Guys, wind is relative to the ground, not the helicopter. It is only when you are maneuvering relative to the ground ie pattern work does it make a difference. For example if it were completely dark, you cannot see the ground and there where no nav instruments to tell you otherwise, you would have no idea what your ground track is while you were doing constant standard rate turn (according to your turn indicator or compass with clock) while doing this in an airmass moving at 50 kts (relative to the ground). Your airspeed indicator would keep a constant indication, your altimeter would be unchanged, you would not feel a damn thing BUT your ground track would show weird loops moving in the direction of the wind.
You can be in a free balloon (untethered) in a hurricane and the ride in the basket would be overall quite. The helicopter does not care, the airplane does not care about wind UNTIL you are maneuvering relative to an object that is NOT moving ie runway, confined area, tree etc. Soooo your recovery from a VR state can be easily sideways, backwards, front (all relative to the wind of course) but front is easier since you can see where you are going which makes life easier.
Last edited by before landing check list; 30th Jun 2012 at 07:42.