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 ?

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 ?????

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