What's The Highest Altitude A Helo Has Flown To?

[GULF69]

Hi guys,

Just out of interest, from a non-helo type...

what's the highest official altitude a 1) piston helicopter and 2) turbine helicopter has flown to?

69

[KrisRamJ]

The turbine helo record was set on 21 June 1972, when an Aerospatiale Lama established the helicopter absolute altitude record of 12,440m (40,814ft).

Don't know about pistons. My personal record was 11,000ft in a Schweizer 300C over Nebraska...

[weido_salt]

11,000ft. Did you now?

I am from the the FAA and I am here to help. Did you have oxygen on board, during your record attempt?:suspect:

[Gordy]

Weido,

"11,000ft. Did you now?

I am from the the FAA and I am here to help. Did you have oxygen on board, during your record attempt? "

Why?

From FAR 91.211---
\
"§ 91.211 Supplemental oxygen.
(a) General. No person may operate a civil aircraft of U.S. registry—

(1) At cabin pressure altitudes above 12,500 feet (MSL) up to and including 14,000 feet (MSL) unless the required minimum flight crew is provided with and uses supplemental oxygen for that part of the flight at those altitudes that is of more than 30 minutes duration;

(2) At cabin pressure altitudes above 14,000 feet (MSL) unless the required minimum flight crew is provided with and uses supplemental oxygen during the entire flight time at those altitudes; and

(3) At cabin pressure altitudes above 15,000 feet (MSL) unless each occupant of the aircraft is provided with supplemental oxygen."

[hthing]

The FAI website will answer all of your questions.
Aviation and Space World Records | Fédération Aéronautique Internationale - FAI (http://www.fai.org/records)

Altitude in horizontal flight : 11 010 m
Date of flight: 04/11/1971
Pilot: James K. CHURCH (USA)
Course/place: Stratford, CT (USA)
Rotorcraft:
Sikorsky CH-54-B

Highest take-off : 8 848 m
Date of flight: 14/05/2005
Pilot: Didier DELSALLE (France)
Course/place: Mount Everest (Nepal)
Rotorcraft:
Eurocopter AS 350 B3
Registered 'FWQEX'

[Phil77]

All official records here:
Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) - Rotorcraft World Records (http://records.fai.org/rotorcraft/)

...the one that Kris already mentioned:

Sub-class : Absolute (Absolute record)
Altitude : 12 442 m (40 820 ft)
Date of flight: 21/06/1972
Pilot: Jean BOULET (France)
Course/place: Aérodrome d'Istres (France)
Rotorcraft:
SA 315 Lama

...for piston helo's:

Piston Helicopter:
Altitude with 1 000 kg payload : 7 465 m (24 491 ft)
Date of flight: 26/03/1960
Pilot: G. ALFIEROV (USSR)
Course/place: Zakharkovo (Russia)
Rotorcraft:
MIL Mi-4


...and more recent:

Highest take-off : 8 848 m (29 028 ft)
Date of flight: 14/05/2005
Pilot: Didier DELSALLE (France)
Course/place: Mount Everest (Nepal)
Rotorcraft:
Eurocopter AS 350 B3
Registered 'FWQEX'

[RavenII]

I had a R22 at 9000', without doors, and it was a VERY strange feeling......

It was still climbing (about 100' min), but i didn't had the guts to go higher.

:ok:

[Gordy]

Actually a good friend of mine---now deceased, named Wayne Mulgrew had one at 19 480 feet.

Altitude without payload : 5 937 m

Date of flight: 04/03/1989
Pilot: Wayne H. MULGREW (USA)
Course/place: Redding, CA (USA)

Rotorcraft:
Robinson R22 (1 Lycoming / Continental and Licensees O-320, 160 hp)
Registered 'N8398A'

Database ID 713
Links to other records set by Wayne H. MULGREW
Links to other records set with the R22

And for Weido---YES he did have supplemental oxygen..

[Foxy Loxy]

Goodness me, I thought heli pilots suffered from nosebleeds at any altitude above 1000ft! :}

[SawThe Light]

29,777 ft in a Cessna CH-1B Skyhook piston engine helicopter on December 27 1957

[birrddog]

I did ~ > 12,500 AMSL in an R22 in Johannesburg as part of flight training.....
(that's less than 9,000' above ground required safety margin for auto's (which took a long time down, btw :)))

Airfield elevation ~ 5200'.

I didn't pay too much attention to the specific altitude at the time as I thought it was a standard training exercise...

Feels like the only flying I did there > 500 ft above ground ;)

[jab]

An AS350B2 was used for a record attempt in Cape Town, South Africa a few years ago. I don't know if it was officially recognized and I may be wrong with the exact figure but I seem to recall 42000 feet being mentioned!

