JimL,
Can you put that into plain old tea room English?
It gets back to my questions....what is a standard circle? What is a standard helicopter?
If one flys for Mobil in Nigeria there is no such thing as a standard circle. Those that have flown there can easily describe the railroad track decks (the old wooden decks platforms that had all of the wood removed from the two I-beam supports that required one to land parallel to the I-beams.
Or....perhaps the survey boats that have the fold down helidecks that are marked for small aircraft and not the mediums being used.
The comment about landing on a pinnacle comparison defeats most RN pilots I know. They prefer to arrive at a hover and transition across to the deck as if there is a marshaller waving wands at them clearing them to the 3 Spot.
The elevated helideck is simply a pinnacle landing without the mountains. The deck markings are useful if they have any pertinance to the aircraft you happen to be flying at the time. Angle of descent and rate of closure are discernable by the rig/platform apparant movement and deck alone with the markings being just something else to use to ad detail to the deck surface. Nets work a treat for that purpose as well.
Does this not get back to basics....standard entry height above the water, standard speed, find the angle....maintain the angle and rate of closure till you pick up all those cues as you approach the deck surface. (Remember the old Chinagraph (grease pencil) mark on the windscreen? I will bet you that a survey of decks will show a decided favor of landing towards the uncluttered edge vice bum on circle in the exact center of the deck.
One simply has to know where to place the wheels/skids on each deck to ensure avoiding the 'boinking noises"....and that depends more on the geometry of the landing gear compared to the bits that are flopping about looking for something to beat themselves to death upon than the "D's and .5D's" crap.