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HELICOPTER
LIFEROYAL ASCOT BACK AT H OME
HELICOPTER LIFEis the HIGH LIFE
H2006
A UTUMN 2006 / £3.99
www.helicopterlife.com
RNLIRescue
STANLEY H ILLER JR (1924-2006)VOLANTE FLYING CAR
H ELIEXPO IN D ALLAS TXN EW O RLEANS AFTER KATRINA
LIFEHELICOPTER AUTUMN 2006
HELICOPTER LIFE,Autumn 2006 3DonÕt fly without your Pooleys ! www.pooleys.com
Royal Ascot’snew Home 32Georgina Hunter-Jones on how thereturn to Ascothas managed tobe on time and onbudget, and hears mixed reportsabout the stadium.
Lifeboat Rescue Exercise 40GeorginaHunter-Jones isdropped out of aSea King, alongwith RNLItrainees and isimpressed by theprofessionalismof the RAF SARRNLI teamwork.
Weston-Super-Helidays 2006 60Alan Norris, oneof the founders ofthe helidays,looks at how theyhave changedover the years andphotographs thoseat this year’sbeach-heldextravaganza.
AeroExpo 2006 60
Helicopter Friendly Landing Sites 61
Book Review 62Helicopter Life reviews Faces of Exploration byJoanna Vestey; her encounters and photographs of fifty extraordinary pioneers.
Accident Reports 63
House & Helicopter 66
COVER STORY
Show & Tell Guide 4On aviation shows and conferences.
The Editor’s Letter 5
Guest Columnist 6Captain Robin Renton on aviation’s future path.
Letters to the Editor 7
Flying Crackers 8, 9
The Russian Connection 12Neil Harrison travels with the Russian Mil Mi-8 re-supplying Russian bases on Antarctica.
Farnborough Fair 16Georgina Hunter-Jones examines how the mood of the 2006 airshow has changed.
On Track with Flymap 20Georgina Hunter-Jones is impressed by one of the most recent gadgets to come onto the market.
Bikes behind the Dykes 22ArjanDijksterhuisreports on aerialfilming, HEMSand VIP helicop-ters during theMoto Grand Prixwhich was heldin Assen in theNetherlands.
MD 500 D Test Flight 26Georgina Hunter-Jones pays a visit to Biggin HillHelicopterswhere Capt BillLowry demon-strates all the‘Sunnyside Up’aspects of theMD 500D.Proving it nomere egg beater!
9 September - 10 September 2006
LYDD AiRSHOW
Lydd Airport
Lydd, Romney Marsh
Kent, TN29 9QL
Tel: +44 (0)1797-322-207
Fax: +44 (0)1797-322-208
info@lyddairshow.co.uk
www.lyddairshow.co.uk
16 September - 17 September 2006
SHOREHAM AiRSHOW 2006
Contact: RAFA Airshow Office
Terminal Building
Shoreham Airport
West Sussex, BN43 5FF
Tel: +44 (0)1273-441-545
info@shorehamairshow.com
www.shorehamsirshow.com
23 September - 25 September 2006HELi JET SHOW CANNES
Palais des Festivals & des Congres
Cannes, France
Tel: +33 (0)4-9390-4185
Fax: +33 (0)4-9390-4189
contact@nlcevent.com
14 November - 15 November 2006HELi-pOWER 2006
Olympia Conference Centre
London, England
Contact: Hervé Bavazzano (Exhibitions)
Tel: +44 (0)1628-606-980
hb@shephard.co.uk
www.shephard.co.uk/heli-power
5 December - 7 December 2006DuBAi HELiSHOW 2006
East Hall, Dubai Airport Expo
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Mediac Communications & Exhibitions L.L.C.
P.O. Box: 5196, Dubai, U.A.E.
Tel: +9714-269-2004
Fax: +9714-269-1296
mediac@emirates.net.ae
www.dubaihelishow.com
HELICOPTER LIFE, Autumn 2006
SHOW & T ELL
G UIDE
HELICOPTER LIFE, Autumn 2006
end of the week it was easier to get
in, but by then the trains, which start-
ed the week comfortable and on time,
fell back to their usual schedule:
wrong type of sun maybe.
Above the vagaries of time-tables
is the 46th Russian Mils trip to East
Antarctica to supply their bases (Mils
on wheels?) Through the years some
of the Mi-8s had been ferried from St
Petersburg to Cape Town before join-
ing the boat to Antarctica. Neil
Harrison went with them and his
story shows the amazing toughness
and versatility of these elderly
machines, and their pilots.
As part of the RNLI training pro-
gramme we spent a day with the RAF
Search and Rescue and the RNLI,
practising winching out of a Sea
King. The RNLI is currently trying to
raise money for its training pro-
gramme which costs £20,000 a year
per life-boat station. It also was a
bonus training for the Editor of
Helicopter Life who, with the Copy
Editor, will be doing an abseil for
charity from Guy’s Hospital on 23rd
September 2006. Anyone wishing to
come and watch please do so.
The sudden jump in popularity
of helicopter flying seems to
have left the supplying world
behind. Suddenly there are neither
enough helicopters to fill all the com-
mercial jobs nor enough pilots. Or at
least, and here is the rub, there are
plenty of low time, piston trained
pilots but not nearly enough turbine
rated, instrument trained, high time
pilots. So much is this the case, that
aviation companies are finally awak-
ening to the realisation that they will
either have to pay for the training of
their pilots or import them from other
countries in the EU (the Polish pilot).
This kind of thing has not happened
since Bristow Helicopters gave up
doing scholarships.
Given that there is now an increase
in manufacturing, is there a chance of
the advent of a helicopter-powering-
fuel which actually improves rather
than destroys the environment? Of
course, the event which really gets
Research and Development depart-
ments going is war, hence the pro-
duction of 100 Cayuse (forerunner of
the MD500 on which we have a test
flight) a month during the Vietnam
War and Israel’s interest in the X-
Hawk flying car, on display at
Farnborough. But during war-time,
interest in reducing emissions dies
off: a conundrum.
Farnborough certainly gave indi-
cations that Bell has increased its
manufacturing; with three large
pavilions on the hill dominating the
show (as much as helicopters can in a
principally fixed wing show) and
their distributors claiming that Bell
now leads Eurocopter in the number
of sales.
There were, however, a few little
problems with Farnborough, not least
the scrum to get through security as
every bag and every camera had to be
checked for terrorist weapons. By the
5
HELICOPTER LiFE is published quarterly
by FlyFizzi Ltd.
59 Great Ormond Street
London, WC1N-3Hz.
Copyright © FlyFizzi Ltd. 2006.
ISSN 1743-1042.
All rights reserved. Opinions expressed
herein are not necessarily those of the pub-
lishers, the Editor or any of the editorial staff.
Reproduction in whole or in part, in any
form whatever, is strictly prohibited without
specific written permission of the Editor.
COVER pHOTOGRApHBy Hilaire Dubourcq
AUTUMN 2006
EDiTOR-iN-CHiEF / piLOTGeorgina Hunter-Joneseditor@helicopterlife.com
CREATiVE DiRECTORHilaire Dubourcqart@helicopterlife.com
COpY EDiTOREvangeline Hunter-Jones, JP
CONTRiBuTiNG EDiTORSArjan Dijksterhuis, Neil HarrisonAlan Norris, Capt Robin Renton
CONTRiBuTED pHOTOGRApHYArjan Dijksterhuis, FlymapNeil Harrison, Tony LowryValentin Mykitenko, Alan NorrisSt Petersburg Aviation RepairCompany
SpECiAL THANKS TOBiggin Hill Helicopters, Capt BillLowry, Louise Wilkinson
ADVERTiSiNGTelephone: (44) 20-7430-2384advertising@helicopterlife.com
SuBSCRipTiONSGo to our website or turn to page 64subscriptions@heliccopterlife.com
WEBSiTEwww.helicopterlife.com
HON. EDiTORiAL BOARDCaptain Eric Brown, CBE, RN
The Lord Glenarthur, DL
Jennifer MurrayMichael J. H. SmithWing Cdr. Ken Wallis, MBE, RAF
LIFEHELICOPTER T HE EDITOR ÕS LETTER
HELICOPTER LIFE, Autumn 2006
Irecently met Georgina at EBACE
and had the pleasure of giving her
and several others a lift back from
Geneva in our Sikorsky 76C+. I was
very pleasantly surprised when she
subsequently asked me to write a
small piece for this publication, espe-
cially as I would be following the
narratives of rather more distin-
guished and famous aviation person-
alities.
I am now surprised to find
that I have now been involved
in aviation in a career (for
want of a better word) for over
30 years, one that has taken me
to many corners of the globe.
The opportunity to travel and
see the world from such a
unique perspective is one of
the powerful attractions of
being a helicopter pilot.
During my time in the Royal
Navy in the late 1960s &
1970s, the Wessex 5 and Sea King
were seen to be state of the art: how
times have moved on!
I joined Bristow Helicopters in
1975 and went to Aberdeen to fly the
S61N. In those days there was still an
air of pioneering about North Sea
operations. No immersion suits in the
mid 1970s, just a ‘floater’ jacket
more use in keeping hypothermia at
bay when riding a motorbike to work
than saving one’s life if unfortunate
enough to ditch in the freezing grey
Services), a relatively small but inno-
vative company, full of interesting
and larger than life characters.
BEAS, as well as operations in North
Africa and aerial work business in the
UK, had set up the first offshore-
based unit, working from a semi-sub-
mersible in the Piper/Claymore field
in the North Sea. We flew a Bell 212,
which was hangared in a corrugated
iron structure at the side of the
helideck and landed the heli-
copter on (or rather in) a
device rather like a large skip
that was then winched into the
hangar. On one memorable
occasion the CAA sent out an
inspection team in an S61,
which on landing blew the
doors off the hangar and into
the sea. Not an auspicious
start! BEAS was taken over by
Bristows and became Bristow
Offshore, which at the height
of the Brent Field construction period
in the 1980s had five Bell 212s oper-
ating from the Treasure Finder semi-
submersible, transporting hundreds
of men (it was only men offshore
then) every day and incorporating a
24 hour SAR service. It was a most
impressive and efficient undertaking
and one with which I am proud to
have had a part.
Short spells in Morocco and Dubai
with Bell 212s were followed by my
(Continued on Page 10)
waters. We navigated out to the East
Shetland Basin by means of Decca,
taking readings from the three
decometers and plotting pencil fixes
on a chart: no fancy GPS positioning
for us!
I then flew the S61N in Greenland
for 6 months, operating on semi-
scheduled passenger flights up and
down the west coast. What truly
spectacular sights there are in this
majestic ice-covered land. On a good
summer’s day the atmosphere is crys-
tal clear, the view of icebergs and
mountains goes on forever and there
are often polar bear, musk ox,
whales, seals and much else besides
along the routes. The weather could
often be less than perfect, of course,
and conditions there could change
very rapidly, making for a challeng-
ing environment.
On return to the UK, I joined
BEAS (British Executive Air
6
G UEST C OLUMNIST
Bull Market forHelicopters
Captain Robin Renton, Chief Pilot at AirHarrods, on the way the corporate andcommercial market is improving fornew pilots
ÒWhere does the futurelie for the commercial helicopter business?
And what can the youngpilot look
forward to?Ó
59 Great Ormond Street, London WC1N-3Hz, England.
Telephone: 020-7430-2384, Fax: 020-7430-2384, Email: editor@helicopterlife.com
Please include your name, address, home and daytime phone numbers.
HELICOPTER LIFE, Autumn 2006
General Aviation is starting to
come under attack both from noise
lobbies and from those who feel
that our emissions are affecting the
environment. Below is a letter from
a reader who wishes to express his
feelings on the noise issue. if any-
one would like to write in response
or with their opinions Helicopter
Life would be happy to publish
their letters.
This letter was a response to the
Evening Standard on Friday 26th
May 2006 in which the editor was
quoted as saying she did not believe
that helicopter movements over
London added to the overall noise:
Dear Georgina,
I read to my horror that you consid-
er: “There’s really not a noise issue
here. Single-engine helicopters can
only fly along the Thames. It’s the
larger helicopters operated by police
and corporations that go over central
London. I don’t think it has added to
the noise people on the ground hear.”
Don’t you? Which bit of cloud-
cuckoo land do you inhabit. It is cer-
tainly not true that helicopters only
fly along the Thames as anyone who
lives north of the King’s Road can
tell you. Every garden in Chelsea is
subjected to noise from North/South
flying helicopters. I pity the poor
people in Battersea but they are not
alone. Huge aeroplanes carrying
hundreds of people fly over continu-
ously in a comparative whisper but
someone has designed quietness
(feathering etc.) into its engine
because of the appalling noise they
used to have (You’re probably too
young to remember the Pratt &
Whitney ‘Wasp’ in a Harvard). One
little t*sser in a private toy today
can ruin the peace and quiet of a
whole city and get away with it and
apparently nobody can do anything
about it. I am pretty sure that some-
one could design a quieter helicopter
their final report to the Aviation
Fuels Committee.
Both the Fisher Tropsch methods,
where Sasol produces fuel from low
grade coal, and GTL technology
producing synthetic fuel from gas,
can be used to produce potentially
cleaner burning and more thermally
stable fuel which may have implica-
tions for newer as new turbines are
becoming smaller and hotter. The
thermal stability of the fuel itself
allows it to be used as a coolant for
high-temperature components in
new-generation jet.
As conventional petroleum feed
stocks become more scarce, other
countries have started looking at
their indigenous resources afresh
with a view to converting them into
viable new fuels. In the US for
example, the first waste coal-to-
clean fuels complex has is near com-
pletion in the anthracite fields of
Pennsylvania, which would turn
waste coal into zero-sulfur diesel
fuel or jet fuel.
