helicopter life · dave smith atpl(h)ir, malvina nicca advert isng telephone: +44-(0)20-7430-2384...

HELICOPTER

LIFE

HELICOPTER LIFE is the HIGH LIFE

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of

Portugal

Summer 2010 / £3.99

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Summer 2010Summer 2010

helicopter LIFE, Summer 2010 3

Rotores de Portugal32

Menso van Westrheueuwent flying with theRotores de Portugaland experienced whatit is like to be an airshow pilot and, evenmore, part of a teaminvolved in the dailyroutine of aerobatics

Alternative Fuels 40Helicopter Life looks at the alternative fuelsmarket around the world.

Rescue 42Leslie Symonswrites about the historyof the mountain rescueservices, its volunteersand details of rescuesin the Cairngorms andelsewhere

Flying Falcon 48Andrew Harveyhad one of the mostunusual flights of hiscareer when he wasasked to fly a falcon atnight in the MeydanStadium to celebratethe 2010 World Cupin Dubai

Greek Olympics 54John Hillflew with nine otherhelicopters to Athensto operate the Westcamduring the GreekOlympics

Helicopters Past and Future 62

Book Reviews 63

Accident Reports 6 4

House & Helicopter 66

COVER STORYCOVER STORY

Show & Tell Guide 4Aviation shows and conferences.

The Editor’s Letter 5

Aerial Forum 6 & 10 David Philipott on the British AirMed market

Letters to the Editor 7, 11, 15

Flying Crackers 8, 9

Boys’ Toys at EBACE 12Georgina Hunter-Jones flew toGeneva to visit the10th show and tosee how businessjets and helicoptersare recovering fromvolcanic ash, down-turn and debt

New Technology 16Eurocopter’s new OPOC engine was on display atHouston HAI

Kyrgyzstan’s Golden Future 18Sophy Ibbotson andothers write aboutthe Republic ofKyrgyzstan, amountainous regionwhere helicoptersare a major sourceof transport for avariety of differentapplications

Searching for a mystery helicopter pilot 22Ken Smith continues his search

HAI HeliExpo 24Helicopter Life staffvisit the annual show atHouston, Texas to hearthe manufacturers’ pre-dictions for the futureand to see the latestinnovation includingthe Bluecopter

8 June - 13 June 2010ILA BERLIN AIRSHOW

Berlin Schoenfeld AirportMs Manuela JankPhone:+49 (0)30 3038-2167 Fax:+49 (0)30 3039 000-2167E-mail: [email protected]

15 June 2010COAST GUARD HELICOPTERS

BAe Systems Park Centre, GU14 6XNIan McKluskieContact CHC Ltd.

19 June - 20 June 201010TH VERTICAL CHALLENGE HELICOPTER

AIR SHOW

Hiller Aviation Museum, San Carlos AirportSan Carlos, Californiawww.hiller.org/vertical-challenge.shtml.

17 July - 18 July 2010CHOLmONDELEY PAGEANT OF POWER

Cholmondeley CastleMalpas, CheshireTelephone: 01829 772432.website: www.cpop.co.uk Email: [email protected]

19 July - 25 July 2010FARNBOROUGH IINTERNATIONAL AIRSHOW

Farnborough Airfield, UKContact Farnborough Airshow TeamTelephone: +44(0) 1252 532800Email: [email protected]

5 October - 7 October 2010HELITECH EUROPE 2010

Cascais, PortugalContact: Verity NewtonTel: +44 (0) 20 8910 7910

Fax: +44 (0) 20 8334 0588http://www.helitechevents.com

2 November - 4 November 2010HELISHOW DUBAI 2010

East Hall, Airport Expo, Dubai UAEContact: Julia CuthbertMediac Communications and Exhibitions - UKTel:+44 (0)1293 823 779 Mobile: +44 (0) 7734 563 324Fax: +44 (0) 1293 825 394E-mail: [email protected]

helicopter LIFE, Summer 20104

HELICOPTER LIFE is published quarterly by FlyFizzi Ltd. 59 Great Ormond StreetLondon, WC1N-3Hz. Copyright © FlyFizzi Ltd. 2010. ISSN 1743-1042. All rights reserved. Opinions expressed herein are not neces-sarily those of the publishers, the Editor or any of the editorialstaff. Reproduction in whole or in part, in any form whatever,is strictly prohibited without specific written permission ofthe Editor.

COVER PHOTOGRAPHSRotores de Portugal by Menso vanWestrheueu

Summer 2010

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF / PILOTGeorgina [email protected]

CREATIVE [email protected]

COPY EDITORSEvangeline Hunter-Jones, JPJohn Wilson

CONTRIBUTING EDITORSAndrew Harvey, John Hill, Sophie Ibbotson,Max Lovell-Hoare, Michael Pye, David Philpott,Ken Smith, Leslie Symons, Menso vanWestrheueu

CONTRIBUTED PHOTOGRAPHYAndrew Harvey, John Hill, Geoff James,Malvina Nicca, David Philpott, Ken Smith, Leslie Symons, Menso van Westrheueu.Maximum Exposure, Darren Wring,

SPECIAL THANKS TODave Smith ATPL(H)IR, Malvina Nicca

ADVERTISINGTelephone: +44-(0)[email protected]

SUBSCRIPTIONSGo to our website or turn to page [email protected]

WEBSITEwww.helicopterlife.com

HON. EDITORIAL BOARDCaptain Eric Brown, CBE, RNThe Lord Glenarthur, DLJennifer MurrayMichael J. H. SmithWing Cdr. Ken Wallis, MBE, RAF

liFehelicopterShow & Tell

Guide


their own party-biased views instead.As in the past there is a growing

emphasis on alternative fuel, on heli-copters with cleaner and more effec-tive engines and on coalitions withother companies to promote helicop-ters. We have previously seen howHermes offered a full decorative serv-ice of the Eurocopter EC135 bothexternal and internal. Now, at EBACE(the European Business AssociationConvention and Exhibition )Mercedes Benz has offered the sametype of make-over for the EurocopterEC145, dressed, as one enthusiastsuggested, in Michael Schumacher’scolours!

The early part of this year has onceagain been a mixed time for helicop-ters. Personally, I have found that thetraining schools are doing less workand have fewer students, airports andairfields are less busy and corporateevents do not have so many arrivalsby helicopter. However, I have stillhad work as an examiner. People whoalready have licences seem to beretaining them and are continuing tofly. So, my feeling is that many peo-ple are just waiting to see what willbe the result of the markets in the nextyear or so. These are exciting timeslet’s enjoy them as best we can.

sources. On the other hand, once upand running maintenance costs arevery low and, as our need for alterna-tive energy sources grows, geo-ther-mal energy will continue to beresearched.

For the UK and its European part-ners there have been two other impor-tant issues. The British GeneralElection, which led first to a HungParliament, and then to the first coali-tion government since the SecondWorld War, and the Greek debt. (Andother debt areas as they extend toSpain, Portugal and even to the UKitself.) These matters have led toinstability in the financial markets,which in itself has increased the pres-sure on the debt-laden countries.

A possible source of revenue, orincreasing debt as it was in Greece, isthe Olympics. which will be held inthe UK in 2012. Here we have a bigquestion: what, if anything, are heli-copters going to be doing during theOlympics? Will they be used at all?What will be the police and securityposition in helicopters? At themoment this appears to be a greatunknown.

As Michael Hampton, MD ofCapital Air Services, says: ”In ameeting with the officials dealingwith infrastructure and transport atthe Olympics I asked about what pro-gramme they had for helicopters, andwas told there was no position forhelicopter transport at the moment.”

Capital Air Services provided thehelicopter support at the GreekOlympics in Athens, and we have astory by John Hill, who flew toAthens from Oxford with a team often helicopters and did all the web-cam work. Hill feels that, given thesecurity issues, it is unlikely therewill be any VIP helicopter transportin London. He also has some prettystiff words for politicans who do notlisten to experts in the field but give

5

The ediTor’S leTTer

The International Air TransportAssociation estimates that 1.2million passengers were affect-

ed by the first ‘shutdown in the skiesabove’ resulting from the IcelandicVolcano’s ash cloud. The estimatedloss of revenue was 1.7 billion USdollars. For six days there were noairline flights over Britain andNorthern Europe.

Helicopters and helicopter compa-nies, on the other hand, benefited.PremiAir Aviation, for example, flewsorties out to Ireland and those partsof Europe that allowed it (the Frenchclosed their airspace) to pick upstranded passengers. The differenceseems mainly to have lain with theautonomy of the helicopter compa-nies (or perhaps you might say thecommon sense attitude of helicopterowners). While Turbomeca warnedthat there might be future difficultiesand damage to their engines, but leftit to the owners to make their owndecisions, the airlines were ruled byNAATS and the CAA and were notallowed to make commercial deci-sions for themselves. The compensa-tion issues that have now accruedilluminate to what the airlines arenow calling the European govern-ments’ over-reaction.

There have been two other resultsfrom the volcanic shut-down: one therealisation by the public generallyabout how much we rely on aviationand our ability to use the sky; theother a focus on the possibilities ofharnessing the output of volcanoes asgeo-thermal energy.

The drawback of geo-thermal ener-gy, however, appears to be the lengthof time it takes to obtain the neces-sary equipment, the potential set-upcosts and (something we are nowvery aware of as BP struggles to capthe oil-leak in Louisianan) theunknown problems that may accruefrom harnessing such volatile

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AeriAl Forum

With the Airmed World Congress due to beheld in Brighton, england next may, DavidPhilpott asks if the British Air Ambulance

Service has finally come of age.

There is no doubt about it: In the race to provide opti-mum trauma care from the air, the British have beenslow out of the blocks. First the Swiss in 1952, and two

decades later the Germans, developed a fully integrated HEMS(Helicopter Emergency Air Ambulance Service) but theirEuropean near-neighbours from across the English Channelbarely noticed that the race had started, and spent almost half acentury burying their heads in the sand. Why the delay? Howis it that a country that prides itself on innovation and inven-tion has languished for so long towards the back of the race,running almost shoulder to shoulder alongside nations in thedeveloping world?

Much of the reason is vested in Britain’s health system. TheNational Health Service was born in 1948 to a fanfare of opti-mism and, to be frank, for most of the latter part of the twenti-eth century it provided its citizens with a good standard ofhealthcare for all, irrespective of ability to pay. However, withthe development of complex and expensive surgeries andbreakthroughs in drug treatments, the ability of the exchequerto fund everything has meant a rationalisation – some wouldsay a rationing – of health care.

Little wonder then that helicopters were never high on thelist of ‘must-have’ accessories for hospital managers or indeedpoliticians. And besides, there was scant evidence of theireffectiveness in the delivery of roadside healthcare. In the1980s and 1990s the British government commissioned a num-ber of reports, not a few under the direction of Professor JonNicholl at the Medical Care Research Unit of the University ofSheffield, and they all made the same point. There was notenough evidence that ‘Air Ambulances’ – the generic termused in the United Kingdom for HEMS aircraft – provided anyreal benefit, except in a handful of exceptional cases.

Without any centralised planning or free market competitionto stimulate an industry in airborne pre-hospital care, it waslargely down to enthusiasts to step in where health expertsfeared to tread – first in 1987, in Cornwall, a large, sparselypopulated coastal county in the Southwest; and then in the cap-ital, where London HEMS was launched in 1989. However, by2008, when the Association of Air Ambulances was formed,there were eighteen individual services, covering every regionof the country.

While it might appear that 22 years is a long time for suchan integral part of the trauma network to evolve, the real won-der of the British system is that none of this happened withfunding from taxation, insurance premiums or charging foruse; indeed the service across the nation has been and alwayswill be free at the point of need. The incredible – some might

say ridiculous – feature of the UK funding system is that near-ly every penny of income needed to operate it – a sum inexcess of £50 million (US$ 80 million) – is generated byfundraising. Only in Australia and New zealand do similarfinancing models seem to exist, where perhaps a shared senseof Victorian philanthropy remains as a vestige of Empire.

How then did these ‘Johnny-come-lately’s’ of the air ambu-lance world manage to pull off the coup of hosting what manyconsider to be the most prestigious of all international aero-medical congresses? Why have they suddenly come of age andbeen given the key to the front door?

To be fair, it was probably always on the wish list of theorganising committee to hold the triennial event in England,not least because it had never been held there in the past. Andthen of course there is the language benefit. Like it or loathe it,English is still the most widely spoken language in the world.An event in England would naturally attract delegates from allover the English-speaking world, and would certainly be nodeterrent to scores of others who consider the Queen’s Englishtheir second tongue. What made an aspiration a reality was ahappy confluence of agendas. As the British air ambulance‘charities’ began to flex their economic and political muscles,they found succour in the bosom of EHAC (European HEMSand Air Ambulance Committee) who had ‘been there, seen itall and bought the tee shirt’ all across Europe, as country aftercountry joined up to its protocols. EHAC itself had never feltquite complete without the British in it.

However, not everything in the garden is rosy as far as theUK air ambulance service is concerned. The spectre of morerobust clinical monitoring by the newly formed governmentagency, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) has presentedsome unique challenges as Lynda Breslin, Chief Executive ofthe North West Air Ambulance service, based in Liverpool,explained.

“One of the biggest challenges facing the UK AirAmbulance industry this year is the need to be registered withthe Care Quality Commission by April 2011,” she notes. “Asyet there are no clear guidelines for registration, which weunderstand will not be available until October 2010. It is vitalwe all get registered by then if we are to continue our work.”

Lynda has good reason to be apprehensive. She has beingdoing the job for the best part of a decade, a decade in whichthe British government has largely failed to acknowledge thatthe HEMS service even exists. And it is not just the charitiesthat take this view. Dr Rod Mackenzie is a Consultant andSenior Lecturer in Emergency Medicine at the University of

continued on page 10

59 Great Ormond Street, London WC1N-3Hz, England.Telephone: 020-7430-2384, Email: [email protected] include your name, and email or phone.


Johnnie Johnson

Dear Georgina,It was with sadness that I heardof the passingof JohnnieJohnson. I do not know howold he was, but he must havebeen well into his late 80s.I only came across Johnnieabout 15 years ago or so, whenhe was already flying with amedical restriction and shortlybefore he was forced to retire.He was an ‘old time’ helicopterinstructor, who seemed to makehis living by teaching people ontheir own helicopters from theirown houses (but always from alicenced airfield!) before weneeded Registered Facilities,FTOs etc. I still fly with a cou-ple of pilots for their LPCs whowere taught by Johnnie andwho remember him with affec-tion, and still display the highlevels of competency he taughtthem.

