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Helicopter Confined Area Operations, Low and High Reconnaissance

Issue No 55, 5 February 2024

By: Anthony O. Ives

A helicopter's main advantage over fixed wing aircraft is that it can land anywhere. The helicopter could be referred as the off road vehicle among other aircraft [1]. However, landing anywhere comes with lots of problems due to unprepared areas containing lots of hazards. Therefore all helicopter pilots train to do a landing site reconnaissance also known as a 'Recce'.

The procedure for a landing site reconnaissance can be summed by the 5s procedure, it was covered in a blog I did on autorotation [2]:

Size, make sure the site is big enough you typically want something the size of a football pitch.
Shape, is it the correct shape that you can perform into wind landings and take offs
Surrounds, is there anything that you can run into like power lines
Slope, is the surface level, slopes greater that 5 degrees are not recommended
Surface, is there loose debris on the ground that could blow about and damage the helicopter or other things nearby

The overall procedure for doing a confined area landing is as follows:

Intially identfy or choose your landing and setup a standard circuit approach entering the downwind leg at 500ft
On the downwind from about 500ft carry out your landing site reconnaissance which is essentially going through the 5s checklist, this is sometimes referred to as the high reconnaissance [1,3]
Conduct the usual FREDA check which is typical on the downwind leg of the approach, the FREDA check will be explained in more detail separately
Towards the end of the downwind leg before turning on to the base leg carry out your power check, this is usually done by flying at the minimum power airspeed and pulling the maximum available power for the environmental temperature, altitude to check if it can be attained and you can safely get in and out of the landing site
On turning on final and carrying out the required approach for the landing site you conduct a final check of the landing site to confirm there is no unidentified hazards that were not identified in your previous checks this is sometimes referred to a low reconnaissance

The picture below illustrates a typical circuit for a confined area landing which you might helpful.

Typical confined area landing circuit

In explaining the procedure for a confined area landing the FREDA was mentioned. A FREDA check is something every pilot should do just after take off and just before landing, and regular intervals during cruise or before other things like autorotation, etc. FREDA check is defined as follows:

Fuel, check if you have sufficient fuel for whatever you are intending to do, for landing you need to consider have you enought fuel to do a go around if necessary
Radio, do you need to make a radio call to advise of your intentions or request a clearance if operating in controlled airspace? do you need to change air traffic radio service, etc?
Engine, check your engine is functioning correctly, is the oil temperature and pressure, etc within the correct limits, for engine equipped with carburateurs check that its temperature is above the safe value thats causes icing or apply carburateur heat
Direction, confirm your going in the correct direction or that your directional instruments are aligned such as magnetic compass and directional indicator, for pre landing check this would be confirm you are parallel to the landing site on the downwind leg
Altitude, check your at the correct altitude for what it your intending to do, on the downwind leg of a landing circuit should be at approximately 500ft

Another version of landing site reconnaissance that might be referred is ground reconnaissance. A ground reconnaissance is usually an assessment of the landing site once you have landed and want to take off again. You could use a 5s procedure to check for any additional hazards you may missed during the pre landing reconnaissance which might present a hazard taking off from the site.

Confined area landings are probably one of those maneuvers requiring lots of experience. I would consider myself to be a very inexperienced pilot having only 160 flying hours at least at the time of writing therefore I always try to think of ways to reduce the risks as much as possible that will make up for my own inexperience.

As a low time pilot there is number of things you can do:

Ask a more experienced pilot or any pilot who has landed at the site before for obstacles or hazards to watch out for. Things like is there wires? where are they? Is there unusual turbulence caused by some obstacle?
If no pilot has landed at the site before and it is possible consider visiting the site by ground before attempting to land at it and doing your 5s assessment on the ground first. An 5s assessment on the ground makes it easier to spot things such as wires which are almost impossible to spot from the air while flying. Wires can usually be more easily identified from the air by their telegraph poles or other support structure however, sometimes the poles can be hidden by foilage, etc therefore an assessment from the ground might make things like this easier to spot.
Use up to date aviation navigation charts, NOTAMs, etc to assess the site pre-flight as much as possible. You could look at something like Google earth satelite imaginery which would gave you more detailed information about the site and maybe show you something that you missed using offical aviation resources. However, bear in mind something like Google earth is not an offical aviation resource and is not always up to date and should only be used to identify additional aviation hazards with some independent official confirmation if possible.
Getting as much as possible tips and advice on confined area landings from other pilots with more experience is always good idea.

If you are a private pilot you should be under less pressure and have the luxury of taking your time and taking as many precautions as you wish even if they might seem excessive. Something like visiting a confined area landing site before attempting a landing at it might not be practical or possible for commercial pilot. However, an aircraft accident is never good for business.

Please leave a comment on my facebook page or via email and let me know if you found this blog article useful and if you would like to see more on this topic. Most of my blog articles are on:

Mathematics
Helicopters
VTOL UAVs (RC Helicopters)
Sailing and Sailboat Design

If there is one or more of these topics that you are specifically interested in please also let me know in your comments this will help me to write blog articles that are more helpful.

References:

[1] Learning to Fly Helicopters, R. Randall Padfield, 1992, McGraw Hill

[2] http://www.eiteog.com/EiteogBLOG/No20EiteogBlogAutorotation.html

[3] The Helicopter Flying Handbook, FAA-H-8083-21B, 2019, United States Department of Transportation, Federal Aviation Administration, https://www.faa.gov/regulations_policies/handbooks_manuals/aviation/helicopter_flying_handbook

Disclaimer: Eiteog makes every effort to provide information which is as accurate as possible. Eiteog will not be responsible for any liability, loss or risk incurred as a result of the use and application of information on its website or in its products. None of the information on Eiteog's website or in its products supersedes any information contained in documents or procedures issued by relevant aviation authorities, manufacturers, flight schools or the operators of aircraft, UAVs.