Originally Posted by
SLFMS
QUOTE=OvertHawk;11051005]
The crew have enough to deal with in their day to day work so probably best not to second guess them especially as stated where you were too far away to see everything anyway.
It would be a sad day indeed if helicopters required a marshaller for a simple landing.
As I say, I am not having a go - I am just trying to understand the risk assessment. I have good eyesight and look down on that carpark from a hill. I could see very clearly the heli, the public, their dogs etc. standing nearby. I could not see any heli
markings such as the words 'Air Ambulance' because it was exactly tail-on to me and remained so.
I appreciate that any heli crew will obviously be very safety minded and will make an operational assessment of any landing site. It just the difference in what is allowed that intrigues me: Pilots of A320's etc at airports are not allowed to walk across a taxiway to the aircraft 'next door', even though we have a Hi Viz vest, we are trained pilots so we know and understand the movements of other aircraft and baggage trucks etc. We also have annual eyesight tests, hearing tests and medicals, On an airport ramp, there are no random, untrained loose public, dogs, cyclists or private cars moving about. When the passengers walk out to an aircraft, they are usually marshalled, to prevent them straying under the wing or away from the aircraft.
In an open public carpark, where nobody in the carpark is even expecting a helicopter to land, there are no such restrictions.