Originally Posted by
BackPacker
It's not just the training, it's also the experience.
We once had an event with small aircraft at Schiphol airport. Schiphol supplied the (highly professional) marshallers. It simply did not work initially, because they had no clue about our limitations. One marshaller was trying to get an aircraft parked between two others, and was frantically waving the aircraft to make a tighter turn. They did not know that our nosewheels can only turn about 30 degrees left/right off center, but were expecting airline-style 80-degrees or so. In the end the PIC decided to shut down, and we manually pushed and pulled the aircraft into place.
I've had the same thing a few times. My least favourite marshaller is the one who "outruns" the aircraft when turning left and disappears from view down the left side of the aircraft because helicopter pilots sit in the right seat, not the left seat as he/she is more used to. Then comes in during shutdown before the rotors have stopped without clearance and tries to give you a telling off for not following marshalling signals.