Landing Challenge - Show Us Your Toughest Landing Spot

[Nels_Anderson]

Exploring the area around Providence, Rhode Island, I spotted another POI lighthouse: Pomham Rocks, just across the water from the city itself. It's on a tiny rocky island, with barely enough room to land on:

 

 

41.77888878845963, -71.36910585866758

 

Especially interesting since the landing spot is on a considerable slope so when the copter finally settled the nose was pointing quite a bit up!

 

Let's see your toughest landing spots.

[Buck Turgidson]

OK, here is my toughest so far.  Impossible in real life and only able to let go of the controls in one of four landings!  East ridge of Longs Peak 40.25 105.61.

 

This landing has it all!  Small footprint, unknown forces pushing the helo around (had wind at zero), soft surface, uneven surface.

 

On the landing prior to this I started to shoot pic and saw the helo sliding down the cliff!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Nels_Anderson]

That does look like a tough one! Nice pictures, thanks for sharing.

[PhrogPhlyer]

1 hour ago, Nels_Anderson said:

That does look like a tough one!

What I find interesting and fun, as we all search for and attempt to find the toughest landing spots, is that with a real helicopter, most of these are not really all that difficult.

The visual panorama that our eyes allow before us, and the ability to hold a hover within inches of a spot, make many of these challenging, but not necessarily tough.

All of these pics are absolutely great. I am excited that so many are experiencing and sharing sim helicopter adventures.

Keep sharing those accomplishments.

Happy Simming!

 

[Nels_Anderson]

So here's my challenge for the day: Neuschwanstein Castle.

 

I wasn't specifically looking for it, but was in Germany and noticed how close by it was so had to go take a look. A small but likely landing spot presented itself and I slowly approached:

 

 

Between the trees and the castle approach could only be done from one direction. As I slowly approached I "landed" but not really where I planned:

 

 

Yes, that's me landed and powered down. Apparently there is an invisible object in the way... Makes for a nice photo anyway!

[PhrogPhlyer]

I know that these pics are not MSFS, and are done with FSX, however I feel that they are appropriate in that they provide insight into one of the most useful landing techniques for a helicopter, the pinnacle landing.

 

This landing technique are used when there is not enough space to fit the whole aircraft in the LZ or when there are other object blocking part of the LZ. Here I will use LZ (landing zone) to mean any place you are trying to land.

 

First with a helicopter having landing skids. Let's land on the upper truss of the famous London bridge.

Having ensured that we have HOGE (hover out of ground effect) power available, set up you approach visually as with any spot landing (approx. 30º off the nose)/

 

Approach slowly so as not to have to add excessive power at touch down.

 

Establish a stable hove inches above the truss and reduce power until one skid touches down. Upon contact, you will have a tendency to roll to the opposite skid, compensate with a little power increase and cyclic into the grounded skid to maintain level rotor and truss contact.

 

This landing can also be done with just the heels or toes of the skid(s).

 

Let's look at a slight difference when flying a helicopter with landing gear instead of skids.

 

Here we will land with just our aft wheels on the deck (one a ship, the other a cliff).

Once on the ground, you will have no visual reference to the LZ, but will definitely feel the rotation (like a seesaw). You keep just enough power so your nose stays relatively level with the horizon.

 

What you see when the LZ is a ship:

 

What the aircraft is doing:

 

Now onto a cliff:

 

I hope this helps you with being able to add many landing locations, even if the helicopter will not fit.

I look forward to pictures from our MSFS helo flyers after finding some really unique places to land.

 

Happy Simming!

[Rupert]

On 6/17/2023 at 5:30 PM, PhrogPhlyer said:

I know that these pics are not MSFS, and are done with FSX, however I feel that they are appropriate in that they provide insight into one of the most useful landing techniques for a helicopter, the pinnacle landing.

 

This landing technique are used when there is not enough space to fit the whole aircraft in the LZ or when there are other object blocking part of the LZ. Here I will use LZ (landing zone) to mean any place you are trying to land.

 

First with a helicopter having landing skids. Let's land on the upper truss of the famous London bridge.

