Articles for category Helicopter Sectors
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Nov
18
2024
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Posted by Admin
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It is a busy and sunny morning at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in New Jersey. While the first Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker of the Air National Guard’s 108th Wing takes to the sky, a Boeing C-17 Globemaster and a Boeing KC-46 Pegasus of the 305th Air Mobility Wing, wait in line for their ATC clearance. On the platforms of the United States Marine Corps there is a lot of activity going on as well as a section of Sikorsky CH-53E Super Stallions of HMH-772 being prepared for the day’s flying. Martin Scharenborg and Ramon Wenink / Global Aviation Review Press, were invited to fly with the ‘Hustlers’ and report about the important task this reserve unit has within the United States Marine Corps.
First Steps
The history of the unit goes back to April 1958 when Helicopter Transport Squadron 772 (HMR-772) was established as part of the United States Marine Corps Reserve Training Command at Naval Air Station-Willow Grove in Pennsylvania. The squadron was renamed in April 1962 into Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 772 (HMM-772) and became part of Marine Aircraft Group 43 / 4th Marine Aircraft Wing in 1965. In 1970, the unit was relocated for a short period to Naval Air Station-Lakehurst where it switched on 1 September 1971 to its current name: Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron 772 (HMH-772). A year later, the unit returned again to Willow Grove where it became part of Marine Aircraft Group 49 / 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing.
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Tags:
Helicopter Transport Squadron 772
Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron 772 HMH-772
Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 77
Categories:
Helicopter Sectors
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Jun
17
2024
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Posted by Admin
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There’s a revolution taking place in pilot training, thanks to VR (virtual reality) and AR (augmented reality; also known as mixed reality or MR). Both offer computer-assisted ways to make pilot training safer both on the ground and in flight. In doing so, these technologies make it possible for student pilots to gain relevant skills before they ever go aloft, and to receive training assistance once they are in the cockpit and flying for the very first time.
“Virtual reality or VR replaces the real world with a virtual world,” said Martin Keil, CTO at Reiser Simulation and Training, a German manufacturer of Level D full flight simulators that has added VR to its training portfolio. “augmented reality (AR) combines the virtual world with real world elements, offering the possibility of creating new, highly immersive training environments.”
A Quick Tech Primer
Here’s the rule of thumb for VR versus AR training. VR training is usually done on the ground with the student wearing ‘VR goggles’ (aka headsets) that encase their eyes and cut off the outside world.
To convey realistic moving images to the wearer, “VR goggles contain a light LED screen and two lenses that distort the image so that it appears to be in three dimensions,” said Nacho Navacerrada, sales director at the flight simulation company Entrol. “The sensors located in the VR goggles track the position of the user’s head to coordinate what is being projected, providing the illusion of being immersed in another world.”
In contrast, “AR headsets superimpose computer-generated imagery onto the real world,” Navacerrada said. “For example, pilots can see a procedural flow superimposed on the cockpit’s control surfaces.”
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Categories:
Training
Helicopter Sectors
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Apr
29
2024
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Posted by Admin
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Everywhere I turn, I see nothing but change. Rapid change. In fact, almost every feature in this issue has an underlying theme of change.
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Tags:
Changes in the helicopter industry
Rotor Pro Editor's Letter
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Helicopter Sectors
Opinion-Editorial
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Mar
26
2024
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Posted by Admin
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Imagine: Sometime in the near future, a combined team of drones and helicopters is dispatched to battle a major forest fire. The drones fan out to identify hot spots, locate survivors, and spray fire suppressants in key areas. The helicopters follow to pick up survivors, apply larger amounts of fire suppressants, and either manage the drones in the air or just coordinate with them due to the drones’ autonomous/ground-controlled flight systems.
This may sound like something out of a science-fiction novel. But it is actually a reasonable projection of where rotorcraft technology is headed in the not-so-distant future. Here’s where we stand right now…
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Tags:
EHang
MUM-T
MUMT_MQ-8C_FireScout
Categories:
Helicopter Sectors
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Mar
18
2024
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Posted by Admin
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It is a vast untamed wilderness where lions, rhinos, elephants and other wild animals roam freely, but the massive park’s borders are sometimes breached by a network of highly skilled and motivated poachers. High temperatures often reach north of 110o (F) in the summer months. These are some of the formidable challenges that the South African National Parks (SANParks) Air Services has to navigate.
The Kruger National Park borders Mozambique on the eastern side and Zimbabwe on the northern side. SANParks Air Services provides the aerial support required for over 2 million hectares, as well as the other 19 parks of SANParks across South Africa. Poachers are a huge problem, although the battle is slowly being won, and rhino poaching has stabilized and reduced over the past years.
Despite back-breaking work from a dedicated and passionate SANParks team, Kruger National Park rhino populations have continued to plummet due to rhino poaching (according to the population count from 2020). Recently published research estimates that there are about 2,607 white rhinos remaining in the Kruger National Park, while black rhinos are estimated to number just 202. This represents a population decline of 75% for white rhinos since 2011 (from 10,621) and 51% for black rhino since 2013 (from 415).
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Tags:
helicopters antipoaching
sanparks air services
south africa sanparks aviation
Categories:
Helicopter Sectors
Company Profiles
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Feb
05
2024
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Posted by Admin
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In the last James Bond film starring Daniel Craig, No Time to Die, Chris Sharpe with Black Wolf Helicopters was tapped to body double as a secret agent while rappelling from a helicopter in a tuxedo. “I’m British, so it was natural,” Sharpe said. The global movie release had a premier in Guatemala. He was asked to rappel twice at a pre-showing and at the premiere to deliver a cake in a box to a VIP. Following the cake delivery, the party, dressed in tuxedos and formal gowns, went to the movie premiere.
Sharpe is a chief aircrewman and medic with Black Wolf Helicopters in Guatemala City, Guatemala. They provide services like search and rescue, helicopter emergency management, and training for other helicopter operators, but in their spare time, they dally in film crew support.
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Tags:
Black Wolf Helicopters
Helicopter Film Crew Support
Helicopteros de Guatemala
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Company Profiles
Helicopter Sectors
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Jan
08
2024
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Posted by Admin
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Nine companies made our ‘Best of Rotor Tech’ list this year. The accomplishments they racked up during 2023 are truly impressive.
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Tags:
Airbus Helicopters FlightLab
Helicopter Technology
Categories:
Opinion-Editorial
Helicopter Sectors
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Dec
24
2023
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Posted by Admin
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As a pilot, you’re responsible for knowing your equipment inside and out. You go through countless hours of training. You run through checklists before every flight. And you rely on industry standards and best practices to maintain peak performance.
Despite doing all that, do you know if your equipment is vulnerable to a cyberattack?
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Tags:
AUVSI
Categories:
Helicopter Sectors
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Dec
18
2023
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Posted by Admin
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There’s a revolution underway in aviation, and it is being driven by artificial intelligence. AI is already affecting everything from helicopter/fixed-wing design and manufacturing to in-flight operations and maintenance, along with air traffic control and anything else that touches flying.
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Tags:
Aviation Artificial Intelligence
Categories:
Opinion-Editorial
Helicopter Sectors
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Oct
30
2023
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Posted by Admin
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The growing use of UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) and the anticipated rollout of eVTOLs (manned electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicles) will have a far reaching impact in manned flight, as helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft must share the heavens with them. But how will UAVs and eVTOLs affect helicopter communications, especially in controlled airspace, and what will this mean for helicopter pilots and operators? Here’s what Rotor Pro has been able to find out.
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Tags:
UAV pilots
V-150 SKELDAR
V-200 SKELDAR
Categories:
Regulatory
Helicopter Sectors