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Aviation History
1955
1955 - 0984.PDF
FLIGHT, 15 July 1955 SYCAMORE in the Tyrol By PETER MOORE •-:./ The Sycamore gives a rescue demonstration near Innsbruck. IT has often occurred tome that one of the mostremarkable virtues of the helicopter—its ability tomake auto-rotative landings —is not always fully appreci-ated. The value of this ability goes much furtherthan ensuring a safe landing in the event of emergency.There are other operational advantages — particularlywhen flying, for example, in mountainous country, whereit is advisable to keep all-up weight at a low value in orderto be able to make controlled landings on ground at highaltitudes. Knowing that he can descend quite safelywitnout using the engine, the pilot can afford to reduce his fuel load considerably. I must admit that, although I had occasionally considered thispossibility, I did not fully grasp its significance until, the other week, I made a landing with a Sycamore at nearly 8,000ft onHafelekar, a peak near Innsbruck in the Austrian Tyrol. High- altitude landings, it is true, are often in the news these days.Among the more recent was that of a Sycamore which landed at 10,1)00 feet in Kenya and flew a genuine casualty to safety.But the Hafelekar landing was, for a number of reasons, an unusually difficult one.It was, I should explain, purely a demonstration landing, not one which had to be effected in the course of Service opera-tions. It happened that I was pilot of a Sycamore which was flown to Stuttgart and Innsbruck after the Paris Salon, in orderto demonstrate to German and Austrian authorities just what this Bristol aircraft can offer in the way of versatility and casualtyevacuation from high points. Stuttgart came first—but that is another part of the story. The Hafelekar incident stands out inmy memory as perhaps the most interesting landing and take-off that have ever come my way.Our difficulty was that while, quite close at hand, there are a number of peaks which are even higher, yet offer landinggrounds far more suitable than the one which we eventually chose, they are difficult of access for spectators. On Hafelekar mountain the railway extends to a point neara kind of small plateau. In the middle of the plateau there was a patch of snow, the centre of which was the one spot wherea landing was practicable. It was not particularly level, and in the normal way one would not contemplate putting a helicopterdown there; but it was, all things considered, the most conveni- ent for our purpose. Before we tried the actual landing, Langfield and I made oneor two reconnaissance flights. The flying conditions were about as awkward as anything I had previously experienced. The airaround the peak of Hafelekar is a whirl of violent down-draughts —some of them reach a velocity of l,000ft/min—and up-draughts which, unfortunately, are hardly so strong. On one side there is a steep rock face; on the other a sheer drop. Hovering,understandably, is difficult in these conditions and it is virtually AS briefly recorded in "Flight" last week, a Bristol Sycamore tookpart in the recent helicopter convention at Stuttgart, then went on to give mountain rescue demonstrations in the Austrian Tyrol. In thisarticle some highlights of the tour are described by the pilot. Mr. Raoul Hafner, Bristol's chief designer (helicopters), and Mr. Colin Harvey(assistant sales manager, rotating-wing aircraft) were present at the demonstrations; Mr. Alex Langfield (sales demonstration engineer)performed various strenuous duties as described; and Mr. D. Vickery was flight engineer. impossible to make a normal approach. There is also the possi-bility that at the moment of landing one may receive unwelcome assistance from a sudden down-draught. In these circumstances we decided that we would not in factland before making the actual demonstration. And it was at this stage mat we appreciated the value of auto-rotative landing. Assoon as we had surveyed the patch of snow on which we were to land we simply slipped away over the edge and glided down,with the engine idling, to Innsbruck, five miles away in the valley. When we made our landing on the following day, Langfield—by now adept at this kind of thing—was the "casualty." I took the aircraft up to a point well above the patch of snow, turned,and made for the touch-down point. In die event, it was easier than I had anticipated. With die rotors still running the "casualty,"in excellent health, climbed aboard and we took off again. Once more the ground cushion was quite effective and I was able toslip over the drop and swoop down to Innsbruck. One other pleasant memory of Innsbruck was the flight upthe valley of the Inn—south from Rosenheim, and then due west —with massive peaks on each side of us, at times towering upto about 10,000ft. We flew mainly at about 4,000ft, keeping clear of the down-currents to windward.At Stuttgart a few days before we had attended (in company with an S-51 and an S-55, three Bells, a Hiller, the S.O.1221Djinn, and the Saro Skeeter) the three-day helicopter conven- tion. We were particularly pleased with the part we played inthe flying display, going through "at the double" a little set-piece which covered the ambulance rdle, passenger transport, winchinga casualty aboard, descent from the aircraft by rope ladder, and carrying loads slung from a strong-point beneath the fuselage.It was quite an effective way of emphasizing the rapidity with which the Sycamore can be converted from one r61e to another.We flew in with our stretchers aboard, picked up two casualties, flew a circuit, unloaded the stretchers and took on four passengers;another circuit, the passengers disembarked, and Langfield was winched aboard; and after a brief flight he threw out the ropeladder, then began to descend it while we were still at about 300ft! Finally, we hovered in the ground cushion while a loadof oil drums was slung underneath, and made another circuit. Fifteen minutes covered the entire demonstration—quite a reason-able effort when it is considered that the stretcher cases and the men who loaded the oil drums were inexperienced at this kind ofthing. We also did a little night flying at Stuttgart. The Germanauthorities were anxious to get our opinion of two new ground lighting systems; and we, with the crews of other helicopters,agreed to help. The first system consisted of a row of lights leading into a U-shaped fluorescent formation, with another rowof lights leading out for take-off and two "horizontal" rows of red lights for levelling-off before beginning to climb. The secondsystem consisted simply of two rectangles of lights, the outer one about 60 metres square, the inside one,indicating the touchdown point, considerably smaller. Of the two, I preferred the first. The. lights lead-ing into and out of the U were most helpful, as also were the two rows of red lights. My onlycriticism is that the fluorescent lighting was too bright and was in fact something of a distraction.But this system, with the aid of the Sycamore's adjustable landing light, made night landing andtake-off almost as routine as during the day. My chief impression of the visit to Stuttgart wasdie alert and intelligent way in which the German authorities are approaching die helicopter.In Austria, too, there is keen interest, with the accent, of course, on mountain rescue. We wereable, in a British helicopter, to show how effectively the job can be done. Making the approach to the snow-patch on Hafelekar, nearly SfiOOft above sea level.
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