Apart from his cheery smile,French onion seller appearancedue to his beret and ever pres-ent cigarette, I will rememberhim for telling me he flewSpitefires during the ScondWorld War. Perhaps he is theJohnnie Johnson depicted in theApril illustration on CymaPetroleum 2010 calendar. If so,that would be a fitting tribute.He also told me he did the firstair test on the R-22, which hefound ‘interesting’ as he spentmost of his time flying Bell47s, and the R22 did not havetip weights!I was wondering if any of yourreaders who knew Johnnie bet-ter than me, could let me havemore information (viaHelicopter Life) anecdotes etcso I could put together a suit-able obituary.Yours sincerely

Geoff Day

7

leTTerS To The ediTor

Agusta 109 incident at Redhill

Dear GeorginaI read with interest the accident reportsection concerning the Augusta A109 G-ELTE at Redhill. As a professional pilot I often fly intoRedhill and have found the Air Trafficcontrollers the most difficult controllers Ihave ever spoken to. Having flown formany years I have experienced a my fairshare of Air Traffic Controllers and haveto say what a splendid job they have alldone, Redhill on the other hand concernsme. Often I have listened to the exchangebetween Redhill ATC and other aircraftworking their frequency and thought,given the small size of the airfield, justhow intimidating they are towards pilots.Granted its proximity to the Class D air-space of LGW means the controllers needto ensure pilots don't stray from it.However in a training environment it isimperative that the information passed topilots is clear and helpful and ensuresthat the P/UT is concentrating on the taskof flying the aircraft and not whetherATC is going to give him or her anotherbo**ocking! The rate of speech is far toofast at Redhill contributing to furtherconfusion for pilots especially those notfamiliar with the airfield.P/UTs still learning to master the skills ofoperating a machine and competent pilotsin emergency conditions will find theircapacities compromised and difficultieswith air traffic would only make the situ-ation worse. Stress levels rise and fall inflight as you'll be well aware being aninstructor. One of the key areas coveredin CRM is dealing with stress and meth-ods of how to reduce it. Redhill ATCwould benefit from attending such cours-es and prevent them from being a stressorin an emergency situation.With kind regards

Name withheld at the pilot’s request

Letters continue on page 11

Letters continue

on page 11 and 15

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A109 landed safely on

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London Heliport Passenger

Terminal

Ahead of Farnborough Airshow andready for it, the London HeliportTerminal is now open. The old termi-nal was demolished to make way foradditional apron space increasing heli-copter parking capacity and the abilityof the heliport to handle increasedmovements. David McRobert, PremiAir’s GroupManaging Director, said: “We’re allreally excited about the change thenew terminal facilities will bring toexecutive helicopter travel in the UK....heliport users will be able to useworld class business aviation facilitiesunique in the helicopter world. Theterminal is directly linked to HotelVerta, a new 5 star luxury hotel. Thishas to be a first in business aviation.” Hotel Verta, owned by von EssenHotels, PremiAir’s sister company,will open in the summer. It describesits position by the heliport as “the firstintegrated hotel helicopter solution inthe world.” Which rather begs thequestion, what was the problem?

Award for Hayward Aviation

Hayward Aviation have been award-ed the Certificate of Appreciation bythe Royal Aero Club in recognitionof their support for the helicopterindustry. Hayward Aviation is thefirst insurance company to receivethe award, which started in 1998.

Heeman’s Flying Hovercraft

For Sale

Half Ozzie half Kiwi Rudy Heemanhas transformed his hovercraft into awing-in-ground-effect vehicle.Heeman says he's found the idealflight altitude under the vehicle's 7-meter wingspan to be about 1.5meters, over flat water or land,where he reached a top speed ofabout 60 mph in a test.The hovercraft will hop small bush-es or short trees. Theoretically,the vehicle can cruise at about 55mph for roughly 140 miles. It is now for sale.The project includes parts from sixdifferent cars, including a 1.8-literSubaru engine, and a gas bottle froman old barbeque. Its wings consist ofa front and rear aluminum tube spar,fiberglass ribs andfitted fabric cover-ing. These will separate forstorage/transport.The vehicle is controlled by rudderand elevator, actuated by a controlwheel (no rudder pedals). Thecockpit includes a GPS and enginegauges, but Heeman has includedother creative refinements.To buy this and other flying oddi-tions visit:http://www.trendhunter.com/trends/flying-hovercraft-auction

Does your pilot have a

licence?

Thomas Salame was banned fromflying for a year after flying passen-ger jets without a licence. Salame,who flew for the Turkish airlineCorendon, made his own licence andapplied for a job. He has been flyingpassenger jets for 13 years withoutincident. He was fined Euros 1,700.

Monitoring the Polar Bear

population

Above, Ontario Ministry of NaturalResources tranquilizes a polar bearat Hudson Bay part of a 3-year studyon the impact of climate change onthe polar bear population

Music to his Ears

A Canadian man publicly thankedKelowna, B.C.-based Flair Airlineswho not only saved the holidays of900 stranded tourists, but also deliv-ered his prized Takamine D Seriesguitar home after it went astray.When Ottawa-based charter operatorGo Travel South went out of busi-ness, leaving 900 customers, includ-ing Vince Thompson, scatteredaround the Caribbean, FlairAirlines, which had flown the pas-sengers south under contract to thecharter company, went to pick themup at a cost to the airline of morethan $300,000. Good hearts indeed.

David mcRobert and

Greg Ward

Hayward Aviation and

members of the HCGB


Eurocopter’s New VP, Cécile Vion-Lanctuit

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Factory Built Gyroplanes

RotorSport UK Ltd can now supply factory builtgyroplanes fitted with in-flight variable pitch pro-pellers, managed by a constant speed controller. Thefirst example, G-JUGS, was handed over to MrSimon & Mr Peter Hornsby at the Midland GlidingClub in March 2010. It has taken a huge amount ofeffort by the RotorSport Team to get the UK CAA toaccept this combination, but the fitment of theWoodcomp SR3000 propeller matched to a uniqueversion of the Smart Avionics Constant speed con-troller takes flight in a gyroplane to a whole newlevel of capability. The SR3000 propeller blade hasa wooden core and composite outer, and apolyurethane leading edge to prevent stone damage. The unit is electrically pitch adjusted, either manual-ly or using the Smart Avionics automatic control sys-tem that matches propeller pitch to the power avail-able, against a target engine rpm. There are three keysettings; manual; climb, and cruise. The pilot pressesclimb before take off, cruise once in the cruise, andclimb again for landing, and each has its ownadjustable target engine rpm. Five more of propellerand controller combinations are already on site anddue for fitment over the next month.

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G-JUGS picture courtesy

of mrs Hornsby

G-JUGS picture courtesy

of mr Nigel Barrett

Cecile Vion-Lanctuithas been appointed asEurocopter Group’sVice President ofCorporate Communications.Vion-Lanctuit wasEurocopter’s Head ofInternational MediaRelations.She came to Eurocopterin April 2006 fromEADS. She joined thecompany in Paris as aCorporate Auditor inlate 1999.

10helicopter LIFE, Summer 2010

continued from page 6

Leicester, and he also donates much ofhis time to an independent emergencymedical charity called MAGPAS, basedin Cambridgeshire.

“There are two major challenges cur-rently facing Air Ambulance Charities inthe UK,” says Mackenzie. “For thosewho aspire to be independent healthcareproviders in their own right, the first isachieving full compliance with the regu-latory requirements of the Care QualityCommission (CQC). MAGPAS has foundthat CQC registration, whilst costly inprofessional, administrative and financialterms, has proven to be essential indeveloping confidence within theNational Health Service regarding theability of the charity to ensure clinicalquality and patient safety. Such confi-dence will be required to meet the secondset of challenges – that of integrating theAir Ambulance operations with evolvingregional, supra-regional and nationwidenetworks for the emergency managementof critical illness and injury. The evolvingtrauma networks and the new medicalsub-specialty of Pre-hospital EmergencyMedicine will provide an opportunity forjust such integration.” Mackenzie shouldknow, since he is one of the architects ofthe new emerging government traumanetworks.

In addition to these concerns aboutclinical standards, there are rumours ofdiscontent and unease at the way theindustry is slipping, almost surreptitious-

ly, from being a community asset fundedby donations into a big money-gobblingmonster. The funds may be coming in atone end from model citizens who arecommitted to doing their bit to help –sponsored runs, placing donations in col-lections tins or playing air ambulance lot-teries – but these funds appear to behaemorrhaging out at the other end inspiralling costs. Although healthy andopen competition has ensured formal ten-dering arrangements on helicopter leasecontracts and a consequent downwardpressure on prices, the dearth of inde-pendent clinical governance providershas led to some charities buying this infrom hospital consultants, and it is esti-mated that in 2010 upwards of £1 millionof charity donations will be spent in thisway. If confidence is to be restored, airambulance charities will need to be ableto obtain this vital ingredient either freeof charge, as part of the National HealthService commitment – the nation doesget the air ambulance service for freeafter all – or have it provided by not-for-profit agencies that are above any suspi-cion of profiteering.

So, with less than a year to go, whatcan we expect from AirMed 2011? Well,if the venues are anything to go by, thiswill be an exceptional congress. Brightonitself, known as London by the Sea, onaccount of its close proximity to the capi-tal, will charm the socks off delegates,what with its charming little side streetscrammed full of stylish boutiques, and its

wayside cafés and traditional Britishpubs. Then there is the internationallyfamous Brighton Centre, situated on thecentral promenade, overlooking the sea.This shrine to the concerts of rock androll superstars will yield its space for afew brief days to helicopters, exhibitionsand a packed conference agenda. Outsidethe main congress arena, sponsors anddignitaries will be swept along on a tideof Regency splendour in the BrightonPavilion, the one time seaside home ofthe Prince Regent himself. Aircraftdemonstrations will be integrated into theprogram at the wonderful art decoShoreham Airport, just a few miles alongthe coast. If everything goes according toplan, Brighton 2011 will set a new stan-dard for AirMed congresses.

But there’s the rub. Will everything goto plan? All being well, the world’s majoreconomies should be experiencing sus-tained recoveries by then, with the spec-tre of recession well and truly banishedas a distant memory. One must hope thatthe helicopter industry, as historicallygenerous sponsors of this triennial event,will rally around the organisers and makesure that this is the sensational congressthat it deserves to be. Only then will webe able to say with confidence that theUK Air Ambulance industry has trulycome of age.David Philpott was Chief Executive of the Kent Air

Ambulance service for six years and founding chair-

man of the Association of Air Ambulances. He now

divides his time between running his own businessconsultancy and freelance writing.ww.davidphilottandassociates.com

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Course 119/120

Dear Georgina,I am a very proud dad these days,my son was awarded his wings on19th Feb. He now goes on theApache course. The others on thecourse are split Apache/Lynx.I'm sure they would appreiciate a paton the back in the mag? My son isthe shortarse like his mum, 2nd fromleft.I am at a Moth seminar this week-end, I thought we just kept the olderpilots going but that’s obviously nottrue as I just showed you a load ofnew blood!Best wishes.

Stewart Luck

continued on page 15

To The ediTormore leTTerS

EC155


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The 10th annual EuropeanBusiness Aviation Convention& Exhibition (EBACE) took

place in Geneva from 4th - 6th May.It had 11,174 Attendees and a gener-al air of optimism that the globalindustry’s economic outlook is on theupswing. There were 436 Exhibitorsand 65 aircraft in the static display atGeneva International Airport.

As the exhibition is mainly centredaround business fixed wing aircraftthere were only a few helicoptercompanies there: principally AgustaWestland, showing its Agusta GrandNew with its new avionics, Bell andEurocopter, Harrods Aviation basedat Stansted and Luton airports,PremiAir, the helicopter charter oper-ator, and Flight Crew Finder, arecently established company aimingto find jobs for helicopter pilots.

Eurocopter unveiled their newMercedes Benz style EurocopterEC145 with great aplomb. It will be

ready for purchase in 2011 and has,Eurocopter senior Vice PresidentOliver Lambert said, “already attractedmuch interest from potential buyers.”.The EC154 was, he added, “the heli-copter of choice for helicopter opera-tions around the world.”

Michele Jauch Paginetti, theGeneral Manager of the Mercedes Benznew concept design studio in Comosaid, “Mercedes Benz is extending itsactivities to industries outside the auto-motive industry, including furniture,industry and lifestyle projects.”

After the unveiling, Paginetti saidthat the EC145 was their first helicopterproduct.

“Merceds Benz and Eurocopter,” hesaid, “are a perfect match as both com-panies are known for style, comfort andefficiency.”

He explained that he had drawninfluences from the saloon classes,including the E and S class Mercedes,“that means something that is spacious,

Boys Toys at EBACEmercedeS benz and eurocopter Get toGether at ebace to create

a neW StyliSh interior and exterior or the ec145

Schumacher’s

style in helicopters

WordS by GeorGina hunter-JoneS pictureS by malvina nicca


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versatile and something that will set newdesign standards.”

Customers will be able to change ambi-ent lighting and to choose a range of dif-ferent woods and materials for the floor,walls and seats. There is also room forconsiderable baggage and golf club, andother large item storage

Agusta Westland were launching theirnew AW139 HUMS (Health Usage andMonitoring System) Web service at theshow, which they developed in collabora-tion with GE Aviation. They consider thiswill be a significant addition to safety invarious sectors of flying including the oiland gas sectors.

AgustaWestland‘s GrandNew,launched at HAI HeliExpo, has achievedstrong market success. The company saysthat fifty orders have been received todate. It already has EASA certificationand FAA certification is expected shortly.

Bell Helicopter, announced that SpanAir Pvt. Ltd. has signed an agreement topurchase its second 429 following ademonstration of the world’s newest heli-copter. Span Air is based in New Delhiand is a pioneer of private air charter serv-ices that operates the light, single-engineBell 407 as well as fixed-wing aircraft. Anoriginal 429 customer, Span Air is toreceive its first new light, twin-engine hel-icopter later this year. Its second 429 isscheduled for delivery in early 2011.

“The 429 is a great machine to fly,”said Capt. S.K. Malik, leader of Span Air,who piloted the light twin on a demonstra-tion flight during its recent tour of India.

Captain Malik said Span Air’s new429s will be used to expand those servic-es, as well as to support the campaigningefforts of individuals seeking electedoffice throughout India.

