HELICOPTER LIFE SPRING 2010 / £3.99 www.helicopterlife.com Emerging Markets HELICOPTER LIFEis theHIGH LIFE Spring 2010 HELICOPTER LIFE COVER STORY Show & Tell Guide 4 Emerging Markets: Aviation shows and conferences. 1. India 32 Georgina Hunter-Jones The Editor’s Letter 5 looks at civil helicopter flying in India, exam - Aerial Forum 6 & 10 ines the incipient inter - Herman Spiring on the Russian helicopter market est in a helicopter industry and how the Letters to the Editor 7, 11, 15 private and government companies are trying to Flying Crackers 8, 9 fulfil that need EC175/Z-15 12 Alternative Fuels 40 Georgina Hunter- Helicopter Life looks at the alternative fuels Jones market around the world. 1. India reports on the build - ing and develop - Panama 42 ment of the latest Benny Ditschler Eurocopter, the whose background EC175, which was was flying in unveiled for its first Germany, comes to flight December 09 Panama and sees a very different type of New Technology 16 helicopter usage NASA’s Kevlar helicopter cushion is tested and Sikorsky Innovations is formed Vietnam Training 48 Ralph Arnesen Houston USCG 18 writes about his expe - Alan Norris riences learning to fly with Obama in his helicopters in the six - 2nd year of office, ties and training for the the US suffering a Vietnam War as one of downturn and their the US military heli - worst ever econo - copter pilots my, Alan Norris vis - its the Coast Guard German Eagles are in Houston to see Blue 54 what they can do Dino Marcellino visited and flew with International Military Helicopter 22 the German police Wardorf Hilton Hotel host the conference Police Helicopter Support Unit, saw how Serving Squirrels 24 they fight terrorism Antoine Grondeau looks at the AS350 and Helicopters Past and Future 62 355 Squirrel helicopter and examines its work role, Book Reviews 63 particularly with the French police and why it Accident Reports 64 has been such a popular helicopter for so long House & Helicopter 66 HELICOPTER LIFE,Spring 2010 3 SHOW & T ELL G UIDE 8 April - 11 April 2010 AERO FRIEDRICHSHAFEN Friedrichshafen, Germany SPRING 2010 http://www.aero-expo.com Contact: www.aero-expo.com/aero-en/visitors HON. EDITORIAL BOARD Captain Eric Brown, CBE, RN 26 April - 28 April 2010 The Lord Glenarthur, DL INTERNATIONAL MILITARY CONFERENCE Jennifer Murray Wardorf Hilton Hotel, London, UK Michael J. H. Smith http://www.asdevents.com Wing Cdr. Ken Wallis, MBE, RAF Contact: http://www.asdevents.com EDITOR-IN-CHIEF / PILOT 20 May - 22 May 2010 Georgina Hunter-Jones HELI RUSSIA 2010 [email protected] Crocus Centre, Moscow CREATIVE DIRECTORS Contact Olga Sheveleva, Int. Sales Manager [email protected] Telephone: +7 495 958 94 90 COPY EDITORS email [email protected] http://www.helirussia.ru Evangeline Hunter-Jones, JP John Wilson 25 May - 27 May 2010 CONTRIBUTING EDITORS HELI TECH BRASIL 2010 Ralph Arnesen, Benny Ditschler, Alan Norris, Herman Spiring, Antoine Grondeau, Dino Anhembi Park Exhibition Centre, San Paolo Brazil. Marcellino [email protected] CONTRIBUTED PHOTOGRAPHY http://www.helitechevents.com/brasil/ Ralph Arnesen, Benny Ditschler, Antoine Grondeau, Alan Norris, USCG, Dino Marcellino, 28 May - 30 May 2010 Deccan Helicopters, Pawaan Hans, Global Vectra, Monarch International, RWSI, United Helicharter, AEROExPO EUROPE 2010 Gerben van Beck Pribram Airfiled, Prague SPECIAL THANKS TO Contact the Aero Expo team Dave Smith ATPL(H)IR, Robert Edmonds Telephone: +44 (0) 2085493917 Olivia Walker(Schofield) Sumita Vilayan, email: [email protected] www.expo.aero Guneet Kaur ADVERTISING 17th July - 18th July 2010 Telephone: +44-(0)20-7430-2384 [email protected] CHOLMONDELEY PAGEANT OF POWER Cholmondeley Castle SUBSCRIPTIONS Go to our website or turn to page 54 Malpas, Cheshire [email protected] Telephone: 01829 772432. website: www.cpop.co.uk WEBSITE www.helicopterlife.com Email: [email protected] COVER PHOTOGRAPHS 19 July - 25 July 2010 Courtesy of Monarch Aviation (Heli Doli) FARNBOROUGH IINTERNATIONAL AIRSHOW and Global Vectra, (Birdie Pilgrimage) Farnborough Airfield, UK Contact Farnborough Airshow Team Telephone: +44(0) 1252 532800 HELICOPTER LIFE is published quarterly by FlyFizzi Ltd. Email: [email protected] 59 Great Ormond Street London, WC 1N-3 Hz . Copyright © FlyFizzi Ltd. 2010. 5 October - 7 October 2010 ISSN 1743-1042. HELITECH EUROPE 2010 All rights reserved. Opinions expressed herein are not neces - Cascais, Portugal sarily those of the pub lishers, the Editor or any of the editorial Telephone: +44 20 8271 2134 staff. Reproduction in whole or in part, in any form whatever, is strictly prohibited without specific written permission of http://www.helitecheurope.com/ the Editor. 