Best Wishes,
Tim Rogers
Executive VP International -
Clean Diesel Technologies, Inc
Dear Georgina,
In the Editor’s Letter of your last
edition of Helicopter Life you ask
about the EC directive 55/2001 and
85/2001. Both directives refer to
transactions in goods and the meas-
urement instruments used in that
trade. It has nothing to do with avia-
tion and should not affect us except
when we buy our food (unless you
work in cargo when you might have
to convert kg to lbs.)
Best regards,Malvina Nicca
but it would, no doubt, cost money.
This isn’t the capital’s latest noise
problem - its been going on for
years. Until more people complain...
nothing is going to change. But
don’t, ever, say: ‘There’s really not a
noise issue,’ again and think you’ll
get away with it.
Robin de Beaumont
Manufacturers do need to keep
reducing the decibel levels but I do
think that having a second heliport
in London might well diversify what-
ever noise there is and appease our
non-flying readers. Ed.
Dear Georgina,
Further to your article on the use of
alternative fuel feed stocks for air-
craft. For the past seven years, air-
craft flying from Johannesburg
International Airport (JIA) have used
a semi-synthetic blend of 50% jet
fuel from coal produced at a Sasol
Ltd coal-to-liquids refinery, and
50% derived from traditional crude
oil refining.
The situation arose in 2001 when
fire temporarily halted fuel produc-
tion at Natref, which was at that
time the main supplier of aviation
fuel to JIA.
To avert a shortage of fuel at the
busiest airport in Africa. Sasol was
given permission by the Aviation
Fuels Committee and MoD to blend
its coal-derived jet fuel with conven-
tion jet fuel and semi synthetic jet
fuel was introduced.
Since that time Sasol have moved
on and are now in progress to quali-
fy its fully synthetic jet fuel, by
completing aircraft engine turbine
testing in conjunction with the US
Navy. They will soon be forwarding
7
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
HELICOPTER LIFE, Autumn 20068
Travelling pilots Needed
According to The Wall Street Journal
American pilots are deserting the
cash-starved, morale-depressed, pen-
sion-gutting US carriers and landing
high-paying jobs in Singapore, Hong
Kong and Dubai. Former U.S.
Airways pilot Brian Murray, who
now works for Emirates Airlines,
says it’s like returning to the Golden
Age of aviation. He said that pilots
are “treated with respect in this part
of the world. We’re driven to work.
We’re put in four and five-star hotels,
on the concierge floors. Captains are
treated as vice presidents of the
organization.” And there’s no short-
age of well paid freelance work.
pilot’s first solo at 91 years old
Cliff Garl fulfilled a lifetime dream
and probably has set a record. The
ninety one year-old US pilot soloed
for the first time over Arlington
Airport earlier this year. “You go into
a nursing home and you’ll see people
a lot younger than he just sitting
there,” Garl’s 75-year-old instructor
Joe Bennett told The Seattle Times. “I
actually don't know of anybody, even
in their 80s, who's soloed.”
Apparently the FAA don’t have
records of any student pilots over the
age of 90 and showed only fifty-odd
in their 80s. As might be expected,
the medical was Garl’s biggest obsta-
cle: luckily he is in good health.
This helicopter was on display in
the Residentsplatz in Salzburg,
Austria as part of the 200th
Anniversary Celebrations of the clas-
sical composer Wolfgang Amadeus
Mozart.
Created by Italian artist Paolo Pivi,
and entitled ‘Upside Down
Helicopter In A Public Place’, it fea-
tures a fullsize and complete four
tonne Westland Wessex aircraft from
the reserve collection of The
Helicopter Museum at Weston-
Super-Mare in Somerset.
John Ninomiya is a pilot; of small
helium balloons. These he gathers
together in a large bunch, then he
straps himself underneath, and takes
off. To ascend, he drops sand or water
ballast; to descend, the balloons are
cut away or popped, one by one.
“Even after you’ve done it many
times before, there’s still something a
bit unreal to it,” Ninomiya says. “You
wonder: Am I really doing this?” (Or
why?)
pilot and Helicopter Shortage
As oil prices surge, so rig operators in
the North Sea are ramping up produc-
tion, and running up against a short-
age of helicopters and pilots. Bristow
Helicopters, based in Aberdeen, has
ten new helicopters on order and is
having to turn down business: “It is
an industry-wide problem. It is not
just a question of getting the physical
airframe; we've got to get the crew to
fly them and the engineers to main-
tain them. It takes up to two years to
get a new aircraft delivered, and five
years or more to train pilots from
scratch,” said Bristow Manager,
Mike Duncan.
Bell will be tolling in indiaAs the global economy grows so does
the demand for helicopters. Bell
Helicopter plans to open a pilot train-
ing facility in India next year and will
also start to offer fractional owner-
ship plans there. “We expect the
Indian market for helicopters to grow
to $4.3 billion over the next 20 years,
with 40 percent of the demand from
the civilian sector,” Bob Fitzpatrick,
Bell’s senior vice president for busi-
ness development. Of the 120 heli-
copters now flying in India, 70 of
them are Bell products. “This figure
will grow to 81 aircraft by the first
quarter of 2007, and we want to be
aggressive in India as it is going to be
a big market,” Fitzpatrick said.
India’s Army Aviation Corps is ready
to buy 197 helicopters, and Bell
Helicopter is competing with
Eurocopter for the contract.
The Windy Defence
The USA Department of Defense and
Department of Homeland Security, is
threatening development of wind tur-
bine projects, which were selected by
President Bush as likely to become
one of the main power-producers in
the U.S. The DOD is currently study-
ing whether wind turbines interfere
FLYINGC
ou
rt
es
yo
ft
he
he
liC
op
te
rM
us
eu
M, W
es
to
n-s
up
er-M
ar
e
Modern Day Montgolfier
‘Hubschraubflugzeug’Mozart’s
HELICOPTER LIFE, Autumn 2006
stopped off on their way North
as part of the annual Heli Air
Scotland rally. Jennifer Murray
and Colin have asked John
Pattinson to make the world’s
lightest helicopter covers from
a silicone elastomer based fab-
ric that John previously used in
airships. The covers will be
carried by Jennifer and Colin
in their Bell 407 helicopter on their
Pole to Pole expedition .
9
FLYING C RACKERS
Copter CoversCopter Covers opened their new
workshop and
design studio on
29 June 2006 at
Malt Kiln near
Shrewsbury in
S h r o p s h i r e .
Several helicop-
ters flew in and
Colin Bodill cut
the ribbon dedi-
cating the new
studio. Pictured
here are the Heli
Air R44s that
with defence and homeland security
radar systems, this means the FAA is
no longer routinely signing off on
windmill farm applications as posing
no threat to air navigation and thus
are delaying the whole movement.
The pilot SnakeAs Monty Coles set up his Piper
Cherokee to land at Gallipolis, Ohio,
a four-and-a-half foot black snake
slithered out of the instrument panel.
He knocked it to the floor (where the
reptile landed under the rudder ped-
als) then grabbed the snake behind
the head and held on while he called
the tower: as the snake wrapped itself
around his arm and began reaching
for anything else it could grab. “I told
them I had one hand full of snake and
the other hand full of plane. They
cleared me straight in number one.”
He said, “25 years ago my instructor
told me to always fly the plane first!”
Coles let the snake loose after taking
photos! The snake is assumed to be a
black rat snake (a non-venomous
constrictor), and ironically is nick-
named the pilot snake (from the mis-
taken belief that they led rattlesnakes
to safe sites to make their den).
Solo Heli-flight at Fourteen A fourteen year old California boy
has become the youngest African-
American person to fly an interna-
tional round trip in a helicopter.
Jonathan Strickland landed a
Robinson R44 at Compton Airport in
California in July after completing a
15-hour return trip from Boundary
Bay Airport, in Delta, British
Columbia. On his way to BC, he
became the youngest African-
American person to fly a helicopter
solo and to do so internationally.
Fourteen is the legal age to fly alone
in Canada (aside from age, there are
other requirements). While in the
USA Srickland was accompanied by
a fully qualified instructor.
The UK Ministry of Defence
(MOD), in conjunction the
British Horse Society are giv-
ing away sets of high visibility cloth-
ing to horse riders as part of a joint
campaign to encourage riders to be
both aware of and to be seen by low
flying helicopters! There is also a
MOD free-phone low-flying
helpline, which can provide horse
riders with useful information on low
flying activity before going riding.
to
p: a
la
nn
or
ris
; M
idd
le:
Co
ur
te
sy
of
Co
pt
er
Co
ve
rs
Canaries on Horseback?
10 HELICOPTER LIFE, Autumn 2006
(Continued from Page 10)
final tour, Bristow Caribbean based
at Galeota in Trinidad. Two years in
Trinidad were great fun: very diffi-
cult at times to get constructive or
timely action when required, but,
boy, can they party! If you haven’t
been to the Carnival in the Mardi
Gras season, you really should try it
some day. I had been lucky (some
might say foolish) enough to be Chief
Pilot of the various North Sea and
overseas Bristow operations and look
back with pleasure, considering
myself fortunate to have worked for
such a vibrant company and with
some truly great characters, both
pilots and engineers.
I was then lured into the corporate
market to fly a Dauphin 365N for
Peter de Savary, a high profile
and wonderfully colourful
character. This was the first
EFIS equipped Dauphin in the
country and I had three enor-
mously enjoyable and varied
years with this venture. These
were also the days of the
Americas Cup challenge proj-
ects, very controversial in
many ways, but full of innova-
tion, enthusiasm and brilliant
schemes and ideas. Every project was
carried out to the highest standard
and it taught me the value of striving
for the ultimate quality in service and
performance.
Demands from the family to share
in some of the adventures, among
other things, led me to join Shell and
move to the Far East to fly the S61N
in Brunei. We lived the life of the ex-
patriate for eight years, with all the
benefits that come with it. The S61N,
although quite long in the tooth by
the 1990s, was still proving to be an
effective machine for transporting
daily workers to and from the off-
shore rigs off the coast of Borneo.
The S92 is now coming in as a
never been plugged. In recent years
the offshore oil support helicopter
companies have addressed the gap in
remuneration, which has gone some
way to attracting staff, but unfortu-
nately the problem still exists in the
onshore environment.
The future appears bright for the
new generation of helicopter pilots.
Increasing interest from companies
and wealthy individuals in acquiring
modern helicopters that can be relied
upon to transport them in comfort
and safety in nearly all weather con-
ditions, means that our business
appears to have a healthy outlook.
One cause of concern lies with
structured continuation training of
relatively inexperienced pilots.
Larger companies such as Bristow
and Bond have the ability to
nurture co-pilots and bring
them up to command standard
through a well defined line
training program, but this is
not necessarily an option with
smaller organizations. It is all
too easy for a young pilot
familiar with the R22 to make
the leap to a small twin with-
out much support and guid-
ance, at the same time as possibly
having additional operational respon-
sibilities thrust upon him or her. This
is something that the CAA and the
BHAB must now address, and indeed
they are beginning to do so.
The advent of EASA is bringing
major changes to aviation in this
country and it is vital that we all
remain abreast of proposed changes
to legislation and react to consulta-
tion documents before new rules are
thrust upon us in our ignorance. I
would recommend membership of
the British Helicopter Advisory
Board (BHAB) to all in our industry
because it is the most effective voice
for the protection and promotion of
helicopter flying in the UK.
replacement and will do well if it has
a career to rival its predecessor.
At the end of the 1990s I returned
to the UK to take up my present job
flying with Air Harrods. We are very
fortunate to be able to fly the latest
types of twin engine helicopters and
are increasingly able to show, togeth-
er with the other corporate and char-
ter companies operating similar
types, that the modern helicopter pro-
vides not only convenience, but also
low cabin noise level, reliability and
speed in nearly all weather condi-
tions. Stepping out of an executive jet
into a modern helicopter does not
now necessarily entail a significant
downgrading in comfort for the pas-
sengers, as it once did.
So there is a brief sketch of the
wanderings of an average helicopter
pilot in the commercial market over
the past 3 decades: more interesting
than commuting to the City, one
might say. Where does the future lie
for the commercial helicopter busi-
ness in the future and what can a
young pilot look forward to? One
major problem facing us is a lack of
suitably qualified and experienced
pilots and engineers to take over
positions of responsibility when the
present incumbents retire. This short-
fall has been creeping up for some
time and one significant factor was
the transfer of relatively large num-
bers to the fixed wing operators in the
1980s, where pay and conditions
were so much better. This hole has
G UEST C OLUMNIST
ÒIt is all too usual for ayoung pilot familiar withthe R22 to make theleap to a small twinwithout support and
guidanceÓ
11
HELICOPTER LIFE, Autumn 200612
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Each year the Arctic and
Antarctic Institute in St
Petersburg conduct a
re-supply voyage from
Russia to their stations in
Antarctica. The return journey,
aboard the Icebreaker/
Expedition Vessel Akademik
Fedorov, is generally of sever-
al months duration. The Mi-8
helicopter is extensively used
for ice reconnaissance and
cargo transport, and is a vital
link in provisioning the bases and
changing crews who have ‘over win-
tered,’ spending a year working on
the polar ice stations.
In recent years the St Petersburg
Aviation Repair Company ‘SPARC’
has been given the task of supplying
a pair of Mi-8 helicopters along with
a crew of four pilots, two flight
engineers, three mechanics, and
a base operator. It has earned a
solid reputation for its experi-
ence in polar flying. The Mils
are flown with two pilots and a
flight engineer at all times.
The 2001 voyage, the 46th
Russian Antarctic Expedition,
was to East Antarctica, the
quadrant of the continent liter-
ally due south of South Africa and
extending around the coast beyond
HELICOPTER LIFE, Autumn 2006
The Russian ConnectionThe use of the Mil Mi-8 helicopter and ice-breakers to re-supply the Russian bases onEast AntarcticaBY NEILHARRISON
icebreaker / Expedition Vessel Akademik Fedorov
HELICOPTER LIFE, Autumn 2006
90 degrees east, virtually below
Australia. The stations of
Novolazarevskaya, Molodezhnaya,
Progress, and Mirny (the current cap-
ital of Russian Antarctic operations)
were re-supplied throughout an eight
week period.
