2.3 Landing Zone Operations
Key Takeaways
- Common U.S. program practice—not a BCEN-published specification—is about 100 × 100 feet by day and 125 × 125 feet at night, on a firm, relatively flat surface with an into-wind approach and departure path.
- Wires are the hazard pilots miss most; use a 1:1 obstacle rule (a 40-foot pole needs about 40 feet of horizontal clearance from the LZ edge) and brief every wire, pole, and tree on the inbound call.
- One landing-zone officer owns the zone: abort if bystanders enter, dust or snow whiteout develops, or a new hazard appears; never use people as flashlight poles aimed at the aircraft.
- Night-vision-goggle operations prefer infrared or downward lighting; white light that strikes the cockpit can force a missed approach.
- Rotor wash can topple stretchers and worsen fire or brownout; weight the patient, protect bystanders, and keep a safety person with a running aircraft on the ground.
Selecting a landing zone (LZ) is a clinical skill: a bad zone delays care, injures bystanders, or destroys the aircraft that was supposed to be the intervention. Landing zone operations cover size, slope, wires, dust, lighting, radio calls, abort criteria, rooftop versus scene pads, wind, rotor wash, and what happens after the skids are down.
Choosing the zone
Size, surface, slope, and wind
Common U.S. air-medical program practice is about 100 × 100 feet by day and 125 × 125 feet at night. State that as program practice, not as a number the Board of Certification for Emergency Nursing (BCEN) publishes. Night needs more room because depth perception and wire detection get worse. The surface must take skid or wheel loading—avoid hidden marsh, thin ice, and snow over unknown holes. Slope is typically kept under about 5 to 10 degrees; beyond that the uphill rotor arc becomes a head-strike problem. Align the approach and departure path into the wind. A two-path plan is ideal when obstacles allow.
| LZ feature | What "good" looks like | Why it fails |
|---|---|---|
| Size | About 100 × 100 ft day / 125 × 125 ft night (program practice) | Tight backyards, median strips with no abort path |
| Slope | Relatively flat; commonly under 5–10 degrees | Uphill disk, rolling stretchers, dynamic rollover risk |
| Surface | Firm grass, pavement, packed dirt, known pad | Dust bowl, marsh, snowbridge, loose gravel missiles |
| Wind | Approach and departure into the wind | Downwind approach, tailwind departure over wires |
| Obstacles | 1:1 height-to-distance from the perimeter | A 50-foot tree 20 feet off the corner |
Wires, obstacles, brownout, and whiteout
Wires are the classic missed hazard—power, phone, cable, and guy wires, especially at dusk. Ask out loud, "Any wires?" and make ground crews point. Use a 1:1 height-to-distance obstacle rule from the LZ perimeter: a 40-foot pole needs about 40 feet of horizontal clearance. That is a planning heuristic, not a license to crowd a pole.
Brownout (dust) and whiteout (snow) happen when rotor wash lifts a cloud just as the pilot needs the ground. Wet the dirt if you can, choose grass over talc-dry lots, have crews turn their backs, and be ready to wave off. A missed approach is a successful decision.
Control, marking, and the ship on the ground
One person in charge and inbound calls
One landing-zone officer owns the zone. Competing hand signals give the aircraft conflicting information. Day marking is cones or other corner markers—not people standing in the disk. Night marking is downward lights, strobes that do not flash into the cockpit, or infrared (IR) devices for night-vision goggle (NVG) programs. Do not use people as flashlight poles aimed at the inbound aircraft.
The inbound radio call should be short and useful:
- Location and a description a pilot can picture ("south football field, goalposts on the east")
- LZ size, surface, and slope
- Wind direction and estimated speed, plus a windsock if you have one
- Hazards: wires, towers, trees, traffic, animals, dust or snow
- How the zone is marked
- Patient update only if it changes destination, equipment, or urgency
- Abort language everyone understands ("wave off, wave off—bystanders in the disk")
Abort criteria include a breached sterile LZ, newly reported wires, deteriorating weather or visibility, brownout or whiteout, fire flare-up, a vehicle entering the path, lost communications when you needed them, or a pad that is no longer weight-capable. Call the abort early. The aircraft can hold or divert; it cannot undo a rotor strike.
Night, NVG, rooftop pads, and securing the aircraft
NVG-friendly lighting is IR or tightly controlled downward light. White floodlights that look "helpful" can bloom goggles and erase the wires you meant to show. If white light is all you have, keep it steady, at the corners, pointed at the ground, and never at the windscreen.
A hospital rooftop or designated helipad is not automatically safe. Confirm the pad is clear of carts, cranes, and people; know weight limits; check the windsock. Scene LZs are ad hoc and higher risk; rooftop LZs fail in bureaucratic ways (closed pad, unknown weight, another aircraft already on it).
Rotor wash can exceed highway-speed gusts. Weight stretchers, shield the patient's face, move bystanders back, and never leave a packaged patient on a light stand in the disk. After landing, securing the aircraft means a safety person stays with a running ship and shutdown follows the pilot's sequence. Public access to an unattended helicopter is the next incident.
- Pick size and surface first; do not shrink the LZ to match a convenient driveway.
- Brief wires and apply 1:1 obstacle clearance from the perimeter.
- One LZ officer, one set of signals, one abort call.
- Mark with objects and downward or IR light—not with people aiming flashlights at the cockpit.
- Protect the patient and the crowd from rotor wash until the aircraft is shut down or the disk is controlled.
A rural night scene has a flat pasture and no known wires. Which landing-zone size reflects common U.S. program practice rather than a BCEN-published specification?
A 40-foot light pole stands at the edge of a proposed landing zone. Using the common 1:1 height-to-distance obstacle rule, what is the minimum horizontal clearance from the LZ perimeter?
During a dusty inbound approach the landing-zone officer sees two bystanders run toward the touchdown point. What is the correct action?