The ultimate adrenalin rush came from your first night D/Ls and then the first time you do stern-facing landings with the ship full ahead.
That said the most challenging D/Ls were oddly enough on an aircraft carrier where the Flight Deck chappies had marked out a half-a-postage-stamp area astern of the island where, with blades folded (Sea King HAS1) we could be on immediate readiness and still operate the fixed wing. The target was a 2ft diameter circle for the starboard wheel. Sitting in the cockpit with Phantoms landing was nerve-racking to say the least.
Best D/L was on a US carrier where the bl**dy thing was so big I actually lost site of the ocean. Such luxury.
Like the skill of hovering deck landing can be made to look simple but the reality is that proper instruction and regular practice are essential ingredients. The impressive Lynx video makes light of the fact that getting it down is one thing but keeping it there if you don't have the luxury of 'HARPOON' is beyond most commercial ops so our limits are much much less, maybe 2 degrees of pitch and roll and 10 feet of heave. Modern systems employ deck movement monitoring that take into account rates of change to P/R/H as opposed to the max amplitudes.
G.
