I got this yesterday from one of the back country skiers who were involved, one had some sort of medical issue yet to be determined, a stroke, heart attack, something bad, and needed to get to the hospital ASAP. This happened on the ridge right behind my place, less then two miles away, at the 9,000'+- level, the proximity really hits, well, home with me. I have this weird feeling of pride that this local medical rescue pilot just kicked that ridge's ass, especially as the conditions that day were winds blowing 25 to 35 mph at the time. It gives me a warm fuzzy feeling, knowing that level of expertise with that equipment is available in my area

You rotary wing pilots on this forum, please chime in, it sure looks like some super pilot skills to me. Extremely competent at the very least, I'm guessing.
https://youtu.be/X7xTgj3Szdo

I think he looks pretty good. Winds were clearly strong and gusting. And the minor whiteout at the end can be a little disorienting in calm conditions. Brett knows what I'm talking about.

CamTom12 wrote: the minor whiteout at the end can be a little disorienting in calm conditions. Brett knows what I'm talking about.

That was the thing I noticed. Seems like that little period of IMC in fresh powder would be challenging.

That ridge is very narrow also. Sure I'm a fixed wing so any thing a helicopter does looks like magic, but I want that pilot flying coming to get my lame ass if I ever make the call, Ha! Thinking about it a bit, those pilots make almost every landing in a new location, in all kinds of conditions, so who better to nail a landing like that. It was especially cool to see the shutter speed slowing of the rotor.

I am going to stop by the heliport at the hospital tomorrow, and get word to the pilot that it's on YouTube if he cares to check his work out.

Not to take anything away from the task but that's a pretty routine landing for a lot of helicopter pilots. Heliskiing for example--if there are 3 groups skiing, each doing 12 runs a day means the pilot did 36 drop offs at the top and 36 pick ups at the bottom... 72 landing like that a day, in the same kinds of conditions. Usually when the snow is good, the weather is crap so flat light and clouds / fog and everything is white every time you land. I've had the snowball (powder snow blowing from the downwash) go 100' high when conditions are good for skiing. At regular used drop off and pick up points, we often use little wooden stakes (1"x3"x5') driven into the snow with orange flagging on them so we have a reference on final and departure because everything is white. Ugh. It is probably some of the most challenging (read scary) flying I've ever done. Oh did I mention you're usually at gross weight at every high altitude drop off?? On a blue sky, no wind day its the best job in the world. On the cloudy, windy days it is not the best job in the world...and the skiers don't care about the weather so they want to fly every. single. day. Anyway, good job to the pilot for making somebodies bad day better!

Very nicely done. He used the wind to his advantage, worked dynamically and proactively on all controls, and trusted himself and his helicopter to descend positively through the whiteout.

Lot of respect for those guys. Check out "the art of flight" on YouTube if you want to see more like the landing posted above. I bet Aktahoe could show us some awesome videos.

BTW I hope whoever that pilot picked up behind Toms place is ok.

snotcicles describes it best. Having a reference is the difference maker. I had trouble getting into a relatively confined area under NVGs, so we tossed a dudes day pack out the window. Landed right to it. Boom. The whiteout in the video looks worse than I bet it was. You always have better visibility in the cockpit than it looks from outside the cloud. Wish I was out having fun like the video instead of watching a screen wall at the office.

That landing was the easier part of that operation. Next the pilot has to take off vertically with 200 more pounds onboard in a Bell407 which is already challenged at high altitude...while trying to maintain reference in a flurry of snow

Although the wind was blowing pretty good, it was only helping that landing/takeoff....as long as they are pointing into it anyways

I think the pilot did a fine job.

As snotcicles (guessing he lives up north some where) states for some helicopter pilots that's a routine landing. Most EMS helicopters do more hospital transports these days then scene calls. They don't get to do that many mountain top snow landings. Where as a helisking pilot will do literally 100 landings like that a day.

There are a few tricks to mountain top snow landings that are not taught at most flight schools. The pilot uses one of them in the video. The text book landing to a mountain top is to line up into the wind and fly a steep approach. That's what the FAA wants to see on a check ride but in practical use its a bad idea. The down wind side of a mountain is where the turbulence and down drafts are. The text book idea is the steep approach keeps you above the down drafts. Problem is the downdraft is always there, the angle varies depending on numerous factors and it's invisible. The steep approach uses a very low power setting. If you do get into the downward air it's going to take some time to spool that turbine back up and you may not have the power to pull through.

The pilot in the video correctly comes in at an angle. A helicopter can of course fly sideways while still pointing into the wind. This angled approach to a mountain top will keep the helicopter in cleaner less turbulent air. I've even gone as far as backing into a spot in 40+ knots of winds. Backing in at 10 knots ground speed still gave me 30 knots off the nose and kept me in the up draft on the upwind side of the mountain. Those days you really do not want to get on the down wind side.

Next is the blowing snow, or white out its called. Loose dirt and dust will do the same thing but called brownout. The text book idea is to fly a fast approach and beat the cloud to the ground. If you have the power to hover and climb out vertically (this can be checked by pulling into a out of ground effect hover at the same altitude in clear air prior to committing to the approach) it's better to fly a slow approach to a good stationary reference point. On a sunny day in the snow this can even be foot prints or ski tracks. On an overcast day things get much more interesting and landing to snow in flat light can become impossible with out a prepared references(sticks with flags).

