Goodwood Free Landing fees July 2011

DH82A Tiger Moth at Goodwood in Sussex

This is the Tiger Moth G-APFU that I flew today, and indeed fly quite often, at Goodwood.

Good news - Goodwood is now reducing landing fees to zero for pre 1966 planes and helicopters flying to Goodwood on non event days and for non-revenue (ie private) flights.

Come fly - it won't be free but it is fun....

Goodwood July 2011

R44 on floats

Robinson R44 on floats -fixed floats like these reduce cruise speed by 10 knots, owing to the additional drag. However, they are for landing on water, not just for emergencies...

It has been suggested that is you wish to replace the floats it is more cost effective to buy a full new undercarriage rather than try and remove the floats from the R44.

Certainly looks cuddly!

Grupamento Aereo/Military Police Brazil July 2011

Colonel Ricardo Gambaroni with EMS

In Brazil the military police do all the EMS rescue work through the fire service. They also do the usual police work, with the exception of investigative work, which is done by the civil police.
The Fire Department is part of the military police.
One reason for military police doing EMS is the lack of qualified pilots outside the military. Colonel Gambaroni explains that the Brazilian military do not have short service commissions so that most pilots trained in the military will remain there for 25 years. Because of this the best trained and most experienced pilots tend to be still in the military.
In Brazil the military police have 180 aircraft; 120 helicopters and 60 fixed wing aircraft.

Technicians working on the AS350

Although the military police do not yet have any female pilots they did have applicants for the last intake. Sadly, none were successful. There are female technicians.
There are 100,000 employees in the Sao Paulo state police of which 87 are pilots and 400 are employed in the air support unit on 11 different bases through the state. There are 4 or 5 pilots working on each base.

View from the ops room at Campo de Marte

The Sao Paulo city base is at Campo de Marte. The advantage of the 11 bases is that anywhere in the state can be reached in 15 minutes, reducing the length of time a patient must wait to get to hospital.
Ab Initio Pilot training is done on a Schweizer 300, at Campo de Marte, further training is done on each base. At the moment most of the helicopters are AS350s, but in the future they will be buying EC135s and EC145s.

Sao Paulo 20th July 2011

Paulista bicycle

I thought this bicycle 'art' was here because in a town of 16 million cars a bicycle would be the emblem of love, but I was wrong - it is a memorial.
This bicycle commemorates a young girl - around 20 years old - who was killed on her bicycle; run over by a car.

I wonder how many cyclists are killed by cars here.

The picture below, I think, explains a lot; both why it is a dangerous place of cyclists and why there are so many helicopters flying businessmen to work.
In spite of that, I love San Paulo - it has a great atmosphere and life is vibrant and fun; much of life seems to take place above the ground - swimming pools; gardens; helipads and life...

Jardin's street

Roof-top life

Helicentro Sao Paulo, July 2011

Helicentro, in a quiet part of Sao Paulo, is owned and run by Ricardo Zuccolo. In 1994, using many tonnes of earth, he literally built up a hill for the heliport. This, he explained, was to allow the helipad to be above the neighbourhood both for safety and to reduce noise and pollution.
Helicentro was the first heliport in Sao Paulo. It started with the Agusta dealership, and, although that has moved to Helipark, it still has a maintenance centre for the helicopters based there.

Zuccolo has been the Brazilian distributor and service centre for MD since 2000, and is a keen pilot of the MD 500 series, 600s and the 902.
He says there is a huge potential market for the Explorer in Brazil, as it is tough, durable and cheap to run, making it particularly suitable for the police service in both their law enforcement and EMS roles.

Helicopters in Sao Paulo: Sikorsky/Schweizer, July 2011

S300/H269

Sikorsky has only two civilan markets here: off shore and training (with the Schweizer). In the military market, however, the Black Hawk is widely used.
As far as VIP helicopters are concerned, Sikorsky has only 1 S76 here which is owned by the Government of Sao Paulo. I was told that Sikorskies are too heavy for the helipads here, and that Agusta has that 'beautiful' market.

There are 104 turbine Sikorskies here, working off shore and mostly based at Macae City near Rio de Janeriro, with a few at Santos, near Sao Paulo. The oil and gas market, already well developed off Rio is in development in Sao Paulo, with, for example, the Brazilian company Lide selling 49% of its shares to the British company Bristow Helicopters.

For training the S300 is very popular but there are more schools using the R22 - cost of course.
There do not seem to be any training Enstroms here, although there were a few Enstrom 480s in the country, they do not appear to have had a good history here - with the exception of one or two in the countryside. My information on Enstroms is not particularly wide...

Helicopters in Sao Paulo: Bell, July 2011

Bell Helicopters at Helipark

Historically, Bell were market leaders in Brazil with 52% of the market in 1979, however by 2010 they only had 25% of the market, and dominance had been taken over by Eurocopter who had 39%.

Although new Bell Helicopters are occasionally bought, and the Bell 429 recieved Brazilian certification early this year, in most markets they lost dominance to other operators. In the utility market the AS350 and the R44 are preferred operators, while in the VIP market AgustaWestland is in the ascendant. Off shore Sikorsky and Agusta fight for dominance and Bell is again left behind. Sadly, this seems to be a familiar story for Bell all over the world.