Royal Navy Sharks as seen in 1975
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Shrieking Gazelles
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We have recently welcomed a new member 'Fene Strong' to the forum (see here).
FS had posted several replies to various comments on this thread and which you can read here.
Gazelles in Hong Kong
According to Keen and Sutton's book 'Craftsmen of the Army':
"Gazelles that had replaced the Westland Siouxs in RAF Sek Kong towards the end of 1974 had been found unsuitable for Hong Kong and, by the end of 1975, had been returned to the UK."
British Army Gazelle (or is it perhaps Royal Marines?) as seen in Kong Kong c.1975
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Gaz Roundup!
SA341H E7-AAB (cn 034) of the Serbian Police being wheeled towards her hanger in Banja Luka recently
These two Gazelles have recently arrived in South Africa, according to Gavin Rynders who posted this photo
G-CGJZ (cn 1735) ex-XZ933 as seen being primed for re-paint at Bourne Park in January
Recent visitors to Bourne Park take a look at Gaz restoration work
L'armée de terre Gazelle Viviane landing at Lycée Charles Jully Technological And Vocational School at Saint-Avold in France
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"Happiness is a Particle Separator on my Turbomeca engine" says the proud owner of ZU-HHP who installed the part on his machine recently.
We can only agree with him!
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Soko's licencly built SA.341H (HO-42) was delivered in 1980 to Yugoslav AF as 12653. Allocated to Police forces as YU-HDN in early 1990s and then sold on civil market to become the first Gazelle in Hungary. Registered HA-VLA in 1996 to Business Air Hungary, then to Open World Kft. Re-registered HA-LFR 10/98 and HA-PPY 5/99 to Gazella Légiszolgáltató Kft.
The above photo was probaly taken at Blackbushes in January 2006 by Mr David Fogwill
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Originally posted by Savoia View PostBtw, does anyone know why this craft was painted in the UK police/government colours? There must surely be better colour schemes to choose from!
The question really aught to be why did the UK police paint their aircraft in a scheme similar to a Hungarian Gazelle helicopter !!!
If I remember correctly the police didn't use hi-vis colours at that time.
With regard to a better colour scheme, this was what the owner wanted, and when completed everyone liked it including me.
My helicopter at the time was painted in blue with a yellow stripe similar to happy.
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I see that the top section (yellow) is in fact 'borrowed' from the scheme she wore when she was 'LFR'.
Even though I have asked the question several times in the past, I never received a response as to why yellow and black were specifically chosen for the UK's police and military training aircraft. Personally I preferred when the police craft wore the 'jam butty' livery - but there we are.
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Police yellow/black scheme - I am sure I heard the reason was pure and simple.... if flying underneath the black would be visible against either a cloudy or blue sky - if flying above the yellow stands out more against other colours on the ground.
I guess that's why the tips of rotor blades are sometimes yellow ??
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I think it was the RAF who undertook a study into aircraft visibility and came up with the colours black and yellow. See e.g.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/sa...k-1146643.html
The UK training aircraft are painted in those colours, like the Tucano's being black, the Squirrels HT2 being black and yellow.
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Elipix/Jos: Thanks for the feedback guys.
Yes, the rotor tips are often in yellow and sometimes red in order to offer a degree of visibility, although I think the safety application of coloured tips is largely redundant. As far as main rotor paint for collision avoidance goes, there are some interesting schemes which have been devised over the years which can cause the disc (looking onto it from above) to 'perform' some pretty impressive visual effects, such as inward and outward 'ripples' as well as a sort of 'skipping' pattern by using different coloured blade stripes 'stepped' against each other (on alternate blades) along the upper surface of the blade. In the 1980's some of PHI's Louisiana-based LongRangers had such blade paint.
As far as rotor paint goes. the real priority is of course for tail rotor awareness where again, yellow and red are common safety colours.
