While dossing around flying some of my latest acquisitions, I noticed a big ship on the horizon (I was at St Mary's) so took off for a looksie. Turned out to be one of the default cruise ships enroute to places unknown..
Don't be fooled by the speed shown in the screenie.. the ship had slowed to a stop (almost) for a course change. This is surely one of the most testing things I've had to land on. If you follow the orientation of the 'H' (which one must).. you have to land across the deck (east/west) as you see in the shot and there's little room for error. Did it 'relatively' quickly in the ND MD500. In the Alabeo R66 (which flies great but is a little like trying to walk on ice wearing roller skates at low speed) it took about 15mins before I could line up and get steady while slewing sideways to land! Reckon it would be a doddle in the default 206. I'd not risk it in the Cera Bell222
I've tried a couple of variations on a theme since with the ND EC135, Virtavia SeaKing and Rick's Sycamore.. landing straight (north/south) which is a LOT easier Under normal circumstances.. I doubt the ship would remain underway if a helicopter needed to 'land on'.. not with a platform like that though of course it's possible. Better to heave-to than risk a collision me thinks
Oh.. and another reason the speed isn't high on the shot above is because my pitot's were not 'in the wind'. I realised that when I tried again later
In all these years of simming I never once realised the "H" was intended as the orientation for landing, my meagre brain cell only thought it meant helicopter landing pad! DOH!
Thereby lies another disappointment Mike. In my frenzy to get rid of as much cash as possible in the shortest possible time.. I found the Wilco Harrier with a few quid off and bought it. Not tried it on this pc (I'm on the E8400 at the mo) but it's so frame hungry.. I can barely run it on the clocked QX6700 machine. It stumbles around in the low to mid teens and I can't handle that. I was gutted
I guess I could throw some appropriate wind on and try to dump the Storch onto the liner.. but that's getting a bit silly
Yes indeed The orientation of the 'H' matches the direction of the prevailing wind (for the most part) and in doing so, offers the pilot a visual clue. The orientation can also denote 2 clear obstacle free entry/exit routes which, in the case of that ship.. is across the bow east/west
Well I must admit that in real life I have never actually landed a helicopter on an H...It was always just grass or tarmac and certainly not on a ship! However, I think the only land based Hs that i have seen were firmly painted onto the ground and would be a bit difficult to orientate into the wind
To thicken the mire a little.. there's another convention that an 'H' may be orientated North/South to give the pilot a visual reference but I think this only applies to the U.S.
I think the easiest are H's painted on carrier decks. Carriers are generally flying into the wind for flying ops so you know where you stand.. or sit
I was gutted 
