Rotorheads Calendar May 2011

[John Eacott]

From the Republic of Slovenia we have a photo of the Agusta A109E of the Slovenian Police Helicopter Unit departing Ljubljana Airport (LJLJ) on a HEMS mission, piloted by Igor Zrinski. The Helicopter Unit dates back to 1967, when it first formed with an Agusta Bell AB47/J2A which was generally used for patrol and traffic control: notwithstanding the performance limitations it also carried out a mountain rescue mission in 1968! The current fleet is fairly mixed: an AB212, an AB412, an Agusta A109E, an EC135 and two AB206BIIIs.

Rotorhead Phoinix supplied the photo: my thanks to him and all the others who have provided me with pictures over the past month. I must say it is nice to get images from such diverse countries :ok:

Wide screen size:
http://www.eacott.com.au/gallery/d/4396-1/May+2011+wide+thumb.jpg (http://www.eacott.com.au/gallery/d/4393-1/May+2011+wide.jpg)

Standard screen size:

http://www.eacott.com.au/gallery/d/4401-1/May+2011+thumb.jpg (http://www.eacott.com.au/gallery/d/4398-1/May+2011.jpg)


As always, for Windows users click on the thumbnail to open a higher resolution full picture, and then right click to select “Set as Background”. Mac users should select the background via System Preferences.

[digidave]

Many thanks John & Phoinix.

[Aser]

Nice one, thanks.

Aser

[9Aplus]

Yes nice one... it was joke in S5 about that heli going like "queen of hangar",
later EC135 gain that status within 50 sec of training single engine running on MGB -
resulted in expensive MOH of MGB :E

One simmilar nice design from Bulgaria here:
http://www.revistaaerea.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/AW753.jpg
link only / pic to big / can not resize

[Phoinix]

I'm not sure where you got your info as it is wrong. The only two queens of hangars are the 212 with 22 months and 412 with 24 months and counting (public tenders, a lovely phenomena). 109 was on the ground only for a two month period right after delivery, 135 was never grounded, even after the incident (I was at the controls at the time, gaining my IR) when EC confirmed it was still within limits to continue flying.

Maybe the queen of hangar you are referring to is the old 109A, that was sold after being on the ground for quite a lot of time after reaching the engines overhaul time limit, later being sold for spare parts.

The link you posted is our 109E, you can see the front of "S..." part of the nationality markings. It was photoshoped for a flyer.
Although it's a common paint scheme, just with different blue shadings.

[9Aplus]

:cool: tnx for info and update....
I wrote it was JOKE, and arived to me like joke... not information.

I am glad that EC story finished well, too.

PS that 2 months on 109E was just on moving map issue, or other?

[Phoinix]

It might be a Joke to some, but it's actually sad, at least to me looking at good helicopters that should be flying not accumulating dust...

109E was on the ground because of an ego issue. Our brilliant head pilot didn't have time for his new toy, so if he wasn't flying, nobody else come into play. The issue was cleared when a technician came by one day in the middle of the briefing asking the brilliant guy if he wants the helicopter to be prepared for conservation or for flight... :}