The Fedorov departed Cape Town
on 3rd April, at the very end of the
summer season in Antarctica. This
was due in part to the need for sea ice
to become thick enough to unload
heavy tracked vehicles for transfer to
the station at Mirny. The US
Icebreaker Nathaniel B. Palmer was
in port at Cape Town at the same
time, but on its way home. A US offi-
cer made the comment that the
Russians were the only ones heading
to Antarctica when everyone else had
been long gone, though he did have
to acknowledge that there were no
other people more experienced in ice
navigation than the Russians.
The number one Mi-8 was
embarked in St Petersburg fully pre-
pared at SPARC's base on the edge of
Pulkovo airport. The second reserve
aircraft was flown in from Freetown,
Sierra Leone after working for a two
year period in Africa, as the Fedorov
passed down the West African coast.
The flight crews joined the vessel in
Cape Town for the Antarctic
sector only, flying back to
Russia immediately after-
wards by commercial airliner
to return to work.
It has not been unknown
for a Mi-8 to be ferried all
the way from St Petersburg
to Cape Town for the voy-
age, making a somewhat
lengthy beginning to an
Antarctic operation.
After eleven days plough-
ing south across the Southern
Ocean, our arrival at the ice
shelf adjacent to Novolazarevskaya
station marked the beginning of the
aviation activity. The reserve Mil,
chained to the helideck, was swapped
for the hangared number one
AS350. Unusually, Sergei is now fly-
ing a corporate helicopter, AS355,
out of St Petersburg: a long way from
his polar beginnings.
Crew transfer flights precede the
main cargo operation at
Novolazarevskaya, involving a shut-
tle of 30 minutes flying in each direc-
tion. For Chief Pilot Igor zakutilin,
this is the longest flight time to a sta-
tion; all of the others are within short
range of the ship. Navigation is visu-
al and by day only. Flights over
water, or more accurately sea ice, are
prohibited at night. Sergei has his
own personal Garmin GPS, which is
useful but soon fails, leaving a tradi-
tional Astro Compass for location
finding from the sun if posi-
tion is lost. In these far lati-
tudes a compass is of no
value, of course.
A constant eye on the
weather is maintained, the
ship receiving regular satel-
lite images and station
reports in lieu of traditional
Met, interpreted by the ves-
sel’s own meteorologists.
Antarctica has one of the
most aggressive weather sys-
tems on the planet and
change can be rapid. Wind
limits for the Mil are 25 m/s for nor-
mal flight and 15 m/s when carrying
sling loads. When landing away from
the ship a smoke bomb is typically
dropped to assess wind strength and
machine, which
was then rigged;
eight men to a
rotor blade in
conjunction with
the one of
Fedorov's cranes.
Not the simplest
of jobs in an air
temperature well
into the minus
twenties.
The Russian
helicopter team
are by no means
strangers to Antarctica's cold, of
course. Experience in their own
Arctic ‘backyard’ together with that
on the Northern Sea Route stretching
right across the top of Russia, has
provided a firm foundation for
Antarctic operations. All the pilots
are used to operating from ships:
Captain Sergei Ivanov has previously
worked on the Nuclear Icebreaker
Arktika, the first ship ever to reach
the North Pole back in 1977.
The helicopters themselves are
very much ‘bred’ for the cold: heated
main and tail rotor blades are a stan-
dard feature on the Mi-8 along with
the majority of other Russian
machines. There was much talk of the
types other nations operated in
Antarctica. The consensus of course
was that the Mi-8 was the better
machine for its capacity and reliabil-
ity, surpassing the S76, B212, and
13
Mil Mi-8 on board the Fedorov on its way to Antarctica
HELICOPTER LIFE, Autumn 2006
direction. Before subsequent start-up
and lifting, a flare will be fired sky-
wards for the same reason. At all
times the flying is extremely careful-
ly considered; although there is a
reserve helicopter and crew, this is no
place to get into any kind of trouble.
When landing on uneven and boulder
strewn surfaces the flight
engineer physically jumped
out of the Mil from a low
hover, on a long headset cord
to watch the tail.
Many times the weather
halts progress, sometimes for
days. This is inevitable with
the late timing of the re-sup-
ply. The mechanics carry on
their duties as normal in the
hangar and the pilots wait,
making the best of what a
cabin on a polar ship can
offer. Meals are high in fat to
sustain a crew working in the cold,
and not ideal for being cabin bound.
For the pilots fishing is a popular pas-
time when stopped at a station. Two
links of anchor chain tied to a rope
are thrown over the side of the ship to
make a hole in the sea ice. Catching
‘ice fish’ is easy and soon
they are enthusiastically salt-
ed to be eaten later with beer.
Soon the weather
improves and flying can
begin once more. The Mil is
crammed full of anything
from sides of pork, vodka,
beer, cigarettes, pickled
cucumbers, and potatoes;
station food for a year. It's
amazing how much food you
can get through those giant
rear cargo doors.
Sometimes scientists are
transported away to drill sea ice cores
for climate research. The lab team
explain that this is rather difficult to
do under a hovering Mil, barely
touching the ice with its tyres in case
it fractures.
Between stations, paperwork can
be caught up on and Antarctica
gating the ship are taken with an
equal amount of seriousness.
The following days, after unload-
ing the tractors, are filled by flying
sling-loads weighing up to 3000 kg.
Fedorov unloads her holds onto the
sea ice, for the Mil to transfer in a
constant flow for the three minutes
flying time to Mirny.
Soon the new crew is in
place and the station is provi-
sioned. Igor performs a final
bridge-height fast fly-past of
the ship, before landing-on
and de-rigging the Mil for
the last time. A ship-wide
vodka-fuelled party begins
as we turn to leave; flares are
raided from the helicopters
to fire in concert with those
from the station itself, now
on its own for the winter.
During the course of the
voyage the aviation team completed
over 50 hours of flying, efficiently
and safely in the face of challenging
financial circumstances.
The Russian Antarctic programme
is now a shadow of its size in Soviet
times. It is impressive how practical-
ly and effectively the
Russians operate with mini-
mal resources compared to
those of other nations.
Two months after leaving
Cape Town for Antarctica,
Sergei, Igor, and the other
pilots will be back in Russia
doing summer ‘heli-fishing’
tours around the Kola
Peninsula north of St
Petersburg. Such trips are
very much a high end tourist
experience: the best wilder-
ness fishing Europe has to
offer, but bring in much needed for-
eign exchange. They also mean our
Russian helicopter men can combine
working with the fishing they so
dearly love.
No better way to get to the other
bank without getting your feet wet
than by helicopter: Mi-8 helicopter!
enjoyed from the ship’s rail. We
arrive at the final destination of
Mirny, after backing and ramming
repeatedly through fields of multi-
year-fast ice.
The flying begins with a recon-
naissance flight to determine the best
route in. It soon becomes apparent,
however, that the ice at the station is
not thick enough to deposit the trac-
tor cargo. There is some consterna-
tion, before Igor departs with the
Captain and Expedition leader in the
Mil to locate a suitable ‘ramped’ ice-
berg, on which to leave the tractors,
before driving them off when the ice
has thickened.
One is located, then a team is sent
by helicopter to spend the afternoon
drilling the sea ice and taking depth
soundings along the route. This
ensures that there is no risk of
grounding. Both aviating and navi-
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Mil Mi-8 over the Russian Molodezhnaya Station
Fedorov crew posing in front of the Mil Mi-8 helicopter
By the time the 2006
Farnborough started, Israel
was involved in a war in
the Middle East, so per-
haps it is no surprise that one of
the newest products on show
was an Israeli designed flying
car, capable of lifting eleven
fully armed combat troops (plus
one pilot) out of an urban war
zone: the X-Hawk.
The X-Hawk is the creation
of Urban Aeronautics in combi-
nation with Bell Helicopter
Textron, and is still in the pre-flying
mock-up stage. Bell and Urban say
that the technology is Fancraft, and
that two technological breakthroughs
have formed the basis of Fancraft:
adaptable ducts which permit high-
speed operations of up to 140
knots and a unique vane control
systems (VCS) for lateral con-
trol stability and performance
against gusting winds.
Preliminary specifications
indicate that the X-Hawk will
have a length of 26 feet 6 inch-
es, a height of 13 feet 8 inches,
and a width of 11 feet and 5
inches. The empty weight will
be 3,700 lbs and the max weight
6,700 lbs, which allows carriage of
HELICOPTER LIFE, Autumn 2006
Farnborough FairWhile the Airbus 380 dominated the highskies, Bell Helicopters was in the lower,
sharper limelightBY GEORGINA HUNTER -JONES
16
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Bell showing a preproduction mockup of the X-Hawk
1,300 lbs of fuel and a payload of 1,700 lbs. Using two
CTS800 engines, it will create 2,460 shp, have a range of
330 nm and an endurance of 2 hours.
The machine works using variable inlet vanes, louvres
and variable pitch rotors. The vanes are placed above
each of the counter-rotating fore and aft shrouded rotors,
which work in time with the vanes placed below the
rotors. Variable inlet louvres in front of the forward
rotor’s shroud and
behind the aft rotor are
opened automatically
to reduce drag over the
top of the shroud in for-
ward flight, which
increases the X-Hawk’s
speed potential. The
rotors have a constant
speed, 1800 rpm
reduced from 6000 rpm
at the engine output.
Flying controls will be
fly-by-wire, and there
will be a free-wheel
unit in case of engine failure.
As well as its war-time usage, Urban Aeronautics are
positing that the X-Hawk could be used for EMS work,
and suggest the price range will be that of the EC145,
around US$6 million.
The design is the work of aerospace engineer Dr Rafi
Yoeli, who created and hovered a smaller model, the
CityHawk, which could take two people and had eight,
two-stroke piston engines. It was underpowered, but
showed that the experiment could work, hence Dr Yoeli’s
commitment to the larger model. Needing more funding,
Dr Yoeli presented the idea to Bell last July, and in
August 2005 the two companies signed a ‘memorandum
of understanding’ to co-operate on development of the
project. The third member of the research team will be
Penn State University. Dr Yoeli hopes the project will be
flying in 10 or 15 years. His original inspiration for the
design was Frank Piasecki’s 1950 Aerial Jeep.
Bell had a large presence at Farnborough this year,
with the Bell
Boeing V-22
Osprey tilt rotor
flying for the
first time in the
UK. When it was
not flying, it was
constantly under
armed guard
throughout the show. The Osprey
had flown across the Atlantic, leav-
ing from Goose Bay and twice
doing in-flight refuelling from two
KC-130J tankers. The Osprey car-
ried an additional 5,000 lbs on fuel
in two internal tanks. The journey
took a little under 9 hours and the
Osprey did ground speeds of
between 240 and 300 knots. It was
the first time an assault support air-
craft had ever flown across the Atlantic.
Further showing Bell’s desire to get back the domina-
tion of the helicopter market from Eurocopter, Patriot
HELICOPTER LIFE, Autumn 2006 17
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Bell 429 mockup with the newly created scissor tail rotor
urban Aeronautics X-Hawk in animated EMS mode
HELICOPTER LIFE, Autumn 2006
Aviation, the new (relatively, having
started this year) British dealers,
were emphasising the importance of
the Bell 429 helicopter in its market;
EMS, police or corporate helicopter.
Mark Butler, Sales Consultant, com-
pared the 429 with the EC145, now
very much the helicopter-to-beat
after its success in winning the US
military LUH (Light Utility
Helicopter) contract. He said, “the
429 is the same size as the EC145,
but much cheaper. Like the 145 it is
SPIFR (single pilot instrument flight
rules) but costs US $4.23 million,
instead of US $6.5 million.” He
explained that the scissor configura-
tion of the tail reduces the tip speed,
making it quieter and allowing it to
conform to the FAA noise regula-
tions, in addition to which there is
more tail rotor authority owing to the
reduced vortices. Mark said, “the
scissor configuration stops the har-
monic noise signature and therefore
reduces vibration.” He added, “there
is also the advantage of much
reduced labour costs as the connec-
tion of the tail rotor is direct rather
than via pitch links.”
Scot FitzGerald, Bell VP Europe,
Africa and Middle East Sales, added,
“in an attempt to reduce noise we
tried all the various styles of tail rotor
including shrouds, but finding them
all less effective, particularly at
height, came back to standard tail
rotor, which we then modified.”
we will be allowed to take a shorter
crossing, which will reduce flying
time by 45 minutes.”
Mike Creed said that the US$6.2
million jet has sea level pressurisa-
tion up to 41,000 feet, is certified for
single pilot operation and has a max-
imum speed of 486 knots, with an
IFR range of 2,500 nm. He contin-
ued, “we have sold 33 aircraft since
November last year and had huge
interest from
Russia and the
Middle East.”
Mike added that
the parent compa-
ny also plans to
offer a fractional
ownership, point-
ing out that if you
consider the alter-
natives US$2 mil-
lion for a third
share in a jet is
pretty good value.
Eurocopter
EADS has been dominating the fly-
ing news recently with the Airbus
380 and its troubles, however the 380
was flying most imperiously at
Farnborough and EADS offspring
Eurocopter mostly escaped any
opprobrium, instead being rather
upbeat having won the LUH contract
in spite of the competition from US
based rivals.
In the contest, the EC145 beat off
competition from the MD902
Explorer, the Agusta Westland
AW139, and the Bell 412EP to win
the US$2.2 billion contract. The pro-
gramme calls for 322 helicopters and
possibly an additional 30. Production
will be mostly at American
Eurocopters plant in Columbus,
Mississippi, greatly increasing jobs
in the area.
