Enstrom
Just have to throw a note or two in here. OAP Kenyon has been happily & unhappily associated with the Enstrom marque now for forty-seven years, so I'd like to think I must have learned something. As some of you will know, I still love the type and spent a happy couple of hours just yesterday on serial number 1104 conducting some advanced training for an ex-Navy guy. The 280C Shark is forty-one years old but her handling still rivals anything on offer anywhere. BUT ... (there's always a but!) ... type support in the UK is abysmal. Now with the departure of Tom, we have just Rise at Gloucester and SPR in Northants. OOP NORTH ... nothing .... zilch I'm afraid! Will someone with rotary experience please, please join the party as there's a super window of opportunity as I write. There's a glimmer on the horizon though. Yesterday's client is an ex-Navy engineer with twelve years experience on heavies and may soon be offering a special service for Enstrom owners ... and how we need it. Those interested, PM for details.
PS. I'm still offering advanced dual handling .... dozens of full stop EOLs to the ground. (I won't practice anything else!) ... tail rotor failure - airborne study, plus the usual VR and any special handling you'd like to brush up. I guess 2017 has to be my last year but I'm hoping to bag a final couple of hundred hours to make the magic 20,000 mark.
And a cautious PS. The Enstrom is still THE ONLY helicopter of any type that has never suffered a fatality in the UK. Long may she keep it that way.
Safe flying to all. Dennis Kenyon.