A helipad in Russia: what has to be approved and how long it takes
The request arrives in two shapes. The first: have a helicopter land on my land on Saturday. The second: I want my own pad and I want to land whenever I choose. The paperwork behind the two is not the same size, and treating one as the other costs months.
A one-off landing away from an aerodrome needs no pad of its own. The spot is inspected, the captain decides and carries that decision, and the customer sends coordinates and photographs in advance. A permanent landing site — with a name, coordinates and publication in aeronautical information — runs its own course. What follows is about that one.
The documents the work is measured against now
Requirements for the site itself come from the Federal Aviation Rules in Russian Ministry of Transport order No. 140 of 21 April 2025. They run from 1 September 2025 to 1 September 2031 and cancelled order No. 69 of 4 March 2011, which everything in the country had been designed against for twelve years. A project drawn up under the old document gets recalculated before it is filed.
From 1 March 2026 operating rules were added — Ministry of Transport order No. 312 of 1 October 2025, valid until 1 March 2032. They bind landing site owners and everyone working at the site. The practical consequence for an owner: draw up and approve the procedure by which the aerodrome service works with the air traffic service unit and the other ground services. That document is written for the specific facility; there is no boilerplate here.
The aeronautical passport lives under Ministry of Transport order No. 449 of 5 November 2020, issued under paragraphs 26 and 27 of the Federal Rules for the Use of Airspace. The notice of commencement of activity runs under Ministry of Transport order No. 250 of 19 August 2015.
Geometry: what the footprint is measured from
Sizes in the rules are set through D — the length of the helicopter with rotors turning. This is where a project first parts company with what the customer expected: he has the size of the machine in mind, the rules carry the value everything else is measured from. A Mi-8AMT has an 18.17 m fuselage and a 21.29 m main rotor. D does not reduce to either figure; it comes from the documentation for the design type, and the footprint calculation starts there.
| Element of the site | What the rules require |
|---|---|
| FATO, the final approach and take-off area, for a helicopter above 3100 kg | a circle at least D in diameter |
| FATO for a helicopter of 3100 kg or less | a circle at least 0.83D in diameter |
| Safety area around FATO in visual conditions | extends 0.5D beyond the FATO outline, outer side at least 2D |
| Average slope of FATO | no more than 3% |
| Slope of TLOF, the touchdown and lift-off area | no more than 2% in any direction |
| Parking position | holds a circle 1.2D in diameter |
The footprint for a medium helicopter comes out noticeably wider than the customer expects: the safety area adds 0.5D beyond the FATO on every side, and all of that is measured from D. A country plot may not have the room for it. Two ways out remain then: move the pad to the far boundary of the plot, or recalculate the project around a light machine.
The notice to Rosaviatsia
The notice of commencement of activity at a landing site is delivered in person or sent by registered post with acknowledgement of receipt to the Federal Air Transport Agency. Inside: details of the owner, the name of the site, the nearest geographical reference point, coordinates and the date activity begins. The form runs to one page.
The rules set no filing deadline, and this is where owners get it wrong in both directions. Some wait for a permission in reply that the procedure does not provide for. Others decide the paper is optional. On the notice Rosaviatsia opens a file on the site and passes copies to the aeronautical information service. From that point the whole system can see the site.
The aeronautical passport: where the time goes
The owner of the site organises the passport, and different organisations supply the data. A surveying organisation gives coordinates and elevations. The organisation that designs flight procedures gives the manoeuvring procedures. The air traffic service unit gives its part at the owner's request. The owner approves the passport once sign-offs are in hand from everyone who supplied data.
Location brings its own approvals. A site inside the area of a civil aerodrome is agreed with that aerodrome's operator. Inside the area of an experimental aviation aerodrome — with the organisation that operates it. Inside the area of a state aviation aerodrome — with the organisation authorised by the agency the aerodrome belongs to. The location sign-off is collected before the passport is approved.
The passport then goes to Rosaviatsia, and the rules name the deadlines outright.
| Stage | Deadline |
|---|---|
| Rosaviatsia checks the passport | no more than 30 calendar days from receipt |
| Sent for publication if there are no comments | no more than 7 calendar days from the end of the check |
| Passport returned where there are comments | no more than 37 calendar days from receipt |
| Re-check after comments are cleared | no more than 7 calendar days |
Publication goes into the Aeronautical Information Publication under the ICAO advance notification system: effective dates for amendments follow a single calendar, and a finished passport waits for the nearest one. Plan the opening of the site from those dates.
The arithmetic comes out like this. A clean run is up to thirty calendar days for the check and up to seven more to send it for publication, then the wait for the nearest calendar date. A run with comments is up to thirty-seven calendar days to the return of the documents, then your own time on corrections and up to seven days more for the re-check. Everything else sits ahead of filing: land, survey, flight procedures, construction.
What is settled before the aviation paperwork
Land. The permitted use of the plot and the zones with special conditions: aerodrome-adjacent territory, protection zones for power lines and gas pipelines, water protection zones. Restrictions on aerodrome-adjacent territory are set by the act establishing it, and that act is what you read.
Obstacles. Wires, communication masts, trees and neighbouring buildings cut into the approach and departure paths. The survey covering them is done once, and the whole project rests on it.
The estate side. Access road, power, security, a place for refuelling. None of it is agreed with the aviation authorities, and without it the facility lives badly.
The order between the steps is rigid: survey before design, design before construction, sign-offs for the aerodrome area before the passport goes to Rosaviatsia. A step skipped in that order comes back together with the documents, and a return is up to thirty-seven calendar days plus your own time on corrections.
Where I am looking at this from
I worked on certifying a helipad on a customer's order: someone else's facility, the contractor's role.
The company has ten aircraft under management, five of them helicopters; we fly the Mi-8AMT and the Eurocopter EC130 T2. As far as I know, a helicopter flight hour on the market runs from 100 to 350 thousand roubles, and a pad at the house takes the positioning leg to the nearest heliport and the road transfer off every flight. It is worth costing alongside a year's flying programme.
Send questions about a specific plot through the form on the site: coordinates and the intended type already show which procedure is in play.
Common questions
How does a landing site differ from a heliport?
By how much is demanded of whoever holds the facility. Operators of civil heliports face their own set of requirements — Ministry of Transport order No. 189 of 17 June 2025. A landing site runs on notification, and for a private owner that is an order of magnitude lighter. The choice between the two statuses follows from who will be landing: your own machine and guests means a landing site; regular commercial flights for third parties opens the heliport conversation.
A pad on a rooftop — same procedure?
The requirements of order No. 140 described above are written for a plot of land and for water. A rooftop is a separate task, and it starts before the aviation part: load-bearing capacity of the structure, escape routes, the fire side, noise for the rooms below. The aviation geometry there fits around what the building will carry, and the project is costed in that order.
The passport is approved and a neighbour is building in the approach. What now?
Amendments. Where aeronautical data change, amendments are drawn up for the passport and they travel the same route it did: sign-offs, the check at Rosaviatsia, publication on the calendar. So a new house in the approach costs you the full circle of deadlines in the table above. That is why obstacles around a pad are tracked early, from the development plans for neighbouring plots while they are still plans.
Who actually does this work?
The owner of the site organises the passport. Surveyors and flight procedure designers prepare the data for their own sections. The rules name no single turnkey contractor. The question to put at the first meeting with one is how many sites he has carried through to publication in aeronautical information, and which ones. A published passport can be checked against the Publication; a finished project on paper is confirmed by nothing.
Alexander Filimonov — business aviation: charter, sourcing and entry of aircraft into service.
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