AS-332 Wind limits

[Rwy in Sight]

Earlier today an AS-332 was tasked to fly to an island near Ex-A's summer residence from Rhodes Island to help an old lady living there alone. Yesterday a Sikorsky SH-60 tried to fly there. Both missions failed because of the wind. As you can guess there is no runway in the island. What I need help with the knowledgable people here is how wind impacts Rotary Ops (the machine not the forum) besides increasing fuel consumption. I understand cross wind is a problem for fix-wings and ops out of a runway for choppers (I guess) but on a flat island the chopper can land into the wind. What do I see wrong?

[G~Man]

Have no clue why wind would be a factor, unless the Island is so far away from the nearest fuel that they do not have the endurance to get there and back in one fuel cycle. The only other reason would be if they needed to shut down---some helicopters have wind limits to start the aircraft due to excessive flapping at low rotor rpm. (High flapping with no centrifugal force and lift to stop the blades hitting the mast).

[CharlieOneSix]

I was never AS-332 qualified but flew nearly all the other North Sea types. There were two main wind limits. One for rotor engagement - on average 50kts due to main rotor blade sailing problems, and the other was 60kts over an offshore deck. That latter limit was purely for passenger safety as it was difficult for the guys to stand or walk to the helicopter.

I have no experience of the horrendous conditions rescue pilots are experiencing in Australia at the moment. I suspect with the ferocity of flames close to the AS-332's destination there would have been considerable violent local turbulence and wind shifts with microbursts. I have sometimes experienced that on offshore rigs with torque rapidly oscillating from 30-100% on short finals (FD2 - Forties platforms, SW gales in an S61, remember those?!) but I suspect nothing as terrifying as what's happening in Oz. Hopefully G-Man will see your posts as his expertise is in fighting fires using helicopters.

Ah, G-man beat me to it!

Edit: One of our engineers holding a Bell 214ST blade in a high wind offshore whilst the engine starts so that blade sailing is minimised. It was not permitted to have the rotor brake on during engine start.....

[G-CPTN]

That looks like an extremely dangerous activity.

I would point out that the OP question was referring to the Greek Islands, not Oz.

[CharlieOneSix]

Ah, thanks CPT - missed that! In that case, unless there was an endurance issue I can see no reason why wind would be a problem if it's a straight forward casevac without shutting down.

[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

You're all mad.

I remember at streaming in the RAF, guys were selected for Group1 - Fast Jet, and Group 2 - Multi-engine. I innocently asked why there wasn't a Group 3 - Rotary selection.
"There are just enough madmen who volunteer to fill the slots".
And it was true.

[Rwy in Sight]

FOX3, my first smile of the day about the slot-feeling mad men.

Thanks for the answers gentlemen all very useful and clear.

I checked the distances on Google the distance from Rhodes is about 180 km and the distance from the next major airport LGKO is about 80 km more. So I guess range was not an issue. So it all comes down if the crew would need to shut down the engines or not.