Helicopters

Robinson 44

Love the Robinson 44. Great choice for the family of business partners. Not super fancy but nor is the price. This is one of the better helicopters to have aboard a vessel. Very simplistic that handles better then other helicopters in the salt air. This size of helicopter is all you really need for island stops to exploring or just making your tee time at the local gold course. The fixed floats would be the ideal choice over standard skids or flip away floats. Biggest question would be what vessels would you be landing on. With my experience it is more of a combination of the vessel and the helicopter that make a good match of both practicality and useage. I have worked with a number of vessels that just did not accomadate there helicopter and made the useage very difficult as well as dangerous. Sent you a private message as well.

Heli

Have you had a look at the Russian Kamow.
They are equipped with modern (vestern) engines, have good bad-weather-capabilities with the coaxial roters.
Coaxial Rotors: http://www.kamov.ru/market/encycl/coahe.htm
Econoical and well tested.

I was thinking, especially about their KA-266 multirole
Multi purpose: http://www.kamov.ru/market/tablen/26.htm

The really special thing with this Heli?
You can exchange the rear cabin or fly without.
Change from Passenger transport to Ambulance or Cargo hawler in minutes.
Mount a winch, lift and cary 1500 kg cargo (3300lbs)

Ka-226 main characteristics:

Engine type twin Allison 250-C20R/2 (SR) turbo-shafts
Engine power, hp. 2 x 450

Take-off weight, kg 3400 / 7480 lbs
Payload,kg 1300 / 2860lbs lbs
(Maximum transportable cargo, kg
- inside the transport cabin 1400
- on external sling 1500)
Main rotor diameter, m 13.0 / 42'5''
Max. speed, km/h 205 / 128 mph
Cruising speed, km/h 195 / 122mph
Hover ceiling, m 2000 or (also seen Ceiling m - hovering 2500 - service 6200
Dynamic ceiling, m 5,000 /16400'
Max. rate of climb, m/s 10.6
Flight range, km 600 / 375miles with standard tank
Passengers capacity 6-8 + 1 + 1 pilot
Transport-passenger cabin dimensions, m
- length 2.35 / 93'
- height 1.4 / 55'
- width 1.54 / 61'

KA-226 http://www.kamov.ru/market/news/sh1.htm
Gallery http://www.kamov.ru/market/galler/226e.htm
Speecial http://www.kamov.ru/market/prod/specen.htm

I find this to be a very interesting heli. Perhaps not the prettyest.
It is supposed to have a really good reputation.
Is being used more and more in Russia by government and private companies

Hope this will help

The MD500 looks interesting

Hope this works

Helicopter Manufacturer's
http://www.robinsonheli.com/flash.htm - Robinson Helicopters
http://www.mdhelicopters.com - Manufacturer of the MD500, MD600 NOTAR Helicopters
http://www.eurocopterusa.com/ - American Eurocopter
Enstrom Helicopters
Schweizer Aircraft Co.
http://www.sikorsky.com/ - Sikorsky Helicopters
http://www.bellhelicopter.com - Bell 206, 205, 212, Turbine Helicopters
http://www.agusta.com - Agusta Helicopters

On this rendering of a 50 m explorer yacht from an earlier discussion, there is an MD 500E, exact to scale.

Yes my dream yacht design, now i know which Helicopter you drew in, that looks to be a really nice one too, I will have to see how much though they are asking for that model, I just don't want to be getting too high end of one for the usage I think I would be getting out of it. Any idea of the cost?

It might be a good idea buying a used one, since you will not fly 7 hours a day? Normally the second hand helicopters are updated with new avionics, interior and paint. And as with all aircrafts, the check and maintenance programmes are strict, why it can not compare to a used car...

MD 500:s from the 80:s are from about 400.000 USD and up to what a new comes to, which I have not found out.

Some basic information with many links I found here; http://www.helis.com/using/kind.php

Great pic and an even better post Garry! I believe this is the MD500 "NOTAR" and they are demonstrating the advantages of the No Tail Rotor system. In this case, partially submerging the boom. In a conventional heli, the results would have been catastrophic!

Everything about this sytem makes sense. Less moving parts, less exposed (dangerous) parts, more tail rotor authority, better aerodynamics, etc.

The way of the future? Maybe. Quite surprizing it was not adapted for the new LHX program.

The police department for Phoenix has been operating a fleet of NOTAR type MD choppers for a few years now. I can tell you they fly with a much lower noise level than a conventional helicopter. One wag compared it to having a vaccum cleaner fly overhead. They are also used for mountain rescue missions. So the control while hovering must be pretty decent.

Kelly Cook

Good points Kelly. The NOTAR *IS* much quieter. Also, because they have no exposed tail rotor to tangle in wires, branches etc, they are better suited for low level extraction in mountainous areas. For this reason alone, they are better suited for a yacht.

Closeup of notar