View Full Version : Hospital Helipad ratings
For all the fling wingers a question. This week a Black Hawk couldnt land at the rooftop helipad of the RBWHospital in Brisbane as it was too heavy for the helipad according to the media.The Black Hawk is around 18000 pounds and a Bell used by EMS about 12000 pound and lands regularly on that pad.
I cant find any ratings for rooftop pads and wouldnt you expect a huge facility as this to have something that can handle most common medium rotorcraft ?
grumpytroll
7th Nov 2014, 03:24
Most US rooftop pads have two numbers painted on them. An example would be 12/36. The numbers represent the max weight and rotor diameter allowed to use the pad. I land on them regularly and with out scientific research, I would say that the majority of them are 12,000 MGW. I flew Hawks for years and so have had the same thought. I don't know the engineering that goes in to these but it appears that most are made for 12,000 lbs or less. The rotor diameter is always less than a Blackhawk as well. You can google earth these and see the numbers pretty clearly on most hospital roof pads.
Cheers
John Eacott
7th Nov 2014, 04:53
Look at CAAP 92-2 (http://www.pprune.org/www.casa.gov.au/download/caaps/ops/92_2.pdf) especially 6.3.1.3 and 7.3.12-14.
A 22,000lb (not 18,000lb) Blackhawk wouldn't be considered a 'common medium rotorcraft'!
OvertHawk
7th Nov 2014, 08:20
Rooftop Helipads are complex structures. They need to be able to cope with the load of the aircraft not just in normal circumstances, but also in the event of a high rate of descent impact.
The heavier the aircraft to design for - the beefier the structure needs to be and thus it's more expensive.
It's a simple matter of what you want to spend money on. Do you spend money building a pad that can accept the heaviest aircraft or do you design it to accept what you will need most of the time and accept that the Blackhawk will have to land on the football pitch round the corner on the few occasions it needs to come to the hospital?
OH