4 HELICOPTER LIFE, Spring 2010 T HE EDITOR S LETTER elicopter Life is running two this, so I report it as hearsay only) new series of articles, one on that even spots on the pavement are Halternative fuels, the other on rented out by the Mafia, and no dona - the ‘Emerging Helicopter Markets.’ tions given to child beggars are free Both series are starting with India, a of gang influence. Even the drinking country whose size and complexity and washing water, which is trans - make it impossible to give a simple ported by and sold from tankers answer to the question why there are (there is central plumbing but not for not more helicopters in a land with the slums, which have a stand-by pipe such potential. However, we have in use for only a few hours a day) is tried to give possible reasons for that part of a Mafia network. True or not, complicated question and to look there are a lot of child beggars in on two parallel lines of tyres. The ahead to what may happen in the Mumbai, and living on the streets report makes fascinating reading, not future. includes cows, goats, dogs and horses. least because of the action (or I went to India for these articles, For a visitor, one of the strange obstruction) by the ATC at Redhill. and had the unusual experience of things about India is its ability to The AAIB has even suggested that being on a flight that finally arrived make you amused and shocked at the had the pilot not been as strong-willed at its destination (Delhi) 13 hours same time. While shocked by the as he was in his refusal to listen to the late. I flew from Mumbai on one of incredible in-your-face poverty, you Redhill ATC, what was an incident of the low-cost airlines and my fellow are simultaneously admiring of the engineering might have become a dis - passengers told me that the reason we beautiful saris worn by the women on aster, injuring several people. I sus - had two go-arounds on the flight (on the streets: how do they keep them - pect it was as much of a learning the first attempt Delhi Airport had selves looking so elegant when they experience for those on the ground as 75m visibility and on the second live in the slums? Partially clothed for those in the air. 150m) was that, although the airport children play poker outside a fence, Finally, just as the magazine went and the planes had first class equip - inside which children in uniform play to press, we got the long awaited ment, the pilots were not trained to sport. You pass a stunning but dilapi - results of the Search and Rescue con - use them. I might have thought this dated old colonial building, turn a tract (SAR-H) for the UK. The two was just passengers ‘ragging,’ a popu - corner and find a woman feeding her remaining contenders were Air Knight lar sport in Indian universities, had I cows alongside a Mercedes in the and Soteria, and the winner of the not just read Hormuz P. Mama’s Civil courtyard of a modern block of flats. contract was Soteria. Aviation in India , in which he notes You visit the temples of Hampi, Quentin Davis, Minister for that: “Every winter, dense fog brings and see them being used for storing Defence, said the contract was worth Delhi’s airport operations to a halt. pots and bicycles. You visit Old £6 billion over 25 years. The new The airport has the country’s only Delhi, where you know all public contract will start in 2012 and the mil - Category 111 ILS system, and the air - transport vehicles must run on com - itary Sea Kings will be phased out lines’ aircraft are equipped to utilize pressed gas, and see a stable of horses over the years up to 2016. Soteria will it. But the airlines are not willing to - some of the streets in Old Delhi are be flying the Sikorsky S92. spare their pilots for the expensive so narrow that only horse transport Silverstone Motor-racing circuit and time-consuming training for the can carry the building materials need now has a new heliport controller. brief winter period at Delhi airport.” to renovate them. You visit the Motor HeliAir a UK flying company and During my visit to India I came Show and admire India’s ability to be Robinson dealer are setting up a per - across some other remarkable facts. in the forefront of technology, come manent base. The Silverstone HeliAir a partnership promise some interesting w The Mumbai Metropolitan Area, for out and run into an ox-cart on its way o r b example, the home of Bollywood home. Fantastic! events later in the year - perhaps a a D n movies, has a population of over 21 In this issue we also have the acci - British winner on the Heliport and in i b o the circuit ! r million, of whom 55% live on the dent report (although it turned out not h P a streets.