Eurocopter is likely to be leasing
civil EC 225s, Super Pumas, (the
civil version of the EC725) to the
MOD to bridge the gap in capability
aggravated by the British armed
Patriot have high hopes for the
Bell 429, and Mark says they have
had a lot of interest from potential
customers. Deliveries are expected to
start in 2010.
Sino Swearingen
Former Patriot Sales Director, Mike
Creed, is now The Sales Director of
New Aircraft at Action Aviation,
whose SJ30 set two world records as
it landed at
F a r n b o r o u g h .
Firstly, it became
the first light jet in
its class (it is cur-
rently flying as a
p r e - p r o d u c t i o n
prototype) to cross
the Atlantic on one
hop using standard
tanks. And second-
ly, it created a new
speed record, taking just 10 hours
and 40 minutes to fly from San
Antonio, Texas to Farnborough, with
a 42 minute stop at Goose Bay.
Flown by Sino Swearingen’s chief
test pilot, John Siemens, with
Hamish Harding, the chairman of the
UK’s Action Aviation, as co-pilot, the
aircraft landed with 560 lbs of fuel
remaining from an initial load of
4,850 lbs.
Siemens, however, is already keen
to break his own record, pointing out
that, “we can shave 300nm off the
distance if we have HF installed, as
18 HELICOPTER LIFE, Autumn 2006
This Sino Swearingen SJ30 holds two world records
From top: Mike Creed, Hamish Harding and Adam Miles
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the following types of aircraft can be maintained and refitted by Biggin HillHelicopters’ highly qualified and experience team of engineers under our part145 exposition.
Bell/Agusta Bell 206 SeriesBell 206L SeriesMD Helicopter 369 Series (Hughes 500)Shwiezer 269 Series (Hughes 300)Eurocopter AS350Eurocopter AS355
our engineers have in excess of 100 years of experience maintaining aircraftbetween them and we are the premier service centre for hughes 500's in thesouth east of england.
BHH Engineering also carry out vibration analysis, main rotor trackingand balancing and tail rotor balancing using the Microvibe™ 11 aircraftanalyser, Microtrack™ optical tracker and MicroBase™ computer mountedanalysis, storage and printing system.
forces engagements in Afghanistan and Iraq. Eurocopter
also believes that the EC225 is a strong contender for the
British SAR programme for which the MOD and MCA
(Maritime Coastguard Agency) will soon be inviting bids.
This is set to start in 2012, at the end of the interim con-
tract from 2007-2012, which was won by CHC
Helicopter Company.
poland
Swidnik again had the PzL SW-4 at Farnborough as part
of the static display, and a booth in the Polish pavilion.
Grzegorz Pawlowski said that, “small improvements and
changes continue on the SW-4 as does the attempt to get
JAA certification.” He hopes that they may get certifica-
tion by next year.
india
The Hindustan Aeronautics Dhruv helicopter was at
Farnborough, although at present it only has Indian Civil
Aviation approval. Resembling the BK117, it is the same
category as the EC155, the Sikorsky S76+, the AW139
and the Bell 412 but comes with the lower price tag of US
$6.5 to $7.4 million, which would be more in its favour if
it could get USA or European approval.
Japan
There was also a large Japanese presence, including
Kawasaki Heavy Industries, with their BK117 c-2, and
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. Although the Mitsubishi
MH2000 program stalled, after all the Mitsubishi
MH2000As on the market were all recalled in 2000, they
are now hosting Heli Japan 2006, which is to be held in
Nagoya in November this year.
Mitsubishi was the only Japanese company to have
created a totally Japanese helicopter, and there is still
considerable interest in recreating the machine. Moreover
Japan is now a growing market for helicopters generally
as they increase their use in many fields, including medi-
cine, earthquake relief, fire fighting, police and corporate
VIP travel.
Conclusion
Usually, even though helicopters are a small part of
Farnborough, that small part is dominated by Eurocopter,
this time it was definitely Bell. While other companies
had booths and chalets, Bell had pavillions. Their distrib-
utors talk about Bell’s revival; they could be right, cer-
tainly Bell is fighting hard to get back the number one
spot after having been out on a limb for many years. And
the Helicopter market itself is booming.
HELICOPTER LIFE, Autumn 2006 1919
The 5 seat polish pZL SW-4 helicopter at the static display
pZL-Swidnik at the polish pavilion at Farnborough
Class A3 Helicopters
Hangar 500, Biggin Hill Airport, Biggin Hill, Kent, TN16 3BNTel: 08704 430 555 Fax: 08704 430 556
www.bhh.co.uk
HELICOPTER LIFE, Autumn 200620
Heli-Tech 2005 at Duxford
was where William Moore
(an engineer by training)
first saw the Flymap mov-
ing map system. Amazed he had
never seen it before, and encouraged
by his companion Rob Lamplough’s
interest in buying a machine for his
Spitfire, William decided to become
the British distributor, something he
does not regret. He says, “the nice
thing about working with a small
company is when you
have suggestions, or you
want to change or add
things you can just ring up
the parent company and it
gets done. There is no
bureaucracy to go through.”
He launched his Flymap at
AeroExpo at High Wycombe in
June this year. He says: “Over
250 of these units have now been
sold in Europe since its launch last
year, and we hope
for similar suc-
cess in the UK.”
Using nor-
mal flying
maps as a
background
instead of a
c r e a t e d
screen, the
Flymap moving map
system is taking hold of the fly-
HELICOPTER LIFE, Autumn 2006
On Track with FlymapThe perfection in navigation
BY GEORGINA HUNTER -JONES
Co
ur
te
sy
of
fly
Ma
p
pocket Flymap
running on a standard
Windows pDA
HELICOPTER LIFE, Autumn 2006
ing market. It has a particular reso-
nance for helicopter pilots as the
company has designed several fea-
tures with them in mind. One is ter-
rain warning feature, either as a bar
or by height based colours superim-
posed over the map.
Cameron Henderson explains: “the
terrain warning feature uses a colour-
coded overlay to denote the relative
height of surrounding terrain. The
warning automatically switches on
when the helicopter’s height above
terrain (HAT) drops below 500ft.”
William adds, “This displays a
high-resolution profile of the terrain
infront of the aircraft for twenty nau-
tical miles and can include
man-made obstacles such as
radio masts.”
For Air Ambulance or
police (or anyone looking for
a particular house) the screen
can change to a street map,
which allows the pilot to
enter an address and post-
code instead of latitude and
longitude when planning a
flight. This part of the system
includes all roads in the UK.
The hardware comes in
three styles, the ‘L’ a middle
sized screen 6.4 inches in size, the
‘XL’ a large screen 8.4 inches in size
or the pocket fly map which runs on
a PDA (Blackberry-esque) all of
which can fit easily into the helicopter.
For the software, it is possible to
company this year he has already
quite a few satisfied customers. Bill
Lowry, Chief Pilot of Biggin Hill
Helicopters says, “it is defi-
nitely a helicopter pilot’s toy.
What I find so attractive
about it is that it uses the cur-
rent charts, even the OS
Map, so pilots don’t get con-
fused moving from hard-
copy to screen.” He was also
keen on the ability to overlay
the landing site on the map,
so you can recognise it when
you get there.
Robert Lamplough (Robs)
who is a warbird collector
and now has 300hrs on
Gazelle as a PPL(H) said: “I use
Flymap in my Gazelle because the
touch sensitive screen is very easy to
use and is extremely legible even in
bright sunshine.”
Cameron Henderson says:
“Flymap also includes all of the fea-
tures and options that you would
expect from a premium moving map
GPS and more.”
“One other thing I like,” says Bill
Lowry, “is the fact you can superim-
pose NOTAMs on the screen, so you
don’t fly into a Red Arrows display!”
He laughs, “Anything that helps keep
the pilot stay within the law must be
a good thing.”
Cost varies from around £300 for
the pocket flymap to £3,300 for the L
screen or £4,100 for the XL screen.
There are also many extras.
put on a variety of
different maps
including the normal
CAA 1 in 500,000
and 1 in 250,000
maps, it is also pos-
sible to put on the
OS Maps and use
specialist maps such
as the heli-routes
crossing through
London or Paris.
Superimposed on
the maps as well as
terrain clearance, you can have
weather maps or TCAS, although, as
William points out, TCAS only
warns you of passing traffic that is
using its transponder.
After flight it is possible to down-
load and examine
the route you have
flown, something
which many
instructors might
like to use when
their students have
returned from an
unexpectedly long
flight! Flights can
be planned on a
PC and moved via
a memory stick to
the screen in the
cockpit, in a simi-
lar way information after the flight
can be returned to the computer.
Although William only started his
21
Flymap XL installed in the Robinson R44
Flymap L outfitted in the Bell 222
BK117 cockpit with the Flymap L
The TT Circuit Assen, which
is located one mile s-w of
Assen, is the home of the
annual Dutch Motorcycle
Grand Prix, known world-wide as the
Dutch TT and is one of the classic
events in the World Championship
Calendar. The Dutch TT is tradition-
ally held on the last Saturday in June
and this year, the 76th Dutch TT, (A-
Styler TT Assen) it was on Saturday,
24th June 2006. The Moto GP is the
world’s premier motorcycling cham-
pionship, with a season of seventeen
Grand Prix races in five continents
across the globe. Apart from the main
programme, the Moto Grand Prix,
the programme also included two
extra races. Several helicopters flew
in during the practice days and the
Grand Prix on the Saturday. There
were two helipads, one, only tempo-
rary, was located inside the circuit
and was used both by the ‘response
ready’ HEMS (Helicopter Emergency
Medical Service) helicopter as well
as two other helicopters, there to be
used for aerial filming. The second
heliport was located just outside the
gate and was used for VIP arrivals
and departures.
Aerial Filming and Broadcasting
A German company, Heliteam Süd
Bikes behind the DykesThe Moto Grand Prix in Assen, TheNetherlandsBY ARJAN D IJKSTERHUIS
HELICOPTER LIFE, Autumn 200622
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HELICOPTER LIFE, Autumn 2006 23
had been contracted by Dorna (an
international sports management and
marketing company) for aerial film-
ing at the Dutch TT. Heliteam Süd is
also used by three other circuits. Two
helicopters were operated
from the helipad inside the
circuit during the weekend
for filming and broadcasting;
a Bell 407 and one Bell 206.
The Bell 407, registered as
D-HUTA, on the German
register, was equipped with a
gyro stabilised aerial filming
platform, the Gyron 935,
which is a versatile gyro-sta-
bilised system from Aerial
Camera Systems Ltd. The
Gyron 935 was fitted on a
side-mounted bracket on the
pit, so the pilot, Hako zimmer, could
easily see what he was filming and
could change the angle if he thought
it was necessary. During the races,
Hako zimmer flew with his Bell 407
between a minimum altitude
of 500 feet and a maximum
altitude of 1500 feet and he
flew almost continuously
around the circuit, following
the action. Between the
races, Peter Davis, from
ACS, made sure that the lens
was clean and that the sys-
tems worked properly.
The other helicopter, a
Bell 206L-3 registered as D-
HOPY, was flown by pilot
Hans Schneider. “I only have
to be airborne during the 250
right side of the helicopter. Although
this is primarily used as a helicopter
platform, the system can also be fit-
ted to boats, cranes and vehicles. A
small display is mounted in the cock-
Cabinet Minister Karla peijs arriving at the circuit
HELICOPTER LIFE, Autumn 200624
the other side. During the flight, a
film crew member sits in the back of
the Bell 206 helicopter and operates
the equipment. Hans explains: “The
film crew member receives the sig-
nals from all the four motorcycles
and thus he is able to watch them all
in one display at the same time. He
decides which one will be broadcast
to the ground station.”
HEMS
The other helicopter on the tempo-
rary helipad was a yellow German
registered B0-105CBS-5 from the
ADAC Luftrettung GmbH. This heli-
copter was on stand-by for HEMS
missions during the practice sessions
and the races. The medical crew, con-
sisting of a doctor and a nurse, are
normally assigned to ‘Christoph
Europa 2’ which is based at Rheine,
Germany, while the pilot came from
the ADAC in Munich. Fortunately,
their help wasn’t needed during the
weekend. If an accident occurred just
outside the circuit during the week-
end, then the assistance can be called
from ‘Lifeliner Europa 4’ based on
the rooftop at the University Medical
Centre Groningen (UMCG). If the
BO-105 helicopter crew had to assist
an incident outside the circuit, then
the races would officially have to be
stopped, upsetting both the spectators
and the organisers.
Vip
The second heliport was located just
outside the gate and was only in use
on the Saturday for VIP flights.
Several VIP’s including Karla Peijs,
the Dutch minister from the
‘Ministerie van Verkeer en
Waterstaat’ (Ministry of Traffic and
Water Management) arrived by heli-
copter early in the morning. She did
not come to Assen only to watch the
race, but to open the revamped cir-
cuit. For VIPs a ‘BMW VIP shuttle’
was flown in the morning prior to the
races and at the end of the day for the
return flight. Heliflights arranged
what is happening on the circuit.
Hans continues, “During the race, I
am hovering above the circuit
between the 2500 and 3000 feet.
2500 feet is absolutely the minimum,
because it is sometimes difficult to
receive a signal from the camera
owing to the angles when the motor-
cycles are almost flat on the ground
in the corners.”
The receiver was mounted on the
skid at one side of the helicopter,
while the transmitter was mounted on
cc and the Moto GP races,” he says.
“During these two races there are
four riders with a small camera
mounted on their motorcycle that is
broadcasting. So, we aren’t filming
as my colleague does. Instead the
helicopter is actually an airborne
relay station. We receive the signals
that the small cameras are broadcast-
ing and send them directly to the
ground station.”
