Winter 2010 / £3.99 HELICOPTER www.helicopterlife.com LIFE Al Wasl 2010 HELICOPTER LIFE is the HIGH LIFE helicopter Winter 2010 LIFE COVER STORY First Flight Show & Tell Guide 4 Aerogulf Dubai 32 Aviation shows and conferences. Georgina Hunter-Jones went flying over the The Editor’s Letter 5 city of Dubai with heli - copter operators Aerial Forum 6 & 10 Aerogulf who have Bruce Charnov more on the twisting rotors been flying in the United Arab Emirates Letters to the Editor 7 & 11 since 1976. Flying Crackers 8 & 9 Pre-Show Bangalore 38 Helicopter Life asks helicopter manufacturers about PZL Swidnik is Swietnic 12 the past year in India and looks ahead to the Rainer Herzberg test Bangalore Air Show. flies PZL Swidnik at Lublin in Poland and Lord of the Mountain 42 is impressed by the Cristian Schrik and manoeuvrability of the Elmar Keetman little composite heli - go to the bi-lateral exer - copter and dabbles cise between Slovenia with autorotations. and Hungary at Ljubljana-Brnik in New Technology 18 Slovenia and report. Alan Norris introduces Eurocopter X3 concept The Right Stuff 48 helicopter which the How the role of aerospace women is changing in European manufacturer both military and civilian sectors. is using as a basis for their further designs Helicopters in the Defence Review 51 and further experimen - The future of helicopters after the cuts. tation. Dubai and the Gulf Operators 52 HeliTech Portugal 20 Georgina Hunter-Jones Georgina Hunter- goes to the Dubai Jones goes out to HeliShow and talks to the Cascais in Portugal to major operators in the see the latest show, to regions and the manufac - hear about a new con - turers whose products are cept helicopter and to gracing the skies. watch the splendid fire fighting display. Swiss Retirees 56 Carlo Kuit and Paul Kievit Al Wasl from the Sky 24 on the retiring Alouette 111s and their replacment. A flight over Dubai in Areogulf’s LongRanger Book Review Winged Victory 62 VIP Hiller @ Verta 26 Rob Hields Book Review Helicopter Aerodynamics 63 flies from Leeds to London to sell his Hiller Accident Reports 64 UH12E4, this is his story about the trip and VIPs. House & Helicopter 66 helicopter LIFE , Winter 2010 3 S how & T ell G uide HeLiCOPter 9 February - 13 February 2011 AEROINDIA 2011 LIFE Air force Station Yelahanka, Bengalaru (Bangalore) WInTER 2010 https://www.aeroindia.in/Main.aspx email: [email protected] HON. EDITORIAL BOARD Captain Eric Brown, CBE, RN 5 March - 8 March 2011 The Lord Glenarthur, DL HAI HELIEXPO Jennifer Murray Orange County Convention Centre Michael J. H. Smith Orlando, Florida, USA Wing Cdr. Ken Wallis, MBE, RAF http://www.rotor.com/Events [email protected] EDITOR-IN-CHIEF / PILOT Georgina Hunter-Jones [email protected] 19 May - 21 May 2011 4TH INTERNATIONAL HELIRUSSIA 2011 CREATIVE DIRECTORS Moscow, IEC Crocus Expo [email protected] www.helirussia.ru COPY EDITORS Evangeline Hunter-Jones, JP John Wilson, Gerald Cheyne 27 May - 29 May 2011 AVIATION EXPO EUROPE CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Bruce Charnov, Rainer Herzberg, Rob Hields, Bitburg Airport, Germany Cristian Schrik and Elmar Keetman, Alan Norris, Benelux Region Paul Kievit and Carlo Kuit http://www.expo.aero/europe CONTRIBUTED PHOTOGRAPHY Bruce Charnov, Cristian Schrik and Elmar 17 June - 19 June 2011 Keetman, Rainer Herzberg, Rob Hields, Alan Norris, Paul Kievit and Carlo Kuit, Robin AEROEXPO UK Dabrowa, Guneet Kaur Sywell Airfield, Northampton SPECIAL THANKS TO http://www.expo.aero/uk/event-info Dave Smith ATPL(H)IR, Robert Edmonds (trans - lator) Paul Herbert, Ozzie 20 June - 26 June 2011 ADVERTISING 49TH PARIS LE BOURGET AIR SHOW Telephone: +44-(0)20-7430-2384 Le Bourget, Paris, France [email protected] www.paris-air-show.com/en SUBSCRIPTIONS email: [email protected] Go to our website or turn to page 54 +33(0)1 53 23 33 33 [email protected] WEBSITE 20 August 2011 www.helicopterlife.com THE SECOND MIL CUP HELICOPTER RACE Blog Route Kiev – Moscow http://helicopterlife.blogspot.com Xth International Aviation & Space Salon MAKS. Kiev is the birthplace of Igor Sikorsky. COVER PHOTOGRAPHS Organizer Helicopter Industry Association and Russian Dubai from Aerogulf’s LongRanger Helicopter Systems. by Georgina Hunter-Jones. Inserts: Cristian http://www.helicopter.su/mil_cup/mil_cup.html Schrik and Elmar Keetman, Sean Brown email: [email protected] HELICOPTER LIFE is published quarterly by FlyFizzi Ltd. 59 Great Ormond Street 27 September - 29 September 2011 London, WC 1N-3 HZ . HELITECH DUXFORD Copyright © FlyFizzi Ltd. 2010. Imperial War Museum ISSN 1743-1042. All rights reserved. Opinions expressed herein are not neces - Duxford, near Cambridge, UK sarily those of the pub lishers, the Editor or any of the editorial http://www.helitechevents.com/duxford staff. Reproduction in whole or in part, in any form whatever, is strictly prohibited without specific written permission of the Editor. 