Tag Archives: eurocopter

Airlift Northwest In Olympia

Airlift Northwest is a regular feature in the Seattle area providing aeromedical services across the region.  I have seen their helicopters at both Arlington and Boeing Field numerous times.  During the Olympic Air Show at Olympia, I was wandering up towards the hangar where the Huskie was stored when one of the Airlift Northwest EC-135s made its approach.  I couldn’t have been better positioned for it so got a bunch of shots as it came in and landed.  The UW colors look good on these helicopters.

Super Puma On The Doorstep

I made a kit of an RAF Puma when I was a kid and have had a soft spot for the type ever since.  The Super Puma is a capable airframe that has had a few problems over the years but is still very impressive.  If I can see one anytime, I will try to do so.  The good news is that one has shown up at Arlington.  It was parked outside a hangar without rotors when I saw it and got some shots.  It has since moved indoors and I assume it is being fitted out for operations.  If so, I can’t wait to see it in action.

MH-65E Hanging Out By The Lake

I went to see Seafair itself for the first time this year.  I had been to Boeing Field to watch launches and recoveries before but this was my first time down by Lake Washington for the show.  I was down close to Seward Park and, on one of the small bits of land jutting out in to the water was the location that the Coast Guard had parked their MH-65E Dolphin.  It was part of the display but I suspect it was also on duty if there were any issues during the show.

I was looking forward to getting shots of it moving but, as a result of a re-planning of a presentation to a client which had been originally scheduled for the day before, I needed to take this call on my day off at the show.  The call coincided with the Coast Guard demo.  I was sitting on a Teams call on my phone as the Dolphin lifted off right next to me and did a dynamic low transition.  Oh to have been able to photograph that!

I did get shots of it on the (sloping) ground and, at the end of the show, they took off to head back to wherever they were overnighting.  At least this time, I was able to get shots of them starting up and taking off.  Sadly, the departure was far less dynamic than the one for the show.  However, there was nothing I could do about that.  It was still cool to watch them from relatively close quarters.

Airlift Northwest EC135 Is Busy

For a while, I was able to shoot up at Arlington a bit.  Our location there in the afternoons is close to the ramp used by Airlift Northwest.  They have some Airbus Helicopters EC135s that they use for aeromedical flights.  It is a nice looking airframe and theirs are painted well.  (They have recently painted one in UW colors which I have only shot from a distance.). They seemed to be in action a lot while I was there so was able to get the teams crewing up, departing, arriving and shutting everything down.  They are happy to give you a wave too which is nice.

 

A Cold And Damp Amazon Delivery Job

The forecast for the day of the Amazon lift was not ideal.  It was going to be cold and rainy.  Just what you want for photographing something and even better when the helicopter you are most interested in is grey!  Oh well, what can you do?  Things were scheduled to kick off at 7am so I headed up to Arlington early to be ready.

Naturally, like many things aviation related, it didn’t start on time.  I suspect there were other things that they had as part of the plan, but we weren’t privy to that so were just waiting for a helicopter to lift off.  It was not very cold, but it was definitely cold enough and damp.  I should have dressed warmer and trying to get shots at a low shutter speed when you are shivering is not ideal.

One advantage of a crummy weather day is that you can roll the shutter speed right down and not have silly apertures.  That means less need for dust spotting later!  On the 100-400, I would have just used a polarizer, but I don’t have one for the 500 so was okay with shooting that at the speeds I wanted to try for.

The Astar was the first to lift.  The initial lifts were very slow, but things improved a little as the crews on the roof got into the groove.  The Astar was obviously doing the smaller lifts, but it still has significant capabilities and was taking up some big pieces of equipment.  Watching it bucking around in the turbulence over the roof as the wind picked up was quite eye opening.  I got stills but, since the conditions were not great, I instead went with a bunch of videos.  The stills just won’t be that exciting, but video gives you more context.

It was quite a while before the S-61 started up.  We had a few false starts when the Astar appeared to land but it was just swapping out lifting lines.  Finally, the S-61 got airborne and it started lifting the heavier loads.  We had heard that about 50 lifts were planned for the S-61 and 30 for the Astar.  After getting some shots and footage, I headed to a few different locations to see whether they had a better angle on things.  You never know which bit of the roof will be the site of the next load so a location might be good for a bit and then too far away and obscured.  More importantly, I was getting pretty bloody cold.  If conditions had been nicer, I would probably have been inclined to hang around a lot longer, but I just couldn’t be bothered.  I figured I had enough, and it was time to head home and get warm.  I think they extended the NOTAM so things must have taken longer than intended but I was long gone by the time that they finished.

Transition From KAWO to Amazon

I am not sure of the reasons why, but Croman moved both of the helicopters used for the Amazon lift over to the site the day before the operation.  They were a short distance from Arlington but apparently there was a reason to not start from the airport.  Fortunately, they did this late in the afternoon after the Astar had arrived.  I had moved across to a parking lot near the site ahead of time hoping to be in a good spot to get them arriving and also to see whether it would be good for the lift itself.

Both helicopters approached my side of Amazon prior to landing.  This meant I got a good head on view of them and a reasonable view as they approached landing.  They did, unfortunately, go directly over my head which limited the shots a little but still wasn’t too bad.  The sun was more on their tails as they made their final approach which wasn’t ideal, but it was the side I was on so could have been worse.  They landed behind some concrete walls so disappeared from view as they went in.  The S-61 was first followed by the Astar.  Now to see how the lift itself went.

Canadian Dauphin Eludes Me

I don’t often see civilian Dauphins in service.  The Coast Guard operates the type but the US does not have a lot of them in private hands.  I saw a Canadian example showed up in Seattle and was quite a surprise.  It had a large winch mount on the fuselage which is unusual for a civilian operator.  It was quite a coincidence since Airbus Helicopters has just delivered the final Dauphin to a customer.  It has been superseded in their line by the H160.  I was hoping it would depart my way but it was cleared to the north on a downwind departure which they turned on to promptly after getting airborne.  I got shots but they were distant ones.

Hawaii Helos

Anyone that has vacationed in the Hawaiian Islands knows that there are loads of helicopters around.  The sightseeing flight operations are extensive and there are a variety of types that are used.  The Astar was a big feature of these flights but the EC130 was developed to provide something best suited to these flights and it is now very widespread.  There are other types in use too.  I used a Robinson R44 for one of my flights for example.

There are the occasional MD500s around too which is what you expect to see if you ever watched the original Magnum PI TV series.  The helicopter area at Lihue was a busy place to be with a steady stream of operators moving from the different pads.  I wasn’t on vacation to spend time watching helicopters but of course I managed to slip a little time in with them!

Astar Over My Head

These shots are from a few years ago.  I had the privilege to spend a day with the late Alan Purwin during the filming for one of the Transformers movies in Chicago.  I got to fly with them on some of the shoot but I also was on the ground when they went off on part of the filming.  I put myself directly ahead of the Astar when they took off and Alan buzzed me.  I noticed when going through the images that the cameraman was tracking me with the stabilized mount on the nose as they flew over the top.

Erickson Super Puma

Erickson is a company that you certainly associate with helicopters but normally you would think about the Skycrane.  They also use airframes from other manufacturers.  This Super Puma was sitting on their ramp at Medford.  I’m not sure whether it is used for heavy lift work, firefighting or a bit of both.  It was not what I expected to see though!