The small cameras are used to give
the viewers at home a close look at
The Bell 407
filming with the
gyro-stabilised
platform
Below: The ver-
satile Gyron 935
from Aerial
Camera Systems
being cleaned by
peter Davis
The Bell 206 airbourne
relay station
Above: The signal receiver
from ground cameras
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those flights that were flown with helicopters hired from
Heli Holland, a Dutch company that operates a variety of
helicopters. A Bell 206 JetRanger and a Eurocopter
EC120 were used for the VIP flights.
In three days, more then 132,000 visitors came to
Assen both to see the practices and the races. On the
Saturday, almost 92,000 people were counted. The Moto
GP ended with a climax. The likely winner, Colin
Edwards, suffered a heartbreaking crash only a few
meters from the finishing line. Nicky Hayden, who was
driving closely behind Colin Edwards was able to over-
take him and finish first. Nicky Hayden will never forget
his first win of the season. Neither will Colin Edwards.
HELICOPTER LIFE, Autumn 2006 2525
The BO-105CBS-5 was on stand-by for HEMS missions
Eurocopter EC120 coming into land at the Vip helipad
26
Left: MD500D outside
Biggin Hill Helicopters
engineering hangar
Below: The head of the D
model has quick release
pins, which allow the
blades to be folded back
Above: The tailrotor has
‘lamiflex’ bearings
Left: The D model
was the first MD500
with a T-tail
Left: Capt Bill Lowry
climbing into the high-
skid MD500D
Nicknamed the Flying Egg
by the US military (or
when loaded for combat
the Killer Egg) the forerun-
ner of the Hughes 369 was extensive-
ly used in Vietnam. Its real name was
the OH-6A Cayuse and it became an
entity after it won the contract for the
US Army LOH (Light Observation
Helicopter) in 1963, when it was also
nicknamed the LOACH. All the cur-
rent variations on the 369/500 derive
from this original design.
The Hughes 369D I flew at Biggin
Hill with Chief Pilot Bill Lowry was
less killer egg than Private Dick’s
transport: it had come from Hawaii
and was ‘apparently’ the very heli-
copter used in the television show
nullifies the quick release of the pins.
This particular model of the 500D
has had standard pins put back in the
place of the quick release ones. The
earlier models from Cayuse onwards
had four blades, while the MD500E,
like the D model, has five.
As we pass to the tail, Bill points
out the tail rotor, which has lamiflex
bearings replacing the conical bear-
ings used on the 300, this allows for
more flexible use of the tail rotor and
a longer travel, useful for windy con-
ditions and high hovering and lifting
work out of ground effect.
Above the tail rotor is the T-tail
which was first used in the D models
and replaces the V-tail of the 500C
and earlier models, Chief Flying
Magnum P.I. Whether or not this is
the actual one, it, like Magnum’s hel-
icopter, had the later T-tail design and
five-blade main rotor. (Although this
helicopter was a Hughes 369 I am
going to use the more current term
MD500 for ease of description).
As we did the walk round before
flight Bill pointed out a few major
differences from earlier models of the
500. The D has quick release pins in
the main rotor head which allow two
blades to be folded back so that there
is more room for the helicopter in the
hangar. However, in the UK the CAA
insist that any time the main blades
are removed or folded back two engi-
neers must sign off the replacement
of the blades, something which rather
MD500DÕsSunnyside Up
HELICOPTER LIFEvisitedBiggin Hill Helicopterswhere Capt Bill Lowrytook GeorginaHunter-Jonesfor a test flight on theMD500DHere are her findings:
Photographs byTony Lowry and Hilaire Dubourcq
Instructor at Biggin Hill, Simon
Maynard, says, “it is a much more
stable 500 than the C model.”
This could be because the horizon-
tal stabilizer is just below the plane of
rotation, or, as 500 engineer and
expert, Archie MacKenzie suggests,
it could be that the D model, with its
extra blade and higher gross weight,
is overall a more stable machine. He
says, test pilots have discovered that
the T-tail makes no difference at all to
the handling characteristics of the
tail, and there is even a suspicion that
the only reason for the change was
cosmetic: T-tails being very much in
vogue at the time in the 1970s when
the D model replaced the C.
partly the max gross weight, which
has increased from 2550lbs in the C
to 3000lbs in the D and E (empty
weight has increased by 308lbs).
“The overall structure is heavier: as
well as the blade weight, there is the
improved transmission, while the C
is air-cooled the D has separate oil
coolers, and that, plus the T-tail,
increases the weight.” Another very
important factor is that the C engine
is de-rated, “at 56% it is using 22 US
gallons, while cruising at 120 knots
and a VNE of 130,” he explains,
“while the D and E running at 98%
power are using 28 gallons an hour
but their speed has increased to a
VNE in the D of 152 kts.” (This
The other important change to the
D was the engine. Early models had
the Allison T63-A-5A 285 shp tur-
boshaft engine and the 500C had the
Allison/Rolls Royce 250-C20 400
shp model, while the D and the E
have the upgraded version of the 250-
C20B 420 shp. In the D model this
reduces the range from 301 nm to
261 nms, and the endurance from 3.4
hours to 2.8 hours. Performance is
also somewhat reduced in the D, with
the C’s ability able to hover in ground
effect at 13,000 feet being now
reduced to a paltry 8,500 feet in the D
and E models.
Archie explains that the reason for
this deterioration in performance is
2828
M D 5 0 0 V a r i a t i o n SThe variations of the H369 and MD500 now flying are all
derived from the original 1963 design for the uS Army LOH
(Light Observation Helicopter), which OH-6A Cayuse won.
The OH-6 was also nicknamed the LOACH which, in
Vietnam War speak, means ‘the LOH light observation heli-
copter used to draw enemy fire so Cobras can come in and
make the kill’.
peak production for the OH-6A came in 1968 (at the height
of the Vietnam War) when 100 a month were being produced.
The OH-6D was an improved version with more avionics and
armaments. The modern-day OH-6 variants flown by the u.S.
Army's Special Operations Forces are known as ‘Little Birds,’
and, because of their ability to strike undetected during dark-
ness, earned Task Force 160 the right to call themselves ‘Night
Stalkers’. in 1984 the Hughes Company sold the series to
MacDonald Douglas, and it was in turn purchased by Boeing
in 1997. However, two years later Boeing sold off the helicop-
ter part of MD to RDM Holding inc. in 2005 it was bought
from the Dutch company by patriarch Holdings, whose MD
Lynn Tilton has promised many changes to the company and
to the attitudes of the helicopter world in general. More than
4,700 helicopters in the 500 series have been produced.
increases again in the E to 175 kts.)
The pre-flight walk around over,
we climb into the cockpit. This 500
has high skids, which were particu-
larly useful in Hawaii when landing
on the uneven volcanic soil, and
probably allowed Magnum to fire
from under the helicopter as he flew.
The 500 has a collective friction
screw behind the throttle, instead of
the normal lever or wheel. All the
controls are mechanical and are quite
heavy, but there is a very useful elec-
tric trim, which is constantly in use
when moving the cyclic. In fact
cyclic movements are really led by
the trim (this can be a problem if the
trim fails, but the weight, although
very heavy, is not impossible to fly
with and seems to pull forward, as
attested to by two people who have
suffered from this failure).
Start-up is the usual turbine engine
shuffle up to 58%, made worse for
Re-starting with the throttle now
open right to the edge of the ‘click’
position the fuel poured in and the
engine sprung to life and there were
no further problems. Unlike the Bell
series, which have an idle release
button, the 500 has a collar on the
throttle which has to be pulled for-
ward to return the throttle to idle.
We taxied out to the pad and any
the instructor as
the starter button
is on the left col-
lective. However,
this is normal for
the left seat heli-
copters and, as
other instructors
have pointed out,
there are advan-
tages with this, as
the student knows
that the instructor
depends on him to
keep the starter button depressed and
doesn’t rely on the instructor being
able to take over: making him more
independent from the beginning. As
this 500D has a Bendix starter the
fuel is opened to just below the ‘first
click’ position, something that has its
draw-backs, as we discovered when I
didn’t open the throttle far enough
and thus suffered from a non-start.
stiffness in the controls was soon for-
gotten: washed away by the incredi-
ble responsiveness and manoeuvra-
bility of the machine. The 500 is,
even more than most helicopters, a
lively and fun helicopter to fly, one
reason for this is the shape of the
‘egg’ which is comparatively low in
drag, and the large amount of power
available with only two people on
board and less than half tanks. We did
torque turns, dives and danced
amongst the air currents. What a
sight this helicopter must have been
in Vietnam when, twined with the
AH-1G Cobra attack helicopter as
part of what were known as ‘Pink
Teams’, it ducked and dived in low to
find targets, flying below the tree
line, and then, after marking the tar-
get with coloured smoke to lead in a
Cobra for the ‘Snake’ attack, pulled
off sharply and made its get away by
a combination of power, stealthiness
and on-edge flying. Whether you
liked the 500 or not probably depend-
ed on which side you were fighting!
Next we went on to autorotations.
The 500 enters autorotation smoothly
and without noticeable effort. In the
C model, I remember the autorotation
needed a very large amount of right
No strain and just the smallest for-
ward tilt and raised collective to
cushion the landing.
The MD 500 I flew is based at
Biggin Hill Helicopters in Kent and
we flew on a day that was stormy,
windy and overcast, never got above
1,000 feet, never left the airfield and
yet had a fabulous flight. This, per-
haps is the beauty of the 500; it is a
rugged, mechanical machine which
looks like it was made to fly and real-
ly appears to like doing so and to be
flung around and enjoyed. Almost
every pilot who flies it calls it a
‘boy’s toy’ and the power in the
machine which allows it to go verti-
cally up is phenomenal. No one,
pedal, however in
this D model this
is far from the case
and only a small
amount of pedal
seemed necessary;
possibly this is the
effect of the T-tail
or of its overall
stability. We
descend smoothly
to the ground and,
remembering to
give a higher flare
than normal, owing to the higher
skids, run on in just the same manner
as the Hughes 300, plus a lot more
stored energy from the five blades in
the head: a much softer, easier land-
ing than I was expecting. Much easi-
er, in fact, than its younger brother
the 333.
Having done the upper air work
we moved onto hovering, landing (all
very smooth and uneventful) and
finally tail rotor failures.
Bill said he doesn’t much like
doing tail rotor failures in the hover
with the high skid 500s, as it can put
a strain on the undercarriage, howev-
er, he closed the throttle and the 500
landed gently on its feet like a big cat.
30
and Atmospheric Administration)
where it does marine sanctuary over-
flights, ship grounding investiga-
tions, oil spill surveys, hurricane
damage assessments along with base
security flights and other utility and
observation work.
the machine for lifting, as fire dogs
and other work-horse jobs, while in
countries that mostly use helicopters
for the tourist market there are very
few 500s around. It is also still used a
lot by parts of the military, for obser-
vation, for example, by the US gov-
ernment’s NOAA (National Oceanic
though, who has sat in the back
would ever suggest that those ‘boys’
took their wives! It has got to have
one of the worst helicopter back
seats, with minimal room and hardly
any communication with the front.
This is probably why while it is very
popular in countries where they use
useful load 1586 lbs
Fuel capacity 429 lbs or 64 gallons
Gallons per hour 28-30
Range 261 nm
Endurance without reserves 2.8 hours
Service ceiling 15,000 feet (16,000 with oxygen)
HiGE 8500 feet
HOGE 5900 feet
VNE 156 knots
initial development of D model 1970
Hourly maintenance cost $131-146 uS
Engine Rolls Royce 250-C20B turboshaft 420 shp
Max continuous power 400 shp
Transmission takeoff 375 shp
Continuous 350 shp
5 main blades, 2 tail rotor blades metal construction (minimal cavitation)
diameter of the main blades 26 feet 41 inches
Length of fuselage 23.30 feet
Width 6.50 feet
Height 8.50 feet but 8.90 feet to tail fin
Max gross weight 3000 lbs
Empty weight 1414 lbs
M D 5 0 0 D S p E c i f i c a t i o n S
32
Ascot’s new
paddock and
grandstand
HELICOPTER LIFEvisited the new improved Royal Ascot
Georgina Hunter-Jonesreports:
Royal Ascot’s new
Home
This year Royal Ascot
returned to Ascot
Racecourse after the £200
million make-over of the
grandstand and track; all finished on
time and within budget. The twenty
month renovation used HOK Sport
(Hellmuth, Obata and Kassabaum) as
the Architects with Buro Happold as
the Engineer and Project Manager
and White Horse Contractors for the
track work. Overseeing the whole
development was the Chief
Executive of the Course, Douglas
Erskine-Crum, a former brigadier in
the Scots Guards. Ironically one of
the other projects that HOK Sport has
been involved in is the revamping of
Wembley Stadium, still unfinished.
One of both HOK and Buro
Happold’s current future assignments
Photographs byGeorgina Hunter-Jones and Hilaire Dubourcq
Ascot’s helicopter
landing site with
170 movements on
Ladies Day
is as part of the consortium involved
with the 2012 Olympics. Perhaps the
group wish they could take Erskine-
Crum with them as overseer and
time-keeper.
The new grandstand is certainly
light and airy, if a little reminiscent of
an airport, but, as Erskine-Crum
pointed out, the racecourse was
forced to take on large debts to make
a renovation of this nature and conse-
quently will need to be far more com-
mercial in the future in order to pay
back the loans. Certainly the atmos-
phere over Royal Ascot week was
very different from that at York
Racecourse the previous year, which
had a far more relaxed and old-fash-
36
HM the Queen and
HRH The Duke of
Edinburgh arriving
at Ascot
ioned feel in comparison to the
bustling new building with its 24
pairs of escalators, 7 restaurants,
265 hospitality boxes, 90,000
square feet of glass and 1,000 tele-
vision screens. Over Ascot week
there were around 300,000 racego-
ers and approximately 170,000 bot-
tles of champagne were drunk.
