S76A++ end of the road????
 

I see this old girl is now up for sale with GPW Aviation. S76A++ 30 years of reliable service and only 6054hrs. The end of an era.https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....11e9c3008.jpeg

Maybe a bargain for somebody. I'd be surprised if they got any more than $350K for it.

Isn't this the only example with a single cabin door? I know who looked after this one; it's been very well maintained.

Is that the Brecqhou machine?

Great picture. Still the prettiest helicopter out there.

It is indeed.

A sad day

Steve Hogarth and I purchased this aircraft from Japan in 1998 for Brecqhou. She was brought into line with UK CAA requirements by Bristows Redhill (for which thank you Chaz Newport) and has been a stunningly good machine for that operation ever since. Be a hard act to follow. Sad day today. Thank you DF, you've been a goody! Mark Harrisson, Guernsey.

I saw it a couple of times in the Redhill hangar - the paint was about half an inch thick! I seem to recall it was not a standard A++ conversion and was unique. Something about MGB dash numbers?

It was / is an A++ "modified" - It was one of the very last A airframes produced by Sikorsky as they moved on to the B then C. It went unfinished for several years before Sikorsky decided to finish it with bits from the C and flogged it to Honda in Japan I think. It did not fly very much there and was stored for several years before being imported into Guernsey and put on the G-reg for the Brecqhou job. Bristow did the import mods and rebuild and looked after it (very well) for many years until they closed the Redhill hangar.

Simply put it had the engines and gearbox from a C in an A airframe and was torque limited to prevent bending the airframe. Unique torque gauges with power limited at 86.6 % (IIRC) rathe than 100% and the flight manual had the graphs from a C cut off at 10,800lbs rather than 11,700 lbs.

Used to be jokingly called the "C minus"

A great machine for that particular mission.

Yes, that is all correct and then we had the latest dash number Quiet MGB fitted and put a lot of effort into weight reduction and fore and aft C of G to ensure she flew nice and smooth and fast and to keep her really smooth changed control rod end bearings as soon as they started showing any play. Made a big difference. In the end she landed up with C++ gear boxes and could have accepted the S76D blades. That really would have made her very smooth, reduced the cruise fuel burn and improved the vertical performance. Never got to that bit, which remains a regret. It is an aircraft I have a lot of time for as it is so well tuned to its task and whether you are sitting in the front or back, a pleasure to fly in.

I surveyed it in Tokyo, BA club class, care of the Barclay Brothers, best flight I ever had.

Thanks, although all A+/A++ are ‘modified’ surely - all began life as As. The C MGB rings a bell now, after 19 years - I recall dash 9600 versus dash 9500 (demonstrating my sad ability to remember numbers but not people’s names!) Coincidentally I was there doing a differences course on our first A++ before ferrying it to Lagos.

You did us proud that Christmas, Dave. Steve and I were very, very grateful

Where I worked, the C was known as the B minus.

Minus the power....

I think I am correct in saying that the last twelve S76A airframes actually conformed to the S76C airframe standard. 2-BYDF was in that batch. We searched everywhere for just the right airframe for that job. The Starboard Pax door was sealed into place so from the outside she appeared not to have he door (the escape panel window was fitted). For ground handling of VVIP pax this single port door configuration was helpful. When we got her she was an S76A+ only and cleared to 10,500 lb only. BHL did the upgrade to A++ changing a section of skin on either side just by the engine bays and the engines went back to Turbomeca for their upgrade. All came together and we put the light weight dog house on her ( nightmare to fit but worth it) It was a very interesting mod programme. I think we embodied a total of 96 BHL mods (some just a bolt change or addition, others more serious) . She had just 74 hours total when starting to operate for us

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....02d180376.jpeg
As she now sits. She flew very smoothly and was a fast 76 compared to others.

Thanks Mark. It was fun, we finished the air test by flying round the Emperors Palace.
That evening we went to downtown Yokohama for a chinese meal as my Japanese guide did not like Japanese food. I made a pratt of myself by trying to eat meatballs in soup, with chopsticks.
We went back to Tokyo in a night tourist flight AS355, operated by the same company ,Tokyo by night from a Helicopter is a wonder to behold.

So wasn't this the aircraft that it was hoped might be donated to the Helicopter Museum for preservation ?

Well 2-BYDF is now officially sold. Are you certain the D blades would have fit? I’m certain they wouldn’t and I doubt Sikorsky would even allow it. At least the new owner is hoping to be able to continue flying and maintaining her as a replacement for their present ‘non military’ aircraft.

I see 2-BYDF flew to Bournemouth Hurn on 12th November.... is this it's new base or just a stop on its way to her new owners ?