Helicopter service - Penzance to Isles of Scilly

[whole diary]

[TonyK]

This afternoon it looks as if G-ISSG is enroute between Greenland and Iceland at 12,000ft and with a groundspeed of around 200mph, which is quick for a Twotter and indicates that they must be picking up a decent tailwind.

The weather here in Reykjavik at 3pm GMT/UTC (1hr behind the UK^▸ (United Kingdom)) is clear and cold with a light northerly wind, and if the tracker is correct I would expect them to be on the island from their current position in maybe around 4 hours.

Update at 17.45 GMT - the Twotter has landed here in Reykjavik!

According to the METAR, that light northerly wind is 20 knots!

My daughter had fun landing in Falklands, in a Boeing 747 from Brize Norton via Ascension. The third approach, the pilot said he had a 50 knot crosswind, and if he didn't make it, they would divert to Montevideo. Her hopes of a night in Uruguay were dashed, as he landed it. Phenomenal!

[Thatcham Crossing]

I've been out all day, but as I stepped out of our apartment this morning at 1030 local time, G-ISSG was just getting airborne for the UK^▸ (United Kingdom). I watched her climb out of the Reykjavik circuit and set course towards the south-east - the tracker shows she has made it to Prestwick (just south of Glasgow) and is nightstopping there.

[bobm]

From the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page)

Talks are under way to 'resurrect helicopter link' says MP^▸ (Member of Parliament)

A Cornwall MP is "in discussions" with operators to resurrect the helicopter link between Cornwall and The Isles of Scilly, he said.

St Ives Liberal Democrat MP Andrew George said he had been in talks with a helicopter firm which is "very interested" in providing a service.

British International axed its service between Penzance and Scilly in October.

Mr George said he wanted to "inject hope" into the community but said it was important to "remain cautious".

He said Yeovil based manufacturer, Augusta Westland was "very interested in making one of their 18 to 19 seater helicopters available to put a service on".

Mr George said potential operators Bond and CHC will now be approached to "look at possibilities".

He said: "Some of the significant elements of the jigsaw puzzle that need to be put together to resurrect the service are being worked on as we speak.

'Heliport site identified'
 
"Let's see if the Isles of Scilly and the Penzance communities get behind the idea and give it their full support and that will obviously assist in persuading other people to come on board."

Mr George said "a site in the Penzance area has been identified" for the heliport but that he could not comment further on the location.

British International stopped its year-round service linking the islands, some 28 miles (45km) south-west of Cornwall, after running into financial problems, blaming falling passenger numbers and rising costs.

Money to subsidise a helicopter link was ruled out by Transport Minister Norman Baker in October.

Mr George said withdrawal of the "lifeline service" had hit islanders, medical services and the economy.

"The winter that the islanders have experienced has perhaps opened a lot of peoples eyes as to why we need another transport provider to the Isles of Scilly," he said.

A ferry, the Scillonian, runs for only seven months a year; and the only other link, the Skybus plane service, which flies from Land's End Airport and Newquay in Cornwall, is weather-dependent. Neither service is subsidised.

[TonyK]

"Make available one of their 18 to 19 seat helicopters available..."? Rental or sale, or just plain lending? The only Agusta Westland civvy helicopter of the size is the AW189. None are yet in service, although Bristow Helicopters have ordered 11 for the private UK^▸ (United Kingdom) search and rescue service. It could be they will offer it to demonstrate it to a wider audience.

The tech data shows it to be a tasty bit of kit. It is Cat A capable - if one of the two engines fails on take-off, it can either safely get back down to the floor, or fly out, missing all obstacles by at least 35 feet. PC1 and PC2e are safety standards for offshore operations such as gas platforms. Unlike the current fixed wing aircraft, they are equipped for day or night in just about all weathers, whereas flights from both Lands End and Newquay were recently grounded by fog.

Be nice if it happens. It will need a new heliport, of course, which will open a whole new can of worms. But it is not insurmountable.

[LiskeardRich]

Andrew George has always been an MP^▸ (Member of Parliament) who gets what he wants for his constituency, so I would expect this to be likely to happen now. He's been the MP since 1997, and always been a popular candidate.

[TonyK]

Sounds a good man to have inside, then. This needs action as well as words. The economics of passenger transport by air are crazy, with ultra-expensive assets being used on minimal profit margins, but still someone gets rich.

[Thatcham Crossing]

FTN said:

The economics of passenger transport by air are crazy

That is probably about 4 times more true when it comes to commercial helicopter operations.

