Kissmysquirrel:
I have flown in wet snow, dry snow, light snow, heavy snow, fluffy snow, re-circulating snow, blowing snow, drifting snow, snow pellets, snow grains, snow showers, snow squalls- day time and night time, VFR and IFR.
Taking-off and landing in conditions conducive to re-circulating snow is quite simple here’s how to do it.
Takeoff: Apply enough power to get the aircraft light on the landing gear and wait. The aircraft will become enveloped in a huge snow blizzard, eventually all the snow that is loose enough to blow will be blown away and you visibility will increase. When you have sufficient references do a towering take-off (trade-off airspeed for altitude) up to 30-50 feet or as required to get above the snowball before transitioning to forward flight.
On Landing: Arrive in a high hover 50-75 feet above the landing site and wait, as in the take-off phase the landing site will initially become obscured but after a while 1-2 minutes the landing references under the aircraft will be visible and then you can continue your decent to a normal landing. This is the easiest and safest way to do it; the no-hover landing technique requires more skill and you have to be certain that the landing site is suitable for your aircraft-not the type of procedure that you want to do in a confined area that you’ve never been into before.
Keep in mind that when using the above techniques your references could be inside the rotor disc so before you try it practice landings and take-offs with your references in close. You also have to ensure that you have Hover Out of Ground Effect (HOGE) performance.
Basically you use the helicopters rotor system as a snow blower.