Originally Posted by
clearedtocross
Sorry fdr, I humbly disagree. While it is near impossible to stop a light heli manually like a Robinson R22 without proper ground reference, those big junks used for all-weather rescue operations all have hover-capable autopilots. Press the button and the thing holds position even in strong winds. I am sure a Blackhawk has this feature too. And hover og at sea level is not an issue here. And I am sure you should not be allowed to fly a heli at night if you cannot perform a reasonable 360 flown shy above transition speed. Another question is if you should be allowed to fly at 200 feet at night over a built up area. But that's another story. There are so many risks staring at you with these procedures it's a wonder an accident did not happen before.
Do you have a lot of time on a 'big junk'? Randomly coming to the hover at night is not like stopping your car at a red light. And not all 'big junks' have auto-hover, particularly free-air hover capability. Even if the Blackhawk does have auto-hover, it may well have limitations and it's not always just a simple case of pressing a button. e.g. is the surface (water or land) suitable for rad alt hold? What are the rad alt height limitations? Is the auto-hover based on doppler? If so, is there a max altitude for its use? The 'big junk' I am familiar with even has a min speed on instruments (not that this was instrument conditions, but it was night which has some similar characteristics).
Despite what some people appear to be suggesting here, in my experience it's not normal just to stop a helicopter to wait for a passing aircraft to fly by.
And maybe even more importantly, why would you stop if you have no reason to suspect that the flightpath isn't clear?