running in. Sorry for the delay, been otherwise engaged.
These figures are direct from the Westland website.
Cabin length is 8.86ft.
width is 6.89ft.
height is 4.6ft.
A bit of a squeeze are not the words I would use but close to them.
According to the latest "rumour" from MCA/CHC the 139 will only have five pax.seats anyway!!! So much for the recently announced, see previous posts, formation of offshore firefighting teams. They travel in teams of six minimum, plus their kit, to be delivered to the ship all in one lift.
The previously mentioned seats will be easy fit/remove to enable the carriage of stretcher/s. (troopseats?).Presumably they will have legs that fit through holes in the sea tray. That doesn't sound like much of a corrosion problem does it! Still, it will keep the engineers busy and out of the crewroom.
Droopystop.
Agreed. But these incidents rarely happen on days like today and imo the more assets, correctly used and timed, the better.

A question I have asked but have not yet had fully answered relates to seats and fully compliant airframes like the AW139.

As civvie machines it seems that anyone carried should have [must have?] a fully compliant seat to place themselves on.

At the moment older airframes [pre-JAR] can get away with sitting bums on floors so such as the BK117 can get away with having insufficient headroom for cops in proper stroking seats.

So is it should have or must have?

Picking up survivors from the sea is truly an emergency where you can have bums on the floor for the excess numbers but is transporting firemen to an emergency not likely to be requiring the compliant crashworthy seats for each and every one of them?

I cannot find the finite answer. Any thoughts?

UK SAR Bids 2012
 

Hi

Interesting choices being made by the two main contenders. Bristow teaming up with Serco and FB Heliservices (well, no surprise there really) according to the BBC (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/.../5180482.stm):

"Scots firm joins helicopter bid

Bristow currently operates a number of coastguard helicopters
An Aberdeen-based firm hopes to secure the contact to provide search and rescue helicopter cover across the UK.

Bristow helicopters has joined a consortium with major helicopter providers, FB Heliservices and Serco.

The UK government announced it intended to privatise the services in May to deliver better value for the taxpayer.

Helicopter cover, which is currently provided by the RAF, the Navy and the coastguard, will be handed over to a single civilian operator in 2012.
The contract is expected to run for 20 to 30 years and will be worth several billion pounds.

Bristow currently operate the four coastguard helicopters at Sumburgh, Stornoway, Lee on the Solent, and Portland.

However, it lost that contract when it was re-tendered last year.

It will be operated CHC helicopters from next summer until the launch of the new privatised search and rescue service in 2012."

Appearing in today's Sunday Times (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article...2271845.html):

"Thales, the French defence contractor, is this week expected to announce it has teamed up with America’s CHC Helicopter Corporation to bid for a private-finance initiative contract to run search-and-rescue helicopters in Britain."

Interesting choice, so does this mean that CHC may then bid away from the S-92/A139 mixture to perhaps the EC225/EC155 instead seeing as a major French firm is now involved?

"Thales, the French defence contractor, is this week expected to announce it has teamed up with America’s CHC Helicopter Corporation to bid for a private-finance initiative contract to run search-and-rescue helicopters in Britain."

CHC is Canadian, not American.

Yes, technically american can mean relating to anything in North America, South America, West Indies, or the Western Hemisphere, but popular usage has it meaning solely the United States of America.

You are absolutely correct Matthew.

However, Bristow is an American company, with a branch in Aberdeen! :eek:

Just looking at the first post by Allypally - he was quite accurate with his estimate of pay and allowances!!

HF

actually chinooks are a great idea, you could fit a riow of winches and winchmen like the way they do underslunf loads in three's except have a dozen, and pick up 24 people at a time with cages on the end of the wire? You would'nt even have to land.

Bolkow
 

Best not to post on here if you have been drinking or taking drugs.:ok:

The "good" old days
 

At the request of SP here are some phots from the family album.