Having ensured that we have HOGE (hover out of ground effect) power available, set up you approach visually as with any spot landing (approx. 30º off the nose)/

 

Approach slowly so as not to have to add excessive power at touch down.

 

Establish a stable hove inches above the truss and reduce power until one skid touches down. Upon contact, you will have a tendency to roll to the opposite skid, compensate with a little power increase and cyclic into the grounded skid to maintain level rotor and truss contact.

 

This landing can also be done with just the heels or toes of the skid(s).

 

Let's look at a slight difference when flying a helicopter with landing gear instead of skids.

 

Here we will land with just our aft wheels on the deck (one a ship, the other a cliff).

Once on the ground, you will have no visual reference to the LZ, but will definitely feel the rotation (like a seesaw). You keep just enough power so your nose stays relatively level with the horizon.

 

What you see when the LZ is a ship:

 

What the aircraft is doing:

 

Now onto a cliff:

 

I hope this helps you with being able to add many landing locations, even if the helicopter will not fit.

I look forward to pictures from our MSFS helo flyers after finding some really unique places to land.

 

Happy Simming!

Nice shot!  If the tail gear was also in the air and only the ramp touching the ground it'd resemble resupplying the Rockpile near the DMZ in what was then, South Vietnam.

[PhrogPhlyer]

1 hour ago, Rupert said:

the Rockpile

Would you believe the Rockpile has its own Wikpedia page? 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rockpile

CH-34 and CH-46 at the Rockpile. Damm... Exactly what I'm talking about, not many (if any) ground references for the hover. This is why we take care of our crew chiefs!

The Rockpile is missing in FSX, although the surrounding area is mostly correct. There is a scenery upload for Khe Sahn c.

MSFS2020 users, see if the Rockpile is there? (use lat long from wikpedia page).

[Rupert]

Nice shots! 

 

When I flew into there in H-46s with HMM 164 and 165, the area wasn't nearly that built up.  There was literally wood skids where you backed up and placed the dropped ramp as well as possible while the plane hovered with no gear touching anything. 

 

 

[Buck Turgidson]

Great shots Phrog!  This even motivated me to do a mid week run.  Although I still fly with the smoothness of a squirrel on meth, I had a go at the tower bridge.  Here are a few shots but helicopters are dynamic so a video is better.  With 2020 what you see is not always what is there.  As such my reference I was going for gave way and I had to go around and try again.  Balance of the E was slightly aft heavy so it was pivoting on port aft skid.

 

I have reached the limit of what I can get out of the throttle as collective (or I am justifying poor flying and the NEED for a real collective   ).

 

I will have a go at the Rockpile but I don't have an aircraft that would make it interesting.

 

Apologies for the poor vid quality.  They won't take over 2 gig and the high res version is 47.

 

 

 

[PhrogPhlyer]

  

11 hours ago, Buck Turgidson said:

This even motivated me to do a mid week run.

Nice to see the comparison with my FSX pics. Thanks and well done.

 

11 hours ago, Buck Turgidson said:

Balance of the E was slightly aft heavy so it was pivoting on port aft skid.

Welcome to a real world effect!
 

11 hours ago, Buck Turgidson said:

I will have a go at the Rockpile but I don't have an aircraft that would make it interesting.

Either the Bell H-1 Huey, Sikorsky H-34, or Boeing Vertol CH-46 would be very appropriate for that period.

[Rupert]

Nice landing!  Having said that, I've ridden and walked across the Tower Bridge many times and except for the last shot, I'd have never recognized it.  I hope Microsoft does a much better job portraying the Jubilee Bridge, London Eye, and other landmarks such as Big Ben better than that.  Though the "Big Pickle" or "Gherkin" looks good.

[Rupert]

21 hours ago, PhrogPhlyer said:

  

Nice to see the comparison with my FSX pics. Thanks and well done.

 

Welcome to a real world effect!
 

Either the Bell H-1 Huey, Sikorsky H-34, or Boeing Vertol CH-46 would be very appropriate for that period.

+1.  Having said that, the part of a tour I spent flying H-34s with PF (The Purple Foxes), I never flew into that area.  Though flying 46s with YT and YW, I was there more than once.