I believe she didn’t go to Bournemouth at all. Flew to near Yeovil. Buyer lives close. Flight Radar24 may have said otherwise but no, didn’t go to Bournemouth.

Was it an historic moment?

Not necessarily so

They would indeed fit, but in terms of airworthiness, they are not certified.:=

I would imagine a new set of D-blades would be worth more than the whole helicopter....

Quite possibly. A guy here in Canada just bought three C++ for 1.5mil US$.

Not each, that is the total cost for all three machines. 500k each! For C++!!

Looks like he is keeping one for private and selling two.

That sounds about right, $500K for a C++. If it were me I'd keep one C++ as my private weekend getaway ride and break the other two down for spares. I like the C++, if only they weren't so expense to run.

20 years ago we were costing the A++ at $1100/hr when bidding contracts, but they were the old phase 2 and didn't have the expensive bits of the C++ like DECU, EFIS, IIDS, FDC.
Helicopters seem to age out in some countries/markets and not in others. Lots of old 212's, 412's, 76's still working here, and yet the local "money-no-object" medvac charities that bought the latest and greatest fleet of AW139 have dumped them all now in favour of even newer EC145 (Noooby, any insights?). Hell, a couple days ago I overheard an old Bell 47 call sign that I had done training in 30 years ago that was still out there beating the sky for a living. Wondered how old it was and it turned out to be 68 (1952 manufacture). So that 76A++ in good nick still has a long run ahead of it.

I dare say the fuel bill alone would be close to $1100/hr today.

At a burn of 360 litres per hour How much do to pay for your Jet A1?

2-BYDF burns around 600lbs of fuel per hour. Is one of the fastest S76’s I’ve ever flown and was super smooth. The monthly running costs were impressive due to the fact she is so reliable. In 6 years I only ever had one occasion where we couldn’t depart the island due to a mechanical issue, which I have to add was fully rectified by 10am the next day. Impressive when you think of the logistics involved.

I hope she goes on to provide many more years of service to the new owners if they can get the maintenance coverage they’ll need for it.

When the Provincial Govt give you an EC145 for free and the Federal Govt give you four EC145 for free, you find that your fleet suddenly becomes the EC145. And then the STARS CEO had to issue an apology for reporting to CBC Saskatoon that the 139's were being retired because they were "technologically outdated". Ouch. I believe Ornge are still operating the 139?

Yes, we still operate the 139 and it will not change anytime soon after installing the huge Mod stretcher to please our medics....How can we go to a smaller machine now when this stretcher won' fit anywhere else ??
Cost is high, maintenance horrible with aircraft down for 2 months for heavy maintenance. An expensive tool....

they could at least paint them with a product/colour that lasts - it’s embarrassing

Two months for heavy maintenance, ? we used to be able to do a major check on a 212 in Two weeks, I thought progress meant improving things.

Don't blame the machine. Oil and Gas operators, who staff their bases properly, do get the inspections done quicker. We used to do the 300 hour in 3 days. A 4 year would be a couple weeks. As for "cost is high", a 139 is cheaper to purchase than a 76D and the DoC's are proven to be very close, if not better than a 76C++ (don't know DoC's for a 76D sorry). O&G operators proved that over and over again.
76's were perfect for mechanics though. They're job security because something always breaks. All the mechanics said I'd be first out of a job because I only worked on the 139 and there wasn't much to do compared to the 76.

That is a fine looking machine for the money, I appreciate running and maintenance costs but would a low hour using VIP be happier with this as opposed to say a newer 109..... I am a bit of a snob, so who would have the bragging rights on arrival at Ascot, Goodwood or Silverstone?

I know of an operation that takes three months to do an annual on a 412 :rolleyes:

I remember a shift supervisor (A.S.) at Air Hanson who said

" I won't hear a bad word said about the S76, the overtime is paying my mortgage."!!!!


As for heavy maintenance it depends exactly what you are doing. A heavy check on a 139 is about 2 weeks.
We did a G check on a 365 in twelve weeks. That included a full bare metal respray and a complete gut of the aircraft down to the fuselage on jacks tailboom off, with just the looms and long hydraulic lines in situ. Canopy structure replaced as well.

The S76's didn't have a heavy check all work was carried out as a continuous process. Can't say I agreed with that but it worked.

Each operator does it's own thing.

O'lá, Ainda sabe do paradeiro dessas maquinas ?????

Preciso de 2 urgente