Unusual/challenging landing sites?
 

Is this the most unusual / challenging landing-pad in the world?

A 'catenary' landing-pad on Alcan's Kemano pipeline, Canada.

http://img78.photobucket.com/albums/...ary_Pickup.jpg

The pad is 1/2 mile from the mountains on each side, and 700 feet in the air above an avalanche zone.
It's supported on three inch cables, a mile long, attached to the mountain by 15-21 rock anchors each.


Any Canadian Rotorheads landed there?



I've managed to track down the pilot in the photograph who's now registered as 'Canadian Rotorhead.'
See his posts below for a description of landing on the pad.

Aerial Cable
 

Flying down the Alcan highway near Haines Junction there is (or was) an aerial tram that stretched from the highway to the top of a nearby mountain some 3000 feet up. My brother will never forget the evasive turn I performed to avoid the almost unseen cable while cruising at 2500 ft agl.
We checked the sectional, "caution aerial tram" in fine print. I thought trams spanned rivers about 100 ft high or so and didn't give it much thought.I do now. (trams are not marked with orange balls)

Bet you don't shut down there much!?

Last year a certain magazine published in the Southern hemisphere which may or may not write about helicopters and which we cannot mention here had an article about catenary work in New Zealand on power cables across a valley. Awesome photographs and the wind was blowing a hooligan.

I heard the pad on the Burj Al Arab Hotel is a bit tricky.

For those who don't know Burj Al Arab Hotel is in the Emirate of Dubai United Arab Emirates......

:ok: :cool:

For the sake of us who will never land on a Thong type pad, could one of our more experienced rotorheads explain how this miniscule pad would be used:eek: :ooh:

On that 206 there are a good deal of skin ripples. Is that par for the course in an older machine?
A beaut photograph.

Lord Grumpy
 

The ripples on the right hand fuslage are from nuckelheads throwing gear in the boot. Also torqe can couse rippling as well. The dents under the doors are from, you guessed it steelcap saftey boots.:ok:

The circular helipad can be seen in Alan's photograph. It's a 24 metre (79 ft) pad that projects from the hotel 210m above ground.
The Burj is the tallest hotel in the world, only a couple of hundred feet shorter than the Empire State Building, built on an artificial island 200 metres off of the coast into the Arabian Sea.

http://www.g-t-n.de/Graphics/Special...larab/bau2.jpg

A friend who's landed on the Burj al Arab helipad many times tells me .......

"The pad is 850'AMSL. Due to the +45C summer temperatures the DA can be 4,500'.
Typically, in the afternoon, due to sea breezes, the surface wind is 300/20. Because of the structure being shaped like a huge sail, the wind on the helipad can be 120/20.

It makes for a very tricky approach what with the size of the structure, the turbulence and the 180 degree shift in wind on the final stage!
After shutting down, the vertigo, as experienced by most high time helicopter pilots, can be very uncomfortable!"

With respect to the 'catenary' platform, you'd have thought that, having taken all the trouble to put the thing in place, they'd have made it a tad bigger!

As for the Burj Al Arab, what's the 'aerofoil' shaped structure on the left of AlanM's photo ?

I believe it is the EXECUTIVE (as if being in the worlds only 6 star hotel wasn't enough) canteen. Or restaurant to the posh types!!

Saw a documentary on the place once whilst flying to Jo'burg. Simply stunning.

I've managed to trace one of the three pilots who land at the catenary pad in Canada.

Click here to see the post by our newest member, Canadian Rotorhead on our 'Rotorheads Around the World' thread.


Heliport

Catenary suspension system
 

A bit more info on the pad. It is located in the centre of a mountain cirque (like the focal point on a satellite dish) Making for very difficult wind predictions. It was only safely possible to point towards the mountain, as the other direction dropped off for 4600 feet into the Kemano Valley making wind prediction nearly impossible.