PremiAir, the UK helicopter charteroperator, is expanding into fixed-wingbusiness aircraft, and has recently beengranted a fixed wing AOC by the UKCAA. Rather aptly they operate a HawkerBeechcraft Premier 1, which is owned byvon Essen Group, parent company ofPremiAir.

Harrods Aviation has spent $1.5 onrefurbishing their FBO at Stansted

Business jets ranged

from VLJs to Falcons

There was a

vibrance about

the show that

had been missing

last year

Sennheiser showing off its

new headset HmE26

helicopter LIFE Summer 201014

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Airport. They now have two large customers lounges and aseparate VVIP lounge, which provides complete privacy forpassengers including heads of state.

Harrods is now operating its own fuel trucks at Stanstedand at London Luton Airport, where it also has an FBO.

Sennheiser Aerospace was displaying its latest aviationheadset, the HME 26/HMEC 26, for which the companyguarantees reliable voice transmission in the cockpit. It is thesuccessor to the HME/HMEC 25 family of headsets and pro-vides the same audio level plus improvements in comfort.The HME 26 incorporates the modular microphone boom andcable construction of the lighter HME/HMEC 46 seriesmicrophones that were introduced in 2007.

Harrods has been sold for 1.5 bil-

lion pounds to Qatar Holding LLC

EBACE, while not majoring in

helicopters, had some powerful

operators at the show

Although this year as not been an easy time for theaviation market, which has suffered from the volatilestock markets, debt and strikes in Greece, clouds ofvolcanic ash, leading to a six day airspace close-downin much of Europe’s airspace, and air crew strikes inBritish Airways, there was an unexpected air of hopeat the show. Most companies seemed to be suggestingthat the worst was over, and that the summer mightwell turn out to be a good one for aviation as the mar-ket slowly reassembled. Whether that would be so ifthe show had been held two weeks later, with volcanicask clouds again shutting down airspace, renewedBritish Airways strikes and more debt problems ishard to say.

Next year’s EBACE will return to the Geneva PAL-EXPO from May 17 through 19. EBAA and NBAAhave secured dates for EBACE through 2015.

malvina Nicca,

jet pilot and pho-

tographer


Rotor Sport Uk looking after its fleet

Dear GeorginaRotorSport UK Ltd is please to announce that, following asuccessful final aircraft audit by the CAA, AAN29134 adden-dum 4 has been approved for the flight of MT-03 gyroplanes(with service bulletin SB-013) at 500Kg MTOW. The typehas been flying in the UK since 2006, and the 50 aircraft herehave been limited to a maximum take off weight of 450Kg.The next generation MTOsport was permitted at 500KgMTOW, and as RotorSport always takes care of customers,we committed to increase the take off weight of the MT-03 tomatch the sport model. We are very pleased to have met thiscommitment. This means a payload increase of 50Kg, so anaverage useful total payload of over 240Kg. There isn't muchto beat that!

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more leTTerS

Supplied, all over the British Isles in Bulk and Drums and around the World in ISO Tanks (23,000 litre stainless Steel) and Drums (200 litre, Mild Steel Epoxy Lined)

Speedy delivery service Competitive prices Quality assurance

We operate a Quality Management System, which complies with the requirements of BS EN ISO 9001:2000in the Procurement, Importation, Storage and Distribution of Aviation Fuels.

We are DCL registered (Defense Contractors List) and we have recently been awarded, with a further twoyear contract to supply the Ministry of Defense with Aviation Fuels, until 30 September 2010.

For more information call Damian at: 020 8440 0505 or E Mail: [email protected]

242-248 High Street, Barnet, Hertfordshire EN5 5TDTTelephone: +44 (0)20 8440 0505: TELEFAX : +44 (0)20 8440 6444Email:[email protected] www.cymapetroleum.co.uk

JET JET A1A1 AAVGAS 100LLVGAS 100LL

AndreasAdvert 14/5/09 15:34 Page 1Norman Surplus

about to leave on a

RTW journey

To The ediTor

Norman in his

RotorSport

This modification has also been incorporated in G-YROX, the aircraft now en route for the first gyroplaneever to fly around the world. RotorSport UK Ltd is veryproud to be supporting Norman Surplus in this intrepidadventure, and have spent considerable resources prepar-ing the RotorSport MT-03 (serial no 005) with the CAAapproved changes required for such a venture - forinstance, an 80ltr auxiliary fuel tank for en-route refu-elling, giving the aircraft a fuel capacity of up to 150ltrs,and a range up to 8 hours, or around 550miles.We wish Norman all the best on his journey, and are sup-porting him as far as we can. Furthermore, all theAutoGyro teams around the world plan to support himtoo. The venture can be followed via his websitewww.gyroxgoesglobal.com. Some photos from hisdeparture from RotorSport earlier this week are included,with Gerry Speich and Norman Surplus shaking hands.

Regards to all,Gerry Speich


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TeChnoloGy

new

Further testing with the OPOC

(opposite piston opposite cylinder) engine

major problems when working with two-stroke design:emission control.

The OPOC engine optimises its scavenging over theentire engine range through the use of uniflow scavengingcontrolled boost pressure, pulse turbocharging and asym-metric intake and exhaust timing . An electrically-assistedturbocharger (both exhaust gas driven and electricallydriven) allows the boost pressure to be independent ofthe engine operation. Thus, high pressure boost is avail-able for acceleration at low engine loads and low rpmwithout any associated mechanical drag. The reduction ofemissions are thought to be impossible without tur-bocharging.

One of the advantages of the OPOC engine is that itwas made to run on a variety of different fuels, thusEurocopter is looking at using diesel, but in the future itmay also be possible to run the engine on alternative fuelsmade from algae or from ‘rubbish’ materials.

Other advantages over conventional four stroke enginesinclude the smaller size and weight, for the amount ofpower produced. There are fewer moving parts, whichmeans lower vibration and noise production, and cheapermanufacturing and maintenance costs.

Engines currently being tested include the 40 hp enginefor air vehicles, which has a projected weight of 40 lbs,and the 325 hp engine (which can be coupled with aclutch to achieve 650 hp) tested by an engine developer inan unmanned military helicopter. The weight of thisengine is around 450 lbs and it is 15 x 35 x 41 inches.

At HAI Heli-Expo 2010 in Houston TexasEurocopter displayed a new compact, highefficiency, high compression two-stroke

engine called the OPOC (Opposite Piston OppositeCylinder). This is in line with Eurocopter’s project tofly with a light single-engine helicopter powered by adiesel engine. The objective is to reach a power-to-weight ratio capable of challenging the advantages ofa classic turbine, with the OPOC engine being one ofthe top options currently under evaluation.

This engine concept has been around for years, butwas never fully developed. The OPOC engine com-bines two engine designs pre-dating World War II: anopposed-piston, two-crankshaft diesel aircraft enginedeveloped by Hugo Junkers and the opposed-cylinderboxer engine developed by Ferdinand Porsche.

Unlike a four cylinder engine the two stroke enginehas only two linear movements of the piston, insteadof four, however it still has the same four elements ofthe cycle: intake, compression, power and exhaust. Asthere are no camshafts or valves in this design, thecrankshaft controls the position of the pistons to openthe exhaust port before the intake port and close theexhaust port before the intake port. This two strokeprocess, called scavenging, clears the cylinder ofexhaust gases and fills it with a fresh mixture of airand fuel. However, it is the most difficult part of thetwo stroke engine and managing the combustion con-trol and cylinder scavenging has led to one of the


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Kyrgyzstan’s Golden Future

by Sophie ibbotSon, max lovell-hoare and michael pye

pictureS maximum expoSure

The little known, landlockedand mountainous Republic ofKyrgyzstan clings to existence

somewhat perilously. April 2010 sawa violent political revolution, the sec-ond in half a decade, and for a fewdays it seemed that the state and itspeople were poised to destroy oneanother. America, Russia and Chinamaintain a pseudo-imperial interestin both Kyrgyzstan’s economy andpolitics, and the ever-shifting slopesof the Pamir and Tien Shan mountainranges make the development ofagriculture and transport infrastruc-ture a challenge.

As one might expect for a countrywhich may be only a few hundredmiles long but, if rolled flat, wouldoccupy a space larger than mainlandChina, helicopters are a key means

of conveyance within the country.The legacy of decades of under-investment and government corrup-tion is that the roads rarely reach towhere you need to go, and those thatare in place have been ravaged byextreme weather conditions, rockfalls, over use and neglect. In theirplace, twisting amongst the vast,snow-capped peaks, are 70+ locally-owned helicopters, deployed byeveryone from the Kyrgyz armedforces, heli-ski tour companies andthe Aga Khan Foundation, toPresidents and other governmentofficials needing to escape fromangry citizens at speed.

One of the more unusual (and eco-nomically important) uses of the hel-icopters within the country is that bythose in the gold mining sector.

Unlike its Central Asian neighbours,the Kyrgyz Republic lacks the largeand accessible oil and gas reservesthat would bring it easy wealth.However, to the south and south eastof the country are significant quanti-ties of gold, coal, uranium and anti-mony. The former in particular hascaught investors’ eye and made surethat the banks of Switzerland are thegreatest buyers of Kyrgyzstan’sexports.

Kumtor is the largest gold mine inCentral Asia to be operated by aWestern company, and, at over4000m above sea level, it also hap-pens to be the second highest goldmine in the world. Only theYanacocha mine in northern Peru isat a higher altitude. Kumtor is inIssyk-Kul, an isolated province of


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the south-east near to the Kyrgyz-Chinese border. By road,the 400km journey from Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan’s capital city,takes a minimum of nine hours. Snow fall, rock slides andtraffic accidents regularly make it impassable. It will there-fore come as no surprise that Centerra Gold, the Canadiancompany that operates the Kumtor mine, has purchased aMi-17 helicopter to ferry staff and supplies betweenBishkek and isolated pit sites.

The Russian manufactured Mi-17 is a modified versionof the Mi-8 helicopter and, just like the Mi-8, it is alsoknown by its NATO call sign as ‘Hip’. In the Russian mili-tary this helicopter is referred to as the Mi-8MT. The modi-fications make the Mi-17 more suitable for transport useand they include a strengthened fuselage and more power-ful engines: the Mi-17 has a 1545 KW engine as opposedto the Mi-8’s 1454 KW one. The Mi-17 is manufactured atthe Mil helicopter plant in Moscow and also under licensein China.

The Mi-17 is suitable for use at the Kumtor mine for anumber of reasons. It has a large passenger capacity – 32persons – and a maximum take-off weight of 13,000kg. Itcan therefore be used to transport numerous combinationsof personnel, supplies and equipment that would otherwisehave to be moved laboriously by road. The helicopter’smaximum speed is 250 kmh, which has cut the journeytime between Bishkek and the mine to around 60 minutes.The Mi-17 has a range of approximately 950km and so caneasily make the 600km round trip between sites without re-fuelling. The altitude of the mine clearly requires consider-ation, particularly as a number of neighbouring peaks are in

manas International Airport, named after the

traditional hero manas who united the 40

tribes of Kyrgyz against the Khitans

Inset: Russian and Kyrgyz flags. The forty ray

sun on the Kyrgyz flag symbolises the 40 tribes

mil m8mTV is

used for heavy

lifting work


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excess of 7000m. The Mi-17 has an operational ceiling of6000m above sea level, giving ample room for maneuver.

Because of its limited number of flight paths,Centerra’s helicopter has little problem in finding landingplaces. A heli-pad has been constructed at Kumtor’sopen-pit site in Issyk Kul province and, when flying in toor out of Bishkek, the helicopter is able to land at ManasInternational Airport. Located 40km from the city centre,Manas is used both as a civilian airport and as the USmilitary’s supply base for operations in Afghanistan. TheUS government pays $60 million in rent for the baseannually, and has also committed a further $117 million

for development projects, including the ongoingimprovement of the airport.

The Mi-17 has a reasonably strong safety record,which Centerra considers to be among its greateststrengths. Not only does it transport some of the compa-ny’s most valuable human assets – its highly trained for-eign contractors – but the helicopter is also used to movecontroversial chemicals used in the gold extractionprocess. In 1998 Kumtor was at the centre of an environ-mental and diplomatic fiasco when a truck carrying1762kg of sodium cyanide (a chemical used to dissolvegold from granulated ore) fell into the Barskaun River en

Tien Shan mountains

which straddle the

border between China

and Kyrgyzstan

Agricultural land near Osh,

the second largest city in

Kyrgyzstan, and located in the

Fergana Valley near the

Uzbekistan border

A miner showing his

prized possession:

gold teeth

route to the mine. Cyanide salts are among the most rapidly act-ing of all known poisons and the disaster led several people deadand many more injured. Environmentalists and government offi-cials alike questioned Kumtor’s ongoing operation inKyrgyzstan, and the debate continues to flare up whenever it ispolitically expedient. Centerra is understandably keen to avoidsuch an event arising in the future.

Gold mining is central to Kyrgyzstan’s economy. Kumtor’soutput alone contributes between 6% and 10% of the country’sGDP each year, and the mine’s gold accounts for almost 20% of

national exports. As Centerra and its competitorsexpand across the country and further exploitKyrgyzstan’s mineral reserves, helicopters willbe an increasingly valuable tool in ensuring thatpersonnel, supplies and equipment can be movedsafely and efficiently between sites. So long asthe political situation is unstable and the widereconomy depressed, ground transport infrastruc-ture will continue to be inadequate to meet thedemands of the gold mining sector. Helicoptersprovide, and will continue to provide, the essen-tial transport link that makes gold explorationand extraction a viable business proposition inCentral Asia.

The inhospitable land-

scape has few places to

land the mi-17


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Searching for a Mystery Helicopter Pilot Ken Smith asks for help in trying to locate

a female helicopter pilot he met in the 1960s or any information about her

In 1967, Ken Smith, was a flight engineer on the Navy P3Orion, stationed at Brunswick Maine. One day, while hewas painting the boats, a woman with two small girls

came into the boat yard. The adults got talking, while the lit-tle girls watched him paint.

The three of them continued to visit throughout the sum-mer and at the end of the summer Ken was given their addressin London and told to ‘stop by’ if he was ever in the area.

He remembers that the little girls wore dresses and that allthree of them came through the fence from the ‘posher’ sideof the town.

A few months later Ken was on R&R and had the chanceto take a flight to London from Rota in Spain. He decided totry and contact the family while he was in London.

