TeeS: agreed, skidded are the best for emergency work. Our terrain lends itself to skids for the foll reasons:
massive ground clearance to take all our extra belly pod equipment. Less chance of smacking it!
Skids find an even datum after settling in sand (beach) unlike wheels where one of them might decide to dig down deeper!!
Better for a more stable line of contact while emplaning/deplaning, whereas a single point of contact on one wheel makes life a little harder to judge!
No worries re ground resonance!
Harder to pick up the helo to store in the hangar with wheels.
Smack a skid (hard) and you've still got a reasonable chance of securing a landing later on, damage one of the wheels and you've possibly got a major incident on your hands??
Apart from that very little in it....sorry NL.
