Shrieking Gazelles

[Zishelix]

Some Far Eastern Gazelles


JA9098


JA9153

[Savoia]

Nice one Zis!

JA9153 (Sony Corporation's Gazelle) was being exhibited at the 5th Japan Aerospace Exhibition at Iruma Air Base located in the city of Sayama, Saitama Prefecture, to the north west of Tokyo, in October 1976. Iruma Air Base formerly accommodated the Imperial Japanese 'Army Air Service' Academy but now serves as home to the Air Defence Command Headquarters Flight Group.

Some more of JA9153 from the same show:



Being wheeled to the static display


Pre-show preparations


JA9153 on display at the 5th Japan Aerospace Exhibition at Iruma Air Base in October 1976


JA9153 performing demonstration flights

[Zishelix]

Pity she's lost... hard landed June 8th, 1988 during hover taxiing at Tokyo Heliport and w/o

[Savoia]

Yes very sad.

Are there any Gazelles remaining in Japan?

I know they still have some Lamas.

[Zishelix]

No Gazelles remaining on the JA register since 1993 when both JA9098 and JA9164 went to USA.

JA9098 became N504KH (now G-ZLLE) and JA9164 became N505HA (now also in the UK and still flying on the 'N' registration).

[md600driver]

no longer in uk i sold it to belgium along with n700sh

[Savoia]

Okay, thanks for that.

An interesting Gaz vid from Srpska (Bosnian Serb Republic):

A couple of notes just in case any freshman flyers (newbies) should ever watch it:

1. Low flying in a single over built-up areas? Yee ha! Where's my horse?

2. Low flying over a body of water with a 'mirror' surface? Let me put it this way .. if you were my student and you came back after doing that .. you'd feel the inside of my hand against the back of your head!

[Zishelix]

Ah don't be so critical, "they've been doing that for years and nothing bad had happened" ... yet
On the other side, who would ever note that promo clip if they just perform flying by the book

Btw, seems G-EHUP changed her dress for shopping

[Savoia]

You would think that with a registration like G-EHUP the craft would have a bit of a 'horsey' background!

Speaking of Gazelles and horses .. there was of course G-BXZE which was owned by Jonathan Bunn (son of the late Douglas Bunn of Hickstead Jumping Ground and former owner of JetRangers G-JUMP and .. the venerable 'Dancer' .. G-AYTF).

But, sadly, Jonathan only had the craft a little while before encountering the Gaz's 'tail swing' bite!

Back to G-EHUP .. normally for indoor displays with limited room they simply remove the blades but here they seem to have done away with everything above the main transmission and which makes me think it probably didn't fly into (or near) the display location!

ps: Have been searching for a photo of G-JUMP for years now. Am hoping that one day Helipixman will find a copy amongst his stash!

[Zishelix]

Indeed, BXZE crashed in September 2001 at Hicksted Showground and wfu next year.

[Zishelix]

Lost in paintwork

[Savoia]

Bella foto Zis!

F-HGUN wearing her contemporary 'cammo' scheme:


SA342J (Stretched) Gazelle F-HGUN departing Grenoble le Versoud Aerodrome on 28th September 2012 (Photo: Romain Baheu)

[Zishelix]

Oh yeah, unlike prevoiously mentioned two, F-HGUN looks quite attractive in that cammo!

[Savoia]

And is isn't just the French and Russians who get adventurous when it comes to painting Gaz's .. even the Brits are up for it!


Carole Evans & James Blaylock's SA341 AH1 Gazelle G-CDNO (ex-XX432) at Gamston Airfield on 15th September 2012 (Photo: Dave Grimsdale)

ps: I tend to adjust the colour on many of the photos I submit (especially as quite a few of them are from times past and where the colour has faded) but .. there was no need to do so on this occasion!

[Zishelix]

Looks a bit like a parrot.

Luckily the owner won't worry about my opinion!

[Savoia]

More coloured 'cammo' ..


SA341G F-GBMC (cn WA1065) as seen at Aéroport d'Annecy in 1980 (Photo: Anton Heumann )

Another French expression of colour, this one most likely one of the first 'coloured cammo' schemes.

This airport has some significance for me .. given its full name and of course it is situated not far from the Italian border.

Construction no. WA1065 is also of some significance because this is the same craft as was featured on page 1 as I-OLLY and .. before that .. was one of the Gazelles my godfather would occasionally fly!

More WA1065 ..

Before being F-GBMC and I-OLLY, WA1065 was in fact G-BAGK:


SA341G G-BAGK (WA1065) as seen at Carlisle Airport on 4th June 1974 (Photo: Peter Nicholson)

As former Chief Pilot of Christian Salvesen my godfather maintained contact with this organisation and flew G-BAGK on several occasions including while she was used by Westland as a demonstration and liaison aircraft. He also flew Westland's liaison Gazelle G-BCHM when involved in promoting Westland and which he did from time-to-time during his service with Ferranti.

I should be keen to discover who Christian Salvesen's pilot was between 1973-77 when they owned G-BAGK and to know whether he remembers the Colonel! Before buying G-BAGK Salvesen's owned a 206, G-AYMX, between 1971-73.

[Zishelix]

SN 1065 is the only example (as far as I know) of post-production "stretching" of the fuselage... especially because it was produced by Westland and re-fabricated by Aerospatiale. I'll appreciate if anyone could shed some more light in this detail.

Sav, although it's hard to add anything more to the data you've given, maybe just to mention this regarding c/n 1065:

• Intended to be produced as model AH Mk.1 (serial XW869 being allocated) for AAC, but the order cancelled and finished up as SA.341G
• Planned to be exported to USA during 1977 but the order was cancelled
• As I-OLLY it was used by RAI (Radiotelevisione Italiana) for aerial shooting in 1999
• Finally ended its life after rolling over on take off on May 28th 2001 near Torino and was destroyed by fire

[Savoia]

Finally ended its life after rolling over on take off on May 28th 2001 near Torino and was destroyed by fire

The loss of Heliwest's Gazelle I-OLLY was a terrible tragedy.