The old BIH service probably only survived as long as it did because the S61N's operated were around 40 years old and probably fully paid for many years ago. However, I expect they made up for that by being eye-wateringly expensive to maintain.

The most suitable type for any future Isles of Scilly heliops is probably the Sikorsky S92 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sikorsky_S-92

CHC operate these in the North Sea.

As an aside, FTN, my last trip in a BIH S61N was on one of my trips to the Falklands, where 2 were (and I think still are) operated under contract to the MoD.

[TonyK]

Absolutely true, TC^‡(resolve). The engines are replaced in all aircraft at planned intervals. The airframe of a modern aircraft doesn't look much different to an older one. It is said that if you lavished the care shown to commercial aircraft on your car, it would last for a thousand years. The big changes have come in materials used. BIH's S61N's date back, in two cases out of the 5 they owned, to 1964, when oil was cheap, and efficiency was not as huge a consideration as it is now. Now, the emphasis for any new aircraft is safety, with efficiency, hence the growing use of composite materials and fly-by-wire systems that weigh so much less than the former metal rods and hydraulics used for moving control surfaces.

The engines for the former S61N weigh around 400lb with reduction gearbox, develop a useful power output of 1250hp max at a fuel consumption of 0.64 lb/hp/hr. The engines in the AW189 weigh about the same, deliver a third more power, whilst using a third less fuel. So despite the price on the forecourt, the running costs are much lower.

How you can make money by using an aircraft costing $350 million (for a Boeing 747-800) to burn expensive oil to transport passengers long distances is beyond my powers of deduction. BIH were sunk, they say, because of the judicial review regarding the sale of the heliport, which delayed matters. It doesn't sound as though they would have held on much longer if cash-flow depended on selling the base, because passenger numbers had fallen in the recession.

[broadgage]

I read somwhere, but can not substantiate, that passenger air travel overall has NEVER made a profit since it was invented !

Most large airports lose money on the strictly aviation side of the operation, the profits coming from retailing, car parking, and hotels.
Many smaller airports are routinely loss making, being subsidised by local or national government.

Many airlines are effectively state owned or state controlled or state subsidised, no banana republic is complete without a national airline.

Many other airlines are loss making and receive subsidies.
Many others have gone bust.
Others regularly lose money, and change hands cheaply, with the new owners hoping (usually in vain) that they will do better than the last lot.


The manufacture of aircraft tends to be subsisised "to protect high tech jobs" and also as a matter of national prestige.


Some airlines do sometimes make a profit, but overall the industry is said to be loss making.

[JayMac]

Multi-billionaire Warren Buffet:

"If a capitalist had been present at Kitty Hawk back in the early 1900s, he should have shot Orville Wright. He would have saved his progeny money. But seriously, the airline business has been extraordinary. It has eaten up capital over the past century like almost no other business because people seem to keep coming back to it and putting fresh money in.
I have an 800 number now that I call if I get the urge to buy an airline stock. I call at 2 in the morning and I say: 'My name is Warren, and I'm an aeroholic.' And then they talk me down."

Unknown:

"How do you make a million dollars in aviation? Start with two million and know when to quit!"

[Kernow Otter]

The ex BIH S61 is still out and about round these parts.  Going on flight paths, she is probably running out of Newquay Airport....

[TonyK]

I have read elsewhere that two of them are stored at Newquay, pending decisions.

Bizarre things happen in aviation. When I first started learning to fly at Filton, in 2005, there was a Boeing 747 with 3 engines, and weights hanging from the mounting for the fourth, parked on the jet apron. I know it had been there a while, as I had seen it en passant. I think the livery said Southern Winds. After a few lessons, I asked my instructor how long it takes to change an engine on a jumbo - the true answer, I now know, is around 5 hours. "Oh no", he said. "The engine's been taken off to stop someone shinning over the fence in the dead of night, starting up, and buggering off." The airline had gone bust, and debt attaches to the aircraft. So anyone buying it would have to settle up before taking it away. He reckoned it would end up being dismantled on site. But one day, almost a year later, I arrived for my weekly flight, and it was gone. Someone had paid a bill, the maintenance guy stuck the engine back on, the pilot filed a flight plan for Shannon, and away it went. Amazing these things can happen, but they can and do.

[bobm]

Wouldn't a wheel clamp have been easier?

[JayMac]

Presumably it wouldn't have been fueled either.

[TonyK]

You would think just removing the batteries would stop anyone starting up the APU, let alone the main engines, but that is what I was told, and by more than one person working there. A wheel clamp probably wouldn't hold back 200,000 lbs of thrust, either.