They were all taken during Father's tenure as CO of the SAR flight RNAS Ford 1953-55. Westland license built Dragonfly with very little power and no hinge offset on the rotorhead, note the CofG control ballast weights on the transportation joint. With Meteors, Wyverns, Fireflies, Vampires & Seafuries in the parish they were a busy outfit.
The scoop net was designed as Dad had no wish to share the tiny S51 cockpit/cabin with the not-so-recently deceased it kept the crew together in the aircraft during the pickup and came in handy for recovery of incapacitated victims. The stretcher was designed for transfer of casualties between ships.

The low power reserves dictated that most operations had to be carried out IGE but with a low disc loading the downwash (see pic 4)was not an issue and this made netting considerably easier than on the more powerful and heavier machines it was later used on.
1
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d1...roulenetSZ.jpg
2 Dad's favourite crewman CPO Jan Lock a WWII vintage Swordfish TAG who knew what he doing and navigated with a "Bigsworth board"
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d1.../CPOLockSZ.jpg
3
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d1.../FordNetSZ.jpg
4
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d1...ehamptonSZ.jpg
5
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d1...leNetflySZ.jpg
6
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d1...tretcherSZ.jpg

It is staggering how capable the new SAR machines are by comparison. the courage of the crews remains the same and have my utmost respect, keep up the good work :ok:
Some more pictures
7
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d1...t_groundSZ.jpg
8
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d1...mall_NetSZ.jpg
9http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d1...per/IGE2SZ.jpg
10http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d1...entScoopSZ.jpg
11http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d1...oup_FordSZ.jpg
These last two are caption competition fodder for H&S at work
12http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d1...ns_chairSZ.jpg
13http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d1...rlyWinchSZ.jpg

Great photo's
 

Fascinating stuff, got any more?:D

Spanish S.A.R. AW-139 Promo Video from Agusta Westland
http://youtube.com/watch?v=EJV4F_bRHVE

Best regards
Aser

There was me getting all excited about my countrymen showing off their machine and to my horror the link doesn't work. Can you try again aser as I cant find it by searching on youtube either.

thanks

SW

Thanks Aser - great vid!

Rich T...unlike the biscuit, nice job!:D Good job all round even by Lee and the hover!:D

Quite the most laid back reaction to a scramble I have seen for a long while:)

Out of interest Aser/spanish waltzer - is there a logic for stopping short of the liferaft and making the diver swim in with the cable? The downwash in that wind wouldn't have been a problem so taking the winchman/diver straight to the survivor would seem to be the sensible move. Is it because it is a promotional video and not representative of normal ops?

:}
It isn't the first time I hear that, but
Crab and all,
Please don't forget it's just a movie for agusta , we were following their requests.

I wasn't there with at the time of the liferaft, but it's just a short swim and you have the target in sight.
Do you let the swim to be in the water without the wire attached, in UK?

Regards
Aser

How can you say such a thing...:eek:

According to that little clock thing under the pretty pictures it clearly shows they were airborne within 2min 30 of the mayday and on scene within 15 secs...:D

Our Rioja works wonders:E

Aser

How much vibration do you get with the SAR 139 when you are in, or approach, the hover with a wind speed of say 28 to 35 kts?

Our offshore machines shake considerably between these airspeeds, normally as we slow down. It's very uncomfortable.:ooh: I guess it's the main rotor downwash hitting the large horizontal stabiliser.

But, I'm told it's no worse than a SeaKing.

ATB

Red

RedWhite&Blue, same thing here, is really bad, but just for a few seconds until you decelerate, you don't have it once IAS is near 0.
I don't remeber the vib. in hover even with 30 knots winds.


Another video during training:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cO7pbFBG-0w


Regards
Aser

ASER - no, we would hover over the target so the winchman is taken straight to the dinghy without swimming. Yes I figured it was like all promotional videos - you what the film crew says, not what you would really do.

Crab, what about a sailboat in a gale where you can not put the swimmer on board due to mast etc.?
I know the US C.G. drops rescuemen in the water, but here never without wire.
Any other SAR service drops a free rescueman? (just curiosity)

Regards
Aser