Navy Story #5
Landing a NATO Helicopter
One of the most interesting things I did in the Navy was to become certified as a Landing Safety Officer (LSO), which meant that I could direct helicopters to a landing on the helicopter
(helo) deck that Pensacola has. Here's a picture looking toward the stern, which also shows the helo deck. The deck is the square, gray area with the white lines painted on it, and the helicopter resting on it. You
can get some idea of the size of the helo deck from the helicopter that's on it in this picture. This is an H-53, quite a large helo. There's also a boat on the forward part of the deck. And I just noticed that
you can also see the LSO on the deck, one of the three or so people standing in the right-central part of this picture, the one with the yellow helmet and jacket on:
Anyway, I went to a week-long class at the Naval Air Station in Norfolk, VA, to learn about helo safety and how to direct them to a landing. It was a fun class. One night we even went
to a place on the air station where they had a simulated ship's helo deck painted on the asphalt, with marker lights in the "deck" just like on a ship, so we could practice night landings with a real helicopter.
It was good practice for the pilot and us. We used all hand/arm signals, even though we had radio contact also. This is important to realize as I tell this story. At night, we used lighted wands, kinda like the ones that
the folks at airports use to bring the aircraft up to the gate.
Here's a picture of me as the LSO one day:
One time when we were on a cruise in the Mediterranean, probably in the summer of 1975, judging from the caption on my picture, we did some practice landings with some NATO helicopters.
The one in this story was British. These NATO pilots had never actually landed on a ship before. One thing that I almost forgot to tell you is that when we did helicopter landings on the ship, we always had several people
around the helo deck. There were observers, safety and fire folks, and others. Anyway, this British pilot made a nice approach with me directing him in, but when he was about 4 feet off the deck he was having some trouble
keeping the helicopter steady in the wind. It wasn't a strong wind, but it was enough to rock him a bit. So in order to give him a chance to steady things up a bit before I let him settle to the deck, I gave him the
arm/hand signal to hold his current position. But he apparently thought I had given him the "cut power" signal, because that's what he did, and the helo dropped to the deck and bounced. The blades bounced,
too, and came really close to the deck. Everyone else scattered. But I, in typical persistent fashion, stood my ground. I was still responsible for his safety while he was on my ship, and besides, this guy wasn't going
to mess with my landing! I could hear the blades just above my head. But I didn't get hit, obviously, because I'm telling this story!
I "held" him on the deck with my signals until we could get him on the radio and explain to him what went wrong. He apologized, and then I directed him to take off again and
come back around for another try. He did, and landed much better the second time.
God is merciful, and His angels were surely watching over me on that day.