Sky Shuttle sells 139 fleet
 

From HeliHub today

Is the global downturn reaching Hong Kong?

Sky Shuttle sells AW139 fleet

Helihub RSS Feed http://www.helihub.com/wordpress/wp-...le-150x150.jpg HeliHub.com

3 Jan, 12 In a press release back in October 2009, the Hong Kong proudly announced “Sky Shuttle’s fleet conversion programme to progressively phase-out its Sikorsky S-76C+ helicopters and bring into commercial service, the first of its six, brand new, high-performance AW 139 helicopters”.
But now, local press are reporting they have changed their mind and have sold the AW139 fleet to Canadian company Eagle Copters and are reportedly returning to the Sikorsky S76 as their prime aircraft. The three 76C+’s that the company had were sold to Canada, but never appeared on the register there – perhaps they are still available?
Sky Shuttle was formed in 1998 as East Asia Airlines, rebranding in 2008 with the first AW139 arriving late that year. In July 2010 one of the AW139 fleet suffered a tail rotor issue which led to a controlled ditching of the aircraft in Hong Kong harbour, with the 2 crew and 10 passengers all safely rescued.
HeliHub.com contacted Sky Shuttle for comment on this story, and were told that someone would call us back to provide further information. No call was received prior to the time we told them we would publish this story.
The company is owned by Chan Un Chan, the third wife of Stanley Ho Hung Sun.
Jeremy Parkin – HeliHub.com

Ironic, one of the other passenger shuttle operators, CopterLine, went the other way to AW139s after a (fatal) S-76C+ accident.

Here's the updated version :ok:


AgustaWestland says Sky Shuttle AW139 sale story “incorrect” | Helihub - the Helicopter Industry Data Source

Haha!

What a ****-up!

Don't believe everything you read here...afterall, its a 'rumour' network.

3 Jan, 12
AgustaWestland has issued a statement this morning regarding the article originally published by Macau Business which we reported on earlier today in which it claimed Sky Shuttle had “sold four of its five Agusta Westland AW139 helicopters and continues to operate with Sikorsky S76C+ helicopters” – see Sky Shuttle sells AW139 fleet

AW says that Sky Shuttle has actually sold four of its old Sikorsky S76C+ helicopters that were withdrawn from service in 2009 when they were replaced by the AW139 on its popular Hong Kong, Macau, Shenzhen helicopter shuttle services.

$3900HKD ($503USD) for a 16 minute trip on a weekend, now!? Good grief! Global downturn...what global downturn?

Easy mistake to make...

http://i.imgur.com/9o0YTNi.jpg

:E

I/C

Maybe some industrial warfare between the two!

Haha!

Anyway, nice to see the SkyShuttle S76's moving on...they looked so sad, all stripped down, cluttering up the hangars getting dusty and old.

I wonder if the new owners will remove the silly 'collective detent' switches.

AW139 Ice Protection system.
 

For Oden:
The Ice protection on the 139 is certified to protect for known icing condition up to 10 000ft.Flight in freezing rain or freezing drizzle in not approved.The system weight about 200 kg and is certified FAR 29 and JAR 29.There is 2 AC GEN added to the main transmission,one 45 KVA and one 25 KVA. AC power provides heating for the main rotor blades,tail rotor blades, the windshield and the ice detector heads.The tail rotor deicing is ON all time when the system is ON,the main rotor blades have 6 different zones,3 critical and 3 non-critical,the heat goes ON by cycle,one zone at the time,to remove the ice.
It never worked on any of our aircraft.We had a tail rotor slip ring failure who could have been catastrophic.The slip ring transmit the power to the tail rotor blades, there is fix part on the tail rotor gearbox and one moving part attached to the blades.The attachment on the fix part broke and the all piece started to spin around......every aircraft had damage on this system and they were removed in order to figure out what to do next.Apparently Agusta came with a modification to fix the problem....Will see.....So,we are in Winter and we are not able to use it(which is good for me...)

Sky Shuttle Sells AW139 Fleet
 

Chi Sin Gei Si is correct, it's the S76's that have been sold, as a batch, to a Canadian buyer. They've been de-registered and will shortly be disassembled for shipping.

Arcal76:

Txs for the information.

Something go too fast
 

Did you know that Gulf Helicopters recently took delivery of a new AW139. They sent 2 local pilots (not mere locals mind, 2 with job titles and fat salarys) to ferry it back to Doha.

Did you know that the same helicopter is grounded since arrival at Doha. Main Rotor overspeed apparently.

Oops

Keep it to yourself for now, maybe there'll be a couple of vacancys for those with management hopes shortly.

If they were Qatari pilots then there will be no vacancies. They will find some expat to blame. Inshalla.

Well rotor person, guess you work or have a friend who is close to GH, Is easily *influenced by ill informed and inaccurate talk, and has nothing else better to do than pass on to the world through this forum what you considered a chance to * * slag off a GHC National crew.*
The statements made by rotor person are not true and are an affront to the Qatarie National Captain (the commander of the delivery flight) and should be withdrawn.
*

Aw139 sar modes
 

G'day all

We have been utilizing the sar modes fairly extensively for about a year or so and a few little gremlins seem to pop up occasionally across all of our machines. A couple of examples:

1. When TU is engaged, the aircraft just "waffles" up and doesn't really accelerate. Normally, momentarily reengaging HOV (via the force trim release or trim switch) and then reselecting TU fixes the problem.

2. When passing through the fhaf on a mot and soon after path and decel are engaged, the fd occasionally just disconnects all modes without warning allowing the aircraft to continue to descend if left unchecked. The radalts both appear to remain functioning during this as well.

Usually these aren't too much of a big deal as long as things are being
monitored adequately but they certainly aren't ideal traits.

Has anyone had similar issues or is there something floating around addressing
similar issues? Thanks in advance.

It happened to me at least two times... no malfunctions, everything just disengaged suddenly :confused:

On the TU, I can't remember any problem apart that is really "slow" accelerating and at the same time climbing to 200'.

I'm not flying the SAR version anymore...

Regards
Aser

Oooops
 

Anyone know what happened here? It was found on a jobs website today.

A short e mail to Agusta requesting help may be the best option. Plus a review of the insurance policy.*
:bored::eek:

Sniffing smell of another (non existing) incident in Gulf, where some happy Ev****n masters are within learning curve :cool:

I don't think so... unless the gulf has moved to AFRICA!

But the company is right.....:mad:

£2k for a week's survey and report? Well, if I was an expert with the machine (and I'm NOT) I wouldn't do it for less. Can you imagine what the Liability Insurance premium would rocket up to>:(

And the complications of an African operator and 3rd party (4th party?) repairs and finding something else distorted perhaps, when it is mounted in a fixture? Very stressful, anmd loadsa wine required ! LOL :ok: - VFR