Hi,
I need some help with helicopter operations,
I see many SAR helicopters with commercial names on the side, such as Bond Helicopters and was wondering how these agreements work – I thought all SAR ops were done by the RAF.
Additionally I was wondering if anyone knew of any scheduled ops out of Battersea Airport as this is technically my second closest airport, and would operations for say first class pax to enter London in style, by chopper.
My last question is does anyone know the fuel consumptions, list prices, how much a pilot would expect to be paid and approximate annual maintenance costs for any chopper types,
Thanks for your help,
Wozza
Note: Does anyone know if there are any trip reports based around helicopter flights?
By: mc26 - 15th January 2006 at 13:11
I think British Airways helicopters was sold off to become British International Helicopters, who are now owned by Canadian Helicopters.
By: wozza - 15th January 2006 at 12:27
Thanks for the help guys, does anyone know much about British Airways Helicopters?
By: ellitas - 14th January 2006 at 17:08
try this
http://www.mcga.gov.uk/c4mca/mcga-hm_coastguard/coastguard_operations/maritme_search_and_rescue_assets.htm
try looking on here, my wifes cousin lost his job on the navy sar because it went to “private” tender,
By: mc26 - 14th January 2006 at 17:04
Helisureste operate Malta to Gozo and also Malaga to the Spanish protectorate of Ceuta in Morocco. I used them for a trip to Ceuta in June. They mainly use Bell 412 helicopters, but also lease a Sikorsy S61 for times of high demand. Its a fantastic flight, takes about 30 minutes, interesting approach into Ceuta, the heliport is built out into the harbour, there’s some pics on Airliners.net There’s also a series of suprisingly good value scheduled services running in the Faroe Islands. Nice Airport also has scheduled services to Monaco, Cannes, St Tropez and Courcheval (during ski season). Copterline were operating Helsinki to Talinn but were in difficulties after a fatal accident a few months back.
By: tenthije - 14th January 2006 at 16:49
The RAF has outsourced a part of the SAR mission. The RAF has actually outsourced a lot of secondary tasks. Training for instance is done in part by private contractors. Omega Air Refueling handles a small part of the aerial refueling business.
By: Mark L - 14th January 2006 at 16:48
Bond do a lot of work for the Coastguard, but I’m not entirely sure how the agreement works, you’d probably have to ask around the mil forum for that.
London Heliport doesnt have any scheduled operations, it is used almost entirely for people entering London from their homes in the country, or more usually for passengers transferring into London from biz jets after having arrived into airports such as Farnborough or Stansted.
I haven’t read a heli trip report for a while. There are two well know scheduled routes I know of in Europe. The first is one I have personally flown on, linking Penzance with the Scily Isles operated by British International. Also there is the Malta-Gozo airlink operated by Spanish operator Helisul, who I think also actually have their own scheduled operation out of Malaga as well.
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January 14, 2006 at 4:17 pm