Newcastle Australia

[Bull at a Gate]

Sorry to bother you busy people, but I am curious about something and, having read pprune for a while now, I am sure someone knows the answer.

I am visiting Newcastle, NSW, Australia, and just across from my hotel is a helicopter landng area. I think the helicopter takes the pilots (the maritime sort) to and from ships entering the port. It seems to go all hours of the day and night.

My question is this: how does the pilot get from the helicopter to the ship and vice versa? Does the helicopter land on the deck, or is he/she winched up and down?

[LHSboy]

To answer your question, the 500 lands on most of the ships that come into port, be it bulk carriers i.e. coal or cargo. On the rare occasion that it can't due to cranes, containers etc, the port corp use one of their vessels to transport the marine pilot to the ship.

[Bull at a Gate]

Thanks. It's been bugging me for years, whenever I visit, and all I had to do was post here for an immediate answer.