flight planning software to give accurate navigational information. When we know the distance to the destination, we can calculate how much fuel is required. The take-off weight for the specific flight is adjusted to allow for fuel burn on the way to the destination. The destination's elevation, forecast temperature, and our expected landing weight are used to consult the Out of Ground Effect (OGE) hover performance charts. Google's very useful distance measuring tool makes it possible to establish, in very broad terms, whether the intended landing site is big enough for our chosen helicopter for the day.

Assessment
All this planning is vitally important, but there is no substitute for assessing the landing site and local conditions first hand. Assuming that we had done the planning diligently, we would arrive overhead our confined area on time and with the expected amount of fuel in the tanks. The first lesson to learn is that it is impossible to forecast the specific wind in a small, localized area. Geographic features such as hills and valleys influence the prevailing winds dramatically. We need to look for clues such as smoke, dust, ripples on nearby water, or moving grass and leaves to judge the wind accurately. Sometimes it is impossible to judge it correctly and unfortunately a certain amount of guesswork is often involved.

The old Air Force literature then speaks of the Five S's. (Size, shape, slope, surface, surrounds). Most training facilities have also added the sixth S, namely "sun". The procedure then calls for a high pass to be flown at 500 feet over the landing site, followed by a lower and slower pass at 200ft. Certain of these S's are to be checked in a very carefully designed sequence, and many instructors take great delight in pointing out why certain S's should not be assessed at the incorrect height. This whole procedure, in my opinion, does not make any sense. The reality is that you need to overfly the intended landing area as many times as you need to and as low as you are safely able to in order to make an informed decision about committing to the landing.

Let's assume that we choose to use these S's as an inspection guideline. Once we've guessed the wind direction, we "design" a circuit that will establish an approach into wind. Local terrain and obstacles will dictate the shape and orientation of this circuit. One of the most important aspects is to have an escape route to use when we decide not to continue with the approach or even the inspection. Reasons for using this escape route may include windshear, inadequate available power, or just simply identifying a reason why the landing cannot be conducted safely.

The size and shape refer to the physical dimensions of the confined landing area. Is the area big enough, not merely for the helicopter, but also to fly the appropriate type of approach and then maneuver the helicopter for the eventual landing and subsequent take-off? Slope refers to the slope of the landing area surface. We need to know what the operating limitations are for our specific type of helicopter for slope landings. Note that slopes are very difficult to judge from as low as 20ft, let alone 200ft. This may be an opportunity for us to use that carefully designed escape route.

Surface points to the characteristics of the surface that we intend to land on. How will our ground effect be influenced by the surface? Is it smooth or undulated, covered in grass, or strewn with rocks? Will the rotor downwash create a dust storm and leave me in with no outside visual references? What other articles will be blown into the air by the rotor downwash? Is the surface soft, sandy, or muddy? How will my landing gear deal with this type of surface? Is there sufficient ground clearance to the aircraft fuselage and tailrotor? As you can see, the opportunities for disaster are endless.

Surrounds are assessed as part of the circuit design. What obstacles do I need to fly over before landing? Are there people around who will approach the helicopter unsupervised? What about animals, fences, wires?

Any pilot's silliest mistake is to try and package these assessment criteria into a memorized procedure that stops us from using common sense. We need to continuously check all these aspects during the assessment, approach and landing. If we do not like what we see, we must always have the option not to land.

Landing
So far so good! We planned the flight using all available resources. We arrived at the landing area, established the wind direction and convinced ourselves that it's safe to land based on our continuous assessment of the S's. How do we fly this helicopter into that small space?

Fly a circuit that allows enough time to do the pre-landing checks. Keep looking for anything that could have gone unnoticed. Telephone wires, for instance, have a knack for appearing out of nowhere. The approach should be steep enough in order to keep the landing spot in sight at all times. Many pilots spend a great deal of time looking at one site, and then landing at another because they lost sight of their intended destination. Initiate the final approach with enough distance to the landing site to allow for a gradual deceleration into an Out of Ground Effect hover. A fast rate of deceleration will contribute to the onset of Vortex Ring State. It should also be very obvious during a controlled and disciplined approach if the wind direction was judged incorrectly. An unstable, yawing and vibrating (more than usual) helicopter usually points to a downwind approach. Vortex now becomes a very stark reality, and we're unlikely to have enough power to do a controlled descent into the confined area.

If the wind was indeed judged correctly, plan to stop momentarily in the hover on short final approach with enough height above obstacles to fly away in case of insufficient power. This action serves as both a power check, and a controllability check. We need to establish if a big enough margin of power is available for the landing. We should have a very good idea of what to expect from this check if we had done our planning properly. There are no clear guidelines for the power margin as the parameters vary form one type of helicopter to another. If a stable hover is possible, it means that the wind is from the front, enough power is available, and we have succeeded in avoiding Vortex Ring. It is important to realize that this procedure exposes us to the shaded areas in the H/V Diagram. Therefore don't waste any time. We need to proceed with the landing by continuing a forward movement at brisk hover speed that will allow us to fly the aircraft into ground effect. During this entire procedure, the S's are continuously assessed. We won't even commit to our final touchdown if the slope appears to be too excessive, or if we notice that the ground is too soft and muddy to support the weight of the helicopter. If all still looks good, gently lower the collective and land. Breathe. Stop shaking. Enjoy the adrenalin rush...

There are very few rules when it comes to this type of operation. The one thing that we rely on is a broad set of guidelines within which we can do our own planning, make our own assessment, and hopefully conduct a safe operation. The key ingredient is to make informed and conservative decisions based on sound planning. Helicopters unfortunately operate in this environment of limited information and non-standard procedures almost constantly. Broad guidelines are all we have initially, later enhanced by experience.