Helicopters in Confined Areas
After you learn to fly a helicopter, you are going to want to go to dissimilar places and land there. Sooner or later you will be faced with a confined area landing. There is a procedure to be used in the course of landing or taking off using helicopters in confined areas.
So what is a confined area? A confined area is any area that is not an airfield. Even if you have a 30 acre field to land in – this is still a confined area. The case for this is that it is an uncontrolled situation. There is no fire cover, there are hazards such as cables and cattle etc and you may be unsatisfactory on the course of approach or departure.
The fundamental thing you should do ahead of landing in a confined area is to do a power check to ensure that you have enough power to do the approach. Throughout your training you will have been instructed that the proportions of power accessible will predetermine the type of approach you will use e.g. normal, running landing, zero speed etc. However I have an unrelated view on this. If you do not have satisfactory power to allow you to come to the hover Out of Ground Effect (OGE), you should not attempt the landing. My case for this is as follows; if you are restricted to an express type of landing and you are also restricted on power, then you will only have one endeavor at it. If you mess it up then there are no options feasible to you. Habitually make sure that you have sufficient power on tap to come to a hover OGE.
When you have accomplished your power check, you require to conduct a reconnaissance of the proposed landing vicinity. Do this at not far from 500′ agl and 50kts. There are a few things we are required to look for:
SIZE – is the vicinity really large enough to accommodate the helicopter safely?
SHAPE – take note of the shape of the landing vicinity. This will determine where you will approach to.
SURROUNDS – this is a very essential point. Take not of the surrounding locality. Note buildings and areas to avoid flying over. Note if there are any cattle in the surrounding fields (especially horses). If there are; you may need to find a different field to land. Note any cables or wires – look for the poles as the cables may be very difficult to see.
SLOPE – this will be regularly assessed all through the approach.
SURFACE – this will be frequently assessed in the course of the approach. Take note if it is long grass, rough pasture, rocky, dusty, snow covered, wet, soft etc. Size up the hazards of landing on this surface.
LEAD IN/LEAD OUT – find markers that are in line with the approach path you have confirmed. These require to be readily detectable. It would be very embarrassing to turn onto final only to realize that you could not catch sight of the landing district.
At the same time as you have done all of the above, fly a circuit at 500′ agl and 60 kts. On final, diminish your speed to 50 kts and fly straight and level until you get a site picture. Do a constant angle approach aiming to pass 20′ above the obstacles closest to the confined area. If you are not comfortable with everything at 200′ agl, abort the approach. Choose a lateral marker in the confined area. This marker should be acceptablly far into the confined area so that at the time it is on your 3 o’clock, you know the tail rotor is clear of the obstacles. You can now steepen the approach as much as you want but make sure to refrain or stay away from vortex ring (settling with power).
Take-offs using helicopters in confined areas are discussed in My Helicopter Blog
John Toal is a very experienced helicopter pilot and instructor with over 6000 hours flight time.
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