I was hoping to start flying helicopters in vatsim. Can anyone help explain the phraseology or provide a link. Also how do I operate inside controlled airspace at helipads and do I need to be in a special ops organisation to fly to helipads etc. For me I would be flying In UK/Europe. And also what about offshore oil rig ops (I’m thinking about the north sea)
Hi Bevan,
In short Rotary Wing aircraft are not automatically under VSOD. The type of aircraft doesn’t make it ‘Special’.
If you undertake an ‘activity’ that is listed as restricted in the VSO Policy then yes you need to be a member of a VSOA Partner.
To answer the question on airspace and procedures that is hopefully the purpose of VATSIM (educate). There are some excellent resources around both with VATSIM and from real world that you can use to learn. The answer is not simple.
I highly recommend getting experience without ATC, and then listen in on some ATC/RW communications. LiveATC is good. You could also join a VA or VSOA partner to interact and learn. vHelimed operate in the UK.
Have a look at this up to date document of VATSIM Germany. Some information is specific to Heli Ops within German airspace, but the rest can be used globally:
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What helped me a lot was this YouTube channel by The Nerdy Helisimmer. There is a playlist on flying helicopters on Vatsim called “Flying On Vatsim And Helicopter ATC”
So, helicopters on the network are basically treated as fixed wing aircraft by nearly all controllers, operating to/from helipads isn’t overly complicated
This is specific to Europe as that is what you asked about and where I do the vast majority of my helicopter flying.
Firstly, each county in Europe will be different with charts, routes, procedures etc, do your research before flying, you will be flying a helicopter, you are the minority of the network and will have ATC with the least knowledge of how to deal with you (Many people will disagree with me here but VFR Helicopters get some of the hardest times)
You as a heli pilot will get a better experience if YOU are informed and can help or coach along the ATC.
Learn or get charts with VRPs on them, heli lanes and route data, (Multiple times I have had to advise ATC of what departure procedure to give me and even sent them a link to appropriate charts) I’ll divide my answers below into sections.
Operating to a helipad inside a CTR for example a hospital helipad isn’t very hard, firstly check if that helipad has an ICAO code and charts/ Procedures (for example Amsterdam heliport and its ROTOR arrival) if it has an ICAO code inside controlled airspace ATC should be familiar with it, if it doesn’t have an ICAO code you will be informing ATC you are routing to X helipad, Again ATC should be familiar with it, if it is a Hospital or prominent helipad, Again check for Helipad approach information, (Example CUH in Cork Ireland has an approach path), ATC will tell you to set down at your own risk or similar phraseology, and you would report “On the ground at X helipad” , as you are inside controller airspace you would be required to request lift into the control zone, ATC would ask standard question like your intentions after lift, in incredibly rare cases you may be unable to hear ATC and may need to lift into a low hover to get in contact.
You do not need to be in a special organisation or VSOA to fly helicopters, however look into what you can a cannot do, flying as an Air Ambulance is technically in a grey area as you are really just a point to point flight but can’t request priority ever, and please if you intend to flight HEMS flights, get the aircraft and callsigns correct, it’s slightly annoying when you see someone flying a completely incorrect HEMS callsign, that being said, being in a VSOA specifically those associated with helicopter flying can be very beneficial and a lot of the Data you should be looking for will be available from the VSOA or it’s members will be able to help, if you want to fly HEMS, just join a VSOA you will have a much better time.
Now the North Sea and offshore flights, in a scaled down version of it you have 3 types of offshore helicopter flying, IFR, VFR and the UK
IFR is very straight forward it’s an IFR flight from Airport to final approach where you would implement a Radar approach or switch to VFR, for example Norway have full* IFR routes for helicopters flying out to the north sea, Every other county that has flights into the North sea except the UK have IFR routes that helicopters can follow all the way out these can be found in ENR 6 is the countries eAIP (particularly look for ENR 6)
Also for some uncontrolled airports like Emdem you would contact ATC for IFR clearance and then go back to Unicom for your ground movements and take-off going back to ATC once airborne to report “Airborne”
VFR is again standard VFR, however most flights into the north sea will still follow one of the offshore routes I mentioned above, but with a VFR departure and arrival route to the Airport, but you would be operating VFR, an example with be Pilot transfers out of NHV in Rotherham) again if operating between offshore platforms you would be VFR mostly if it is a short flight
The UK, North sea and offshore flights in the UK are a little different, Aberdeen & Sumburgh have IFR procedures for helicopters but not traditional IFR routes these routes are called “HMRI” HELICOPTER MAIN ROUTING INDICATORS , these procedures like everything else mentioned above can be found in charts in each countries eAIP, Offshore flights from Norwich & Humberside use an initial reporting point and then a HMRI route to your approximate destination, Blackpool have initial fixes followed by 2 routes as there are only 2 HTZs
Personally the places I feel where you will get the best experience flying offshore is Norway, when Polaris is only and they aren’t hectic you will get ATC all the way to your destination and a full IFR departure from Begen or similar, if you are doing this in something like the H160 you can have it all programmed in, in most other areas you will get a very good service to a degree but will be on your own further out.
I am a big fan of flying offshore and have created a discord with a collection of information for that type of flying.
Last few tips, research, research, research, there are some amazing youtube channels for flying helicopters domestically and Offshore.
Please do not try flying things like the London heli lanes and large airport transitions without being fully informaed and maybe flying it a few times offline, doing a heathrow crossing is great fun, but can be hectic, and as a heli pilot the last thing you want to do is spoil the party by not knowing what to do and then other pilots wanted to fly something similar will get met with a wall by some controllers.
Terms
HMRI - HELICOPTER MAIN ROUTING INDICATORS
HTZ - Heli traffic zone
HEMS - Helicopter Emergency Medical Service
ENR - EN-ROUTE CHARTS.
eAIP - electronic Aeronautical Information Package
Any other questions hit me here or on discord
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