So, what kind of tool starts a thread like this without an example of his own??? The kind who is thinking one thing and typing another.
I first had that feeling one rainy night in the Gulf of Mexico, while operating on a SAR case with a 210ft cutter. Landing on a moving target is all about timing, as the deck is moving up and down as well as rolling back and forth. The trick is for the LSO, who is directing you, to time the ship's movement so you catch the slight hesitation in the roll at the peak of an upward heave. Then you are supposed to smoothly ease collective and drop, (softly preferably), on deck. While you always operate into the wind, if there is a strong wind blowing you deal with the turbulence the ship's superstructure leaves in its wake. On this night we were returning for fuel and to close out for the day. The sea was choppy and giving the deck short, sharp movement. Night is always taxing, but this one was a bit of a *****. But, we smoothly dropped into the station astern and everything went like clockwork, I watched the LSO and moved like a puppet to his signals, and we slipped on deck with no fuss. Once secured and shut down the AC simply said "Nice" I reailzed I hadn't been thinking what to do, but making the helo do what I
thought about doing. That is what being a pilot means to me, to think about what you want the craft to do, and it does it as an extension of your will.