[jonwilly]

To cut a long story short, I was one of half a dozen on board a Bell 214 B, which climbed to 18,300 ft on an Airtest in mid 1990s Salalah Sultanate of Oman.
No Oxygen on board.
The 214 B was quite a beast and lifting was the name of its game.
john

[rotors88]

As for a 350B3 on Everest hahahahaha. It seems dubious as to a Squirrel ever landing on Everest. Eurocopter refused to get the necessary permission's from CAAN also denying Guinness Book of records to be there to confirm the event. Was only announced 1 month after the event??? Hmmmm. If it were true it would be an awesome marketing angle but it was more likely a PR stunt. If one wants to achieve a world record then why not do it openly, honestly with all paper work correctly in place..... unless of course you have something to hide ??? That is the opinion of many Indian & Nepali Pilots here that it was a good bed time fairy story :\
http://static.pprune.org/images/statusicon/user_online.gif http://static.pprune.org/images/buttons/report.gif (http://www.pprune.org/report.php?p=4388065) http://static.pprune.org/images/misc/progress.gif

[Scissorlink]

Looking at the video with the amount of cyclic input going on he was either really high or the guy can't hover for crap...I will go with being really high :ok:

[B747-800]

And i always thought heli pilots are wearing diapers above 5,000 ft AGL and make them wet above 10,000 ft AGL. guess i was wrong.:ugh::ugh::ugh::ugh:

[Lama Bear]

I only go above 12,000 msl to land.

[GULF69]

that is very impressive, thank you guys! :D

69

[victor papa]

jab, you are correct. It officially reached 42000ft and unofficially I think 44000ft. The aircraft hadto repeat the attempt in Europe for it to be confirmed(do not know why). Unfortunately she as far as I know crashed in Nigeria on her ferry flight. Details sketchy but either weather or fatigue I thind was the speculation.

If you wanna question the B3 landing on Everest, answer the rescue done by Pakistan(I think) B3 with 2 British tourist at something like 5800metres/6000metres and that was not a record attempt but a true life rescue! Personally I do not put anythin passed a Squirrel!:D

[jab]

VP

Thanks for the confirmation. I also flew that particular machine a few times and she met her end in the Atlas mountains of Morocco. Friend of mine had an engine failure in very rough terrain and broke his back in the crash, the helicopter burnt out. He is flying again so it's not all bad news. 42000, I don't think I want to be that high in a helicopter!

[rotors88]

Still a long way off 8,850m I say again why was it done secretly & only announced 1 month later? Reason; something to hide. The truth will set you free & never needs hiding

[compressor stall]

Something to hide? Maybe they thought permission would not be granted and did it in secret.

Sometimes that's the easier way to do it in some parts of the world.

[Scissorlink]

Most likely, from what Ive heard about India you need to go thru red tape to have a crap..A B3 stripped to the bone, low gas with one pilot, ignore all limits apart from rotor droop, those altitudes must be possible...surely

[ianp]

Part of the syllabus at ETPS is a 20,000' or thereabouts height climb in a Gazelle, always manages to surprise the odd Hawk and Alpha Jet pilot. :)

[Senior Pilot]

rotors88,

You may want to read Helicopter lands on top of Mt Everest (http://www.pprune.org/rotorheads/176079-helicopter-lands-top-mt-everest.html) before you make any more disparaging posts about the AS350B3 record, which has been homologated by the FAI :rolleyes:

[rotors88]

Disparaging the 350B3; tsk no,no,no,no, its great machine which is slowly gaining popularity here in India. But ask the locals, the Nepalese & the Indian Pilots then you will find out that, that it is very doubtful to be achievable. Permission would have been granted,but was not asked for. Guinness book of records people were refused a presence at base camp & were denied a cigarette packet sized recording device to be placed on-board. Websites, stories, photo-shopped pictures can be produced to say & appear as anything. The proof would have been easy to deliver; permission, transparent operation, Guinness book of record & media presence, recording device, other machines circling & photographing, etc, etc, etc But none of that.................why? I say again simply they had something to hide :{

[Senior Pilot]

rotors88,

Maybe you should read my post again: you are disparaging the AS350B3 record, which has been ratified by the FAI.

Nothing to do with the Guiness Book of Records, nor the AS350B3 as a helicopter. Have you bothered to read the other thread about the actual event?

[rotors88]

Yes, yes read your post & have read all the guff on the Everest record & I believed it till I spoke with the locals, the Nepalese & Indian Pilots then changed my opinion on the case. Based on much more REAL proof that Eurocopter can never produce; the Everest landing simply did not happen :=

[Bravo73]

Oh gawd. And the Americans didn't land on the moon either, eh? :rolleyes:

[Aesir]

Yes, yes read your post & have read all the guff on the Everest record & I believed it till I spoke with the locals, the Nepalese & Indian Pilots then changed my opinion on the case. Based on much more REAL proof that Eurocopter can never produce; the Everest landing simply did not happen

Rotors88 do you not know what FAI (www.fai.org) is?

They are THE ones that have to do with aviation world records. On their website is this:

FAI is the world governing body for air sports and aeronautical world records.

Guinnes book of records has a different angle on records, one that has more to do with profit.

[ToTall]

jab

I have a pic somewhere and will post it as soon as I can find it.
Its of the signature from the crew that did the flight in CPT.

It was a bit over 42.000 I recall.

Its much funnier flying at 1000 ft agl then 5000. Its scary :-)

[Thomas coupling]

To make it all the more exciting, the world altitude holder in his lama had an engine failure in the descent and iced up going completely IMC for something like 8 minutes before popping out of cloud in sight of the runway:ugh:

To help with his ascent they removed everything that could be removed including the starter motor and replaced the doors with some lightweight plastic sheet weighing ounces... He had to endure temperatures down to -50 degrees:D
Whats Vmax for a lama @ 42000'...must be around 20 kts?