Helicopter Ops

On-ship operation of a helicopter requires a lot of professionalism. And this both from the flying point of view and from the on-board parking and maintanance aspects. I assume, You are familiar with the additional maintenance items, when operating a helicopter in salty enviroment, especially on a yacht. One point, that is often forgotten or not done because of the trouble associated with it, is the engine conservation run at regular intervals. During this conservation run, a special oil is sprayed into the engine intake, while rotating the engine or on some engines even with running them on ground idle. This run also includes cleaning the oil and fuel system also.

As I can see, on this 70 meter Feadship, the H-130 has no hangar, when parked on board. I hope, You have enough covers for all critical items, like Engine intake, engine exhaust, the rotor head, especially, when the blades are folded and most of all the fenestron tail rotor. The whole tail should be covered. If the helicopter is stored without folding the blades, the blades should have a solid support, not only a tie down, like on normal on-land operation.



This landing spot for example is in my opinion to far to small and would be illegal for a charter yacht. And the Fenestron is totally unprotected. Tying down the blade tips under tension does not prevent their swinging and vibration. This H-130 on the picture above will suffer a lot from the ship operation and he is very prone to damage during its operation

Just my 2 (Euro) cents

One more item, that is often forgotten, are the pop-out floats. Especially on a single engine helicopter like the H-130, they may be a life saving item one day. I know, the floats are part of the daily preflight checks but I have seen single engline helicopters parking next to mine with empty pressure bottles. Checking the pressure gauge should never be forgotten!

But the worst thing, I have seen with my own eyes on the Palma Intl. Airport GAT ramp, was a "lady" on high heels stepping on the pop-out floats, when leaving a Russian owned helicopter. Her Stiletto heel penetrated the float cover. I informed the pilot about the hole in the cover but he only shrugged his shoulders.

And just the fact, that a great helicopter pilot can land his helo on a tiny landingspot on a yacht, does not mean, the D-value of this deck corresponds to the helicopter landing on it. And a touch and go landing spot is by far not a qualified helicopter flight deck.

My present yacht is winch-on only, it has no helicopter landing spot. I operate my Airbus 5-blade H-145 only from my shadow vessel, a converted former cargo vessel out of my commercial shipping company. A landing spot with the size of a military helicopter carrier and very convinient below deck storage in the climate controlled cargo space below deck. But the best example for a safe and operational helicopter deck is still the Yacht Octopus for me.

HTMO9

Removing the blades for crossings and storing them in a watertight box is absolutely perfect, when storing the H-130 on the open top deck. But salty humidity is the worst enviroment a civil helicopter can sit in. I would also tape off the doors and place some dehumidification boxes in the interior. Daily rinsing is also a very good idea.

I operate my H-145 only from my shadow and use the helo on the yacht only for winch-on operation and for slung load resupply of the yacht. For my H-145 (five-blade) I have a full time professional pilot and two mechanics onboard the shadow. This air and ground crew are not doing any other duties than flying and maintaining the helo and my floatplane.

As I said before, my shadow is a converted cargo vessel out of one of my shipping companies. It has three large 250 ton cranes and a 30 meter circular helicopter landing pad on the bow above the service deck plus 3 large cargo holds with hydraulic operated cargo hold covers. The helicopter lands always on this forward landing deck. This landing deck has an rectangular insert, where the helo is secured on with folded blades. On the H-145, 5-blade, all 5 blades fold rearwards and are nicely supported by a special blade rest on the tail. The complete rectangular insert with the H-145 is than lifted into the forward cargo hold, where it is stored together with my Pilatus Turbo Porter amphibious Float plane and other toys, like large tenders, a landing craft and several SUV's. And the cargo deck and the cranes are also strong enough to carry and lift on and off our large fast boat and my cruiser racer sloop sailing boat for ocean crossings, especially during the European winter, when we go for glider flying to down under in Australia or New Zealand.

I use this work around procedure, because my full displacement yacht is only 63 meter long and was not designed for helo ops. The cargo vessel was very cheep because it was part of my fleet and already excisting, plus the conversion could be done in only a few weeks. And the shadow is carring ample of extra fuel to refuel the yacht enroute.