Telephone systems being somewhat different in the 1960sKen was able to phone the operator and ask for the woman’sphone number. The operator told him it was the Duke ofEdinburgh’s house, and he later discovered that they wererenting the house from The Duke.

Ken and a friend visited the family while they were itLondon. It was during their conversations on these visits thatthe mother mentioned she was the first licenced female heli-copter pilot. He understood her to be the first licenced femalehelicopter pilot in the US, but as she also said her husbandwas Swedish and worked for Time Life, it could have been aEuropean licence. He remembers that all the servants wereSwedish.

Ken says: “I have been googling London looking for thepub that my friend and I went to that day, which was near theresidence. All I remember of the residence is a servant lettingus through a large metal gate and the interior was all marble.I remember she was drinking straight ‘Scotch’ and had abeautiful Persian cat. The building was the typical grey stone,like the older buildings. I don't know why but I feel it wasnear St. James, and Piccadilly Circus also rings a bell.”

Ken has talked to various aviation historians, including onewhose speciality is female pilots and has still drawn a blank,but he is very anxious to trace the woman or, if she hasalready died, her children.

Can anyone help?If you have any information please contact Ken via

Helicopter Life.

Ken Smith in 1975

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RD

Organised by:

www.helitecheurope.com

Providing the Southern Europeanhelicopter community with a dedicated

face to face networking platformfor industry professionals to

meet and do business

Book your space today>>

For more information

please contact Brandon Ward

+44 (0)20 8439 8853 T

brandon.ward�reedexpo.co.uk E

Texas rides to

The 2010 HAI HeliExpo Houston Texas

Words by Helicopter Life staff

photographs, Alan Norris, Ian Turner and

Georgina Hunter-Jones

the Challenge

HAI HeliExpo 2010 was held in Houston. Themood at the show was much more upbeat thanlast year, even though the civilian business mar-

ket is still in the doldrums. Some helicopter markets,however, have not been damaged by the recession, prin-cipally the military market, which is booming thanks tothe many conflicts across the globe. Police and EMSmarkets have also kept their strength, while a few utility

operators spoke of their hope for the resurgence of theheavy lifting market, and Erickson AirCrane, which hasstarted a recovery section for disaster areas, spoke ofsome growth in that area. There were a few ‘new heli-copter’ announcements from the manufacturers butinevitably, given the length of time it takes to certify ahelicopter, none were completely new: Bell, for example,was promoting the Bell 429 which flew in Anaheim and

Paris last year and gained EASA certi-fication last October, Agusta show-cased the Grand New, a Grand with anew avionics and instrument package,and Eurocopter continued its promo-tion of the middle range EC175,which had its first flight lastDecember. Sikorsky is finally flyingthe S76D prototype, which was firstannounced in 2005. Frank Robinson’sR66 is now on its third prototype andwill be, he says, in production soon.There was also an emphasis on alter-native fuels and green technology, ledby the major operators such asEurocopter’s Bluecopter andSikorsky’s Sikorsky Innovations.

Robinson

The Robinson R66 is probably oneof the most awaited helicopters of alltime. It is the stretch version of theR44, with a turbine engine, the RR-300, specially made for Robinson byRolls-Royce. Frank Robinson flew ithimself last month and said, “Thetransition from the R44 into this isextremely easy. The start-up proce-dure is really simple and once you getunder way, except for the fact that youare a little smoother and faster, youfeel like you are in an R44.”

Robinson has set an initial price of$770,000. Standard equipmentincludes leather seats, high definitionlanding lights and a stereo audio con-trol panel. Robinson is particularlyproud of the large baggage compart-

26

The Agusta GrandNew

inauguration

ment, big enough to carry golf clubsand a suitcase or two.

The company has released pre-liminary performance figures: pay-load with full fuel (73.6 USGallons) 927 lbs; cruise speed 120knots; range 325 nm, maximumoperating altitude 14,000 feet withhover OGE and IGE over 10,000feet. Depending on temperature andaltitude you can expect a climb rateof 1000 fpm.

Robinson said, “we are doing ourbest to finish everything, but every-thing has to be right, however longit takes.” He said they are close tocertification, and as soon as it haspassed the FAA it will go into fullproduction. Orders are alreadycoming in and Robinson envisagesbuilding two R66s a week, andmoving up production from there.Operational costs, he said, will besimilar to the R44, although theR66 will use “considerably morefuel”.

Bell Helicopters

Bell Helicopters CEO, JohnGarrison, said he did not expect arevival in the civil business-heli-copter market until 2012, andacknowledged that only 50 of the300 letters of intent for the Bell 429had actually transmuted into firmorders. However, two Bell 429swere delivered last year, and Bell isincreasing production to 25 this


year and 50 in 2011, in time for thepredicted improvement in 2012. The429 has a new revised maintenancemanual which has reduced the num-ber of lifed parts from 87 to 43,which, as Garrison pointed out, willsubstantially reduce costs.

While Garrison would not com-ment on Bell’s attitude to the AW609Tiltrotor programme in combinationwith AgustaWestland, he did say that,“The 609 continues to be developed.”

Bell’s workforce was out on strikefor six weeks over the summer atHurst, the Texas plant, but Garrison’scomment was that in spite of thestrike Bell “had the best productivityyear we have ever had on severalmodels.”

He added that Bell accounted for27% of parent company Textron’srevenues and, in spite of Textron’swell-publicized financial difficultiesit will continue to invest in Bell. Bell

Pilas (Pilot

Assistance System)

GrandNew avionics

27

Blucopter engine-

see New Technology

page 16


had a turnover of $2.8 billion last year, of which 43% wasin the civil sector, amounting to $672 million.

Last year Bell announced that they were discontinuingproduction of the Bell 206B JetRanger, but this yearGarrison insisted that Bell will continue support of these‘legacy’ helicopters, in combination with the Rolls-Roycecompany. Rolls-Royce will also develop RR500TS STCretrofit kits, which will replace the RR250 engines thatcurrently power the Bell 206 range. The RR500TS hasmore take-off power and better hot and high perform-ance. FAA type certification is expected next year.

Bell Helicopter’s XworX advanced projects arm isdeveloping a computerized fly-by-wire control systemthat could make manoeuvring the helicopter at night or inbrown out conditions more precise. Nick Lappos, seniorVP said, “NVGs are not the total solution to the visualcuing problem… there still needs to be an interface to theaircraft controls.”

Eurocopter

Eurocopter was focusing mainly on new technologywith two new systems: Blue Edge and Blue Pulse, both

part of their overall green strategy known as Bluecopter.Blue Edge features a re-designed main rotor blade.

The ‘double-swept’ shape of the blade (angled around45 degrees to the main span) reduces the noise generat-ed by blade-vortex interactions, known as BVI.Eurocopter has been using the EC155 as a testbed andthe five-blade Blue Edge main rotor has logged 75hours in service, giving a noise reduction of betweenthree and four decibels. The company are ready to dofurther tests. Eurocopter VP, Yves Favennec, said thatBlue Edge is designed to reduce noise but not vibration.“It is optimized to a fixed angle of descent,” which isless expensive to maintain than more active systems.

Blue Pulse is an active system that uses a ‘piezo-active’ rotor control system modified by Eurocopter toreduce vibration in the airframe, and hence increasepassenger comfort and extend the life of components.

Blue Pulse works by using three flaps on the trailingedge of each rotor blade. Piezoelectric actuators movethe rotor flaps 15 to 40 times per second in order toneutralize the ‘slap’ blade sound. Tests have been car-ried out on an EC145 and have produced noise reduc-

BluecopterEurocopter

EC175

Blue pulse blade

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tions of five decibels. This reducesboth noise and vibration and it cantake the place of other Eurocopteranti-vibration systems, preventing aweight increase.

Eurocopter are also looking atfuture avionics and have produced aPILAS system (Pilot AssistanceSystem) that provides virtual syn-thetic vision. On the artificial hori-zon, for example, instead of a linefor the ground, the actual outline ofthe terrain is displayed in relation tothe helicopter, giving a more realis-tic appreciation of the pitfalls ahead.

The aim, with this system, is toget the helicopter ‘thinking like apilot’ using a satellite-based track-ing and message system such asOuter Link, to allow the system tocalculate a route taking into accountobstacles and terrain, weather andtraffic, by using a database.Eurocopter have tested the systemon an EC145 and flown 30 hourssince 2008. Stefan Maisch, projectmanager, said the system could becertified within five years.

Eurocopter is also developing anew compact, high-compression,two-stroke engine called the OPOC(opposite piston opposite cylinder)as part of its efforts to develop anew single engine helicopter with adiesel engine that uses 40% less fuel

2828

For the future, Tilton noted that MDis on track to receive certification for aglass cockpit for the MD 500 in April.It is also moving much of its manufac-turing in-house including bringing theconstruction of the MD 902 fuselage toMesa, Arizona from Turkey. MD hascompleted sales to several foreign gov-ernments and is in discussion with thedefence departments of several Asiannations.

Tilton said, “MD has some incredi-ble programs for 2010. We have agood order book for this year.”

AgustaWestland

Accompanied by lights and musicAgusta unwrapped its AW109 GrandNew, which has already had certifica-tion from EASA. FAA approval is

and with the possibility of usingalternative fuel when this becomesavailable. Testing continues.

The EC175 medium twin firstprototype is now undergoing tests atthe Eurocopter headquarter inMarignane, France. The companyexpect to make several slightchanges including the position ofthe horizontal fin. The EC175 ispowered by Pratt and WitneyCanada PT6C-67E engines, eachsupplying 1,775 shp each. It has acrew of two and can carry sixteenpassengers. It will have a cruisespeed of around 140 knots and arange of 270 nm.

macDonald Douglas

“Those who need, buy.” SimonOliphant-Hope, British MD dealer,summed up the mood of the reces-sion when he said, “we are now sell-ing almost exclusively to peoplewho need helicopters: the police,EMS operators, powerline andpipeline patrols. VIP and Corporateonly buy a helicopter if they have togo from point A to point B.”

Although MD had a difficult yearin 2009, with unpaid suppliers andrumours of bankruptcy, CEO LynnTilton, supported by a new manage-ment team, said they were now“back on track”.

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R66 arriving at

Houston

Photo Ian Turner

As usual the

Robinson

booth drew the

greatest crowd

R66 engine the

Rolls-Royce

RR300

Bell Helicopters

booth with the Bell

429 on display

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Sikorsky S64

Photograph Alan Norris

expected shortly. The Grand New uses the same Pratt &Witney Canada PW207C turbine as the Grand.

The major differences between the Grand and theGrand New are the avionics. The New has the ThalesTopDeck all-digital cockpit, and includes Chelton’sFlightLogic synthetic vision EFIS with highway in the skydisplay, flight management system, and helicopter terrainawareness warning system.

The Grand New also has HUMS and a helicopter emer-gency exit lighting system. The max gross weight hasbeen slightly increased to 7,000 lbs and the Grand Newcan hover at 14,500 feet.

Last year, Agusta bought PzL Swidnik to expand itspresence in Europe. This year, the company has signed anagreement with Tata for AW119 Koala production inIndia. Like many other helicopter companiesAgustaWestland sees the potential of the Indian marketwith its poor infrastructure, large population and currentlysmall helicopter numbers.

CEO Giuseppe Orsi spoke of Agusta’s achievements in2009 including four first flights, which he thought was arecord: the T129, a new variant of the AW101, the AW159and the AW149.

The major disruption in the Agusta family was the ter-mination of the VH-71 (AW101) Presidential helicopterprogramme. AgustaWestland and Lockheed Martin havedelivered several helicopters in various states of comple-tion and still believe that theirs is the best helicopter forthe purpose. Orsi said: “Based on our analysis of therequest for information released by the US Navy last weekit is still the best answer, if not the only answer.”

Sikorsky

Jeff Pino, President of Sikorsky, said that asa result ofthe $6.3 billion revenues last year Sikorsky has been

divided into three separate companies: Sikorsky GlobalHelicopters which will command $1.1 billion andinclude all FAA certified helicopters; Sikorsky MilitarySystems, which will have $3.2 billion and SikorskyAerospace Services with $2.0 billion. There will also bethe subsidiary companies including PzL Mielec inPoland and Sikorsky Innovations for the new inven-tions and testing.

Pino said it had been a good year for Sikorskyalthough 75% of the sales had been military, and henoted that the civilian market in both domestic andinternational spheres had been very complicated.

The S76D was now doing flight trials. Although theS76D looks very similar to the S76C++ it has a brandnew Pratt & Witney PW210S 1000 shp engine and newblades. Testing is being done at Keystone and the firstdeliveries will take place in Summer 2011. The S76Dwill have the same Thales TopDeck avionics systemused in the Grand New.

30 helicopter LIFE, Summer 201030

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The Sikorsky S92 has had a goodyear, including being chosen as thehelicopter platform by Soteria, thewinners of the United KingdomSAR-H contract, a programme of £6billion over 25 years, starting in2012. Soteria is a consortium thatincludes CHC, who already use theS92 for SAR in parts of the UK.

Sikorsky Innovations has a budg-et of $1 billion over the next 10years for research and development.SI is currently working on the X-2coaxial helicopter. Jeff Pino said thatthe X-2 would be back in flight inMarch at their West Palm Beachfacility, and that it had alreadyreached 100 knots in flight tests.Sikorsky envisages a vehicle thatallows for pilot choice. Calling thesystem Actualisation and Adaptive,Pino explained that the X-2 wouldhave one system and be able to beflown either with or without a pilot,adaptable by the use of one switch.They are also looking at intelligentpiloting, so the helicopter will beable to advise the pilot on the bestway and place to fly.

On the subject of the PresidentialHelicopter Pino said that the VH-3

and UH-60s are still maintained andit would be a natural progression forSikorsky to continue supporting thePresident of the United States, asthey have been doing for the lastsixty years.

Sikorsky also has a contract torevamp the S-61. The company planto purchase up to 110 S61 Ns and Tsand upgrade them in combinationwith Carson Helicopters. The newS61s will have an increased ballistictolerance, composite main rotorblades, and a glass cockpit. The firstflight is expected before the end ofthe year.

Enstrom

Enstrom only sold five helicop-ters last year and was forced to layoff more than half of its work force,but is much more hopeful this year,thanks to new opportunities in Asia.Doug Smith, Director of QualityAssurance, said that the company isfinalising an order for sixteen 480Bsfor the Royal Thai Army, and couldbe selling up to 30 480Bs to theJapan Self Defence Force. TheJapanese are currently testing onehelicopter, and if that is successful

the purchase could run through to2014. The 480B currently costs$995,000 for a basic machine.

