Category: Weather Flying

What is the difference in the MH-60T autopilot functionality when you only have SAS1 compared to when you only have SAS2?  At 0200 on the dark and stormy night, the easy to remember answer...

Hover coupler – because our community underutilizes the hover coupler, pilots usually need a refresher on the coupler’s use. While in a coupled hover in the MH-60T helicopter, the trim switch on the cyclic allows...

In the MH-60T helicopter, pilots can utilize the autopilot to fly a coupled hover (at a selected lateral and longitudinal groundspeed and a selected altitude). Because in our community most hovering situations require too...

The PATCH is more advantageous than the MATCH when a precise “hover at” point is not necessary, (e.g., if the approach and escape/go-around path is into the wind, or there is no wind, and...

For the next dozen or so posts, my discussions will be specific to the MH-60T helicopter. Although a capable platform, multiple avionics upgrades have created some idiosyncratic characteristics worth noting for future operators. In the...

Translating Tendency – On an instrument approach to a hover, as power increases and airspeed decreases, if the helicopter remains in a level attitude, translating tendency will create a “slide.” In helicopters with main...

In the MH-60T helicopter, the “collective cue” on an instrument approach to the water commands the pilot to fly to the computer-generated glide path, regardless of the rate of descent necessary. If the helicopter...

In the MH-60T helicopter, one of the methods used to fly an instrument approach to the water harnesses flight director cues. Because the flight controls cannot be coupled to the flight director, pilots hand...

Credit to Paul Ratte, a CG H60 pilot in the 90’s and early 2000’s, who first introduced me to what I consider the most important concept in flying stabilized instrument approaches to a hover...

In weather flying posts #1-#5, we talked about flying in rapidly deteriorating conditions that result in lost visual cues, forcing a transition to instruments. However, mission demands often require Coast Guard crews to launch...