Overkill at the Olympic Games
The last time I posted here was in August 2004 when I received some very interesting information about helicopter operations at the Athens Olympics.
I am now in Qingdao for the sailing regatta of the Beijing Games.
The TV guys here seem to be using a pair of AS365s for filming and microwave linking. One is fitted with a gyro-stabilised HD camera and the other appears to be purely for link purposes. This looks like overkill to me. The hourly cost of a 365 can't be cheap.
Can anyone throw any light on why they are using such heavy aircraft for a seemingly simple job (Athens was a mixture of 206s and AS355/350s)? Are they civilian run or military in civilian paint?