Presidential VXX Helicopter

The US Navy last week issued acomprehensive 27 page request forinformation (RFI) for the next VXXPresidential Helicopter, followingthe termination of the VH-71 heli-copter programme by the Pentagonlast year on the grounds of cost.Although the President continues touse the Sikorsky Helicopters theseare said to be ageing and in need ofreplacement, but at a considerablyreduced budget. Responding partieshave until March 3rd to submit a let-ter of interest and until April 19th tosubmit their final responses to theNaval Air Systems Command.

BAE continue to grow their use ofQ-sights in the civilian arena. Theyhave a very steady military follow-ing and hope to add more civilians.

Warthog Aviation has been grow-ing in strength and is involved inmany new projects in the Far East.

Erickson Air Crane were alsostressing their improvements to the

The Bell 429 is

doing well in India

helicopter LIFE, Summer2010

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This always

looks easy when

airlines do it...

BAE Systems Q-

sights used with a

military helmet

S64 in three fields: Composite Blade Program, withAdvanced Technologies Incorporated, which will facili-tate the development and production of compositeblades: Vacuum Lift Technology: technology thatallows more efficient and swift transportation of largepipelines and various types of support equipment suchas Conex or ISO Containers Water Usage TrackingSystem: EAC is integrating Absolute Fire SolutionsFASTTrack to provide advanced data recording andtransmission for quantities of water, foam mix or retar-dant deliveries and locations during firefighting opera-tions worldwide

The focus of the 2010 HeliExpo was both new andlong term: developing for the future, either in terms ofspeed and height, or in ways of powering helicopters byusing alternative fuel. The excesses of the early 21stcentury had been left behind and the new emphasis wason lean machines designed for workers, not players. Itwill be interesting to see how this vision develops overthe coming years.

I had one small complaint about HeliExpo Houston:according to the HAI website press would be allowed togo into the show area one hour before the show started.However, every morning I had to argue with the securi-ty people to allow me in. Eventually, bejewelled with anelegant rubber band I was allowed in, but why wasn’tthe press pass enough, as per the website?

Great big bug?

Schweizer

300CBi in

downtown

Houston

Blades of

32

Portugal

Flying with the Rotores

Portugese by

Menso van Westrheueu

Pictures courtesy of Menso van Westrheueu 33

Summer2010

PhotograPhMensovanWestreueu

The Rotores de Portugal(Blades of Portugal) aerobat-ic display team is among the

lesser known aerobatic teams inEurope. Formed in April 1976 byorder of the Air Force Chief ofStaff, the team made its debut dur-ing an air show at Sintra. At thattime it formed part of Esquadra 33at Tancos airbase and flew fourstandard SE3160 Alouette 3 heli-copters for their display routine. For

operational and budgetary reasonsthey were disbanded in October1980, but reformed again only twoyears later with a two-ship displayas part of Esquadra 552. In 1991 theteam moved to Esquadra 111 (stillat Tancos) made up of instructorpilots, but after two seasons theystopped performing when theirsquadron was disbanded. After anabsence of over ten years Rotoresde Portugal was reactivated in 2005

as part of Esquadra 552 at Beja, stillflying the venerable Alouette 3.

Esquadra 552 operates a dozenAlouettes. A few of those still sporta standard brown-green camouflage,while most (about eight) have thesame camouflage scheme but withRotores de Portugal stickersapplied. These decorations canquickly be removed when a helicop-ter is needed for operational use.

Apart from displaying to the pub-


To apply for Rotores de Portugal

pilots meed a minimum of 800 -

1000 hours flying on the Alouette


lic, the Alouettes also fulfil a variety of roles includingrotary flying training, supporting army and navy troops,search and rescue and occasional fire fighting.

After completing the basic training course pilots con-tinue to fly on another helicopter types (such as theEH101 Merlin) or they stay with the squadron and fol-low the advanced training course becoming operationalAlouette pilots. It will take further time for them tobecome instructor pilots.

Major Candeias explains: “Training flights with theAlouette often take place close to the ground andinstructors have to know the helicopter’s limits by heartto avoid accidents. Therefore we do not have ‘young’instructor pilots like some other air forces. After logging

some 700 hours on the Alouette pilots start to trainsome manoeuvres of Rotores, even if they are not (yet)selected for the team. That way they learn perfectly howto handle the helicopter and they don’t have to learn allthe manoeuvres for the first time when they enter theteam. Only after 800 hours flying can a pilot become aninstructor.”

That is also about the moment at which they canapply for Rotores de Portugal, which requires a mini-mum of 800 to 1000 hours on the Alouette. It still takesanother fifty training flights, starting solo and workingup to a three-ship formation, to learn to execute all themanoeuvres safely.

Rotores de Portugal is run by fifteen military volun-

It takes fifty training

hours to learn to

exectue all the

manoeuvres safely


After logging 700

hours on the Alouette

the pilot starts to train

for the team

instructors have to

know the helicopters

limits by heart

Rotores de Portugal is

run by fifteen military

volunteersmarshalling

Pre-flight

check

The team deploys

four alouettes to dis-

plays with one spare


teers, spending their spare time with the team. They takepride in representing the Portuguese Air Force at airshows and other events, mainly in Portugal and Spain.The team’s objectives include creating awareness amongthe public of the expertise, professionalism and disci-pline in the Portuguese Air Force, contributing to betterrecognition and public appreciation of the armed forces,acting as a recruitment platform and representing the airforce at manifestations and air shows of regional, nation-al and international importance.

Rotores de Portugal is led by Major Carlos ‘Stout’Candeias, who has logged over 3,000 flight hours on theAlouette 3, many during operations in East Timor before2002. He is the first ‘spare pilot’, and normally leads theteam from the ground.

The ‘Leader in flight’ is Captain Mário ‘Speed’

Marcão with Captain Pedro ‘Mikoli’ Ferreira on his leftand Lieutenant Paulo ‘Trinitá’ Melo on his right. Aground force of nine maintenance crews (techniciansand mechanics) make sure the helicopters are ready tofly at every location.

The team normally deploys four Alouettes to a dis-play location, with one acting as a spare.

Demonstrations are preceded by a 30 minute famil-iarization and training flight. The display itself takes 17minutes (excluding take off, landing and waiting time)and includes several formations and manoeuvres suchas the stall turn, mirror, rising spiral and carousel.During a display each Alouette burns some 600 litres ofjet fuel (F-34) and another 50 litres of diesel (F-54) forthe smoke pods. Two different display profiles areavailable, one over land and the other for displays over

The display takes

seventeen minutes

During the display

each alouette burns

600 litres of jet fuel

The display

includes formation

stall turns, mir-

rors, rising spirals

and carousels

In 2010

Rotores de

Portugal enters

its fifth decade

of flying the

Alouette in front

of the public,

after having

performed in

the 70’s, 80’s,

90’s and 00’s.

major Candeias

is optimistic

about the future.

He says, “We

would like to

display again

with four heli-

copters, painted

in the same

colour as the

helmet that we

are currently

using, but we

are limited by

the budget and

support that we

get from our

headquarters.”


water. The latter differs slightly in terms of manoeuvresand display altitude due to the lack of reference points.

In 2010, Rotores de Portugal enters its fifth decade offlying the Alouette in front of the public, having per-formed in the 70’s, 80’s, 90’s and 2000’s. MajorCandeias is optimistic about the future: “We would liketo display again with four helicopters, painted in thesame colour as the helmet that we are currently using,but we are limited by the budget and the support that weget from our headquarters. After that, we would like tovisit more European air shows, but looking at the flightrange we are mainly limited to our neighbouring coun-tries Spain and France. For instance, a flight to theUnited Kingdom is impossible for us because it willtake too much time away from our normal operationsand training courses. Being airlifted by C-130 is a possi-bility but will cost a lot of effort. Imagine the fact thatfive of our Alouettes have to be dismantled, airlifted,

rebuilt again, test flown at the display location and afterthe show the same procedure has to be repeated. Aweekend with two displays of only 17 minutes eachwould take a full week of preparations.

However, if a country offers us aerial transport to andfrom the air show, we are always happy to consider it,”he concludes with a laugh.

The Portuguese Air Force is due to retire the Alouettewithin a few years, probably replacing it with theAgustaWestland AW109 or Eurocopter EC120 Colibri.Only future will tell if the Rotores de Portugal continueto exist after the transition.

The author would like to thank all the members of the

Rotores de Portugal display team and the rest of

Esquadra 552 personnel. The author would especially

like to thank Lieutenant Elisabete ‘BETA’ Gomes for

being such a great host during our three day visit.

Obrigado!

A team of nine maintenance

crews (technicians and

mechanics) make sure the hel-

icopters are ready to fly at

every location.

Rotores de Portugal is led by major Carlos ‘Stout’ Candeias,

leader in flight is Captain mário ‘Speed’ marcão with Captain Pedro

‘mikoli’ Ferreira left and Lieutenant Paulo ‘Trinitá’ melo right.


DARPA (Defense Advanced Research ProjectsAgency) of the Pentagon is just months away fromproducing a jet fuel from algae. DARPA claim that

production will start in 2013.While this cheap, low-carbon fuel would originally be

for the US military, incidentally the single largest con-sumer of energy, there would also be applications for civil-ian flying world-wide.

Darpa's research projects have already extracted oil fromalgal ponds at a cost of $2 per gallon. It is now on track tobegin large-scale refining of that oil into jet fuel. BarbaraMcQuiston, special assistant for energy at Darpa says thatwill be at a cost of less than $3 a gallon.

The work is part of a broader Pentagon effort to reducethe military's oil usage, which runs at between 60 and 75million barrels of oil pa. Much of that is used to keep theUS Air Force in flight. Commercial airlines have also beenlooking at the viability of an algae-based jet fuel, as has theChinese government.

McQuiston said. “Oil from algae is projected at $2 pergallon, headed towards $1 per gallon.”

She added that a larger-scale refining operation, produc-ing 50 million gallons pa, would start in 2011 and she washopeful the costs would drop still further .The projects, runby private firms SAIC and General Atomics, expected toyield 1,000 gallons of oil per acre from the farm.

The possibilities have set off a scramble to discover thecheapest way of mass-producing an algae-based fuel.Even Exxon – which once dismissed biofuels as moon-shine – invested $600m in research last July.

Unlike corn-based ethanol, algae farms do not threatenfood supplies. Algae also draw carbon dioxide from theatmosphere when growing; when the derived fuel isburned, the same CO2 is released, making the fuel theoret-ically zero-carbon.

Earlier this year, the US Environmental ProtectionAgency (EPA) declared that algae-based diesel reducedgreenhouse gas emissions by more than 50% comparedwith conventional diesel. The Obama administrationawarded $80m for research with algae and biomass fuels.

For Darpa, the support for algae is part of a broader mis-sion for the US military to obtain half of its fuel fromrenewable energy sources by 2016. This means that thePentagon will need to make its hardware capable of run-ning on any energy source including methane andpropane.

The US Air Force wants its entire fleet of jet fightersand transport aircraft to test-fly a 50-50 blend of petrole-um-based fuel and other sources by next year. This is part-ly driven by cost, but is also due to military commandersin Afghanistan and Iraq who want a lighter, more fuel-effi-cient force less dependent on supply convoys vulnerable

Methods of using Alternative FuelsIncluding - USA’s DARPA looking at cheap jet fuel made from algae

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to attack from insurgents. McQuiston said. "InAfghanistan, if you were able to create jet fuel fromindigenous sources and rely on that, you'd not only beable to source energy for the military, but you'd also beable to leave behind an infrastructure that would be moresustainable."

McQuiston said the agency was also looking at how tomake dramatic improvements in the photo-voltaic cellsthat collect solar energy. She said making PV 50% moreefficient would create a future when even the smallestdevices, such as mobile phones, would be powered bytheir own solar cells.

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, the USA’slargest aviation college, is phasing in lead-free renewablefuel in its training aircraft. The university has gone intopartnership with Swift Enterprises, developer of a biofu-el tested by the FAA’s Technical Center.

“We believe this effort by Embry-Riddle and Swiftwill guide the way to a large-scale switch by the generalaviation industry to alternative fuels,” said Richard‘Pat’Anderson, the Associate Professor of AerospaceEngineering and chief investigator in the research proj-ect. He also told me he could not see any reason why thesame fuel should not be used in piston engine helicopters.

Engineers in the Eagle Flight Research Center, a labo-ratory in the College of Engineering at Embry-Riddle’sDaytona Beach, Florida campus, are performing the cer-tification tests needed to enable more than 40 Cessna172s, nearly half of the university’s fleet of aircraft, touse Swift fuel.

Professor Anderson says that Embry-Riddle will bethe first large aviation organization to move to unleaded,renewable aviation fuel.

Embry-Riddle chose to partner with Swift Enterprisesbecause the company’s non-leaded fuel has passed theFAA’s detonation test and gets more miles per gallonthan current aviation fuel. The fuel can be synthesizedfrom sorghum, a renewable biomass source.

Teledyne Continental motors (TCm)

Continental engine is looking at a diesel engine.Currently it has its hopes set on a piston-engine that burnsJet A1. The engine is a 230-HP four-cylinder, four-cycledesign which can be upgraded to a six-cylinder versionwith up to 350-HP, this power range fits TCM's productson the gasoline side. Certification of the four-cylinderengine is planned for 2011, according to TCM's JohnnyDoo, with the six in 2013.

TCM are also researching replacing 100LL avgas with94UL fuel. At the company's test center in Mobile,Alabama, TCM is running detonation tests on the 94UL.

TCM’s Chief Engineer , Bill Brogdon, said that 94UL isessentially 100LL without the tetraethyl lead added as anoctane enhancer. He explains that engines certified to oper-ate of 80/87 octane will have no trouble getting the sameamount of power with the 94UL as they do with 100LL.

Moreover, Continental claims that even its higherpower turbocharged large displacement, low-compressionratio engines will be able to use the lower octane fuel. Theproblem engines will be the higher compression variantsthat use 8.5 to 1 compression ratios. Brogdon said theseengines may tolerate a diet of 94UL by tweaking the tim-ing or developing affordable knock detection and variabletiming. Another option, he said, was to reduce compressionratio but increase displacement--re-engining with a IO-550to replace an IO-520, for instance.