Power was always kept on as you can imagine. The first lineman would slowly transfer his weight out of the aircraft. Next he would receive the emergency repelling gear (750 feet), then the other lineman would follow. During this few minutes, it would seem like an hour to me as I used the limited references and constant power changes to keep the JetRanger from applying too much weight or conversely, lifting off.

There were six conductors (267 Kv) fore and aft, with the two support cables rising to the left and right.

After the drop off, we were usually required to sling work gear such as hanging ladders or insulator glass into the platform.

I can tell you, they don't pay pilots enough for that kind of stress.

"After the drop off, we were usually required to sling work gear such as hanging ladders or insulator glass into the platform."

A landing sounded difficult enough, but slinging onto a platform like that? You have my full and undivided attention and respect :cool: :ok: :ok:

That's quite a compliment coming from someone with your experience John.

Thank you, but, for the most part, it was just part of the summer routine.

I have heard that in Norway or Switzerland that they have similar systems, but use cable trollies to access the work platforms. That was the original way they did it in Kemano until a malfunction in the cable winch system. My old boss, Dave, did the first Catenary landing (hover exiting linemen onto the bare cables, no pad yet) in the late 1970s. He slung the pad up and held it there while it was being bolted on. Now there's a man to tip your hat to. His friends call him Zoomin "mad dog" Newman

The powerline work was educational to say the least, and I am thankful for the experience, but I think the stress made my hair fall out. Yeah, that must be the reason :D

Glad that you enjoyed the photos, I have some unscanned, when I get the chance, they will get posted too.

CDN RH

Damn ! I was told it was a 7 star hotel and the only one ! Now I see there are a couple more 7 star hotels on the internet.

Apologies for staying "off-thread" but Steve, if "tempted", look out for deals. Currently on teletext at £889 for 3 nights, including return air fare. Earlier this year you could do part Burj(1n), part Jumeirah Beach(6n) (also a great hotel), with a week at just under £1k! :ok:

As long as it's not Al Jazeera Airways that sounds like a fab deal. Thanks !

Lord Grumpy
 

Many of the JetRangers I flew were converted 206A models which had a much lighter guage airframe. The right hand side of the machine is the compression side, so you will see wrinkles like that, under power, in rotorcraft with similar construction.


Rotor1

No, the baggage compartment has a kevlar liner to avoid that.

Yeah.

What dents under the door? That machine was two weeks out of the paintshop when the shot was taken. You are looking at reflections in the white enduro paint.

CDN RH

Having spent 6 years flying with Okanagan Helicopters, I always thought Canadians were mad. Now that I have read this post, I know they are!:O :ok:

I concur with that Nigel, having done a tour with the CAF, I know they are mad. Hauling down an S61 with a steel hawser and clamping it in steel jaws, while a landing platform the size of a wimpy 4th bedroom, moves +/- 30 degrees left to right or +/- 5 degrees fore and aft, at night in sea state 8 - is just plain mad.

These Canadians, they have NO FEAR:ooh: :ooh:

CDN Sea Kings
 

Those poor Sea Kings get less wear and tear when they are in the air. There is no wonder that they have so many maintenance problems, beaten onto the deck, rolling around all day and immersed in the salt air 24/7.

Forty years from now, we'll have the same comments about whatever replaces her.

CDN RH

It's ironic.
 

That probably more Ppruners and guests. Know about this catenary landing pad: than Canadians.

Canadian Rotorhead you have our admiration.
Are there any more photo's of this challenging landing site?

Catenary
 

Yes, I will try to get them scanned and posted somewhere, but right now, I have just unpacked the entire Jeppessen IFR trip kit for the USA and Western Canada. It's going to be a busy weekend sorting those and finding something to hold them together. Those leather binders are pretty expensive for the one trip.

Must be 15 Kg of paperwork alone. Getting very excited about the trip.

I'll try to find a few new pics before I leave.

