AIS
 

I note that AIS is being offered as an option on helicopters these days. Has anyone outside the SAR environment fitted it and is it a possible solution to the age old problem of crews approaching to the wrong deck? :8

Not with an approved installation.
We have trialed a Digital Yacht AIS with Wi-Fi to iphone or ipad, which picks up ships over 50 NM out with only a 4" Arial.
Pretty much paid for itself after a triple header with a 4th vessel in the area along with marginal weather.
Only limitation I've found is the Wi-Fi only connects to one device at a time.
We have not followed up with a permanent installation yet, as it probably will be too hard to get approved.

Hope the link below helps.

Digital Yacht - Light Years Ahead

The UK SAR 92's have a fully fitted AIS I believe, I vaguely recall it overlays onto their moving map/gps picture.

Si

Up to 5 WiFi devices, can be used in "silent" mode too...
Vesper Marine XB-8000 AIS Transponder with WiFi
AIS XB-8000 WiFi Transponder from Vesper Marine

People land on the wrong deck for a variety of reasons such as confusion about which deck they are supposed to be landing on, and a fixation with the deck despite the GPS waypoint telling they are pointing the wrong way. Therefore I doubt that having AIS would make much difference.

Aircraft Information Systems (AIS) for helicopters - Sagem

Why would you need a wi-fi system in a small environment like an aircraft anyway? AIS overlays on most GPS mapping systems and transmits your location over vhf limited range.

We have an AIS tracking system on our offshore installation for tracking vessels. But we can also see SAR aircraft on the screen (as they are onviously fitted with AIS systems).

We enquired if our helicopter operator could fit an AIS, but it wasn't feasible.

But the supplier of the AIS tracking system said they could track aircraft, and plot it on our screen, if the aircraft was fitted with a Mode S/ADS transponder.

By all means, combining AIS with ADS B can bring some benefits
in off shore and SAR operations.
Integration is possible, STC on any helicopter for that too,
all is matter of time and money :}

HC is correct - it is known as Confirmatory Bias; look it up and apply it to any of the wrong-rig landings that you have done or are aware of and see if the theory fits the occurrence.

One more piece of information = increase in complexity!

Jim

We work in a region where published rig GPS coordinates are often not very accurate, where rig moves sometimes go unreported, and where ARAs occasionally have to be made to a platform on the field periphery and then visual navigation continued in heavy rain to the destination.
ADS B is not an option due to oil company cost considerations :ugh:
Sometimes the landing site name is not legible, especially in heavy rain. :ugh:
Wouldn't AIS provide a valuable additional clue to assist the aircrew in identifying the landing site?