For helicopter onshore operations at known landing sites, an accurate survey can de-risk operations and can be distilled down for the crew to use into a Company Landings Site Directory (CLSD). Various levels of scrutiny can be applied, with more rigorous surveys giving fewer restrictions than just an estimation taken by a customer. The survey…
The UK CAA have developed a lighting scheme for hospital helipads in CAP 1264 which is based on the standard for offshore helicopter landing site marking. This offshore scheme is published in CAP 437 and is based on hard won lessons in safely operating helicopters to offshore helidecks (see here) and the principles outlined in…
Introduction Following a few recent accidents with aeromedical helicopters, I thought it is time to take a look at what makes a good landing site for a helicopter. I am going to focus on helicopters being used for aeromedical evacuation (in Europe called “Helicopter Emergency Medical Service – HEMS”) as that is the most likely…
Designing hospital helipads so they are safe and efficient is a fine art. A growing body of guidance is provided by the aviation authorities to help with delivering effective capability from day. However, some of the guidance is currently flawed; there is an assumption that bigger helicopters are the most restrictive when actually it’s what…