S92 Marine One
 

Guys I have always wanted to know why pilots land the choppers on the three little circles and not a proper lit, and serviced HLS? I may be wrong but I have never seen a fire guard, lit windsock or other pilot aids for the White House. Is this purely a cosmetic reason or are there other dispensations given because it is Marine One? I see the 92 is causing dramas with the burnt grass etc so why not have a helipad?

Thanks chaps.

I don't know the answers to your other questions but I do know the WH has its own fire department on site. And if you look close in various photos you'll see a number of units in turnout gear on standby any time M1 is operating along with specific DC units.

Arnold This link might help explain
Bksmith

grass damage
 

so the grass doesnt get damaged, the three circles are put there when a helo is expected, a prime requirement is that the garden is undamaged by the aircraft.. I learnt that from the VH71 days

Why does the co-pilot keep touching the overhead throttles?

Trying to increase RPM to muss up Donny's hairdo?

Thanks for the helpful info guys, much appreciated.

I got the impression that it was filmed in 2008, so less of a concern back then.

I wonder, is it just as easy to touch down on the three circles when your main gear is at the back as on the S-92? Or would you need an additional marker somewhere?

With deck markings we could easily put the Sea King wheels exactly on a mark far smaller than the wheel 'discs' shown, day or night, without any conning from the back. I suspect there will be discrete sight lines somewhere to assist Marine One drivers, but bear in mind they have to line up regardless of wind direction or windspeed so hats off to their skill level :cool:

By the way, you may be confused when you refer to the S-92? The VIP S-92 isn’t yet in service, Marines still operate Sikorsky Sea Kings. When the S-92 finally steps up it will be a nosewheel machine :ok:

I think I got it right..... I noticed that on the current VH-3D it is possible to see the main wheel on your side, which means that the two man crew can be very precise in planting these (as you confirmed from your Sea King experience). Once the S-92 takes over they will have a nosewheel type and to me it would appear to be more difficult to put the three gears on the discs without an additional line marking on the lawn. Just planting the nose gear on its disc but with a bit of yaw on will put the main gears off the circles.

Jhieminga trust me, you don’t look back at the wheels. You line yourself up with the sight lines, effectively putting them under your seat; it won’t matter if it’s a tail wheel or a nose wheel aircraft.

Perfectly clear, but what I understand from the video posted above is that during an approach and landing on the lawn of the White House, there is just one line marking that serves to line up on during the approach to the area, and the three circles where the gears need to end up (from 29:00 on in that documentary). That would leave you without any sight lines during the touchdown phase. The markings are visible in a shot from the flightdeck at 19:41 in the video.

Edit: I see that you were curious about this too John...;)