PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - constant speed or variable speed approach
Old 14th Jul 2020, 13:58
  #93 (permalink)  
FH1100 Pilot
 
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Pensacola, Florida
Posts: 770
Received 29 Likes on 14 Posts
If the group will allow a bit of thread drift...

Eagle86 is absolutely right. The time to start thinking about your next landing is before pulling pitch on the takeoff that will lead to it. I mean, let's face it, most helicopter flights are not hours and hours long. I don't want to sound arrogant, but if I'm headed for an off-airport landing, I definitely think about all of the factors that will come into play before I ever get in the air. It helps if I've been there before, so I can visualize the different approach paths and angles I might have to use when I arrive.

One of the things that makes airline flying so safe is the repeatability and consistency of their operations. As much as possible, everything is planned out in advance so there should be few (if any) surprises. Nice and predictable...and boring. By contrast and out of necessity, a lot of what we helicopter pilots do is an improvisation. Instead of landing on big, long runways where we know the wind and other conditions well in advance, we arrive over our intended LZ and then have to decide how we're going to get down there and land. I'm not a big fan of the make-it-up-as-you-go-along school of helicopter flying. What we do in our end of the industry may never be as predictable as airline flying, but I like to keep the amount of improvising I do down to a minimum.
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