That was very well put USMC HELO, looks like you left Tottigol speachless. Well done! :ok:

^ +1 :ok:

Its an indication on the display that lets you know when a certain value is changing like "oil pressure rising". This way you might be able to focus on a problem that is still developing and not being warned when things have already gone wrong...

Probably mostly useful on longer flights when alertness is low and regular instrument cross checks are forgotten.

No he didn't Yhelico, I am on vacation in the Caribbeans and I only occasionally check the web for what I am interested on.
I'd say call me back when:
1) Bell solves the weight problem.
2) Bell gets more than 15 429s registered in the USA working on EMS contracts.

I may be retired by then.

Facts, not words.

Bye for now, I am enjoying the vacation.

Info update please
 

Ref the B429 and if Shawn Coyle or any other 'in the know' bod is on thread just now .... tomorrow I'm doing an air test and write-up for our UK 'BLADES' journal and would like to add a note on the the 'wheels' position.

??? Are these on the factory list for production ... ever or never.
Secondly - is the PATS T/R totally dead & buried.
And if anyone has the info, and apart from Air Methods - are there any further machines now actually in service. HEMS or whatever.

Thanks in advance and I hope I enjoy the ride as much as Shawn.

Dennis Kenyon

Georgina HJ and I were in the aircraft Monday and as I guess the Bell pilot will confirm...

Wheels in the fullness of time, seems there are a number of 'future' scenarios where wheels will be unavoidable.

PATS Tail rotor unlikely in the short term as the current one has extremely good 'bite' and [my reading on this] why get something that might not have such grip on the environment [in the short or long term].... There are no systems out there that serve demonstrate that a PATS type anti-torque system is an outright customer winner.

I have no comment on the other question, that will need an American input.

Dennis:
My spies tell me little is being done on the wheels option.
Enjoy the flight! (I'm in the UK at the moment)

I believe nine are delivered ex factory all for EMS operators but only one is in service. The others are presumably in some stage of the completion process

Dennis, check out the fuel consumption towards max speed as I hear it is poor. Just the typical speeds EMS operators would use

s/n 15 and 16 are on the Canadian register ( presume in final production flight test ) also another 6 on Canadian register registered to Bell. S/n 6 and 8 on US register to Air methods and Mitsui Busan , Other 7 in US all registered to Bell. Anyone know the s.n of the demonstrator ( or N number ).
Are the EMS mods being done by Edwards ?

The demonstrator currently doing the rounds in the UK is the 'European' demonstrator which has graced Prague, Germany, Farnborough in recent weeks C-FTNB which a quick search tells me is 57002.

When Bell only had the original red and blue 429's flying from Mirabel, the blue one passed about 2-3 nm from me when I was in an R44 just South of MTL.

Dennis K was meant to conduct his review of the 429 today. Hope it went well!

http://cdn-www.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!/aviati.../5/1748544.jpg

C-FTNB Bell 429 GlobalRanger in flight over the Alps
23 June 2010

Ok, Let's see,

One demo in Europe, one demo in Japan, one in Texas at the Bell school, one in DesMoines doing EMS and a bunch being customized all over the place.

Should have a pretty good population by year end :ok:

Just got confirmation from friend high up in Bell that Mercy one is the only 429 in operation at the moment but more being delivered to customers later this year, both in the USA and overseas.

Ned

Bell 429 Photo Montage
 

Here's a photo montage of a few.

http://i190.photobucket.com/albums/z...429montage.jpg

Two 429's going to Delhi, one in late 2010 and one in early 2011..

Is it a trick of the light or are there significant soot deposits on 57003 and 54802, funny the other 2 light coloured ones look clean . I must say though it is a nice looking helicopter , not sure what it is about the shape of the Bell.

The skid design seems to have changed from the original 3 machines to the newer aircraft. Does anybody know why this might be?

I heard something that the skidgear design violates some Euroc***
patents.
The changed skidgear design looks not very smart on the 429.

Gotta agree with Matt82, the skid gear with 'toes' sticking out totally sucks!

But, when we first saw the connected 'loop' design on the Colibiri this wasn't a Eurocopter innovation ... Hughes originally came up with this configuration for the Explorer in a 'double loop' (paperclip) style. Quite why they didn't put it into production I don't know!