I’ve never seen a ship like it docked here before. So when I got home yesterday I looked it up. I’ve read the description (anchor handling vessel), seen the video, looked at the photos. And I’m still in the dark.
What is the purpose of that big, elevated flat area that sticks off the front of the ship?
It reminds me of a helicopter landing pad, but helicopters don’t need a landing area that big and normally they just land on the deck.
Thespecs for the Falcon lists its width at 22 meters. The perspective may be skewed, but to my eye it looks like the helipad extends about 8-10 meters on each side, for a total of, let’s say, 40 meters. FAA regulations say a helipad must be 1.5X the diameter of the rotors, plus a safety zone of .5X the diameter on all sides. That gives a maximum rotor diameter of 20 meters or about 66’. A Chinook has a rotor diameter of about 60’ but a Skycrane’s rotor diameter is about 72’ – which means the helipad is pretty large, but doesn’t quite make “huge freakin.”
It’s also an “ultra-deepwater construction vessel” and has had its deck strengthened to accommodate heavy cargo. The helicopter pad probably isn’t just for ferrying people back and forth on a Jet Ranger, it’s probably so large so it can handle big choppers and big cargo.
That PDF specifically notes that the helipad is appropriate for a Sikorsky S-92. That’s a passenger helicopter, which it sounds like was originally developed specifically for ferrying passengers to remote ships.
Given the location of the the helipad on that ship, I wonder how feasible it would even be for it to be used by a cargo helicopter – in other words, how would you get the cargo from the helipad to the main deck or the cargo hold?
It is when you’re looking at it. That sucker looked huge on the ship with so much of it over the sides.
And, wow, so you actually could land a Sea Dragon on it — not by the FAA, but by my much simpler definition of does object A fit on object B.
I wondered that too. Maybe if that crane in the back can reach over the midsection to get to the landing pad? Otherwise I don’t see anyway to get heavy cargo off that platform.
Lewek Falcon -multifunctional anchor handling tug and SURF construction vessel
Lewek Falcon is a sophisticated, multifunctional anchor handling tug and SURF construction vessel with ultra deepwater, anchor handling and inspection, maintenance and repair (IMR) capabilities designed and equipped to meet the harshest global conditions. It is among the largest vessels in its class.
Lewek Falcon has a DP2 dynamic positioning system, a bollard pull of 300 tonnes and a 500 tonne anchor handling capacity. It also includes a 150 tonne subsea crane, accommodation for a crew of 100 and fitted with a helideck.
Good catch, I had scanned the pdf from my phone and missed anything about the pad. I’m looking at oil rig helipads and many of them mention the S-92 as well. I guess the helipad is just standard.