Lycoming’s IE2 (Integrated Electronic) Engine

Lycoming has produced the IE2 Electrical engine inresponse to the potential decline in AvGas and the need forcleaner energy. It has been pointed out that Continental’sprevious attempt to market an electrical engine was notparticularly successful, but that now energy production andneeds are changing Lycoming might have a better eye tothe times. Explaining how the engine works the Lycomingwebsite says: The IE2 controls the engine electronically,making flying the plane less demanding by reducing pilotwork load while also continually and automatically opti-mizing engine performance.

The IE2 has been tested on a Lancair and was said to bein production by 2010. The company say there will besome exciting developments later in the year.

Subaru engine which

has had a variety of

aviation applications APU engine which

has been used to

power a Rotorway


HELICOPTER

MOUNTAIN RESCUE

The history of mountain rescue and the additional vital role played

by volunteers

by Leslie Symons


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Headlines such as ‘Helicopter rescue onSnowdon’, ‘Climbers rescued by helicopter’,‘Mobile phone saves three’ and ‘Mountain res-

cue team saves mother and child from cliff-face’ appearwith great frequency in the newspapers – with disturbingor reassuring frequency, according to one’s point of view.Few readers are likely to give much thought to the organ-isation and dedication of the rescue teams that lie behindthese rescues, and probably least of all to the volunteerpart-time members of local mountain rescue teams.

Rescuing mountain climbers has a history that datesback at least to the early ascents of Mont Blanc, on

which the first major climbing catastrophe occurred in1820, when eleven members of a large party ascendingthe mountain were swept into a large crevasse by an ava-lanche. Three of the victims were beyond help but theothers managed to climb out, or were pulled out by theothers. For many years rescues in the Alps remained onan ad hoc basis, but early in the twentieth century teamswere formed in a number of areas where climbing hadbecome a popular sport, such as Chamonix andGarmisch-Partenkirchen. A similar sequence followed inGreat Britain, with the Lake District leading the way.

Today, the UK has undoubtedly one of the best moun-

Photographs courtesy of Cairngorm Mountain Rescue team and

HMS Gannet SAR Flight

UNLIMITED


tain rescue services in the world – and it is entirely free!Whatever the cause, wherever it occurs, however long ittakes, however many helicopters and rescuers take part,whatever the weather and whatever the dangers (andsometimes casualties are incurred by the rescuers) there isno charge to the rescued. This subject will be returned tolater. First a summary of how it is organised.

The police play a dominant role and are officiallyresponsible for deciding whether or not to call for thehelp of a helicopter, including those of the fully trainedand equipped units of the Royal Air Force, the RoyalNavy and the Coastguard. Some police forces run theirown teams, and all work closely with the independentvolunteer rescue teams. In practice, a mountain rescueteam (MRT), particularly if already out on the hill, maybe able to request a helicopter directly from theAeronautical Rescue Coordinating Centre (ARCC) atKinloss, Morayshire. The deployment of a service heli-copter is subject to the overriding demands of air force ornaval requirements, but subject to availability, help tocivilians in distress is never refused.

Here it seems appropriate to describe an actual case, toshow how the air and ground services work in co-ordina-tion.

mRT lowers stretcher and

casualty down the cliff

face

Cairngorm rescue case

The Cairngorms are not high by Alpine standards buttheir almost arctic plateaus are bounded by wickedcliffs, with plenty of scope for advanced ice climbing inwinter, and high-grade rock climbing in summer. TheCairngorm Mountain Rescue Team, based at Aviemore,provides the ground-based search and rescue services forthe northern parts, and is supplemented when necessaryby other teams, including the RAF Mountain RescueTeams. The RAF teams were established to find aircraftthat had crashed in the hills, but the majority of theircallouts today are to rescue civilians. Air support is pro-vided by the RAF and the Royal Navy Search andRescue flight based at HMS Gannet, Prestwick, theCoastguard based at Stornoway, and by other units ifnecessary.

Visualise a cold and stormy New Year’s Eve whenmost people just want to be at home relaxing and cele-brating. Hogmanay is, however, also a time of highactivity in the mountains, and accidents are common. Inthis case a mobile phone call from a narrow ledge highon a Cairngorm climb led to the turning out of theCairngorm MRT and an RAF Sea King. The leader haddislodged a boulder on a partly frozen ice route, and ithad smashed into his second–who was also hisfather–and may also have caused a serious spinal injury.

The RAF Sea King flew into the corrie at 1545, butthe turbulent and gusty conditions made it impossiblefor it to hover close enough to the cliff to effect a rescue.Therefore the pilot flew down the valley and picked upthe rescue team members and their equipment and flewthem in, at considerable risk, and deposited them on theplateau above the climb. By 1600 the leader on theground had made contact with the stranded pair. It wasalready growing dark.

The easiest way to lift or lower a stretcher is vertical-ly, but in the case of spinal injury every effort must bemade to keep the casualty horizontal. The rope manage-ment of such injuries is complicated, and requires dou-ble the usual number of ropes. One strong climberabseiled down and confirmed the suspicion of a spinalinjury, and another followed. They made the man secureon the narrow ledge. When all was ready, another res-cuer went down with the stretcher, keeping it away fromthe wall to avoid dislodging more rocks. As the stretcherwas wafted about by the wind the three hacked awaywith their ice axes to make the ledge a little wider,which took another fifteen minutes. Then the loweringcommenced, with one rescuer clipped to the stretcherbetween it and the cliff to keep it away from the rock.This was the crux of the operation and extremely nerve-wracking for all. Members of an RAF MRT, also sum-moned to the spot to provide more manpower, lit flares


RAF Sea King in the

Cairngorms


mRT (mountain Rescue

Team) take a stretcher to

the Sea King

capabilities were far short of what was needed in theAlps. The alpine teams got their breakthrough with theAlouette III in the 1960s, which made possible even res-cues from the top of Mont Blanc (15,770 feet).

In 1963 RAF rescue helicopters in the UK were calledout eight times as frequently for civilians in trouble asthey were for military purposes:–348 occasions against45 (Air Historical Branch). The Royal Navy alsobecame busier as holidaymakers around the coastbecame more ambitious in their explorations of cliffsand caves. RAF and RN call-outs together soon topped athousand a year.

The RN specialises in marine rescues, and its helicop-ters often fly to the limit of their fuel reserves far outover the Atlantic, even in atrocious weather. However,even on sorties to vessels in distress or people needinghelp in some of the non-mountainous areas on the west-ern coasts and in the Hebrides, helicopters on mercymissions from HMS Gannet at Prestwick airport mustsometimes include mountains and hills in the hazardsthey have to face. This is especially so when flying lowalong the short-cut route via the Crinan Canal, in orderto reach the open sea as quickly as possible. Increasinglythey have been tasked to accidents inland, and they arenow as competent as the RAF at mountain rescue.Indeed they have become particularly familiar sightsover Ben Nevis, Glencoe and other western mountains.

The number of times the RAF and RN have beeninvolved in search and rescue missions has continued torise in recent years. Their helicopter call-outs in the UKtotalled 1756 in 2006, 1851 in 2007 and 1963 in 2008,supplemented by fixed-wing aircraft searches, whichnumbered 29 in 2008. In addition, RAF mountain rescueteams turned out 91 times. Many incidents result inmore than one unit being called out, and so each year

to light the operation. The son was lowered and thefather was carried down to safe ground. Unfortunately,when the helicopter pilot again tried to fly into the corriethe weather made it impossible. Hence the casualty hadto be carried all the way to the road where an ambulancewas waiting. It was 2345 before the teams stooddown–too late to join their families to greet the NewYear–so they made the best of it at their Inverdruie base.(Ref: J. Allen, Cairngorm John, Sandstone Press,Dingwall, 2009)

In Great Britain, volunteer rescue teams had beenformed well before the war by climbers working in col-laboration with police forces, but a development able tocope with all British mountains and hills came with aneed that the RAF faced: to trace and rescue or recoverthe bodies of crews when airmen had the misfortune tocrash into high land owing to the rudimentary nature ofnavigation equipment, or to engine failure or other caus-es. After the war the (then nine) RAF MRTs were offi-cially permitted to become involved in any rescue. Thepost-war boom in hill walking and climbing resulted intheir being called out with increasing frequency. Allsearches and rescues were done the hard way, by teamsthat had to struggle up the mountain on foot, thankful forany help that could be obtained from trucks or jeeps,merely to get them in position to set out on the hill.

In the 1950s, the modest height of British mountainsmade it possible for helicopters to offer significant helpto rescue work. The Sikorsky S58, built under licence inBritain by Westland Aircraft at Yeovil, and named theWessex, became the workhorse of the British mountainrescue services, and air-sea rescue, for many years. Itwas also used in alpine regions as probably the best all-round transport helicopter of the time, but its serviceceiling was lower than many summits, and its hovering

HmS Gannett

SAR flight


the number of call-outs is higher than the number of inci-dents (MOD/DASA statistics). Along with Ben Nevis,Glencoe, the Cairngorms and nearby Craig Meagaidhand Lochnagar frequently appear in the call-outs, togeth-er with the peaks in Skye and Wester Ross in the north-west, and to the south Ben Cruachan and the Cobbler(Ben Arthur). In England the Lake District needs mostinterventions, as does the Snowdon group in Wales, aswould be expected. The government agency’s statisticsdo not identify mountain incidents separately, but theycan be identified with some reliability from the geo-graphical coordinates that are available for every inter-vention. Although it is more involved in marine and cliffrescues, the Coastguard rescue team based at Stornoway,and equipped with the Sikorsky S92, carried out a record183 search and rescue operations in 2009, 43 of whichwere mountain rescues.

The local MRTs handle many incidents without callingon helicopter assistance, and are also involved in search-es and rescues along with the helicopters. When a heli-copter cannot reach the casualty or carry out a searchowing to weather, or in some cases because of the con-figuration of the mountain, the ground-based teams arethe only method of rescue. It is, of course, a great help ifa helicopter is available to fly the MRT into the nearestpossible point on the mountain and can then, subject toconsiderations of weather, fuel and operational require-ments, wait to transport the casualty to hospital.

The MRT will often have to walk out after the heli-copter has departed for the hospital, because of therestricted number of places, or other limitations on thecapability of the aircraft. As in the case described above,the rescuers may have been out for hours, in appallingconditions, sometimes all night and with their dailyworkplace anxiously awaiting their return, to say nothingof their long-suffering families. Why do they do it, yearafter year? All members have their own reasons but theymust all be dedicated mountaineers, and very fit andcompetent.

Statistics collected by the co-ordinating MountainRescue Committee for Scotland show that, in 2008, thelocal volunteer mountain rescue teams went out to 387incidents occurring on the mountains, and to 140 notdirectly related to mountain or wilderness activities.Ninety-three of the incidents were answered by theLochaber team, which covers Ben Nevis. Together withthe members of the Search and Rescue Dog Associationsalso involved, the Scottish civilian teams clocked upsome 20,000 man-hours. In Wales, the Llanberis andOgwen Valley MRTs (covering Snowdon, and the morenortherly mountains) were called out to more than 300incidents last year, a substantial increase on previous years.

In recent years walking and climbing in the hills have

burgeoned, and the numbers of participants requiringrescue has also risen relentlessly. Despite the constantstruggle needed to raise funds, however, the Britishcivilian MRTs have steadfastly argued the benefits of afree service. They receive a modest fixed sum annuallyfrom the police budget for the replacement of ropes,clothing, flares, etc. Otherwise the teams are dependenton donations and their own fund-raising efforts. Thedeployment of a military or naval helicopter is met fromthe budget of the service that provides it. This is said tocost several thousand pounds per hour, so the total costof a rescue may be £10,000 or £20,000, or even more.From time to time the subject of charging the personwho has benefited from the mountain rescue is raised.Such charges are routine in many countries. In Francethere has been a partial dilution of the principle of freemountain rescue, which remains mainly in the hands ofthe extremely efficient gendarmerie’s specialised Peletonde Haute Montagne (PGHM), which is essentially a mil-itary organisation, and of the Civil Security Service.Since 2002, however, regional authorities have beenempowered to impose charges, and some have exercisedthis right. At Chamonix, which has the greatest numberof call-outs, a bill may be expected only by casualties ofen-piste skiing. Skiers are expected to have arranged fullinsurance, and private companies specialise in their rescue.

With the British SAR organisation soon to change, themountain rescue teams will have to work with new avia-tion partners, but they will undoubtedly remain dedicat-ed as thoroughly as ever to life saving in a difficult anddangerous environment. It is hoped that it will continueto be possible to offer a free service wherever and when-ever needed.The author would like to thank John Allen and Bob Davidson (CMRT

and Sandstone Press) and MoD DASA staff for their help.

Cairngorm mRT

members in the

Sea King


Morning Captain,” said the voice on the phone,“ever flown a Falcon?”Those four words were to lead to one of the

more interesting jobs I have ever done while flyinghelicopters. The conversation with Darren continued.“No, never been in an F16.” ”No, I meant the bird.”“Well, I have flown a buzzard off my hand, but certainly

not a falcon”. At this point Darren is sniggering.“No, we need to fly a falcon with a 60ft wingspan

under a helicopter in Dubai for Sheik Mohamed at theopening of The Meydan Stadium in six weeks time”.

As you might have guessed there was a pregnantpause., “Let me think about that, seems a bit of a laugh,let’s go for it.”

The Flying


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Photographs courtesy of Andrew Harvey and Darren Wring

Falcon

Flying an illuminated falcon at night at the opening of the Dubai 2010 World Cup

by Andrew Harvey


After much discussion on the aerodynamics of 60 ftfalcons and how they would fly under a helicopter wecame up with a flying crucifix with a drogue chute tostop it rotating. The Falcon would hang under that,complete with winch so that the back half of the birdcould be lowered to make it look like it was flaring.

Our next problem was finding what sort of helicop-ter we could get in Dubai to lift it. The choice camedown to a Bell 412.

As you may know, there are virtually no civil 412s inthe UK, so how were we going to test fly it? After all,we would look very stupid turning up in Dubai with abird that didn’t fly. Darren and I also didn’t fancy anextended trip staying at the Sheik’s pleasure (!!!) ifthings didn’t go well. The outcome was the old venera-ble Hughes 500. With our falcon weighing in at 536kgswe were just inside the limit of G-BIOA’s capacity.