As you transition to a hover at approximately 50 feet the rotor wash will hit the snow. Using a slow approach at this time you you have the option of going around if your reference is lost due to too much blowing snow. If you pause there the down wash will from a ring. You can see it in the video, I call it the donut hole. The only time it will not form is if the wind is so strong it blows the edge of the donut over the landing spot or the snow is so loose it's continuing to move at the landing spot. In very light snow one can use a dust off approach by pulling into a high hover and then going around. Eventually the rotor wash will compact the snow enough to continue the approach to landing.

Ok so now we are at a 50 foot hover and the donut hole has formed. The reference point you picked out should be visible in the chin bubble down by the pilots feet. As you descend into the donut hole this will become your only point of reference, one must be skilled enough to fly the helicopter by one reference point looking down. As long as you keep that point in the chin bubble the rotor wash will blow the snow away from the helicopter and it will remain visable.

Using this reference point one can land the helicopter smoothly with no lateral or longitudinal movement. No need to plant it on the ground as taught in the text books. This is extremely important landing in deep snow. Any side ward movement will catch a skid and roll the helicopter. The snow in the video is not deep snow which allowed the pilot to get way with a firm landing.

I've dropped skiers off in snow so deep they went to their armpits after exiting the helicopter. In snow that deep you are still hovering the helicopter with snow up to the doors, if you descended any further you will damage the belly panels of the aircraft. Under those conditions if you flew the text book approach not only will you loose visual reference but planting the helicopter on will cause damage.

Departure is the reverse. As you pull power you will lose visual reference except for down by your feet. The takeoff is made vertical using that same reference until your high enough to see over the powder cloud.

Wow that was kind of long. Mountain top snow landings in a helicopter can be some of the most fun and challenging flying you can do with any aircraft.

Cheers, Ken

Ken,

Thanks, that was a great explanation for us non-rotor wing pilots.

X2...very nice description.

Ken,

I did a lot of medievac in dust but little in snow. Thanks for the extensive explanation. Have you tried the zero airspeed approach for high density altitude LZs? The Army has a chart to figure at low altitude, from the power required to hover, what power a Huey will need to hover at a high density altitude LZ. We set that torque on a short final to the high LZ and zero the airspeed. We wipe out the cockpit to dirty the tip path plane and settle with power to descend. We move the stick forward a bit to gain a little airspeed to go up on the descent angle. At no time do we move the collective, especially in the LZ. It takes some time but prevents the need to pull pitch at the bottom of a too fast approach and run out of left pedal and ball the thing up.

Jim

Thanks for the input, you rotor wing guys, excellent, here's the skinny on the pilot that day.

I stopped by our almost new big time high dollar hospital, and without much difficulty found my way back to where I asked a flight nurse if any pilots were around that day(not really thinking that through...., like what, they all took Mondays off or something?) and of course she replied in the affirmative. I referenced the flight of a couple days ago on the ridge behind me and as luck would have it, that pilot was on duty that day. "Hey Don, someone here to see you," and I was invited back to what I later realized was Don G.'s office, living room, and bedroom, His ready room, just about 100' from the hangar if that, and that reminds me: I wish I would have asked him what a typical response time was, from getting a call to lift off, 10-15 minutes at most I'm thinking.

Anyway, I introduced myself as a guy who's lived on two different airstrips immediately below the ski area for the last 35 years, and I just wanted to let him know there was a video of his landing that day if he cared to see it. We started talking.....he's been a pilot 48 years, started in Luscombes and AirKnockers, and then became a Marine Air Corps helicopter pilot, after that a long string of every kind of 'copter flying there is. And this not so unexpected job, doing heli ski and air rescue in the Jackson Hole area. So, yeah, this wasn't his first rodeo! One question I had was: how do you tell the supporting capacity of the snow? That was his cue to take me outside where the bird was for the day, these plates on the rear of the skids are key to keeping the tail and it's rotor out of the snow, and he can use them as feeler gauges to get a feel for the snow depth, then he could also then put some weight on the front of the skids and taking the two together, get a good feel for how solid it was. I got to stick my head inside the cockpit, it had a divider, kind of separating his right hand pilot seat from the other side, giving it a look more like a small single seat aircraft, nice and cozy. I'm sure it helps to give him a little separate space from whatever trauma is going on in the back, talk about maintaining your focus.

Walking back into the hangar, I raised the subject of what kind of signal to give if someone, me for instance, was sitting on some ridge top just minding my own business, and some well meaning good Samaritan, maybe one flying by flown by a pilot unfamiliar with off airport flying, or Joe Sixpack on his ATV or snowmachine, calls in air rescue. The signal being: "I'm OK, all is well, just screwing around, go away, thanks anyway." And between the two of us, after several minutes, we couldn't think of one, one that wouldn't be misconstrued as needing help. I then took the opportunity (and it just popped into my head, I hadn't planned it) to ask him to keep this conversation in mind if he ever got a call about a small cream and green taildragger "in trouble" on one of our areas higher points. Of course it would be better to err on the safe side, but I thought I'd just maybe mention it. Don said they had once or twice he had been in an area looking for the patient/victim, and gotten waved in to a landing by what turned out to just friendly hunters, so the opposite of what I was talking about.

Now that I think about it, it would have been cool to watch the video with him, and get talked through it, but between the expert dissertations here by some of you guys and talking with Don himself, I have a pretty good handle on it. Anyway you slice it, some damn fine flying, and it's great to know we have a someone of Don's caliber standing by in area when things go south

Don G. (you'd never guess he's a pilot, right?! might as well have it written on his forehead.
The rear plates on the skids.