Thin on the ground

Many I talked at Helitech suggested that business was pretty slack. Certainly there were precious few announcements and the show daily news-sheets – beyond the pre-written Day One issue – were pathetically thin. That was clearly the consequence of a lack of boots on the ground as there is always news at an event like this; if it is thin on the ground, you just have to dig a little harder for it. The event “journal of record” deserves more than one writer with a pocket camera.

The static display contained little that was new – one S-76 at least must have been a veteran of the Redhill days – and, poignantly, the Lincs & Notts MD902 air ambulance wore a ‘for sale’ sign. Two French newcomers to the line, the neat Helineo and Cabri two-seaters, sparked the interest of many. Both built to EASA CS-27 safety standards, they both look the real deal; indeed, they make the Robinson appear distinctly old-school.

A conference made its debut. Originally showcased and beautifully chaired at Helitech in Portugal a year ago, this event covered topics including the growing offshore wind-farm support sector and safety management systems – and deserves to succeed as a format.

I was surprised to see Bristow presenting the operator angle, as opposed to Denmark’s Unifly who started the “winch-to-work” ball rolling or Bond Air, who holds a contract to provide these services off the east coast of England. I’m not aware of Bristow having done any operational flying and, certainly, the 15,000 w2w cycles so far performed were largely performed by Unifly. My last post tells the true story.