Yachting: Alinghi airlifts yacht over the Alps to the sea

[RVDT]

TbXNO9n9Ubs

[leemind]

Now that must have been quite a sight!!

Yachting: Alinghi airlifts yacht over the Alps to the sea
2009-08-07 08:04:19.278 GMT


LE BOUVERET, Switzerland, Aug 7, 2009 (AFP) - America's Cup
defender Alinghi began a spectacular airlift of its giant yacht from
landlocked Switzerland over the Alps to the Mediterranean Sea on
Friday, dangling beneath the world's biggest helicopter.
After some two weeks of trials on Lake Geneva, where it was
built, the new 90-foot high-tech catamaran is being flown about 300
kilometres (186 miles) to the Italian port of Genoa for its first
sea trials.
Under bright skies, Alinghi 5 was lifted off Lake Geneva here by
a MI-26 heavy lift helicopter, flown in specially from Russia, on
the end of long cables.
The mast was airlifted by another helicopter.
Alinghi 5 headed for the 2,469 metre (8,100 foot) Great St.
Bernard peak on the Swiss-Italian border, before a refuelling stop
at Biella in northern Italy, team members said.
It was then due to hop over a final mountain ridge before being
deposited at the Italian Yacht Club's base on the Mediterranean
after a four hour trip.
Alinghi, with its home port in Geneva, was the first team from a
landlocked country to take part in sport's oldest trophy in 2000,
when it won the America's Cup at its first attempt.
The two-times winners announced this week that their duel
against US challengers Oracle for the 33rd America's Cup should take
place in the United Arab Emirates at Ras al-Khaimah next February.
After a lengthy legal battle to force acceptance of its
challenge, Oracle, bankrolled by US billionaire Larry Ellison, has
contested the choice of venue, but it was not clear what action the
San Francisco-based team would take.
The Americans have been testing a similarly huge trimaran off
the US West Coast for several months, setting the stage for an
equally spectacular sailing battle next year.
pac/at/lth

-0- Aug/07/2009 8:04 GMT

[MacBoero]

http://www.yachtsponsorship.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/a-alinghi5.jpg

http://yachtpals.com/files/userimages/alinghi-5.jpg



DoG and Cat Game - Alinghi's New America's Cup Boat | YachtPals.com (http://yachtpals.com/americas-cup-alinghi-4173)

[zhishengji751]

Bugger.. my helpful post gets dropped.

I won't bother anymore.

[havick]

spewing if you had to pickle the load over the alps!

[Agaricus bisporus]

Yeah, but what a toboggan!

[valais]

zxr9EVMJLxs

The mast was airlifted by a AS 332 Super Puma C1 (HB-XVY) from Heliswiss International AG - Home (http://www.heliswissinternational.com/) .

More pictures and info on Alinghi : Defender of the 33rd America's Cup (http://www.alinghi.com/)

[I16]

I read recently that the entire Americas Cup is now about the Swiss based Kiwis racing the NZ based Kiwis and that if anyone wanting to have a look in then they should hire the few remaining Kiwi crew to have a go at lifting the 'old mug' :)

[XV666]

Excellent job, but does anyone else feel that the risk of constant and repeated overflying of busy roads and populated areas, shown on today's TV news footage, wasn't worth it?

We were critical of the pilot who was prosecuted a year or three ago when his load was dropped on a cable: apart from luck, how would it have looked if this boat had been dropped and caused multiple fatalities :uhoh:

[I16]

I do think that these guys knew the risks and they did complete the mission without mishap - that is what matters.

[atakacs]

I believe they had to fly a very specific route avoiding most populated area (within limits as these are quite populated regions anyway)

More video here

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[XV666]

I16,

Maybe you should read the Austrian cable car accident (http://www.pprune.org/rotorheads/188734-austrian-cable-car-accident-update.html) thread. Regardless of your assertion

I do think that these guys knew the risks and they did complete the mission without mishap - that is what matters

it would have been another black mark against our industry had the catamaran been dropped on people or property. And a very high profile black mark, too :sad:

[Granny]

it would have been another black mark against our industry had the catamaran been dropped on people or property. And a very high profile black mark, too

Heli
Get a life-if everything in this industry was left to a pessimist like you proberly nothing would get done.
The hevi lift business was built on people getting in and giving it a go, rather than standing back and assuming the worst could happen.
This type of work is all about risk management and for a bunch of Russians it appears they did a fairly good job.

[XV666]

Granny,

I quite agree: having a few thousand sling hours, I'm aware that there are always times that you have to weigh rules against getting the job done.

But to expose a heavily publicised load lift through two countries, over 5.25 hours of flying, and overfly countless public roads, highways and built up areas seems to be taking the "risk management" a bit too far out of the box.

When you have time, read the thread that I linked, and note some of the comments: especially Cyclic Hotline's. Then reflect on the the nine people who were killed, and the court case which found the pilot guilty and gave him 15 months jail :sad:

[spinwing]

Mmmmmm .....

Cannot but help thinking ...."there is a reason that the Russkies got this job"?

Though they got this task done without incident ... my own experience tells me that when somebody wants a job done .... and nobody else is happy to tackle it ... a Russian machine usually pops up to do the task!

I may be wrong ... perhaps the Mi26 is the only machine capable .... my problem lies with the dilution of standards and rules that have been developed over the experience of years of practice just for expedience.

Always justified by the "I told you it could be done" statement ..... until there is that oh so loud OOPS!


