Ex Mil Seakings - is there life after retirement?

[sbdorset]

A number of Seaking airframes coming on the market from several countries. Is there a market in the civil world for them?

[chopper2004]

Could go to Carson Helicopters in Penn. and get gutted out re engined, fitted with composite blades, modified with Sagem glass cockpit and sent to work in the forestry and firefighting role :)

Home » Carson Helicopters (http://www.carsonhelicopters.com/)

Cheers

[Gordy]

and sent to work in the forestry and firefighting role

Carson no longer work in this role. They now work primarily in the Afghanistan I believe. After Iron 44, the USFS no longer allows passengers on-board the S-61 and kind of shies away from them these days.

But yes, there are many companies here in the US that operate them.

[Thomas coupling]

SB dorset: and which countries might that be then?

chopper: That'll be S61. The market has just been flooded with DoD S61 (110 I believe in the US).

[Megawart]

Are the Americans operating Sea Kings as we know them in the UK, or S-61s?

If Sea Kings, then does that mean they're on the FAA register?

And if so, which companies? I noticed the LAPD stopped using the Sea King a couple of years ago....

I'm interested because I might be heading that way....with 4,000 Sea King hours...

[Thomas coupling]

Yanks don't have/need SeaKings. They invented the S61 and we bastardised them @ Westlands under licence. (Made a better job of it too).

You'll find it a walk in the park converting to mil S61's. {From SK}.

[Megawart]

Are you sure TC?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sikorsky_SH-3_Sea_King

[Jet Ranger]

A number of Seaking airframes coming on the market from several countries. Is there a market in the civil world for them?


Mission impossible! Too much money to convert!

JR

[sbdorset]

Some Aussie ones have been bought by a business, UKMOD tbd plus one other shortly......

[Thomas coupling]

Mega: 100% certain. The yanks invented the S61 and the brits invented a bastardised version under licence called the Sea King.

Wiki confirms.

[Thomas coupling]

SB: Aussie is selling/sold a handful.
Next in line are Belgium who have already retired one cab (10,000hrs on the airframe!). The rest to follow in about a year. 3 airframes.
UK selling their entire stock in 2016, numbering approx 100 airframes.:eek:
Noggies: 2020. 5 airframes.
FGN: 2027 9+ airframes.
India?
Qatar: 2018?
Pakistan?
Egypt: already u/s barely "S". 3 airframes.

You could easily buy say 50 airframes @ say £250,000 each and run 10 of them for many many years to come using the rest as hangar queens!

[heli1]

It will be interesting to see how this pans out .The Westland Sea King differs substantially from the US airframe and is not civil certified.However some do use US transmission components etc which could be useful as spares for the S-61 This is what the Australian aircraft have been sold for.However even that future must be limited as the world wide fleet declines. Interestingly HeliData News recently reported that two ex LASD H-3s have been passed back to the US Navy to provide trainers for HMX-1,which flies the US President!

[Ian Corrigible]

The market has just been flooded with DoD S61 (110 I believe in the US)
The 110 figure was the total potential buy covered under the ID/IQ contract. Only 29 have actually been ordered to date, with 16 S-61Ns delivered and 13 S-61Ts still to follow.

To heli1's point, while you'd think there were sufficient H-3 airframes sitting in the Boneyard a number of ex-Danish aircraft were also snapped up (http://helihub.com/2011/06/07/sikorsky-buys-danish-sea-king-fleet-for-s61t-iraq-contract/) in support of the DOS program.

Still looking forward to seeing my first Motor Sich (http://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/sikorsky-considers-ukrainian-engines-for-s-61-upgrade-374786/)-powered Sea King! :E

I/C

[Gordy]

Megawart

I'm interested because I might be heading that way....with 4,000 Sea King hours...

Assuming you are legal to work in the US.....(citizenship or green card), although conceivably you could work for a US company outside of the US.

[heli1]

The Danish aircraft of course were Sikorsky built S61As,as are the Malaysian Nuris which look to be soldiering on for a few more years yet!

[chopper2004]

@Megawart, naw it was the Los Angeles Sheriff Dept Air 5 Rescue had three and they were replaced by the AS332L1 recently but also there was one remaining SH-3 still flying with them as of recently.

I saw the new Air 5 AS332L1 at Heli Expo a month ago.

My apologies chaps as I automatically assumed that all 61 models as such and even ex mil SK ended up having a reincarnation courtesy of Carson

Back to the old Air 5 trio, IIRC when the LASD selected the ex Navy machines to relace their S-58T, the airframes were done up and converted by Erickson Aircrane (had an early brochure picked up at Helitech 2001)

So what about the new S-61T Triton offered by Sikorsky and operated by the DoS in Afghanistan could they conceivably find their way into the forestry firefighting role?

Cheers

[NutLoose]

Out of interest, the Swedes have just sold their remaining HPK-4's (Sea Knights) to Columbia Helicopters for hopefully logging operations, keeping a couple for museums, one which will yield some spares I believe.

See

Columbia Helicopters acquires ten more Swedish Vertol 107-IIs - News - Shephard (http://www.shephardmedia.com/news/rotorhub/columbia-helicopters-acquires-ten-more-swedish-ver/)

[sbdorset]

Working with a client who has purchased 5 ex Aussie Seakings and numerous containers full of spares. 3 airframes are flyable.

Please form an orderly queue! :D

[Megawart]

Sea Kings or S-61s?

[heli1]

Westland built Sea Kings megawatts....airframes not civil certifiable but some may have Sikorsky dynamic components.

[Megawart]

Then there IS life after retirement....