In the article linked by Jos the comment which stood out for me was the final one, which read: "We went back to the drawing board and looked at how to make aircraft more conspicuous and painting them black - believe it or not - was the answer," said an MoD spokesman. And I am distinctly in the 'believe not' category.
They were citing a desire to increase visibility specifically in relation to near misses which, as anyone knows, does not only involve a requirement to see a potentially converging threat from above (ie. looking up against an often blue, white or grey sky), but from every gradient angle in relation to whichever attitude one happens to be at, and this (obviously) includes the need to see those threats below the horizon. In this respect, and in all sincerity, a black aircraft isn't going to offer maximum visibility unless one happens to be operating in Antarctica.
What works in making anything 'conspicuous' is contrast; but the moment you rely on a single colour to achieve this, well, you've defeated yourself! If the agenda was truly to make the aircraft as conspicuous as possible, they would have gone for an all yellow base covered with broad Day-Glo (fluorescent) orange stripes interspersed with darker (perhaps black) stripes in order to deliver maximum contrast against the broadest spectrum of backgrounds.
As for the police aircraft, the same effect could easily be achieved with a navy blue finish; but I remain totally unconvinced that a predominantly (ie. more than 50% of the airframe) dark colour offers maxiumim visibility.
I should love to read the MoD report on this study one day.
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Staying with the Hungarian birds, here's a helicopter livery for those who want to be noticed both in the sky and on the ground:
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Heli-Russia
With Heli-Russia approaching (19-21 May), a chance to look at a snapshot from last year:
SA341B RA-05703 (cn WA1524) as seen amidst a rabble of Robinsons (and one 520N) at Heli-Russia 2015
Not forgetting that Russia have their own 'form' of Gazelle!
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Still with Hungarian-registered ex-Crabtree Gazelles, the right-moment-snapshot of HA-LFM during Northolt Open Day on June 13th, 2015.
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Nice one Zis! Looks to be Steve and Nigel.
The angle in this photo reminds me of the Gaz painting by Paul Treleven:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/mM...Q=w431-h320-no
Full gallery here: http://www.paultreleven.com/gallery/aviation/page-14/
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First Heli-Show at Courchevel
The first ever helicopter show (Salon de l'hélicoptère) has taken place at Courchevel in Saint-Bon-Tarentaise in the French Alps.
The event was held this past weekend from 11-13 March and showcased mountain rescue procedures, a static display, 'first time flights' for show attendees as well as a photo contest.
Companies in attendance included: Mont Blanc Helicopteres, Jet Systems, Euro Rectimo, SAF Helicopteres, Robinson, SwiftCopters, Helico-Fascination and Blugeon Helicopteres.
The show's special guest was Sébastien Loeb, nine times world rally champion, who is also a helicopter pilot.
Some of the helicopters attending included an Alouette II, Bell 206, Agusta 109, SA315B Lama, MD500, various Ecureuil and Colibri, Robinson R44 and R66, a Kompress, a Sikorsky and SA342 F-HGUN.
The first ever Salon de l'hélicoptère was held this past weekend at Courchevel ski resort in the French Alps
Attending the event was a frequent visitor to Courchevel, SA342J(S) F-HGUN (cn 1058)
SA342J(S) F-HGUN (cn 1058) as seen at Courchevel Altiport on 12-13th March 2016
If you are new to the forum and haven't yet seen the 'Courchevel Citation', then may I recommend that you take a peek.
Enjoy!
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LOL, quite!
Btw, regarding F-HGUN, it seems as if someone if putting together a Vario kit in her colours: > http://www.jectek.com/?page_id=1964
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Poor people, probably freezing and squeezed in tightly at windy snow-laden mountain airport!
Just kidding of course.
Cheers to the 1st Salon de l’hélico à Courchevel!
Last edited by Zishelix; 15th March 2016, 14:02.
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Originally posted by Zishelix View PostIt's N552T s/n 1246. I see the owner modernised ground handling of his helicopter in the meantime.
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