South London Heli-questions

[SpringHeeledJack]

Afternoon all!

Although this is a quasi spotterish request, I felt that this would be the best place to get the answer from the horse's mouth so to say.

One lives under the heli-lane southbound from Battersea and has noticed two things of late, one being the absolute dearth of traffic, aside from the police helicopter most days. Compared to only a year ago the difference is very noticeable, although in the last weeks has picked up a little. Is this really the case ? I am aware (painfully) that the financial crisis has affected the amount of VIP flights into Farnborough/Gatwick etc and thus transfers by helicopter to the city centre, but by so much ? Perhaps it might be that the traffic is arriving/departing in other directions/tangents ?

The few VIP steeds that do come/go regularly are no doubt the taxis of the Oligarchs shuttling them between their country estates and city offices, if my eyes don't deceive, but since this last while they are going very noticeably slower both on the incoming and outgoing directions, whereas before they were 'haulin' ass' to quote the cousins. Is this a fuel saving SOP ?

Any insights appreciated.


Thanks


SHJ

[JimBall]

Several things: primarily, Battersea has become a highly expensive place to land - ranging from £550 for the smallest 2-seater helicopter to £1200 for the largest. Secondly, the parking slots have been restricted due to hotel building adjacent to the site.
However I'm sure the main reason is money. For most people it has just got too expensive - which has greatly helped the heliport owners keep movements below the 12,000 annual permitted. (See London Heliport (http://www.londonheliport.co.uk))
As for the apparent reduced speeds - could be that they are slowing their approach to match ATC demands if the Heliport is full and there is other traffic joining or departing.
Having noticed what the average oligarch is losing owning football teams and property, I would doubt that they are too concerned with fuel burn. That's the least of their problems.

[flap flap flap]

Maybe the pilots are getting paid by the flight hour, hence the reduction in speed! All those 0.1s do add up....