Although there were complaints
about the number of people throng-
ing the fourth level on Thursday,
including a New zealand visitor
who complained it reminded him of
the ‘Races in Oz’, Roland Rudd
from Finsbury PR said he thought
the racecourse was greatly
improved, particularly the boxes
which were formerly pretty pokey.
And one great improvement is the
position of the paddock, which is
now just behind the grandstand,
rather than a distant walk away in
the original design of the race-
course.
Inspite of all the other changes
the heli-pad remains virtually the
same, although Martyn Fiddler,
whose company, Helicopter and
Aviation Services, runs the helipad,
said there were more helicopters
flying-in than in previous years at
Ascot but fewer than at last year’s
Royal Meeting at York. He pointed
out that the position of the heli-pad
behind the trees and a short bus ride
away from the racecourse means
that the race-goers who do not fly in
are virtually unaware of the helicop-
ter movements.
Thursday, Ladies Day, was the
busiest of the week with around 170
movements, using the north-west
runway and approaching from the
south. In comparison Ladies Day at
York last year, also the busiest of
the week, had 220 movements.
Angela from Helicopter and
Aviation Services calculated that
around 2000 people flew in by heli-
copter over the week. All pilots
used Jockey call-signs, the weather
remained clement and the five days
went pretty smoothly with, as the
ATC confirmed, “only a few pilots
who turned the wrong way. Fewer
than in York!”
Above: Air Harrods
Sikorsky S76c+
Above right: The
first AW139 to be
flying in this country
40
pre-flight briefing given by Flt Lt Olly padbury to
Sgt Ryan Thomas and Flt Lt Bob Dewes
Owing to the complex and
responsible nature of
Search and Rescue both
the helicopter crews and
the RNLI (Royal National Lifeboat
Institution) need to train and practice
regularly, working together whenever
borne rescuers who are available.”
Squadron Leader Neil Robertson,
from the RAF Search and Rescue
based at Wattisham in Suffolk,
explains, “we are committed to train
with the RNLI at least once a year or
as necessary.”
If possible the RAF at Wattisham
try to train with the RNLI once a
month with emphasis on the manoeu-
vres from lifeboat to helicopter, and
particularly from the small ‘rib’ (re-
inforced inflatable boat) to helicop-
ter. Here the helicopter pilot cannot
see the boat and the rib has to move
up to the helicopter, which can be
extremely difficult for an inexperi-
possible to refine their skills in
winching and the difficult manoeu-
vres of catching the winch line and
hoisting survivors (injured or unin-
jured) in poor weather conditions,
from the boats into the helicopter.
Laura Kerr, from the RNLI says,
“our personnel need to be able to per-
form a smooth transition to the heli-
copter in sometimes very rough seas,
and we will train with any of our air-
HELICOPTER LIFEspent the day with theRAF Search & Rescue training on andoff the RNLI LifeboatsGeorgina Hunter-Jonesreports:
Photographs byAlan Norrisand Hilaire Dubourcq
HELICOPTER
AUTUMN 2006
LIFEBOATRESCUE
Sea King being
prepared for
departure and
taking off
unit) and medical transfers to hospi-
tal or, as in today’s practice, aiding
the lifeboats. Call-outs and SAR
radio coverage come from the
Aeronautical Rescue Co-ordination
Centre at Kinloss. There is an emer-
gency siren in the office but call out
is more usually directly by tele-
phone or radio.
After being kitted out in the fire
retardant RAF attire, plus helmet
and gloves, I am given a safety
briefing by Sergeant Nev Davies
(radar and winch operator) includ-
ing the helicopter, its manoeuvres
and equipment and what to do in the
event of an emergency, including
what to do if the helicopter becomes
submerged and we have to exit via
the windows. We then return to the
office for a briefing from Squadron
Leader Neil Robertson, the com-
mander on today’s flight. Included
in the Squadron Leader’s brief is
enced coxswain in rough seas.
I went up to Wattisham to join in
the RAF training exercise with the
RNLI boat based at Sheerness, in
Kent. Since moving to Wattisham
Airfield from RAF Manston in Kent
in July 1994, B Flight 22 Squadron
has carried out almost 2000 scram-
bles and provided assistance to over
900 people.
The primary purpose of the RAF
SAR unit is to cover the fast jets fly-
ing from nearby RAF bases includ-
ing their own. However, these days
fast jet accidents are rare; Flight
Lieutenant Bob Dewes tells me that
they have a maximum of four or
five a year. Far more of their call out
work is done with civilians in the
local community and includes lost
children and hikers, civilian plane
crashes, occasionally car crashes
(although the majority of these are
covered by the local Air Ambulance
43
Above: Sgt Nev Davies
in the Sea King radar
room, behind the pilots
44
details of what the crew will be
practising, weather and hazards and
the area in which the helicopter will
be flying.
In today’s training exercise Sgt
Nev Davies will be guiding the pilot
from his on-board radar over to the
coast and down to a 50 foot hover.
The pilot, flying under the instru-
ment hood, will be practising his
instrument techniques. This on-
board radar usage is something for
which SAR units are given special
dispensation and may only take
place over the water. Once returning
to land in IMC conditions the pilot
would instead use the land-based
radar service.
We all walk out to the Sea King
helicopter, where the fire crew and
Left: Stricken
pleasure yacht,
hauling water
RNLi rescuing a
stricken yacht, hauling
water, between
Southend and the isle
of Sheppey
46
engineers are now manning the emer-
gency equipment preparatory to start-
up. Also on this flight are Flight
Lieutenant Bob Dewes, the co-pilot,
Sergeant Paul Hunter, the winchman,
and Doctor Thomas Malaj, from the
local hospital. Dr Malaj is not
required to be on board as the RAF
SAR units do not carry a doctor, but
he likes to try and train with the unit
at least twice a month, both for the
experience it gives him and for the
help he can give the unit. In many
ways it seems the doctor’s involve-
ment helps integrate the crew into the
local environment.
During the week the crew are not
allowed to be more than 15 minutes
from base, although this is extended
to 1 hour during the week-ends, when
there is less fast jet flying. The crew
do 24 hour shifts and should be ready
for call out in 15 minutes before 10
o’clock or 45 minutes after 10
o’clock, the latter allows them to
sleep in the available rooms at the
back of the station.
Flight Lieutenant Bob Dewes,
said, “this must be almost the ideal
pilot lifestyle. It is a superb, satisfy-
ing job and I am able to see my wife
and children on a regular basis.”
Originally a fixed wing pilot flying
VC10s and training students on Grob
Tutors, Flight Lieutenant Dewes has
been flying the Sea King for three
months and does flying training
every day to improve his handling,
this includes autorotations and single
engine training.
We are strapped in and the helicop-
ter engines are running warmly when
Squadron Leader Neil Robertson
brings in the rotors, the Sea King
sways on its wheels but remains
steady. Checks complete, he lifts
smoothly and we head away from
Wattisham towards the coast before
the Squadron Leader goes under the
hood and Sgt Nev Davies starts giv-
ing instructions from his ‘radar
room’ behind the pilots.
The Sea King has a range which
allows the SAR crew to cover a 250
nm radius, possibly stretching to 270
nms depending on weather condi-
tions and how much weight they have
on board. For a stricken boat off
shore the crew pull out seats, decide
what equipment they really need and,
stripped down to basics, take the
maximum fuel available.
Leaving Wattisham the pilots talk
to their control unit at Kinloss, where
they learn that the Sheerness lifeboat
has been given an emergancy call
out, to a yacht hauling water, and so
there will be a short delay in the
training exercise. The crew use this
delay to get in a bit more radar and
instrument flying practice.
In his radar booth Sgt Davies has
Dr Thomas Malaj
being winched down
onto the All Weather
Lifeboat
winch operator maintain radio con-
tact at all times.
Although the All-Weather-
Lifeboat is still busy with the emer-
gency, the rib (known as the Inshore
Lifeboat) is ready for the the first rib
coxswain to practice his approaches
to the boat.
Sgt Hunter is winched down to the
inshore lifeboat and the crew begin
the practice. He gives instruction to
the boats less experienced members
on how to catch the line and the best
speeds and directions to approach the
helicopter.
Robin Castle, the Coxswain and
Mechanic and a full time RNLI man
explains:
“On the inshore lifeboat, the heli-
copter will proceed into wind at
about 10 knots. The inshore lifeboat
both FLIR and radar. As he gives the
pilot co-ordinates to fly he can see
boats, buoys and masts on the water,
and keeps the helicopter on a clear
path away from these or other obsta-
cles. Gradually he guides the pilot
through the melee into clear water
where he is able to descend to the
fifty foot hover.
Once in the fifty foot hover the
pilot can either fly the helicopter
manually or make use of the autopi-
lot. The radar altimeter takes a level
of the ‘raw altitude’, which changes
with the height of the waves, and
gives a ‘smooth’ readout based on the
mean height of the waves. Once the
pilot is ready in the hover the exer-
cise can begin.
Winchman Sgt Paul Hunter
explains that there are two ways of
doing a lift, either the pilot holds 8-
10 knots in the hover and the rib
commander motors up to the heli-
copter and catches the hoist cable,
which the winchman has let down
under the helicopter, using this to
winch up his casualties. Or the boat
motors ahead and the helicopter
pilot formates on the boat. Then hi-
line weights are let down onto the
boat and caught by one of the crew
members on the boat. The winch-
man is then winched down by the
winch operator onto the boat.
The winch operator has a ‘hover
trim,’ a control remote from the
pilot’s controls by which he can
steer while the pilot is hovering,
thus helping get the Sea King pre-
cisely into position, and a winch
lever with which he can raise and
lower the winchman. The hoist
cable is 245 feet in length and can
lift 600 lbs. The winchman and
48
will come infront, astern and to star-
board of the helicopter to avoid the
downdraft ‘no go area’ and will wait
until the winchman is lowered
before finally moving in under the
helicopter.”
When each of the crew members
have been successfully winched up
into the helicopter and back down to
the rib, we move onto the All
Weather Lifeboat. First Paul is
again winched down to the boat,
which would be the normal practice
in an emergency call out as, like
most of the winchmen, he is para-
medic trained, and can assess the
situation before helping the lightest
injured up to the helicopter and
bringing up the most injured in a
double lift. Next goes the doctor.
When it comes to my turn to be
winched out of the boat I am first
given a long-strap-seat-belt, which
allows one to walk safely around
near the open door without fear of
falling out. I then sit on the edge of
the open door and am given a single
strop to put around my body which
is attached to the winch cable via a
rope. I take off the seat-belt and am
warned to keep my elbows in. I am
given the hi-line cable to hold,
which the winchman will use to
guide me onto the boat.
When everything is ready the
winch operator eases me up, off the
side of the helicopter and into the
void. Surprisingly, this is not an
unpleasant feeling and at all times I
felt completely safe, even though I
was hanging from a thin cable over
open water, under a large hovering
helicopter in weather conditions
which (owing to the heat) would
make it impossible for the helicop-
ter to fly away on one engine.
Luckily I have no imagination!
As the winch operator glides me
down towards the boat, the winch-
man begins pulling on the hi-line to
guide me in the right direction, here
the pull is quite fierce and at one
point I almost lose the handle of the
Helicopter Life’s
Editor takes part in
the exercise onto the
All Weather Lifeboat
cable and grip it harder to keep it in
place. Then I am arriving at the back
rails of the boat deck, lift my legs to
swing them over and am down on
deck. It has all happened in less than
a minute.
With the helicopter maintaining its
position over the boat and the
coxswain steering a constant heading
the RNLI crewmen are winched up
into the helicopter and back again.
Some go up in pairs, as casualties
might if they were only lightly
injured, some singly.
RNLi volunteers
proving that the
winch can take up
to 600 lbs in weight
50
Robin Castle explains: “There is
a considerable amount of responsi-
bility when winching with the heli-
copter, not only the safety of the
lifeboat crew and lifeboat, but also
the helicopter. It is important to
have enough ‘sea room’ for winch-
ing. On the all weather lifeboat the
coxswain will oversee the opera-
tion, by placing a competent person
on the helm. If winching from the
after deck we will have a crew
member forward with red and green
flags. Green for winching and red to
stop winching. This enables the
pilot to have a clear view of the
lifeboat. In an emergency the heli-
copter would try to clear to port and
the lifeboat to starboard. Constant
VHF communications are kept
between the helicopter and the
lifeboat.”
Since all the winchees so far have
used the single strop attachment,
Sergeant Hunter now shows me the
use of the double strop.
The importance of using the dou-
ble strop with some injuries was
discovered some years ago during
the Fastnet race, when survivors
who were perfectly OK while still
in the water, suffered from loss of
hydrostatic pressure during the
actual lift. In the consequent loss of
consciousness, some lives were
lost. This lead to research about the
use of single and double strops and
the realisation that having the knees
bent up and the body in a foetal
position means that there is less
strain on the heart and a reduction in
the problem of the blood draining to
the extremities, which prevents the
casualties blacking out.
Sergeant Hunter, wearing a hip-
encompassing cradle, attaches my
double strops to his cable, then the
two of us are winched up together.
This is also be a good way to lift a
nervous or badly injured patient. It
is a very comfortable way to travel,
and when we start to spin, as often
happens in a winch, Sergeant
Hunter happily pushes away from
the base of the helicopter to keep us
clear. A final lift and we are back in
the helicopter.
We return to the base at
Wattisham, with the pilot in com-
mand doing an ILS approach into
the base under the hood. We had
only been down a few minutes
when the siren sounded, warning
another call was coming in, and that
this time it was not a training call.
