H E L I C O HELICOPTER P T E R L I F E S U M M E R LIFESUMMER 2006 / 2 www.helicopterlife.com BELL 407 T EST FLIGHT 0 0 £3.99 6 THE MYSTERY CHOPPER lands on Mount Everest summit STANLEY H ILLER JR (1924-2006) V OLANTE FLYING C AR H ELIEXPO IN D ALLAS TX N EW O RLEANS AFTER K ATRINA HELICOPTER LIFEis theHIGH LIFE HELICOPTER SUMMER 2006 LIFE Show & Tell Guide 4 The Mystery On aviation shows and conferences. Chopper 38 Alan Norris inter - The Editor’s Letter 5 viewed Didier Delsalle about his Guest Columnist 6, 8 record breaking The Lord Glenarthur looks back on his life. achievement landing the first Letters to the Editor 7 helicopter on COVER STORY Mount Everest. Flying Crackers 9, 11 HAI Heli-Expo 48 Obituary 12 2006 show in Dallas, in the Lonestar State. Stanley Hiller, Jr. (1924-2006) by Willie Turner The Big Easy Hummingbird 54 King Island 30 years after 16 How the Sikorsky S-58 and a Bell 205 Capt Janie Foster writes about how she flew helicopters came Alaskan eskimos back to their native island. to the rescue after Hurricane Katrina Volante the struck, as told to Flying Car 18 Georgina Hunter- Inventor and Jones by engineer K.P. Hummingbird’s Rice shows that pilot and operator the future of the Captain Charles flying car has a Priestley . much greater chance of success. After the Deluge 60 Capt Janie Foster The Royal Oman Police 23 tells Georgina Bryn Elliott on how the ROP was formed. Hunter-Jones about her rescue Aerial Forum 27 and aid flights For pilots to discuss their heartfelt views. with Evergreen Helicopters’ Bell Helicopter Simulator 28 412 during the Georgina Hunter-Jones on Heliservices new toy. aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Bell 407 Test 30 Georgina Hunter- Book Review 63 Jones pays a visit John Matchett reviews Uniform Kilo by Tim to Bell Helicopter Gilbert; a novel about Tim’s adventure flying an in Fort Worth TX, R44 from Cambridge to Adelaide in Australia. where Capt Randy Rowles shows her Accident Reports 64 all the ins and outs of the Bell 407. House & Helicopter 66 HELICOPTER LIFE,Sum mer 2006 3 SHOW & T ELL G UIDE 17 June 2006 VERTICAL CHALLEnGE 2006 Helicopter Air Show Hiller Aviation Museum San Carlos Airport, California USA Tel: +1-650-654-0200 Ext. 205 [email protected] www.hiller.org/vertical-challenge.shtml 23 June - 25 June 2006 AEROEXPO 2006 Wycombe Air Park England Paddy Casey Tel: +44 (0)20-8255-4218 Astrid Ayling Tel: +44 (0)20-8549-5024 Fax: +44 (0)20 8255-4300 [email protected] www.expo.aero 17 July - 23 July 2006 FARnBOROuGH InTERnATIOnAL 2006 Farnborough International Ltd. 1 Queen Anne’s Gate London, SW1H-9BT Tel: +44 (0)20-7976-3330 Fax: +44 (0)20-7976-3349 www.farnborough.com 28 July - 30 July 2006 WESTOn-SuPER-HELIDAYS 2006 The Helicopter Museum Locking Moor Road Weston-super-Mare Somerset, BS24-8PP Tel: +44 (0)1934-635-227 Fax: +44 (0)1934-645-230 www.helicoptermuseum.co.uk/helidays.htm 23 September - 25 September 2006 HELI JET SHOW CAnnES Palais des Festivals & des Congres Cannes France Tel: +33 (0)4-9390-4185 Fax: +33 (0)4-9390-4189 [email protected] HELICOPTER LIFE, Summer 2006 HELICOPTER T HE EDITOR S LETTER verest has always had an incred - ible pull on us, from the first Esuccessful ascent in 1953 by Sir LIFE Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay to last year’s first successful helicop - SUMMER 2006 ter landing by Didier Delsalle. That it is the highest mountain in the world HOn. EDITORIAL BOARD seems to be only one reason that men Captain Eric Brown, CBE, RN and women of adventure have longed The Lord Glenarthur, DL to reach the summit. Perhaps that it is Jennifer Murray because Everest rises a few mms Michael J. H. Smith every year (the result of geological Wing Cdr. Ken Wallis, MBE, RAF forces; in 1999 it was noticed that the EDITOR-In-CHIEF / PILOT mountain had increased an extra 6 Georgina Hunter-Jones foot) that gives it some kind of spiri - series test-flights in the hope that that [email protected] tual waywardness that we hope to will give some information that will CREATIVE DIRECTOR absorb. In the modern jet era most of Hilaire Dubourcq help the buyer. Most recently I flew [email protected] us have flown far higher than the Bell 407 and was captured by its COPY EDITOR Everest, but have not stopped to wait: power compared to the JetRanger, Evangeline Hunter-Jones, JP perhaps that is the attraction, which it resembles in many ways, COnTRIBuTInG EDITORS although even the longest stop at the and its versatility. Bryn Elliott, Capt Janie Foster top was only 21 and a half hours, by This spring Stanley