:E



Would just LOVE to see the insurance quote for the job!!

[Ned-Air2Air]

it would have been another black mark against our industry had the catamaran been dropped on people or property. And a very high profile black mark, too

Heli - I know what you are saying but bottom line its all irrelevant as nothing happened. They completed the task without incident so no matter how much we say it coulda should woulda, it doesnt change the fact that it was accomplished as planned.

Just my two cents worth.

Ned

[[email protected]]

Ned - the problem with that is that once people 'get away' with doing things a certain way for the sake of expedience - it suddenly becomes the acceptable method of doing it rather than the best. This is the drop in standards and safety that spinwing means.

It is like any line, once it is crossed there is no going back even though 20/20 hindsight tells you that the line should never have been crossed in the first place. It is just another case of money first, safety second!

[RVDT]

The "best", sez who?

a black mark against OUR industryAs Tonto said to the Lone Ranger, what do you mean "we" W%it£ Man?

These people are Swiss. Do you really think they would expose themselves to unnecessary risk?

Probably 90% of all helicopter flight in that country is sling work. It goes on in built up areas and regularly crosses roads. The rigging of and rigging equipment is regulated the same as cranes.

The guys you see in the movie with the orange outfits are trained and licenced to do the job by FOCA.

If you were to do a risk assessment for this operation, what would be the basis of your assessment?

The Austrian accident is not unique to helicopter sling loads. The US Navy/Marines achieved the same or worse with a fixed wing. Trento Italy ~Feb 1998.

The operation would have been fully insured and sanctioned by the NAA's involved.

spinwing - dig out your insurance policy and see who insures your insurance company.

Premiums are normally concurrent with "idiot factor" in a geographic location.

[atakacs]

may be wrong ... perhaps the Mi26 is the only machine capable .... You basically nailed it...

12'000kg to 10'000 ft... not many choices..

[skadi]

On the way back to Poland, the Mi26 had an engine failure while passing through the Munich CTR. They landed safely on the airfield of Eggenfelden, now waiting for maintenance.

ROTORBLATT | News | Größe schützt vor Pannen nicht (http://www.rotorblatt.de/news/detail.php?objectID=1309&class=83)


skadi

[XV666]

These people are Swiss. Do you really think they would expose themselves to unnecessary risk?

On the way back to Poland, the Mi26 had an engine failure

I think that crab@ summed it up quite succinctly:

It is like any line, once it is crossed there is no going back even though 20/20 hindsight tells you that the line should never have been crossed in the first place.

:=

[valais]

These guys knew exactly what they were doing. This operation had been planned for weeks. They even did test flights with a mast of a former Alinghi boat to better understand how it behaves in the air. They didn't get up one morning and decided "hey - let's fly Alinghi 5 to Genoa"! :*

Heliswiss International, the company in charge of this operation, has more than 30 years of experience. With their two KA 32 and one SuperPuma they are specialized in this kind of work; see their homepage for some examples: Heliswiss International AG - Einsätze (http://www.heliswissinternational.com/index.php?idcat=48) :ok:

When asked by the media how they feel about airlifting Alinghi 5 over the Alps, the SuperPuma pilot (18'000 hours) as well as the project manager in charge stated that apart from the emotional aspect (Alinghi being a Swiss symbol and they being proud to be part of it) this was a routine job for them. (Sorry, French only: le bouveret - Archives de 24 heures (http://archives.24heures.ch/VQ/LAUSANNE/-/article-2009-08-254/le-bouveret) )

Also, if you look at the flight path posted on the Alinghi website and the in-flight pictures/video on Flickr/YouTube you can see that they pretty much avoided populated areas and busy roads. Of course they had to fly over some villages and roads, but that's no different to countless other transport flights taking place every day in the Valais/Switzerland by Air Zermatt, Air Glaciers, Heliswiss and many others. And all that in a country where the FOCA (Federal Office of Civil Aviation) tends to regulate and prohibit everything which they consider even remotely dangerous...

[RVDT]

heli,

I think you need to get out more often. :rolleyes:

[nigelh]

These guys are pros who do the unusual regularly ...that is why they were called in . Just because you guys would not be up to it dont get all upset !! To say that sling loads cannot travel across any property is just plain stupid and you are obviously not involved in doing it . It casn be done safely and it was done safely . Good job. Now stop bitching :=

[captainmorgan888]

:ouch:...well there´s a Mi 26 at EDME - Eggenfelden, which was enroute from Italy to Poland with an engine failure...awaiting a replacement engine delivered via munich.

[RVDT]

well there´s a Mi 26 at EDME - Eggenfelden, which was enroute from Italy to Poland with an engine failure...awaiting a replacement engine delivered via munich.

Sounds like a good idea to me. Wait in Munich for replacement of failed engine. Check.

[Runway101]

Here is a direct link to the webcam in Eggenfelden/EDME looking at the apron, where the engine is being replaced as I am typing this.

http://www.rottal-inn.de/webcam/html/video.jpg

[skadi]

Today they are on their way back home after having changed both engines.
As i heard, one engine was damaged during cruise ( FL 140 ) due to some ice, which was ingested. The other one was overtemped during the OEI Landing.

skadi

[GoodGrief]

Why would one fry a multi million dollar engine landing an empty helicopter on a 1300m (4200ft for you on the left side of the pond) runway?
Don't they teach running landings anymore ?
Or circling to burn off fuel to become light?

Or was it on a contract loaded with cargo?