Aerospace Diary

AIN DEFENSE PERSPECTIVE  »  DECEMBER 6, 2013 by    NEELAM MATHEWS December 6, 2013, 11:50 AM India’s twice-bid reconnaissance and surveillance helicopter ( RSH ) competition has been delayed again. An oversight committee is now scrutinizing the latest bids to inquire into allegations of improper conduct by an army officer during flight trials of the finalists. The Kamov Ka-226T and Eurocopter  AS550C 3 Fennec are competing for an Army and Air Force requirement for 197 helicopters. “The committee will further investigate the analysis…we would like this to happen [soon],” Lt. Gen Amarjeet Singh Chabbewal, Chief of Staff Western Command for the Indian Army, told  AIN . The  RSH  helicopters are intended to replace an aging fleet of Chetak (Aerospatiale  SA 316 Alouette  III ) and Cheetah ( SA315B  Alouette  II ) helicopters. Spares are now expensive and increasingly difficult to obtain. “We have...

AVIATION INTERNATIONAL NEWS  »  AUGUST 2013 by    NEELAM MATHEWS India’s air force rescued thousands trapped in the mountains after June’s landslides and flooding. August 2, 2013, 4:55 AM Landslides and flooding in the mountains of North India in mid-June that killed approximately 10,000 and stranded more than 80,000 triggered the largest-ever search-and-rescue operation by the Indian military. The more than 60 aircraft involved in the operation contended with treacherous weather, low visibility and strong winds; high-tension wires; and no infrastructure or lights on the ground in perilous landing zones with no helipads. “Military pilots are trained always to find a place to land,” Nasir Hanfee, retired  IAF  helicopter pilot, told  AIN . However, this skill can prove elusive for larger helicopters that need more space. For example, while a Chetak (Alouette  III ) can land in a three-meter-diameter spac...

N eelam Mathews March 5, 2013 A Chetak helicopter of the Indian Navy has been lost at sea. Chetak 440 had taken off from INS Dega at about 2 PM today on a routine mission in an area about 10 nm (18 km) seaward of Visakhapatnam, with four crew members onboard, said the Indian Navy. Search and Rescue was initiated when the Air Traffic Control lost contact with the helicopter at about 3:30 PM, and the Chetak failed to return to base at the estimated time. Two survivors have since been picked up from the area and brought to the Naval hospital, INHS Kalyani. The Navy has mounted an extensive search in and around the exercise area with ships, helicopters and divers to locate remaining survivors and the wreckage. Assistance of the Port authorities and local fishing community has been sought. An Indian Navy Chetak helicopter crashed in Oct last year while landing at a na val air station in Goa. All three onboard were killed.

Neelam Mathews Oct 15, 2012 An Indian Navy Chetak helicopter crashed today at 10am while landing at Naval air station in Goa. The helio was in transit to make a rescheduling stop from Mumbai to Bangalore. All three onboard have died. Our condolences to their families. Goa’s Dabolim airport has been closed, we hear. While a Board of Inquiry to ascertain the cause has been formed, isn’t it time to start looking at what is happening with those machines?   The Indian Navy has released an RFP for 56 Light Utility Helicopters. The bidders have been given a five-month time to submit their bids. Why is the time period been extended? Shouldn’t this be a priority? Or is it the time of the year once again to give HAL a chance to offer a design, for which it will take another few years to implement? Are we waiting for more disasters to happen?

AIN DEFENSE PERSPECTIVE  »  SEPTEMBER 14, 2012 by    NEELAM MATHEWS The Alouette III was license-produced by HAL in India as the Chetak. September 14, 2012, 12:55 PM Maintaining India’s fleet of more than 230 aging Cheetah and Chetak reconnaissance and surveillance helicopters is turning into a nightmare due to unavailability of spares, according to  K.C.  Nanda, general manager of Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd’s Barrackpore Division, who sounded the warning at a defense conference held in Kolkata in August.  HAL  built both the Cheetah and the Chetak under license from Eurocopter. The Cheetah is a version of the Eurocopter Aérospatiale  SA  315B Lama, single-engine helicopter that combines the lighter Alouette  II  airframe with Alouette  III  components and powerplant. The Chetak is a license-built Alouette  III . Production lines closed in France in the 1980s, and  HAL ...

Pix Source-PTI Neelam Mathews Sept 6, 2012 How long will it be before we see more horrific images related to the Cheetah and Chetak helicopters?  Already, around 20 accidents have occured in the past years related to these machines. The reason is familiar- lack of spares in the international market as production of the Lama has closed down! The French Aérospatiale SA 315B Lama , single-engined helicopter that combines the lighter Alouette II airframe with Alouette III components and powerplant was licence built by   HAL in India as the   Cheetah and the   Alouette III   was license built by HAL as the  Chetak. Aerospace Diary learns that with lack of spares in the market for the helicopters, HAL has started to cannabalise parts. Which means there are more AOGs - not helping the dire  situation. Many vendors that supplied parts to Eurocopter during the heydays are no longer around. We hear that the EC blade production line is ope...

Neelam Mathews May 31, 2012 India is rightly earning the acronymn of “the master of delays.” The bid – the second time round after the first one in 2008- for procuring 197 light utility helicopters for the Indian Army and Air Force required the day before yesterday (!) though having cleared technical evaluation, is stuck at the staff evaluation stage for months, the clearance of which, keeps getting delayed, Aerospace Diary learns. 64 are for the IAF, and 133 are for the Army. The next stage will be for it to go through the technical oversight committee to ensure nothing is missed out to be followed by other clearances till the commercial bids are even opened. All this time wasted has many in the business speculating whether the government really wants to make a decision between the two contenders- Eurocopter’s AS550 C3 Fennec and the Kamov Ka-226- at all. With HAL developing the Light Utility Helicopter based on the single engined-ALH, and around 187 more light utility helico...