If I would be asked, which helicopter I would use for yacht operations, I would never use a piston engine helicopter like the 2-blade Robinson R-22 or R-44 because of its AVGAS fuel (to dangerous on a yacht or ship) or the 2-blade turbine helicopters like the Bell 207 or the Robinson R-66 because of its 2 blade rotor head. This type of rotor head makes the complete rotor disk swing for steering and movement, which is very dangerous on the yacht for hitting the superstructure and personnel.

I personally prefer the twin engine H-135 / H-145 or bigger for yacht / ship operation but the H-130 is a very solid and reliable work horse but remember, less rotor blades means always more rotor downwash and more rotor diameter. My 5-blade H-145 ment a much smaller D-value and 150 kg more useful load in comparison to the standard 4-blade H-145. And for the Airbus heicopters, I would not care for the ACJ versions. The VIP interiors will only cost useful load and internal space and flexibility.



HTMO9

Close but no cigar. Search again. This ship is much to prominent and I would never ever buy a ship from this yard. My shadow is longer than 150 meters and looks like a typical cargo vessel, except for the helicopter landing pad on the bow. And it has 3 cranes in a row on the starboard side. Search for yacht transport ships and You will come much closer!

HTMO9

My first thought was the converted yacht transport ship OK but it doesn't have the helicopter landing pad on the bow nor the three cranes. There was another vessel called Island Pride that I remember seeing long ago that fit the description but that seemed closer to 100 meters.

Not even close. It is just a conversion of a standard MPV cargo vessel. The aft superstructure was extended forward above the tween deck and the forward light / radar mast was made folding down. Internally, the lowest container store level were enclosed in all three cargo holds and converted into additional diesel fuel store and the helicopter landing pad added above the forward service deck. That was all we did. The cheapest way to get a perfect multi purpose shadow vessel / fleet tanker.

One important subject, as far as helicopter operation on yachts are concerned, is the weather. As I assume, we are not talking about IFR approaches and departures and night flying on a yacht. Here we are talking about simple day-VFR operation. During VFR operations, we are talking about wind, visibillity and foremost seastate, those waves, that make the boat rock.

I have restricted my flying operation on and off my shadow to seastate 4 / windforce 5 / 5 km visibility and a cearly defined horizon. During helo ops on a yacht, no flight is so important, that my limits set in the SOP would allow those limits to be ignored. Landing decks on yachts, shadows or any other type of civil ships have normally no bad weather landind devices, like the military. The bear trap or the landing harpune are only two of those devices, where the helicopter pilot can lock himself to the landing deck, while being still in the air and an hydraulic winch pulls the helicopter down to the deck.



Sorry, the video starts in German with german sub titles but You can switch off the sub titles and change the video into englisch

My time in helicopters operations on Yachts are zero, but this post is to remind everyone of the difference between a Man and a Monkey:
A Monkey learn from his own mistakes, a Man learns from other’s mistakes:

A few years ago a helicopter tried to land on a yacht in Bergen, Norway after the deck crew had left a loose tarpaulin close to the landing platform, the rotor wash sucked it into the rotor and it was almost total loos of control, but the very experienced pilot managed to tilt the craft, or rudder turn it so it fell in the ocean rather than on the boat to avoid a fire after the crash.
Moral of the story, clear the landing area of any loose debris before the helicopter starts the approach.

Not a soft landing…

FOD checks or FOD walks before commencing flying operation on a yacht or any other ship should be part of the SOP for any ship. Even the US-Navy does FOD walks on its mighty aircraft carriers prior starting flying operations.



Better safe than sorry!

Should be, absolutely.
We even do it on land before starting the low slung jet engines on airliners, but sometimes humanity interferes by a driver getting too close with a string of empty containers and one get sucked in, also ramp workers have been injures or killed.

The Airbus H130 is a solid choice, but on yachts, routine checks on corrosion-prone parts, like rotor blades and hydraulics, are essential. Consider using rotor blade covers and moisture-resistant treatments to prevent damage.

Foldable rotor blades could simplify storage and maneuvering on deck. Take extra care when handling fuel during maritime operations