4 helicopter LIFE , Winter 2010 T he e diTor ’ S l eTTer get nothing at all.” here were you when aero - At a moment when the future of the planes attacked the New aviation industry is looking precarious York twin towers on W it is interesting to look at what might September 11th 2001? help restore it to its pride of place: one I was in Lublin in Poland and had such things will be changing to more just done a test flight on the PZL environmentally friendly fuels. So, the Swidnik SW-4. Well, move on nine twenty-four-page PDF recently years and Rainer Herzberg has done brought out by the Air Transport another one, on the updated military Action Group on biofuels that can be version of the machine, and he had used in aviation is both very timely quite a ride. There have been some ance of helicopter aerodynamics, and and very helpful. Called the Beginners changes over the years, and whereas, the competition between them will Guide to BioFuels, it points out the when I was flying in Lublin, the test drive them on, this should be a very importance of aviation to the world we pilot did not feel that the machine was interesting time to be involved in heli - live in, the good and bad things about ready to do autorotations, Rainer’s test copters. aviation and how we are striving to pilot was happy not only to do them A few months ago, talking about the reduce the emissions caused by air - himself, but to teach Rainer to do them withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan craft. It also stresses how much more too. As you will see from the article, and how this will effect the population, efficient aircraft are than they were the machine has moved on in other a man at the meeting said, “we did not forty years ago, and notes that the ways as well. go in to Afghanistan to improve the lot Airbus 380 and the Boeing 787 con - Much of this issue is dedicated to of Pashtun women.” sume less than 3 litres of fuel per 100 the use of helicopters in Dubai and the This comment hovers around me, km, in which they are equivalent, in surrounding regions. Dubai has had a with its obvious counterpart - why, fact, to many small family cars. roller-coaster time in the last few then? Biofuels, however, are not the only years, going from being one of the Women make up roughly half of the development. In the last issue we men - fastest expanding success stories in the world’s population, and they also tioned the use of ‘clever materials’ in region to finding itself with the infa - account for a considerably greater per - aircraft construction and this too is a mous ‘Mercedes dumped at the air - centage of the illiterate and unem - growing market. For example, port’ reputation, fleeing ex-pats avoid - ployed population. In many countries Embrarer, the Brazilian Aircraft ing bankruptcy and collapsing real- there is a move to change this percent - Manufacturer, is constructing a new estate and construction markets. One age, and one way of doing so is to facility in Evora, Portugal, dedicated company I visited talked of new employ women in all those fields to making complex airframe structures AW139s sitting on the apron costing where they can do exactly the same job and components in composites. They money and going nowhere. as men, and at least as well. One of will later complement this with a However, the situation has become these is helicopter flying, and we have metallic airframe centre. Evora has the a little easier thanks to the changing a very interesting article about the second oldest university in Portugal, oil and gas revenues in the wider changing role of women in helicopters with a well-established engineering region. Construction is also returning as taken from the Women in Aerospace department. slowly to Dubai, although there are Conference in October. Jo Watkinson Continuing the theme of new tech - still warnings of further mortgage talks about her flying of the EH101 nology, Eurocopter have brought out defaults. As one operator said to me, Merlin in Afghanistan, and how men their X-3 concept. Alan Norris went “we will never return to the golden and women do the same job for the over to the South of France to view it days of the boom, but we are consider - same pay, and how much the lot of and he writes that this is not so much a ably wiser now than we were.” children there has improved. Perhaps new helicopter, as a new test-bed for one day we will only invade countries a There is even optimism there that in w experimental designs.