The scene turns to a windy March day at

Dunkeswell, the week before the falcon has to be shipped toDubai. While Darren’s team assemble their bird, I removeall the excess from my little bird and attach a 75 ft longlineto her. Having got G-BIOA over the bird, am given over theradio to pick her up, with the parting comment, “ just don’tdrop it”.

So no pressure then!Well, getting it off the ground was no problem, but trying

to fly with it was something else. Having used 75psi to getthe bird off the ground, I then needed to use max continu-ous power to move forward at a stunning 10 kts groundspeed. The drag on the bird was something else! So muchso that I couldn’t get enough airspeed to dare turn downwind, well not in 20 kts of wind. I was obviously wearingthe wrong underwear! Having moved it 700m I gently low-ered her back to mother Earth, with no damage!

That was the Wednesday, the next Monday the team wasflying to Dubai, the falcon was on a 747 freighter (youwould not believe how expensive that is !)

Well, the bird went out on the Monday. But - the rest ofthe team were booked on BA, who very kindly have goneon strike! What to do. Thankfully, it was Emirates Airlinesto the rescue! We were out there, and ready for the deed.

Well, what a difference from 20 kts of wind and plus 1degree of tempaerature. Here we had no wind and 40degrees centigrade.

Welcome to Dubai. Have a nice day!The next three sweaty days are spent assembling the bird

and persuading the local Bell 412 pilots that they can lift thebird and fly down the home straight at night at 200ft, with550 kgs of bird 50 ft under the 412.

A cold and windy

day in Dunkeswell -

test flying the falcon

After three nights the local

boys have got it cracked, with

beaming smiles!


The final rehearsal on the Thursday night goes swim-mingly well, even the Sheik is blown away.

All that is left to do is to finish putting 1 km of lit 2mmrope to illuminate the bird, and put the claws on

The finale, thankfully, went without a hitch.Falcon back on the ground, 1 km of lit rope taken

off by 23:00 and we are on the Emirates plane back toa cold wet Heathrow and reality!

For those who do YouTube have a look athttp://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=qCH11bcksjkthe Dubai World Cup opening celebrations - wind for-ward to about the five min mark to see the part of thevideo with the falcon flying.

Three sweaty days spent assem-

bling the bird and persuading the

local 412 pilots they can fly it

The author wiring up

the claws

The finished product awaiting

its Bell 412

The finale went

without a hitch


Greek

OlympicsTen helicopters flew from Oxford to cover

the 2004 Olympic Games - what plans do we have for 2012?

by John Hill

5353

Athens 2004

Photographs Geoff James and John Hill

Marion Melbourn stood on the heli-pad atElstree as I shut down G-OHCP, poured me aglass of champagne and remarked on my

scruffy appearance. I had just flown in from Troyes, thelast leg of a journey which had seen me leave Elstreefour weeks and 105 flying hours before, bound forStapleford Tawney and then on to Athens. I adoreMarion and champagne, but at 09:25 in the morning I

was desperate for a cup of strong builders’ tea. The air-craft was filthy, I hadn’t shaved for three days and wasexhausted from the transit back, which had seen IanEvans and myself fly through the mountains from Niceto Grenoble Versoud in close formation at 14,000’AMSL as well as dealing with all the usual Europeantransit problems (what am I bid for the rights to useNaples as a nuclear test site?)


The initial tasking came in the day we arrived backfrom the Bahrain Grand Prix where Rod Wood and I hadbeen flying the circuit air ambulance. The hows andwhys of that trip are for another time, but the night flightfrom Bahrain to Dubai will probably disturb Rod’s sleepand mine for years. Simon Cooper had collared me in theoffice as I was trying to make sense of my writing in thetech log and asked me if I fancied a month filming theOlympics in Athens. By the time he had finished thequestion I was on a satziki diet and immersing myepiglottis in retsina.

Jerry Grayson and David Voy were heading the projectand they needed ten helicopters, plus pilots and engineersto fly out to Athens, rig the aircraft for filming and relaywork and then get on with the job. Little else was knownat the time, but we would hear more as time progressed.

Over the next four months all of us sent several copiesof birth certificates, passports, license details and, believeit or not, inside leg and chest measurements to Jerry. Inreturn we heard about his series of new best friends,most of whom appeared to be Greek Air Force colonelswho were in charge of the airspace side of things.

Eventually a plan of sorts had been formulated, RolieJames had carefully flight-planned the ten aircraft inthree formations, and we were ready to go. Or at least

every one else was; my aircraft was at Redhill having acamera kill switch mounted to protect the battery in caseof a generator failure. I travelled down by train to collectit and found the biggest thunderstorm I had ever seen inthe UK raging in the Gatwick zone. This was a snag:although I could have left from Redhill next morning allof my kit was at Elstree and I think there would havebeen complaints if I had tried to get through the nextmonth on the clothes I stood in. Mark and TheresaSouster offered me a bed for the night, but luckily thestorm passed and I got airborne for Elstree at 20:30.

The following morning I arrived at work to find theviz 200m with the cloud on the deck. I took my timeloading the aircraft. The rear seats were removed and alarge spares package replaced them, along with my bag-gage and a picnic box of pilots favourite goodies. MarkBarry-Jackson, the leader of the formation I was to travelin, called from a fog bound Denham and we briefly dis-cussed the situation. Our original departure was sched-uled for 08:00, but we eventually got away to Staplefordat 09:30 where we were again held by weather. This wasnot good; all ten aircraft had to be in Athens within a twohour time block on the Friday afternoon (it was nowWednesday the 4th of August) and we had hotels and ameal booked for that night with Heli-Riviera in Cannes.

At each stop the engineers, who

were flying in the other aircraft,

checked on us

Opening photo above: the full

helicopter team

Eventually the fog lifted enough for the four aircraft toget away. For Mark, Gary Butcher and myself the transitwas quite easy; our aircraft were all full IFR with goodauto-pilots. Ian Evans was flying a very basic 355 with a‘floppy stick.’ Station keeping in such poor visibilitymust have been mighty hard work, but twenty miles pastthe French coast the weather cleared and we flew ontoParis in stunning sunshine.

Our first stop and turn-round were very quick and wewere straight off to Grenoble and then through the moun-tains to Cannes. At each stop the engineers, who wereflying in the other aircraft, checked on all four, whichwas a comfort as we moved further from base.

Day two saw us in Brindisi after a long hold-up inGrossetto (never been since, would only go again in direemergency) a joyous flight down the Bay of Naples toSorrento, and a simple transit across Italy to Brindisi.

On the Friday morning we arrived at the airport,flight-planned as a ten-ship formation to Corfu, but theweather gods had other ideas. The rain was bouncing offthe tarmac and the lightning was giving a stunning show.There was only one thing for it and a large number ofpilots and engineers mooched off to the coffee shop.Eventually the weather cleared and we got airborne verylate for Corfu. There were still highly active CBs aroundand the two aircraft with radar watched our track andsteered us around them, including once right into

Albanian airspace. What the Albanians had to say aboutten helicopters entering their FIR without permission hasnever been told, and hopefully never will be, but if theAlbanians are still seeking the culprits then they needlook no further than Mark B-J and Geoff James!

Corfu got us away quickly and we routed direct toAthens via the Gulf of Corinth, the Corinth Canal andthe mountains, landing at 15:00 local on Friday the 6thof August. David Voy, Gerry Grayson and Mark Sousterwere waiting for us, along with the CAA, as we toucheddown on the abandoned Hellenico Airport. They strug-gled to believe that we had got ten aircraft from the UKto Athens in three days without leaving one in a pile ofparts en route.

There was no time to settle in or relax, we wereloaded straight onto two mini buses and sent to theOlympic Stadium to clear Olympic security and receiveour passes. As soon as we left base an example of Greekefficiency became apparent. The Greeks had created atraffic lane specifically for Olympic traffic. We arrivedat the stadium less than twenty minutes after leavingHellenico through the Athens rush hour. We wentstraight through the system in less than hour and wereheading back to base where our accommodation wassorted, and we were sent off to rest and eat.

Our accommodation was a revelation. Each pilot andengineer had a suite comprising lounge, bedroom,

Sent to the Olympic Stadium to

clear Olympic security they

went through the system in less

than an hour


known threat in southern Europe/North Africa fromStinger shoulder-launched SAM missiles. We were givena quite serious threat brief and a list of actions to take onreceiving a SAM threat. One codeword would have ushigh tailing for base, and another would have us landingimmediately, even if that meant a landing in the middleof an Athens street.

As Richard Evans pointed out, however, if someonedid fire a SAM and we saw it, we wouldn’t have enoughtime to do anything anyway. From the surface to the fivehundred foot band that the Wescams would be in wouldtake less than a second. We decided en masse to ignorethe problem until there were bits of 355 raining from theskies and then do something about it.

A far more serious problem was that the Greeks hadrealised that some of the events passed sensitive areas,such as the Secret Service HQ, a couple of barracks andseveral Patriot missile sites. To stop us filming them theymade the Wescam aircraft fly with a Greek Air Forceofficer as an observer making sure that the camera opera-tor didn’t film anything the Greeks thought he shouldn’t.On my first trip the somewhat overzealous observerseized the film and refused to release it to the broadcastauthorities. He was over-ruled, but only after many hoursand after he had tried to have my moving map disabledas it showed where all the sensitive areas were!

kitchen, bathroom and huge balcony. There was a swim-ming pool in the grounds, a private bar, room service atany time and the Danish ladies sailing team, although Idon’t think the latter were actually listed as amenities.

The next day started with familiarisation flights andfilming ‘pretty shots’ for the broadcast library, to be usedduring breaks in the action. We pilots had a lot of ques-tions about the rules we had to abide by. Charts werealmost unobtainable, and at the end of the event I wasstill using a tourist map and an Athens street map I hadpicked up on the first day to get around by. However Iwas very lucky; the day we left England I had installedthe latest Jeppesen chip in the Garmin system on the air-craft, and all the Olympic airspace was marked on themoving map screen.

The Greeks had adopted a very simple system for theairspace. For the duration of the Olympics all Athens air-space was closed to all VFR traffic except us. Aroundeach event cylinders of airspace were created which wentfrom the surface to infinity and were roughly five nmacross. Even military aircraft were banned from the cylin-ders, but there was the odd mishap. We had specificroutes to follow to the events and our air traffic was co-ordinated by one of Jerry Grayson’s colonel friends sit-ting on a mountain top some miles away. There weremajor security concerns at the time and there was a

John Hill filming low level over

Athens in G-OHCP

On the Friday night we started filming events with theopening ceremony and then went straight into theOlympics proper with the Men’s Cycling Road Racethrough the Athens streets. We had been given laminatedA4 maps of the routes which were to an unknown scaleand had no regular orientation. In the back of my aircraftwere a Portuguese camera operator and a Greek observer.The aircraft were tight on fuel so as to maintain Group Aperformance over the built up area, and the addition ofthe observer made things far worse in the fuel stakes, andmade a planning nightmare for Jerry Grayson. Jerry hadworked everything for what he called the ‘dance’.

All the aircraft (two Wescams and four Relays) had tobe on site for the technical rehearsal and the start. Theaircraft would then take it in turns to slope off for gasand then return to relieve someone else. Running in thepack of competitors were four motorbikes, each carryinga cameraman. The cameramen wore different coloureddayglo helmets and the relay pilots had to pick out from2 000’ which motorbike the director wanted them to relayfor. Each motorbike was broadcasting its own film sig-nal, which was then picked up by the relay helicopter andsent on to the main broadcast centre. The signal from thebike was in a narrow cone that tilted as the bike wentround a corner, the relay pilot had to anticipate the tiltand position himself to keep the signal. This at the sametime as flying the aircraft, monitoring his fuel state andpossibly handing over the signal to another relay aircraft.

The relay handover was effected by the recentlyfuelled aircraft intercepting the aircraft about to leave

task at an altitude of up to 5 000’ closing in to close for-mation. When the relay operator had a firm signal fromthe camera bike the pilot on take over would tell his col-league that he had the signal, and at that point the aircraftbeing relieved would pull up and away and head for baseat high speed.

For Pete Barnes and myself it was far easier. We wentfor fuel on schedule and on return checked where eachother was, prior to slotting back into the race. To assist inlocating eachother one aircraft would drop to very lowlevel and ‘skyline’ the other. Our biggest concern wasgetting too engrossed in the task and getting too close to

Relay pilots had to pick out from

2000 feet which motorbike the

director wanted them to relay for

Pilots John Hill

centre, Pete Barnes

left and Ian

Harding right

58 helicopter LIFE,Summer 2010

each other. That did happen towards the end of theOlympics and it scared the hell out of both of us. Wewere tired and had a tiny mutual lapse in concentration. Itwas the only time it happened, but that was enough.

The next two weeks were a blur of flying, heat, coldbeer and meals at strange times. The cockpit tempera-tures in the Wescam aircraft reached as much as 50degrees and dehydration was a problem which weattempted to mitigate with as much water as we could,and sports drinks to help replace lost electrolytes. DavidVoy would jump into aircraft to cover for pilots needingto answer the call of nature. The rate of dehydration inthe Wescam aircraft meant that Pete Barnes and I bothfinished the day lighter than when it started, and in twoweeks of flying up to six hours a day never once neededthe relief David offered.

Suddenly it was over. We de-rigged the aircraft,packed up and at the final party said farewell to the cam-era and relay operators, who had become close friends.We had flown 200 plus sorties, and not missed one. Wehad only lost some 20 seconds of live broadcast, com-pared to several minutes at Sydney. All we had to do wasto get home to the families who had waved us off fourweeks before.

We left Athens mid-morning on the first of Septemberin formation for Corfu. At Corfu we split up into threeformations and took different routes home.

When I look back on the event, I remember whatseemed to be a chaotic planning stage, but a well runand, once communications difficulties had been sorted,excellently staged event. Sadly I don’t think London2012 will be the same. The politicians have no idea ofthe problems involved in filming an event like theOlympics. The vested interests are all fighting for whatthey each want. They have no idea that so much of theAthens Olympics was filmed by helicopter. It is physical-ly impossible to do this with overhead cameras: helicop-ters are vital. The grating stupidity of politicians and offi-cials who will not listen to the experts from a particularfield makes me believe that London 2012 will be a verydull event to watch, Possibly the change in governmentmay help, but only if the incoming Olympics Minister isprepared to listen and not to spout a party line as the lastone did.

