Downwind 412 departures?
Yes, well........... what a brave chap you are! Of course if your TOW is low and your tail wind is below 5to 8 knots, then this is certainly possible, but I wouldn't recommend it as a regular occurrence and certainly never with an Underslung Load - which is what I was primarily talking about above. The 'drop-down’ use for trading height to speed during departure is great with pax/internal cargo - (when you actually have a decent deck height to give you the drop-down option) - but the aim of the act of rotation is to get the tail clear of the deck in the event of a critical engine failure after the nose-down rotation has been input. During a downwind deck departure (pax/frt) this would be pretty-well guaranteed, because of your exaggerated tail-up, nose down attitude from the downwind departure (just about where you feel your butt-puckering rate increasing quickly!) will ensure this, however you are still downwind and therefore will sink more rapidly after an actual EFATO and your subsequent ability to fly away safely from an engine failure after rotation will therefore not be quite so cozy. It will take you longer to carry out your fly away, and if you were (horrors!) at MAUW it is highly likely that you would not make your 70 KIAS VBROC/Vy at Max SE Torque before you impacted the water, in which case, you would then be faced with converting to a down-wind run-on into de briny blue (whilst maintaining translational lift iaw with the PFM!) In a 412? No thanks mate!
Purely as a guide to pilots new to these 412 helideck operations and especially Underslinging to/from offshore platforms, I would say NEVER do a downwind departure in a 412 unless you are light and the winds are below 5 Knots. As for the pedal input - yes, you can do this during any deck departure, - downwind or otherwise, but from vast experience teaching new guys offshore, it is far less stressful for them (and for me) to depart on a steady chosen heading (especially at night) into wind or within the 'nice' relative wind arc for the 412 (Red 30 to Green 10) without making pedal inputs during this departure. Such inputs tend - until they have frightened themselves sufficiently in a 412 offshore - to be excessively applied and the cause of quite alarming and wholly unexpected Torque 'spikes'/overtorques after rotation which they are usually wholly unprepared for! Sorry, - but the machine flies like a dog compared with its illustrious predecessors and therefore needs to be mollycoddled off the deck in the smoothest, gentlest way possible. We helicopter Gods are meant to be smooth, of course! Downwind departures with excessive rates of pedal input on departure are liable to end up with passengers submitting complaints after flight - so lily-livered and chicken-hearted, those oilies!
The gentle, expert use of pedal by an experienced pilot is another matter entirely, of course - and one which shows the devastating skill and experience of the 412 operator involved!
When you do have sufficient experience offshore to be skilled at, and be comfortable with, doing downwind departures off decks, then you will know exactly where that very fine dividing line is. However, within a company employing over 15 different nationalities, I personally find that the safest standard to set is usually the most straight-forward and sensible one. - K.I.S.S. (Keep-It-Simple-Stupid) - it works well for new guys, especially when one only has one pair of instructional brown-corduroy trousers supplied by the company!
In the end - operating the Bell 412 (especially above 44 degrees C) is all about getting enough hands-on experience on the type, - in all winds and weathers, without going swimming or bending the machine, and then using that expertise to try always to operate the aircraft with the most suitable (fine) margin of power/weight and fuel 'insurance' in-hand to provide for the wife and kids!
Fond regards,
O