To make it worse, this sad event suffers from inaccurate summaries which are found on the internet detailing the accident as some kind of "roll over" during take-off, suggesting (to the uninformed) that it was perhaps a pilot-induced accident. (I'm not blaming you Zis but the various internet accident sites and their woefully inaccurate information).

But (and as I have recently discovered) it is possible for people to write complete nonsense on the internet .. and for others to believe it!

I-OLLY and the loss of two lives and the serious injury of two others was the direct result of a failure in Aérospatiale's manufacturing process of the Torsion Tie Bars for the Gazelle.

Grievously, I-OLLY was not the only victim of this manufacturing flaw as six months after this accident another catastrophe occurred in the UK involving an Army Air Corps Gazelle (ZA777) from 671 Squadron in which the pilot (the sole occupant) also lost his life.

These two tragedies resulted in Eurocopter's Alert Service Bulletin No. 01.29 dated 4th December 2002 prohibiting flight of all aircraft fitted with Torsion Tie Bars matching specific serial numbers and placing a 7 year overall calendar limit on all Tie Bars.


I-OLLY's three Torsion Tie Bars post-accident

These were I-OLLY's three Tie Bars post-accident. As can clearly be seen, the Tie Bar on the left (circled) simply let go of the blade.


I-OLLY's main rotor blade hub-grip post-accident

Photo showing the blade's departure point from the main rotor hub (grip) with the frayed straps from the failed Tie Bar clearly visible.


One of I-OLLY's main rotor blades post-accident, found some 120 metres (almost 400ft) from the fuselage

Here you can clearly see how the blade was separated from the hub as a result of the Tie Bar failure.

All in all very very sad.

.

~ ~ ~

.

This post is dedicated to the memory of those who lost their lives

in I-OLLY and ZA777 and to the families they left behind

[Savoia]

SN 1065 is the only example (as far as I know) of post-production "stretching" of the fuselage.

Just to be clear, are you saying that all stretched Gazelles were manufactured specifically as stretched variants and that stretching was not available as a modification?

Was it only Aérospatiale who created these stretched versions or did Westland, Soko and ABHCO also produce them?

[Zishelix]

I didn't know for this as the reason of I-OLLY's accident. Terrible indeed.

As far as I know all other "stretched" Gazelles were originally produced as such. And yes, only Aerospatiale made them.

[Savoia]

I didn't know for this as the reason of I-OLLY's accident.

Because many of the accident sites do not research the background to what they publish and which, as you can see, can have disappointing results.

More Gaz paint jobs!


SA341H HA-LFW at the Hungaroring race circuit in Budapest, August 2013


More HA-LFW

[Zishelix]

Strange, I wasn't able to recall the helicopter's registration when stop looking

[Zishelix]

By the way, a similar thread about Gazelle helicopters (North American machines mostly) here

[Savoia]

Seeing as we mentioned the stretched Gaz one wonders why they didn't make all of the civilian models this way given the greater comfort for rear seat pax?

Do you know how many stretched versions were produced or remain in operation?

[md600driver]

the stretch gazelle can be a bit of a problem with weight and balance its not the prefered type of gazelle for many experienced gazelle pilots
also the strech gazelle has limitations on IFR flight because of instability

[Zishelix]

I suppose, unlike some Texans, not all of the customers asked for a stretched model!

Here you are, this is what I have about those still in use:
.

1058 F-HGUN

1094 F-GJGT

1271 G-GAZZ

1274 G-OGAZ

1295 G-MANN

1307 G-OLDH

1310 N2LN

1320 F-GEHF

1320 YU-HEY

1360 CN-AID (Morocco Gendarmerie)

1376 CN-AIO (Morocco Gendarmerie)

1390 G-WCRD

1407 G-EHUP

1410 N901B

1412 CN-AIR (Morocco Gendarmerie)

1417 G-OGEO

1422 CN-AIS (Morocco Gendarmerie)

1455 G-BKLS

1470 G-IBME

1509 N340SM

1584 N150SF

1616 YV-228CP (Venezuela)

.
... but take into consideration that some of these are probably out of service (only I have no info they've been withdrawn from use yet).

[Savoia]

Grazie mille!

I think I can say straight-off from a brief glance at the records that G-BKLS is no longer airworthy. Otherwise it looks as if the UK has the largest population of stretched versions.

[Zishelix]

Oops, you're right... G-BKLS CofReg was cancelled in August 1992 as w/o (at TT 2348). She's in Gatwick Aviation Museum collection (marked as G-TURP) since 2000.

[Savoia]

And a little further investigation reveals that the write-off you refer to occurred when she was G-TURP in another episode of the Gaz's 'tail swing bite' (as with G-BXZE mentioned in post #98) in an accident which took place on 9th September 1991 in Essex, England.

[Zishelix]

Correct, she was badly damaged in heavy landing at Stanford-le-Hope that date.

Here she is (in better days) when owned by Lenval Essex Ltd with another Gazelle behind her, probably G-ZELL.

[Savoia]

Nice!

Lenval, so the records show, being owned by Kevin Turp!

As mentioned above, the other Gaz my godfather flew besides G-BAGK was G-BCHM which was used, at some point and AFAIK, for part of Westland's developmental test flying.


SA341G G-BCHM as seen at Weston- super-Mare in the mid-1970's (Photo: Stuart Mitchell)

[Zishelix]

One of just several produced "stretched" SA.342Js F-GJGT