Everyone sprung into action and the
fuel was pressure-pumped into the
R N L IRunning and funding of theRNLI is done entirelythrough voluntary contribu-tion. The RNLI is a regis-tered charity with one clearpurpose: to save lives atsea. It provides a 24-hoursearch and rescue serviceout to 100 nautical milesfrom the coast of theUnited Kingdom andRepublic of Ireland and alifeguard service on 62beaches in the South andSW of England. Since theRNLI was founded in 1824,lifeboat crews have savedmore than 137,000 lives.Money is raised from thegeneral public, the charityreceives no governmentmoney and the helmsmenand crewmen are volunteersgiving their time and
expertise for free. Of the4,800 lifeboat crew mem-bers 4,500 are volunteers,10% of whom are women.
On the Sheerness Lifeboatduring our training sessionwere: On the inshorelifeboat: Clive Hancock,the Helmsman, who is acreative resin technicalmanager, Nathan Silveston,who is self-employed, BobSmith who is a police offi-cer. On the all weatherlifeboat were Robin Castle,the coxswain and full timewith the RNLI, Paul Jarvis,the second coxswain and amate on local tugs, MartinRowden, the second
mechanic, a plumbing andheating engineer, AndyMatthews, third mechanic,who is a police officer,Nigel Budden, the naviga-tor, who is an estate agent,Nicky Wood, one of the10%, an immigration offi-cer, Jason Bailey, an ambu-lance technician, PaulTaylor, a scaffolder andTom Ware, a shop owner.
The RAF Search and
Rescue organisation was
established formally in
1941 to aid all military air
crew in trouble over land or
sea while training or on
operations. By the end of
World War II more than
8000 air crew and 5000
civilians had been rescued.
In the five decades since
then more than 55,000 peo-
ple have been rescued by
the RAF, Royal Navy and
HM Coastguard helicopter
crews, and RAF Mountain
Rescue Teams based
around the UK.
Even today about 1500
people are assisted annually
in more than 2000 incidents
involving a helicopter or
Mountain Rescue Team
(MRT) being scrambled by
the Aeronautical Rescue
Co-ordination Centre. From
1941 until the end of 1997
there were two ARCC, one
at Plymouth and the other
at Edinburgh.
The two were combined
in 1997 at RAF Kinloss.
All requests for assistance
from the other emergency
services throughout the
United Kingdom - Police,
Fire, Ambulance and
Coastguard - are now han-
dled at this single ARCC.
Whilst the primary task is
to assist military personnel
the large majority of the
tasks that they undertake
involve civilians in trouble
anywhere on the UK main-
land and islands or at sea.
RAF Search and Rescue
helicopter, which allows a 1,000 lbs
of fuel to be pumped in in a few min-
utes, and as soon as we were ready to
go, so was the helicopter.
The Coastguard around the British
coast is currently shared between the
RAF (six coastal bases), the Navy
(two bases) and the Maritime
Coastguard Agency (MCA), which
has four bases presently run by the
civilian operator Bristow
Helicopters. This will change slightly
after 2007, CHC Helicopter
Corporation, a Canadian company,
having won an interim contract to
serve the MCA until 2012, using a
mixture of Sikorsky S92s and Agusta
Westland AW139s. The operation
continuing on from 2012 will soon be
open to bids, however, the basic
structure seems likely to remain
much the same: that helicopter sup-
port is given to the boat service run
by the RNLI; community based,
funded by charity and serving the
people with dedication.
53
54
Weston-
Top: Lynx ZD28 of the Blue Eagles, the
Army Air Corps display team
Above: The only oversea’s visitor,
German Army BO105 from Bückeburg
Despite unsettled weather
across the west of the UK
over the last weekend in
July, the 16th Helidays on
Weston-super-Mare sea front attract-
ed over 50 helicopters during a three
day period. The Helidays are primari-
ly run to raise funds for the
Helicopter Museum, based on the
edge of the town, and local charities.
It also gives the public a rare chance
to see helicopters close up and learn
more about this versatile aircraft and
the many roles it performs. This
annual event is a unique helicopter
fly-in which takes place on the 3/4
mile long seafront beach lawns: a
grassed area adjacent to the miles of
sandy beach which contribute to the
attraction of this traditional British
seaside resort. This year also coincid-
ed with two local anniversaries: 70
Photographs byAlan Norris
HelidaysHELICOPTER LIFEvisited the 16thHelidays at Weston-super-Mare fromwhere Alan Norrisreports:
ian feel about the show although the
military aircraft included the British
Army Air Corps Blue Eagles display
team and Army Historic Flight of a
Westland Scout and Alouette II.
The Blue Eagles performed their
spirited display on two days much to
the delight of the crowds lining the
sea front, and the RAF was well rep-
resented with a Bell 412EP from the
Search and Rescue Training Unit,
based across the Bristol Channel in
North Wales, and a Westland Puma
HC1 which flew in from RAF
Benson in Oxfordshire. Both aircraft
crews allowed a never ending line of
the enthusiastic children to sit and
look inside the helicopters. The Puma
attracted particular interest as it was
originally ‘war booty’ having been
abandoned near Port Stanley by the
Argentine Coast Guard and later
rebuilt to RAF standards, entering
service in 2001. It is now operated by
No. 33 Squadron in RAF service as a
tactical support helicopter.
The German Army BO105 Anti
Tank helicopter was the only over-
seas visitor this year. It came from
the German Army aviation training
school based at Bückeburg, 50 km
West of Hannover, and the three man
years of Weston airfield and 50 years
of helicopter associated activities.
Weston-super-Mare having been the
home to Bristol Aeroplane Company
building helicopters followed by
Westland Helicopters in the early
1960’s, continuing today with the
Helicopter Museum.
Helidays invites both civilian and
military helicopter crews to fly onto
the beach lawns for a celebration of
the helicopter and the show has
developed a reputation for attracting
military helicopters from across
Europe. However, due to operational
commitments around the world this
year’s event had a much more civil-
56
Left: The Bell 412Ep from the
Search and Rescue Training
unit crossed the Bristol
Channel to spend the weekend
at Weston-super-Helidays
Above: Robinson R44 G-OMEL
arrives at the Helidays
Above: Bell 206 G-SpEY
comes in to land
Below: Scout XT626 from
AAC HAF
58
Left: The crew of the puma
from 33 Squadron the RAF
were happy to show the visi-
tors inside and out as well as
answering questions about
being a pilot in the RAF
Left: The largest
and the smallest
helicopter; the
RAF puma and
the Bug Mk3,
which is being
developed by
Ronald Cope.
This, the third
prototype, is
powered by a
BMW four stroke
engine.
R44 arriving at
the Helidays
steady increase of visitors each year
will ensure that the event will contin-
ue to build on its last sixteen success-
ful years and maintain the helicopter
link to Weston-super-Mare well into
the distant future.
pleased with yet another
successful event” said
Claire ap Rees event
organiser.
Many private owners
and Helicopter Club of
Great Britain members
take the opportunity to
fly in to Helidays, in a
variety of helicopters, as
they are always looking
for some where new to
fly into. Pilots use the
weekend as an ideal gathering point
to socialise with old friends and talk
helicopters, some stopping for the
weekend and others just visiting for
the day.
The unique mix of military and
civilian helicopters together with
pleasure flights, operated by Polo
Aviation, running continuously dur-
ing the show from the beach, and a
crew enjoyed their return visit to
Helidays. Children and other curious
visitors were allowed a close up and
personal look at the aircraft; a great
public relations opportunity.
“We had over 20 thousand visitors
to the show and over 150 helicopter
movements into and out of our
licensed helipad. The civil and mili-
tary mix of helicopters is a real
opportunity for the public to see how
diverse and adaptable the helicopter
is in everyday life. We are veryAbove: Alek Murzyn arriving in a
Brantly B-2B, probably the oldest
helicopter at the Helidays, one of
six still flying in Britain
Right: Royden Kemp
and his co-pilot depart-
ing on the Sunday in his
Bell 47G G-BAXS
In June this year, the first
AeroExpo was held at High
Wycombe Airfield in
Buckinghamshire. Paddy
Casey, show organiser,
explained that the aim of the
show to bring all types of avia-
tion together, for future as well
as present day pilots, and was
especially aimed at families.
There were only a few helicop-
ter participants but those that
were there were highly visible.
Patriot Aviation had a large
external static display leading up to
the hangars of the main show. This
included a Bell 407, as Patriot have
recently become the British Bell
dealers. Helicopter Life was told
they had already confirmed sales of
four 407s. Caseright Helicopters,
had one Schweizer 300CBi and the
BHAB had a small stall inside.
Show stalwarts included;
Pooley’s Flight Equipment, Express
Doors, Police Aviation News and
Ross Aviation amongst others.
Brand new show goers included
Action Aviation, the British distrib-
utor of Sion Swearing, and
Flymap’s moving maps, which use
current charts on the screen.
chances of airborne collision
and bird strikes, conclusive
tests have proven that the puls-
ing of external lights creates an
illusion of exaggerated motion
and makes an aircraft visible for
miles, even in fog or smog.”
The Pulselite® avoidance
system is now available in
Europe for the first time from
Ross Aviation. The company
say it is very simple to fit. Ian
explains that the system pulses
the landing lights, which can be
activated manually or automatically
using its TCAS feature. For further
details contact Mark Biggs.
Hayward Aviation, the insurance
company, had a strong team at the
show headed by MatthewDay.
Opposite them were Hitachi
Capital, looking for likely loan tak-
ers, and Shell, who sponsored the
seminas, had the entrance booth.
Although the show was not very
well attended, partly because it
coincided with the World Cup,
Paddy said that the larger fixed
wing companies were very happy
with their sales and concluded that
it had been a useful first event. The
second show will be in June 2007.
Ross Aviation are promoting a new
pulsing light, called the Pulselite®
System. Ian
B r o w n
says: “In
c r o w d e d
a i r s p a c e
around air-
ports and
when flying
below 3000
feet, being
seen is criti-
cal to flight
s a f e t y. To
reduce the
60
A ERO E XPO
AeroExpo over two hangars, plus a static display
Caseright Helicopter’s Schweizer 300CBi on display
pulselite ® system uses the landing light
patriot Aviation with a Bell 407 at the static display
HELICOPTER LIFE, Autumn 2006
Lat.N51˚46.2’ Long.W000˚37.8’ O.S. Ref: 165-946087Height above mean sea level: Approx. 500 feetNearest airfield with fuel: ElstreeSurrounding control area: LutonHelipad: YesDescription of landing area: In grass area 400yds
away from resort.Landing fee: No
Address: Champneys Health Resort Tring,Wiggington, Tring, Herts. HP23 6DY
Tel: 01442-291000 Fax: 01442-291001Email: resort@champneys.co.uk Website: www.champneys.com
(Prior Permission Required)
Lat. N 47° 26.2 Long. E 004° 19.9O.S. Ref: Jeppesen VFR +GPS Chart LF-2Height above mean sea level: 932 feetNearest airfield with fuel: Semur-en-Auxois LFGQ or
Saulieu LFEWSurrounding control area: REIMS CONTROL / INFO Helipad: On the terrasse of the Château,
wind sock Description of landing area: Please approach from the Eastover the park, radial from the lake de Pont. Avoid flying over
the village.Landing fee: FreeAddress: Château de Flée, F 21140 Semur- en Auxois,
Burgundy, France. Motorway A6, Exit Nr: 23Tel: + 33 6 73 20 04 06 or + 33 380 97 17 07 Fax: +33380 9734 32Email: chateaudeflee@wanadoo.fr (Reservation Required)
Lat.N50˚42.56’ Long.001˚.06.31’W O.S. Ref: 903-36333Height above mean sea level: Approx. 40 metersNearest airfield with fuel: Bembridge AirportSurrounding control area: Bembridge AirportHelipad: Due east of hotel in middle
of rough golf course.Description of landing area: “H” usually mown on rough
area of golf course. Please approach from the seai.e. east rather than over local residential areas.
Landing fee: £50 fully credited against hotel account
Address: Priory Drive, Seaview, Isle of Wight, PO34 5BUTel: 01983-613-146 Fax: 01983-616-539
Email: enquiries@priorybay.co.ukWebsite: www.priorybay.co.uk(Prior Permission Required)
LANDINGFRIENDLY SITESH ELICOPTER
CHAMPNEYS H EALTH RESORT TRING
PRIORY BAY H OTEL , ISLE OF W IGHT
CHåTEAU DE FL�E, BURGUNDY , FRANCE
THE pRiORY BAY HOTEL
“THE COuNTRY HOuSE BY THE SEA”
5 minutes across the Solent to a different world
The Mediterranean in an English Garden
6262
Joanna Vesty is herself an explorer,
although she doesn’t dwell upon it
in her book, and has, amongst
other things, flown from Alaska to
Tierra del Fuego in a Robinson R44,
on her honeymoon. However this is a
book about fifty other explorers and
is, as she says herself, an eclectic and
personal choice; some are household
names, others less well known and
some probably are getting their
first taste of publicity in her book.
Amongst these fifty, many are
polar explorers, some discover the
secrets of the sea or other parts of
the earth, including Everest and the
rainforest, or the meaning of life
and eight are pilots, exploring the
air. These eight cross the spectrum
of the craft. We have Svetlana
Savitskaya, Buzz Aldin and F.
Story Musgrave going into space,
Bertrand Piccard, Steve Fossett
and Sir Richard Branson as bal-
loonists (clearly many of these
people have other talents but here
she is concentrating on their explo-
ration) Mary Ellis delivering air-
craft in the Second World War and
Steve Brookes, Joanna’s husband,
flying a helicopter to both poles.
Mary Ellis, we discover, is the
antithesis of the modern day celebri-
ty seeker, a quiet gentle woman who
simply loved flying and took the
opportunity to enlarge her repertoire
when the war came. One quote I
loved says: “as a schoolgirl of 16 I
was not very good at hockey and was
allowed to go for flying lessons at the
Although Buzz is best known as “the
man who was second to set foot on
another planet”(sic) that is second to
Neil Armstrong, Joanna discovers
other things about the man, including
that he was a pilot in Korea, flying 66
combat missions in F-86 Sabre Jets
and that he wrote several novels.
