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Old 17th Sep 2011, 07:40
  #77 (permalink)  
havick
 
Join Date: Apr 2003
Location: USA
Posts: 462
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http://www.casa.gov.au/wcmswr/_asset...s/ops/92_2.pdf

scroll down and read page 5, 6 and 7.

in a nutshell, there's two types of helicopter landing sites;
- Basic HLS
- Standard HLS

Basic HLS's cannot be used for night operations.

Standard HLS has a host of req's for night operations, the thing that stares me in the face with regard to this accident is did the area that VH-NTV was departing from at night conform to the requirements of a standard HLS (read; lighting).

There are dispensations given to operators operate outside the bounds of the caap, usually EMS/SAR. But even then, the aircraft is equipped accordingly as well as other fuel/lighting requirements regarding to the destination etc (standard alternate minima).

I couldn't see the ABC ops manual having these dispensations, nor would the VH-NTV be fitted with the equipment required to depart from a basic HLS at night. Feel free to correct me here someone that has flown for ABC before.

** Doesn't explain the 'cause' of the accident, but still makes me wonder what they were doing there in the first place.
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