And Elstree? Marion was waiting and pouring thechampagne in the rain. I think it was to soften me up forthe fact that after three days off I had to be in on Sundayto fly nine tourist flights around London.

Cockpit temperatures

reached as high as 50

degrees

Landing at

Hellenico

Two Westcams refuelling

after the technical rehersal

for the women’s triathalon

helicopter LIFE,Summer 2010


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Helicopter Futures

COMPANY NEWS FOR 2010: Eurocopter’s Gate

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Eurocopter and Funkwerk Avionics have success-fully completed a helicopter test flight with anEC145 in the Galileo test bed GATE in

Berchtesgaden, Southern Germany.The test flight was part of the European research proj-

ect MAGES. MAGES (Mature Applications of Galileofor Emergency Services) a project funded by the GalileoSupervisory Authority (GSA), aiming to demonstrate thebenefits of EGNOS and Galileo for emergency services.

For helicopter air rescue services Galileo could oneday lead to a paradigm shift, as there would then be anadditional satellite navigation system, independent ofand compatible with the American Navstar GPS, whichwould, as part of the Safety Of Life Service, provideinformation on the reliability of the signal.

During the test flight in Berchtesgaden the test pilotused a synthetic vision system developed by Eurocopter,on which the terrain below and around the helicopter isshown in perspective. The positioning of the syntheticterrain displayed is based on the data from the Galileosatellite navigation system. As an additional navigationalaid, the pilot was also provided with a special ‘tunnel-in-the-sky’ symbology for the planned flight path, whichled him safely through the mountainous terrain to itslanding site.

As part of the test flight an ‘integrity alarm’, on oneof the simulated Galileo satellites was marked as having

failed. In future, this ‘integrity information’ would makeit possible for a suitable navigation system to warn thepilot that continuing the flight may be unsafe if the nav-igation provided by Galileo can no longer be guaranteedto be reliable.

During the test flight it was also possible to demon-strate other innovative solutions to existing problems.For example, the helicopter crew was able to flystraight to an injured fireman and rescue him thanks toa transponder, powered with rechargeable batteries,which allowed his position to be displayed on the navi-gation system’s screen in the helicopter. The systemdemonstrated is based on transponder technology devel-oped by Funkwerk Avionics. The ADS-B transponderused by the system determines its current position viaGPS and transmits this information continuously. Thereceiver located on board the helicopter receives thesesignals and sends them to the helicopter’s navigationsystem, where the position is displayed on the basis ofthe data received.

The great advantage of this system is that it operateswithout the need for any ground infrastructure, such asa GSM network, as such infrastructure is not availableeverywhere or may be destroyed by the event itself.

The ADS-B system was originally developed for usein air space surveillance, but has proved worthwhile invarious other applications.


Dressed to KillThe true story of a woman flying under fire

Book review

by Charlotte madison£14.99

published 2010 Headline Review

This is the story of thefirst British armyfemale helicopter pilot

to fly an Apache in the war inAfghanistan. It is written inthe historic present, a stylemore commonly used inFrench than English litera-ture, but one that works wellhere, giving you a feeling ofbeing part of the action.

When chosen for theApache course CharlotteMadison (apparently not herreal name, which has beenchanged to protect her) says:“It’s angular, black and angrylooking. It's like I shouldn’tbe anywhere near it. No won-der US pilots call flying it,‘Riding the Dragon.’.”

Her instructor says. “it is avery intelligent piece of kit.”And points out that it is themost expensive attack heli-copter in aviation history.

On her first tour of duty inAfghanistan Madison writesabout the use of the Apache,working in a war environ-ment, being out in CampBastion and other places inAfghanistan but all on a verypersonal level. She is veryhonest and open both abouther feelings in relation toother pilots and team mem-bers, and in relation to thestresses and strains of the job.

Sometimes she seems tooverdo her modesty, showing

a self-depreciation her compatriots (although presumablynot those she calls 'the Dicks’) may share but are rathermore likely to keep to themselves. Clearly she is a verygood pilot and an excellent officer.

Madison was the first woman to be out in Afghanistanfighting for the UK, although she has been followed bya few more. Even as the book progresses we learn aboutother women Apache pilots joining her in the war zone.It is also interesting to see her progression from juniorofficer, unsure of herself, to leader of the team.

There are a few scenes in the book of the Apache inaction and killing, which demonstrate the way pilots,ground military and ATC work together. She writesabout the weaponry and ‘sending the data’ in the sameway as someone else might write about ‘cashing up thetills for the evening’ or sending an email.

The desription of the ‘tools’ used are fascinating:Cameras in the nose that provide the pilots with x127magnification. While flying in daytime you can see the

face of a man on theground. At night the systemcan detect a person morethan two miles away.

There are three weaponsystems, including the can-non on the underside with1,160 rounds in the maga-zine, incendiary semi-armour-piercing rockets,multi-purpose sub-muni-tions, flechettes - a maxi-mum 76 rockets loaded intofour pods on the side wingsof the aircraft. And thepièce de résistance - theHellfire missile. They'relaser guided, and accurateenough to be postedthrough a letter box. All theweapons can be automati-cally slaved to the pilot'sline of sight.

Towards the end of herthird tour in Afghanistanthe killing, the life awayfrom her husband, and tosome extent the lack ofsympathy she experiencesat home, become too muchfor Charlotte, who decides,with some nostalgia andregret, to leave the service.

I thought it was a reallygood book, easy to read,informative and in someparts extremely touching.Anyone who is interestedin what Apache pilots aredoing in Afghanistanshould read it.

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ACCidenT reporTS

facturing quality, resulting in the failure of several of thegear teeth. This led to the de-synchronisation of thecamshaft, allowing the connecting rods to hit thecramshaft, breaking it into four sections. The pilot was52 years old, had 1,471 hours of which 43 were on type.

Westland Bell 47G-3B-1, G-BFYIThe helicopter was lifted into a hover in a strong andgusting tailwind. It yawed rapidly to the right and, beforea stable hover could be re-established, the tail rotorstruck the ground. Due to significant vibration throughthe tail rotor control pedals, the pilot carried out a run-ning landing on the grass and shut down. There wasdamage to the tips of both tail rotor blades. The pilot was45 years old, and had 179 hours, of which 44 were ontype.

RAF 2000 GTX-SE, G-CBCJThe pilot planned to fly the gyrocopter from HenstridgeAirfield, Somerset to Little Rissington Airfield inGloucestershire for its Permit to Fly annual inspection,returning later that day.G-CBCJ left Henstridge several hours later than planned,and arrived at Little Rissington around 13.15 hours.On completion of theannual inspection, the pilot fuelledthe aircraft to full and departed Little Rissington atapproximately 16.07 hours. He planned to fly at an alti-tude of 2,000 feet, and at an IAS of 60 mph, and expect-ed to achieve a groundspeed of 50 mph and a flight timeto Henstridge of 87 minutes. henstridge Airfield closed at1800 hours.Another gyroplane had accompanied G-CBCJ on theinbound flight and flew back with him to Henstridge.Pilot B recalled that during the return flight the two gyro-planes were flying at an altitude of 2,500 feet and an air-speed of about 55 - 60 mph. This resulted in a ground-speed of approximately 35 mph, and he was concernedabout their slow prosgress. Sunset was at 17.30 and PilotB commented that from about 1700 hours it became verycold and damp and, despite wearing gloves, his fingertipsbecame numb.Both aircraft were equipped with radio and G-CBCJtransmitted all the radio calls on behalf of both of them.Pilot B reported that everything seemed normal whenthey transferred from Bristol Radar frequency to theHenstridge Radio frequency. Thereafter he heard no fur-ther calls from the other pilot.The flight proceeded without incident and, after passingthe A303 approximately 5 nm north of Henstridge, G-CBCJ commenced a descent, which Pilot B followed. It

Robinson R44 Raven, G-CDXBThe pilot was undertaking a refresher course to renewhis R44 rating, the previous one having expired a monthbefore. He was going to do a training flight as part of hiscourse and had been briefed by the instructor to start thehelicopter on his own, after which the instructor wouldjoin him. The helicopter was started and after allowingsome time for engine warm up, the instructor wasapproaching the helicopter when it suddenly became air-borne. The right skid then contacted the ground, and theaircraft rolled onto its right side. The pilot isolated thefuel and was assisted out with only minor injuries. Partsof the helicopter were found up to 90 metres away, butthere were no injuries to anyone on the ground. Thetraining organisation carried out a post-accident inspec-tion of the helicopter, and reported that the governor wasoff, collective friction was off, but cyclic friction and thehydraulic switch were on.Given the position of the collective, it was thought thateither the collective had been inadvertently raised, orthat, with the governor off, the rotor RPM had been setexcessively high, at which point the lever was raised.This would lead to the aircraft becoming airborne. Onceit became airborne the pilot would have difficulty con-trolling it, both as a result of surprise and because thecyclic friction was still applied.The pilot was 39 years old and had 220 hours, of which106 were on type.

Robinson R44 Raven 11, G-TIMCDuring take-off the helicopter developed a nose-up andright-skid low attitude. The pilot compensated withcyclic control and lowered the collective lever. The heli-copter touched down, bounced and came to rest at 90˚ toits starting point. The pilot checked the controls but noproblems were evident. The landing site, which wasunlicensed, was constructed of concrete ‘waffle-type’paving stones. The pilot believed that the rear shoe ofthe right skid had become snagged in the grooves in thesurface of the landing site. The pilot was 44 years oldand had 165 hours, of which 65 were on type.

Rotorway Executive 162F, G-JONGThe helicopter was in flight when the engine stoppedsuddenly and without any warning. During the subse-quent forced landing onto soft ground the helicopterpitched forward, the main rotor blades hit the ground,and it rolled onto its right side.It was established that the cast aluminium gear thatdrives the camshaft within the engine was of poor manu-


cancelled and the helicopter was re-registered as D-HGVW. Both helicopters were present during the fleetpresentation of Heli Flights Helicopters at Bennekomon February 20. The Robinson R.44 Raven II is seenhere parked in front of the office of Heli FlightsHelicopters. A few weeks later the EC.120 was involved in a pre-cautionary landing at Rotterdam The Hague Airport onApril 2. The helicopter was scheduled for a flight witha locally well-known Chef when the experienced pilottook off and suffered a power loss during takeoffaround 11.50 local time, and was forced to make a pre-cautionary landing, hitting the ground close to the run-way. The hard landing resulted in a substantial damageto the Colibri and a broken off tail boom resulted. Bothpilot and passenger were able to get out of the helicop-ter by themselves, and were transported to a local hos-pital for a precautionary check-up. Both were releasedfrom the hospital later that day.

was about 17.50 and it was getting dark, with unlitground features becoming indistinct. During the descentG-CBCJ accelerated to about 65 mph and Pilot Bmatched the descent and speed increase. Pilot B thenslowed his aircraft slightly to take up a position astern ofG-CBCJ to allow it to land at Henstridge Airfield first.Using G-CBCJ’s tail light as a reference, Pilot B thenaccelerated to maintain his distance. In order to do so,Pilot B had to increase his speed to 95 mph. Almostimmediately Pilot B became concerned that his airspeedwas above the VNE of 70 mph and reduced speed.Pilot B attempted to call G-CBCJ on the Henstridge fre-quency, but received no reply. He looked where heexpected to see G-CBCJ but could not see the othergyroplane, and concerned that he might have caught upwith it, turned to the right and reduced speed. As he didso he looked left and saw what he believed to be a whiteblade spiralling down in an eccentric circle at 60- 120rpm. He also recognised the colour of G-CBCJ’s air-frame and watched the aircraft descend until it reachedthe surface of the field below. He considered it was toodark to conduct a safe field landing and continued on toHenstridge Airfield, where he landed safely and contact-ed the emergency services.Numerous witnesses around the village of KingtonMagna reported hearing noises like misfiring or pinking,followed by what sounded like a very large backfire. Thewitnesses, who were immediately below the flightpathdescribed seeing a gyroplane much lower and louderthan normal, hearing a loud bang and seeing debrisfalling from the sky. Several witnesses went immeidiate-ly to the large field into which the aircraft had descend-ed, arriving within minutes of the accident. The pilot hadsuffered fatal injuries.The RAF 2000 is a kit-bult two-seat gyroplane, poweredby a 130 hp Sabaru carburetter engine driving a three-blade ‘Warp Drive,’ carbon fibre propeller. It is fittedwith a two-blade, glass-fibre main rotor which rotatesanit-clockwise. The cockpit is fully enclosed although,following an earlier Mandated Permit Directive, the RAF2000 is required to fly with the doors off.

Bennekom by Arjan Dijksterhuis

In February 2010, two helicopters left the UnitedKingdom for the Netherlands; EC.120B Colibri withserial G-LHCC and Robinson R.44 Raven II with seri-al G-CGGR. The registration of the EC.120B with con-struction number 1379 was cancelled on 15 February2010 and the Colibri was re-registered as D-HHLF. Three days later, the registration of the Robinson R.44Raven II with construction number 12958 was also

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AgustaWestland has announced that the Full Ice ProtectionSystem (FIPS) for the AW139 medium twin helicopter hasreceived FAA certification. The FAA certification follows EASAcertification which was issued in February of this year. TCAA(Canada) certification is expected soon.

Below the AW139 is seen doing tests behind a cryogenic creator.

AgustaWestland has opened a newfacility at Abou Aisha airport, 60 kmssouth of Tripoli called LIATEC’s

(Libyan Italian Advanced TechnologyCompany).

LIATEC has three shareholders - LibyanCompany for Aviation Industry (50%),Finmeccanica (25%) and AgustaWestland(25%).

The facility at Abou Aisha airport includesfinal assembly lines for single and twinengine helicopters, support and maintenancecapabilities for helicopters. It also doesupgrading training and fits transport airplaneswith the latest generation of avionic systems.It will assemble four AW139s a year. TheAW139 is a medium sized twin turbineengine helicopter.

Tripoli is located in the northwest of Libyaon the edge of the desert, on a point of rockyland projecting into the Mediterranean Seaand forming a bay. It was founded in the 7thcentury BC by the Phoenicians, who named itOea.

Tripoli is the largest city, the principal seaport, and the largest commercial and manu-facturing centre in Libya.

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Gateway to the African Market - Abou Aisha

‘The iceman cometh’

AgustaWestland testing the

AW139 FIPS for which they have

received FAA certification

helicopter life · dave smith atpl(h)ir, malvina nicca advert isng telephone: +44-(0)20-7430-2384...

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