Bandar Aceh Ops
The day of the new helicopter procedures came and it was chaotic, but it [sort of] worked. The initial problem was that the pilot's info packs did not come ashore from the carrier until well after flying had commenced on the day, and it was a foggy start as well. By midday most helicopters seemed to have got the idea, although certain continental army of the air formations seemed totally oblivious to the procedures and unable to understand the clear and concise Ozzie ATC instructions. There was much frustration in the tower as helicopters infringed the fixed wing pattern, acknowleged ATC instructions and then totally disregarded them. At the end of the day there were no accidents and the new traffic pattern is much safer, once everyone is using it properly.
I have a copy of the new helicopter procedures for Bandar Aceh airport, which includes all the reporting points down to Meulaboh, the altitudes to be used, radio calls to be made, frequencies for loading areas etc etc. It is ESSENTIAL that anyone who plans to arrive in the area in a helicopter, or in a fixed wing operating at helicopter levels, is aware of these. The sky along the north west coast of Sumatra is black with aviation machinery, considerable caution is required.
Please feel free to P.M. me if you need a briefing. Anyone using a Garmin 295/III+/V I can let you have the file to download to your unit which contains most of the info, although I make no guarantee of its accuracy!
Some of us are lucky enough to be TCAS equipped; it is a big help if all aircraft flying in the area squawk 0100 (or any code for that matter) with mode C, as this assists in collision avoidance.
If I may make some comment on the underslung load discussion (and I have stood under an S61 and hooked on loads, and I have carried one or two long line loads in my time):
The nature of the task is to supply food and water to hundreds of isolated pockets of people. Sometimes there are only a few people at each location who have set up flags to show their location. It would be totally inflexible to send a large sling load to each location.
I don't know how pre-arranged the Seahawk drops are, but it appears that an aircraft loads up and then visits several drop zones catering to the requirements of the individual groups, having determined what those requirements are by talking face to face with the recipients.
I'm sure there are some major drop zones that would benefit from sling loads, but in many places it is just not practical.
Vertalop
Thanks very much for the updates and pictures from the 'front line'.
As you can tell from the posts and the number of views of this thread (19,600+ to date), we're all very interested to learn what's going on from people helping there like you and Ned, and there are many Rotorheads ready willing and able to drop everything and come out to join you if/when more helicopter pilots are required.
Keep us posted whenever you can and, above all, fly safe.
Heliport