By God, Brian Abraham, I've been landing on various decks for forty two years and never realised it was so dangerous! Admittedly I have probably had a lot more power on tap than you had.

QUOTE]A good deck crew who know what they are on about are a god send and absolutely essential when working on a pitching/rolling deck.
[/QUOTE]

Where are you going to find a good deck crew on a VIP yacht, especially in the Carribean? All they are good for is poncing about with trays of bubbly.

generalspecific. When you get there stick to what you know you can do because when you arrive you are on your own.

Sandyhelmet. In my Ops manual the limits for decks are 3 degrees pitch or roll. On dry land it is 10 or 8.

You're right. Its not dangerous at all. What was I thinking. :cool:
YouTube - ch-46 crash
YouTube - Helicopter Accident
YouTube - Australian Black Hawk Crash

I know of some. ;)

I find it is easier without a marshaller. You have plenty of visual cues to guide you.

Deck crew
 

The deck crew are really there to help control the passengers and in case of emergencies (although with some of these decks you will be more likely to wind up in the water than crashed on deck).
They are of precious little use when it comes to marshalling - and if you really need that help then you probably shouldn't be out there flying:}

There is a bunch of trained crew out there - but how current they are is another matter.

Done a couple of deck landings myself (on grey ships as well as on white ones) but this video still makes me hold my breath

Sea King

I guess that guy has bigger "cojones" than me. :ok:

Things you do when you're running out of gas!!!!!!!!!!!!

And then there are Seahawk's

This stuff doesn't (shouldn't) happen on white boats.

There are extremes of everything of course, but having done a bit of both, mountain flying and landing, (above 10,000') would be up there and probably more demanding than deck landings. IMHO of course! :p

After watching the Sea King video I have a question for you ex mil guys.

In those sorts of heavy sea states where it can become bloody hard to land, what are your options. Do you just keep trying and trying til you can get it on the deck or at some point do you have to look at other options.

Just wondering.

Ned

Options? No diversion, so options are ditch or land - I know which one I'm going to have a blo**y good go at achieving. Usually even if the deck is way out of limits there are a few tricks - getting the ship to run down sea usually quietens deck movement, although the wind can then be an issue. If you have the fuel to sit alongside the deck, ready to leap onboard as soon as a short quiet period comes along, then happy days, that's the plan!

Some impressive video, and at night!!! One for you Fareastdriver. What could go wrong? What could go wrong? ;)
YouTube - Helicopter Crash on Aircraft Carrier

to me looks like day light...

By the way those options in high seas - what are the limitations for HIFR ? Could that be used to get enough gas to jump to bigger vessel/land, or keep the bird in the air till it quiet down ?

(For military, not civvies and yachts ;) )

Sorry Aser, was referring to Spunks video.

Deck Ops
 

genspec, some piece of advise from an old bloke..

1> while enroute study the "period" of the swell and the ripples (for wind). count the # of times the sea is heaving.

2> try to time your approach to the deck on the last swell if you are able to. the last swell is the time the boat stops heaving for a few seconds. call it sweet spot if you may. also whether you fly a frenchie or a yankee.. better to approach in a quartering fashion so you'd have good visibility and an escape route.

3> it the yacht's deck is aft-- your horizon ref would only be on your side line of sight.. so, try to get the horizon on your peripheral vision. try to have some view of horizon and deck in view. this way you'd see the deck coming up while maintaining level on horizon.

4> NEVER NEVER look down on deck.. why? your balance mech will tell your brain to correct with respect to what you see the decks attitude to be! this means, if the deck rolls to the right you'd see it as if you are rolling to the left.. and you'd be fooled to correct with a right cyclic-- THIS IS WHAT CAUSES THE VERTIGO AND DECK CONTACT!

5> if you encounter VERTIGO the procedure would be COLLECTIVE IN YOUR ARMPIT! Meaning, swallow your pride and make another approach.

6> if your machine has a cargo hook it's best to improvise a latching system from under the deck. this way even after you have removed the tiedowns there is still something securing you before you attain flight rpm. DON'T FORGET TO RELEASE THOUGH! On landing your deck guy can easily secure you from under the deck.

Yachts would definitely be smaller than tankers and tuna boats i've lived in-- so you could expect a lot more heave and roll.

First time I did Tuna boats.. I had 10yrs tanker and rig experience and it scared the sh..t out of me when it took me 2 attempts to land on a fore located deck!

Get yourself checked out if you have a chance.. nothing special to it and it's just procedure..