Hiller died at The Lord Glenarthur, John Matchett Alan Norris, Capt Charles Priestley Babu Chiri Sherpa, hardly enough to the age of 81 and Willie Turner from K.P. Rice, John Smith, Willie Turner call it home! Or maybe it is simply the Hiller Museum has written a very COnTRIBuTED PHOTOGRAPHY that we know that, however many thorough obituary. Hiller was not Eurocopter, Capt Janie Foster landings we do there, the mountain only a brilliant inventor and busi - Hiller Aviation Museum, Alan Norris Patrick Penna, Sam Pourciau will never be ours, never be con - nessman (something unusual in Alan Staats, Dan Tendem quered. itself) but he had very democratic SPECIAL THAnKS TO Helicopters on the other hand are views on how a company should be Doral Hotel Fort Worth TX Capt Randy Rowles of Bell Helicopter made to be conquered and bought, run and was determined to make the which may be the reason why this ‘feudal’ way of business so typical at ADVERTISInG Telephone: (44) 20-7430-2384 seems to be the Year of the his time should be replaced by more [email protected] Helicopter Show. In February we had flexible systems. He was a very spe - SuBSCRIPTIOnS HeliExpo, in April Fly, The London cial man. Go to our website or turn to page 64 Airshow, in June we have AeroExpo, EC directive statutory instruments [email protected] in July Farnborough, in August The 55/2001 and 85/2001 declares it will WEBSITE Helicopter Museum’s Helidays, in www.helicopterlife.com be a crinimal offence for shopkeepers September Heli Jet at Cannes, and in to make any reference at all to COVER PHOTOGRAPH December the Dubai Helicopter pounds and ounces, inches or feet By Patrick Penna Show, to name just a few. It was clear after January 1, 2010. Is this then HELICOPTER LIFE is published quarterly from The London Airshow that many something we pilots should be wary by FlyFizzi Ltd. people are indeed looking to buy hel - of, having, as we still do, height in 59 Great Ormond Street icopters and perhaps after this year of feet, even though we have visilibity London, WC 1N-3 Hz . visiting shows and reading the maga - Copyright © FlyFizzi Ltd. 2006. in metres? Will we have to change, or ISSN 1743-1042. zines they will have found out what does flying have a dispensation? All rights reserved. Opinions expressed seems right for them. Buying a heli - Does anybody know? herein are not necessarily those of the pub - copter is something as individual as lishers, the Editor or any of the editorial staff. Reproduction in whole or in part, in any buying a house or a car, but form whatever, is strictly prohibited without Helicopter Life is continuing with a specific written permission of the Editor. HELICOPTER LIFE, Summer 2006 5 G UEST C OLUMNIST Reflections on a Li in the Rotary World The final part of TheGlenarthurs Lord ruminations on his long and successful carreer in both civil and military aviation e were in great demand by Faulkner, home to his house at and snorkelling, and I am only sorry the two Cavalry Yeomanry Seaford one evening as the political that our flying of a cameraman for a W regiments, one in the South scene became particularly grim. He BBC wildlife documentary principal - and one in the North of England. tried to persuade me to stay for sup - ly in search of the Manatee (sea cow, Most of the flying was required at per, but the aircraft was needed for to the unfamiliar!) never received weekends and we regularly deployed night flying and I returned to credits due to Air Squadron 1st Royal two or three helicopters to fulfil our Aldergrove. The next day Brian Tank Regiment when the film was proper armoured reconnaissance role. Faulkner resigned, I took him home televised. But we made great friends On one occasion, appalling weather and this time did accept his kind invi - with Krov and Annie Menhuin. And forced a diversion to the United tation to dine and talk about anything where else could one gain the experi - States Air Force Base at Upper other than Ulster politics. I recall ence of hovering along the back of a Heyford. They were particularly sen - both the Taoiseach and Sir Alec surfaced whale lying on the surface sitive about our arrival at an F1-11 Douglas Home telephoning during about 50 miles offshore when en nuclear base. A request for fuel was dinner as Brian Faulkner and I dis - route to Half Moon Quay? accepted, a 64-thousand gallon I had made up my mind to bowser was filled with ...Sir Alec Douglasleave the army at the end of 115/145 Av-gas and drew up to Home telephoned this flying tour and through refuel us on dispersal.