Hi whoknows_idont ;-)
I´m in the second bunch of pilots to get the rating - so my information also are second hand from visits to the squadron, which starts with the new helicopter....
About the skids vs wheels...
In the past some very "wise" man sat together and had an idea about the future of the squadron.....
They didn´t listen to the ones, who had to fly because of their endlessly wisdom....
So from 10 BO105 and 2 BK117 they decided, that three Cessna 182, three BK and three EC155 would best fit future needs.
After two Cessnas and two EC155 were purchased they experienced, that their plan wasn´t that brilliant....
We managed to buy the last three BK117C1 produced and ended up with two Cessna, two EC155 and five BK117 (two getting close to 30 years by now)
The EC155 is a nice helicopter to fly - but less brillant for policework - and was used either for transport (not such a big deal) and mainly for extraction of special forces, either by landing close to the target area or via rappelling or fast roping.
Well - it worked cause we had a close look on the fueling side, keeping the weight as low as possible....
But while working with the EC155 we very often had problems to find a decent landing spot with barrowsize wheels and the weight of a little truck.
Often the Co-Pilot got out in a low hover and gave signs to the pilot - or the helicopter had to search for a dislocated landing spot - adding time to pick up and relocate the special forces again.
(Just imagine AMOK-type scenarios - where the bad boy moves on - you land where he was - and have to move on to where actually he is....
or deploying special forces to set up a trap - and pick them up again to bring them to another spot, when the bad boys went another way...)
So the decision was made to replace the current fleet with a new helicopter - with skids, cause we have the different experiences with BK117 and EC155.
If Agusta could have fitted skids - and could have fullfilled the integrationwishes - it would have been an interesting competitor.
There were talks to them as well - but they said (as I heard), that fixed wheel landing gear is as good as skids (military uses them as well)
But we´re not the military, we had damaged brakelines, gear stuck in soft ground and so on and have very good experiences with skids.
Pilots want skids - and this time actually it was an questionare before they started to put together the points a new helicopter has to fullfill! :-)
Out came a list with
must have - if not - out
should have - giving points
nice to have - giving points
so that offers from manufactors could be compared fair