The more dealings I have with helicopters the more they fascinate me. Forget ambulance-chasing try chasing Air Ambulances. In the main, in the UK, they are red. A few, like those in Yorkshire, are yellow. So, whichever their colour, they stand out. And they make a lovely sound as the air shudders and vibrates. Certain helicopters have very distinctive sounds. The easiest of all to recognise is the military CHINOOKs with the twin rotar system. Not nicknamed Wokka Wokkas for nothing. The whole ground shakes when they're about.
I've also been under a RAF SARS Seaking (also yellow) and it loosened the rubber-doings that help seal windscreens. A colleague and I had to hold on firmly to our work's motor as it...she ( All motors are SHEs to me)... bounced about due to the downforce from the Seaking. It took weeks before the last of the dust was cleansed from the motor. It felt like almost as many weeks to rid it from me!
The RAF also use Gazelle and they carry a high-pitch whine that's unmistakeable.
Quieter are the MD (MacDonnell Douglas) Explorers that some of the police use as they do not have a tail-rotor.(system referred to as NOTAR)
This a great pic of the Wiltshire Police chopper but, if you look, it also has the Crown badge of the Uk Ambulance Service as the two work together.
In Wales, there are 3 police choppers but they're all different.
In North Wales they have a Eurocopter EC-135.
South Wales and Gwent have a Eurocopter EC13T2i
and Dyfed-Powys have, I think, an Augusta 109Power.
For the time being, the Welsh Ambulance Service uses three Bolkow 105s.
Next on the list are the EC-135s
Below that site will show what's being flown by the police and ambulance services around Britain.
I don't know why they hold such a fascination. I love the way they can manoeuvre, they way they sound and even the smell of the Avgas.
So now, with camera to hand, if i hear that vibration of the airwaves i try to get a picture of something buzzing about... be it red or yellow or whatever.
Say hello to Helimed 59, who operates out from Welshpool International Airport
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