CDN RH

Catenary Pics
 

Sorry, I have been busy, so I haven't been able to dig up any more pictures. I recently flew a Sikorsky 61 to Vancouver from Maturin, Venezuela. Came home to massive hurricane damage leaving fifteen large trees bent over my back yard. Power is still not restored after six days. Internet at work is functioning, but I'll likely be seeing more darkness at home this evening.

My copilot during the ferry flight works full time in Qatar, according to him, the hotel helipad mentioned on this topic is used only for the police there and is closed to the public. Looks like fun though.

RH

Hey!

I was chatting to Marnik at the fence in West Palm Beach when you were about to leave. SMALL world huh!

Actually saw you guys fly over the hotel on your departure.

Passed the IFR PPC, so it was a good evening in Florida. Hope your stay in Savannah was fun. They say those Savannah gals are quite nice......

Later.:}

Marnik
 

Hey Steve,

We went West from PBI, ended up in Tallahassee that night, Dallas the next night and a stop in KGCN (Grand Canyon) before the zigzag of MOAs going past Vegas north through Nevada to Reno, then up to Vancouver on the 17th.

Had an excellent Co-pilot and Engineer for the trip. Definitely will try to post some pics when we get power back to our hurricane riddled street.

Stopped in Roswell, NM and later paralleled the "Area 51" fenceline for quite a while enroute to Gallup NM from Dallas.

Marnik is doing his last few weeks as a CHL employee and will be trying to figure out what to do with all his spare time and cash now that he has crossed the fence from "the dark side". Pretty happy guy. We are really happy to have him.

As for those southern controllers, my call sign was a bit much for them. Canadian - Golf - Hotel - Julliet - Uniform was a bit much for them, when I asked my co-driver to confirm a strange takeoff clearance I heard " oh, for God's sake, will you just take off or get off the runway" Two minutes after takeoff, we heard "sorry guys, hot mike" from the same tower controller. The trip went pretty smooth after that. Too funny for words though. The closer to Canada, the better the controllers could handle the five letter call signs. Now they know how we feel with the N-numbers...

Contacting Victoria Terminal was music to my ears...

CDN RH

Burj al Arab
 

Did anyone see the abvert on the UK tv on Sunday the 9th of Nov, it showed the landing pad, with a heli about to lift off and then flew around the front(sea side) to show the restraunt/obs platform then flew away, the caption

"Do something new in your life"

In all a very spectacular ad! well done Sheik Mo:ok:

went up there a couple of years ago[to veiw] when staying there, it gets windy up that height and the heat affects lift would not like to do it very often but i would like to try once
steve

md 600

It's not just that it gets windy at that height.

In the afternoon sea breezes, the surface wind is typically 300/20. However, because the hotel is shaped like a huge sail, the wind on the helipad can be 120/20 - a 180 degree shift in wind on the final stage!
Add that to the size of the building and the turbulence and it makes for a very tricky approach.

Your're right about the heat. The pad is 850' amsl but the DA can be 4,500' in the +45C summer temperatures.


I'd love to be able to say this is all from personal experience, but the info comes from a Dubai based friend who lands there regularly.

Tudor

Wot he didn't mention the soaring updraught that can change to a plunging downdraught faster than a Bendix Fuel Control can respond!!! Or haven't we sent him up there in the J/R yet?

Eeek!!!

If you saw something like that in a film, you'd think it had to be a special effect. You'd never believe that was doable for real!

I bet the old back door muscle twitches a little whilst nearly getting there!

I didn't need a seatbelt with all the seat cushion sucked up there!

Thanks for the reply CR,

Good to hear Marnik is fitting in well. I owe that lad an ale or 12....
Never know I might end up out that end of the island sooner rather than later. I am looking forward to doing some fishing!

Cheers,

Steve76

CR,

Great picture and that is one huge spraybar!

But why are they spraying black liquid into the valley?

Oh, no....it's CHEMTRAILS!! :E