I hope, in due course, that one or more yacht helicopter pilots will drop in and give us some first hand stories regarding their operations.
If you are going to drop into Monte Carlo perhaps you might PM
BobF who recently joined the Rotorheads community, is resident there, and flys with the Aero Club de Monaco.
Regarding aircraft brands along the Côte d'Azur - I'm not sure if I need to go into too much explanation here. We Italians are fairly proud of our food and Ferrari's but for the French pride is as essential as oxygen!
Not only do the bulk of the world's socialites, celebrities and politicans who visit France make their way (eventually) to the south but most of the French Cabinet are to be found there in August along with a vast number of Brits and, of course, the yachting crowd which nows includes numerous Russians.
The French see it as their
duty to display their hardware to the point that were any of the companies along the Côte d'Azur to start using 'foreign' products to any noticeable extent - the government might just issue a decree to the effect that those who visit the
French Riviera
in France must be flown in a
French aircraft and preferably by
French pilots!
Heli Air Monaco did operate 206Ls but these were swiftly replaced by the Ecureuil as the company grew and I mentioned somewhere else on Rotorheads that one of Colin Chapman's first sponsors, Monaco resident David Thieme of Essex Oil, had a beautiful LongRanger (on the French register and which I think may have been F-BOAK). However, as a resident of France (or any neighbouring territory) to buy a Bell is now seen as eccentric!