Originally Posted by
HeliComparator
I don’t know when the APU is routinely started, other than at start up.
Originally Posted by
212man
Some operators do start the APU before landing, but I have no clue if Bristow Norway do, or for SAR low level. It is possible, because the first time I encountered the practice was with ex-Norsk pilots that joined us, who wanted to continue the practice.
I am not sure how similar to the Blackhawk / Seahawk is to the S-92 is, but...we usually started the APU for winching ops, since it also powered the utility hydraulic system, and we usually started the APU on the ground at landing, before shut down for field ops, but started the APU before we landed on the ship for over water ops.
I of course defer to S-92 operators on the detail, but I suspect the system/scheme would be similar.
(On the other hand, our Navy ended taking the floats off of the Seahawks due to a problem with them interfering with the crew exit from the cockpit, so it appears that S-92 is better set up with the floats, perhaps due to a few lessons learned).