Flying through

Saturday 27 August 2011

Jerez Airport 26th August 2011

Went to Jerez in southern Spain for two days to do skills test on two students who have just finished their helicopter ratings: Carlo Casentieri and Arno Demont.
Both guys flew extremely well and passed their licences, and we had some fun in the tests. Jerez is an excellent place to fly; there is always something interesting happening at the airport and the local area is full of helicopter-potential. For example, there is a huge lake with little islands scattered across it for pinacle landings, windfarms to use for advanced autorotations etc. Wonderful place.
Air Ambulance helicopter went on three trips while I was there
Carlo Casentieri who passed his test today
Arno Demont who passed today

Tuesday 9 August 2011

Interesting Times August 9th 2011

It is a strange time to be living in London, with fires everywhere and no certainty whether or not ones area will be safe the following night. The only good thing about having riots all over London is that they are showing how valuable the police helicopters are. In Peckham there have been two helicopters circling almost constantly, watch and filming the scene. I am glad to have them there, and I expect many others (although not the looters) are too.
This helicopter is not one of the police ones, but is the De Beres helicopter, making its way to one of the few helipads left in London. What a contrast to Sâo Paulo with its 215 registered helipads. Perhaps, when all the fires are out and London returns to some kind of sanity, it might be worth thinking if we couldn't use helicopters more effectively here if they had more places to land and refuel. Some good comes out of even situations as bad as this one: I hope.