F. Story Musgrave, a man who has
been into space more than anyone
else, and appears to have every
qualification and achievement
NASA could possibly desire, is
also a sensitive poet and artist.
Steve Brookes, the man who
flew a Robinson R44 to both poles,
says the highpoint of his life was
making “the world’s ultimate all-
terrain vehicle.” The “part combine
harvester, part Thunderbird,”
which he and co-pilot drove across
the Bering Straits between Alaska
and Russia.
Bertrand Piccard is well known
for his record breaking flight
around the world in a balloon,
which took 19 days, 21 hours and
47 minutes, but less well known
for being the grandson of Auguste
Piccard, Hergé’s inspiration for
Professor Calculus in Tintin.
These kind of interesting and
unknown facts fill Joanna’s book and
make it fabulous to read, really the
only failing of the book is that she
does not have enough room to write
more about each person or show
more photographs. A fun book and
definitely worth the price.
local aero club instead.” Oh, for such
a choice today! As she went on to
deliver more than 1,000 aircraft to
240 airfields during her time in the
Air Transport Auxiliary and thereby
help the war-effort her parents clear-
ly made the right choice.
Another heroine of the skies is the
Russian cosmonaut Svetlana
Savitskaya, the first woman to walk
in space as part of the Soyuz T-12
mission. Flying at 16 years old,
Svetlana went to test pilot school and
established many new records
including 2,683 kms per hour in a
Mig-21. In 1989 Svetlana became a
member of the Russian parliament.
Buzz Aldin’s section is illuminated
by a wonderful picture of President
Nixon laughing with the astronauts.
BOOK R EVIEW
JoannaÕs encounters with 50 extraordinary Pioneers
Georgina Hunter-Jones
FACES OF EXPLORATIONby Joanna Vestey
Wigwam Press in association with Andr� Deutsch, £20, 212 ppISBN 0-233-00199-9
HELICOPTER LIFE, Autumn 2006
HELICOPTER LIFE, Autumn 2006 6363
checks, raised the collective lever. The helicopter
yawed to the left and the nose pitched up. The pilot
lowered the collective, whilst correcting the left yaw
with right tail rotor control pedal and the helicopter
settled on the ground. Following the yaw to the left G-
ODHG was then facing the R44, which had previous-
ly been behind and to the left.
The pilot again raised the collective lever to left the
helicopter into the hover and moved the cyclic control
aft in order to prevent movement towards the parked
R44. The helicopter again yawed to the left and the
nose pitched up. He continued to raise the collective
lever and attempted to correct yaw and nose-up pitch,
but the helicopter pivoted around the rear of the left
skid landing gear. It rolled to the left and the main
rotor blades struck the ground; the helicopter came to
rest on its right side. The pilot was uninjured and was
able to release himself; he vacated the helicopter
through the front left door.
The ‘accident flight’ was the first time the pilot had
flown the R44 solo but with full fuel. As a conse-
quence the centre of gravity was close to the aft limit,
but within the C of G limits for the all up weight
(AUW). The pilot considers the aft C of G was major
factor in the accident. To address the problem he now
places 56lbs of ballast in the left front seat when fly-
ing solo with full fuel. This moves the C of G for-
ward, which reduces the need to counter nose-up
pitch when lifting into the hover.
Eurocopter AS350B3 ‘Ecureuil’, G-BZVG
An instructor and student were carrying out a simulat-
ed hydraulic failure approach and landing. The stu-
dent was about to carry out a run-on landing when she
experienced difficulty overcoming the control feed-
back forces. The instructor took control and attempt-
ed to climb the helicopter but it rolled to the left and
struck the ground. No evidence of pre-impact
mechanical fault was found, but the issue of heavy
control forces in manual flight was well understood
by the helicopter manufacturer.
There had been a previous incident with the helicop-
ter, in which the owner had had trouble with the heli-
copter during a simulated hydraulic failure, finding
the control forces too high, and the instructor had
taken control and managed to fly away, but only after
the helicopter had yawed to the left 180 degrees.
Following this incident, the chief instructor and the
Eurocopter AS350B2 Squirrel, G-BXGA
The helicopter had been employed on an underslung
load-lifting task, tansferring bags of stones from a
scree slope to a footpath a kilometre away. On com-
pletion, the pilot manoeuvred the helicopter to land
and pick up the two ground personelle who had been
attaching the loads to the external hook. The first
landing site he deemed unsuitable because of its rocky
surface, so he hovered over to another possible site at
1,900 feet amsl and which was of limited size. It had
a more acceptable surface, but was adjacent to a steep
slope, which included a boulder at the pilot’s two
o’clock position.
The pilot stated that the surface wind was from 250
degrees at about 20 to 30 knots, which, with the heli-
copter on a 350 heading generated a turbulent cross-
wind from the left. While assessing this landing site
from the hover the pilot felt a vibration through the
cyclic stick. He realised that the main rotor blades had
hit the boulder and immediately moved up and away.
He considered the controls were working normally so
he selected a third site, where he landed successfully.
The ground personelle then climbed on board and the
helicopter flew a mile away to the refuelling area
without further incident.
Noticeable vibration was felt on shut-down and an
initial inspection revealed damage to the tips of each
of the three main blades. Subsequent engineering
examination found no other damage.
Robinson R44 Raven, G-ODHG
On the day before the accident the pilot had flown
from Ireland to Cannock in a R22. He had been forced
to abandon his intended destination of Sywell due to
bad weather. On the day of the accident the pilot and
an instructor planned to fly to Cannock to recover the
R22 back to Sywell.
The pilot intended to hover taxi G-ODHG to the east-
ern side of the airfield in order to collect the instruc-
tor before departing from Cannock. The surface wind
was from 200 degrees at 10 knots, and the visibility
was 8 km with a cloudbase between 800 and 1,000
feet. The helicopter was full of fuel in both the main
and auxiliary tanks. It was parked on the main park-
ing area adjacent to another R44, which was behind
and to the left, and a R22, which was to the right. The
pilot completed his pre-flight inspection, started the
helicopter and, having carried out the pre-takeoff
A CCIDENT R EPORTS
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owner consulted the manufacturer’s agent. They
explained they thought the control forces were abnor-
mally high, and a test pilot was asked to assess the
control forces without hydraulic power when he flew
the helicopter. The test pilot flew G-BzVG twice,
including a full C of A test flight, and came to the con-
clusion that the control forces were normal.
In this incident, the student was an experienced
AS350B pilot, having flown approximately 100 hours
on the type on her FAA licence in the USA. She was
now training to have the type endorsement added to
her UK PPL. She had done 11 hours, with the same
instructor, and was on her second sortie of the day.
The instructor had observed the student demonstrate
the successful handling of this exercise several times
previously. On the downwind leg of the circuit the
instructor depressed the HYD TEST button to simu-
late hydraulic failure. The student correctly identified
the emergency and reduced airspeed to 60 knots.
When the helicopter was stable the instructor
switched the hydraulic cut-off switch on the collective
to OFF. Next the instructor confirmed the student was
happy with the weight of the controls, as they had
been abnormally heavy on the last flight. The student
considered them normal and they continued to fly
around the circuit and made an approach for the heli-
copter landing area. In the last few feet of the
approach the helicopter was turned into wind. The
approached at first seemed normal. However, as the
helicopter neared the ground, still with forward
ground speed, the nose began to rise up and yaw to the
left as the collective was raised. The instructor took
control and attempted to lower the nose, correct the
yaw and correct the increasing angle of bank to the
left. The lateral control forces were very high and the
student asked if she should reinstate the hydraulics by
switching on the hydraulic cut-off switch mounted on
the right side collective control. Given the large force
the instructor was exerting and the helicopter’s close
proximity to the ground the instructor elected to
remain in manual control, but, because her attempts to
correct yaw and roll had insufficient effect, she tried
to raise the collective in an attempt to fly away from
the ground. However, the helicopter continued to roll
left and struck the ground.
The ATC activated the crash alarm and the airfield
Rescue and Fire Fighting Services arrived promptly.
Both pilots, who had back injuries, were taken to hos-
64
HELICOPTER LIFE, Autumn 2006
tion in their fuel tanks, and although overnight con-
densation in the tanks was considered possible it
would only cause about a teaspoon of water in the
tank. The helicopter was usually kept in the owner’s
garden or a nearby field so the possibility of foul play
could not be ruled out.
Hughes 369HS (Hughes 500) G-LiNC
A sixty year old private pilot flew from Folkestone
Racecourse to Sywell, after a day at the races. He had
initially flown from Sywell to Catthorpe, and then on
to Folkestone, where he had been unable to refuel as
there was no fuel available. He did not do a visual
check of the tanks at any time but had asked the
fuellers at Sywell to fill the machine ‘to the top.’
Returning to Sywell, just north of Luton the FUEL
LOW caution light flickered once or twice, but the
pilot was not worried by this because he had seen it
happen before in a low fuel state. The pilot had not
made a fuel burn check whilst en route.
Approximately ten miles from Sywell the FUEL
LOW caution light came on permanently, but the pilot
was still not worried by this, as his GPS said it was six
minutes to the airfield, and he believed that when the
FUEL LOW light came on he still had fifteen minutes
of flying time left.
Having reached the airfield, he decided to do a circuit
rather than come straight in and land, because there
were a number of microlights in the circuit. At 400
feet on final approach the engine flamed out having
no fuel left, and the pilot did an autorotation to the
ground landing short of the threshold of the 23
Runway. Neither the pilot nor passenger were injured
but the tail boom separated from the body of the hel-
icopter, having been chopped off by the main rotor
and the landing skids were splayed.
Schweizer 269C, G-CCJE
The highly experienced instructor was demonstrating
an autorotation to the hover to the student. He elected
to do the autorotation downwind although with the
amount of fuel on board and the weight of the instruc-
tor and student they were only twenty pounds short of
maximum all up weight. He flared at 150 feet
preparatory to bringing in the engine, which did not
respond, and realised the helicopter was going to land
with a high rate of descent. They hit the ground hard
and toppled to the right. Neither pilot was hurt.
pital. There was no fire.
Subsequent investigation into the accident revealed
that an incorrect sequence of hydraulic switch selec-
tions could have led to the accident, however, neither
the instructor, nor the student nor the Chief Instructor
had seen the Flight Manual Supplement which recom-
mended this course of action, so consequently did not
put it into practice.
Specifically, this meant resetting the HYD TEST
switch on the approach to land, which may explain
why they felt the control forces were too high. Had
the HYD TEST switch been reset before the second
stage of the manual approach, the tail rotor accumula-
tor would have been recharged and the yaw control
forces would have been reduced. Additionally, the
pilots would have had the option of restoring
hydraulic power very quickly using the student’s col-
lective mounted cut-off switch.
Since the accident EASA has recommended that air-
craft manufacturers make additional information such
as this available via the internet until it has been
included in the Flight Manual as a formal amendment.
Robinson R44 Astro, G-HEpY
The engine stopped as a result of water in the fuel sys-
tem. During the subsequent landing run the helicopter
sustained minor damage when it collided with a fence
and farm gate. None of the crew were injured.
The pilot and his passengers were on a private flight
from Redditch to Bedstone. About 15 minutes into the
flight and at about 1,000 feet above ground level the
pilot felt ‘a couple of kicks in yaw’ which he attrib-
uted to turbulence from the ridge he had just flown
over. He therefore moved away from the ridge and
lowered the collective. About the same time the low
rpm horn sounded, the low rpm warning light illumi-
nated and the pilot became aware the engine noise had
stopped. The pilot therefore entered autorotation and
chose what he believed to be the only suitable place to
land on a ridge covered with woods and isolated trees.
The main rotor blades clipped a number of trees on
the approach to the landing site, where the helicopter
made a fast run-on landing before colliding with a
fence and metal farm gate.
Subsequent investigations show there was water in
the fuel tank. Almost a full litre in the main tank and
half a litre in the auxiliary tank. The airfield where the
pilot fuelled the helicopter had no water contamina-
A CCIDENT R EPORTS
65
HELICOPTER LIFE, Autumn 200666
into the Thames. The house has six beds, six baths, a spa,
pool, yoga deck, three sun decks and the biggest sunbed
in Europe at 6m x 5m – big enough to sleep ten!”
His new helicopter is a ‘spanking’ MD500E G-MRRR
(named after his children Max,
Red, Ruby and Rory) with an
Alison C20R, fully coupled IFR
avionics with Garmin 430, fully
coupled HIS, ELT, Skymap, AHI,
turn and slip, IVSI, VOR 2, Com 2,
MP3 player. Wire strike kit, Fargo
tank, rain gutters, Connelly hide
interior, paint work by Edmondson
and body art by Alex Baynes,
whose grandfather invented the
swept wing!
Jeremy tells Helicopter Life: “This late model E has
had a complete, no expense spared, zero time refit by
Martin Lovell of Skytech,” who is, Jeremy stresses, “the
best 500 engineer in the World and he’s English!” GH-J
Jeremy Paxton, designer and builder, with his Hughes
500 helicopter G-ORRR sitting on his helipad above
the pool at his house Ballihoo. Since the photograph
was taken, Jeremy has sold the helicopter (which once
also belonged to Barry Sheene, his
brother-in-law) and bought G-
MRRR, and the helipad has been
appropriated by his children as a
sundeck!
Jeremy designed and built
Ballihoo himself. He says: “I
design and build funky houses that
offer great lifestyle – Ballihoo I
built five years ago and it has won
three RIBA awards and Urban
house of the year. It is a modernist
interpretation of the Thames boathouse and the Thames
‘runs through it’ - living is 10 metres above the river and
the house strides out over the Thames by 4 metres – the
only one to do so. I can, and do, dive from my bedroom
H ELICOPTERH OUSE &C
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