Originally Posted by
Bksmithca
Interesting I had two thought about why they didn't use the landing pad. First was the fencing around the site. It looked close to the pad and I was thinking that the nacelle might have ended up on top of the fence. Second was watching the video I assumed that the pad was a heavy rubber pad that I seen used for temporary construction roads here in Canada. If the pad was in fact aluminum then yes the engine exhaust likely would have melted the pads.
Pretty sure its heavy plastic plates. It's kind of besides the point though.
I suspect the CV-22 is too big to land on the pad comfortably, and chose to approach, land and depart the way they did to give themselves enough room against the fence, the lighting, the signage and what looks to be a waiting area on the way to the landing pad, but still allow the ramp to neatly meet the access pathway for transfer by gurney.
The only real issue for me is that the matting does not look to have been fixed to the ground so any blast of air impinging sideways on the matting was likely to lift it. For helicopter ops I imagine this isn't an issue, but I'd still want to do it anyway. This particular use case probably never occurred to the people planning it - maybe when it was designed there were only MH-53s and MH-60s around, or maybe those design assumptions were brought forward instead of re-assessed or maybe they didn't or couldn't consult this particular 'customer'. Lots of potential holes in the cheese, could have been filled with some pegs.