Loose Head Bolt:
I cannot agree with you that downwind approaches should never be required because of circumstances - and from the posts others don't agree with you either.
It is a fact of helicopter flying that downwind approaches may be required, and indeed are sometimes the only option possible.
To quote you, 'that should be obvious ......'
Downwind approaches..."required," eh? So that is a FACT, eh? Hmm. Let's see, 10,000+ hours as a commercial helicopter pilot, and I can count on one hand the number of times a downwind approach has been "required" of me. I'm thinking back now...you know, it's hard to keep track of every single landing when you've logged more than 60,000 of them. But I'm really trying to recall a time when I was forced to land downwind without being able to find a suitable and safer alternative.
Nope, can't do it.
I must've lead a very sheltered life as a pilot, eh what! Or...maybe I'm just creative enough to figure out how to keep myself from doing something really, really stupid. And Head Bolt, when they're PAYING you to fly, you have to take it seriously and be more responsible than saying dumb things like "it is a fact that downwind approaches are sometimes required." Such a premise seems awfully immature.
I have had some rather extreme and weird and exciting crosswinds (you know, times when I've circled overhead whilst trying to decide whether it would be better to take the left or right crosswind on the way in, depending on what would happen at the bottom). But when you're downwind, your margins are extremely thin, perhaps nonexistent.
But me...see, I would take a nearly-vertical, between-the-pedals-steep approach into the wind rather than land directly downwind. Especially if I was heavy and most especially if the wind was strong. I don't like downwind; I don't mind steep. I think the risks of a very steep into-the-wind approach are far less than doing it downwind. Steep and into the wind, I can control the ship better. Downwind, you never know when the shudder you're feeling is simply the rotor going in and out of ETL or the onset of VRS. Again, your mileage may vary.
Methinks that Head Bolt and others ought to rethink their "approach" to safety. It's basically pretty simple. There is no reason to think that a downwind landing should in FACT ever be "required"...unless you're doing something where people are shooting at you.
That should be obvious.
Now watch, tomorrow I'll go out and have to land someplace downwind and end up eating all of these delicious words. But I kind of doubt it
