Fancy a Gazelle Helicopter?

[jshell]

30 of them for sale here, ex-MoD: http://www.mod-sales.com/news/17/UNDER_DEPOSIT_-_Q...

[markmullen]

I wonder how much 30 Gazelles would cost?

[RVVUNM]

I was in the Army Air Corps for four and a half years from 1979 to 1984 with these brilliant helicopters. They worked hard every day and had the best of maintenance,wish I could afford one just to put in my garden.

[Soovy]

[jshell]

RVVUNM said:

I was in the Army Air Corps for four and a half years from 1979 to 1984 with these brilliant helicopters. They worked hard every day and had the best of maintenance,wish I could afford one just to put in my garden.

Me too, I'd love to put one in my garden. Just, because......

Like the Buchaneer petrol station in Elgin who bought and old RAF Buchaneer aircraft and it just sits on the forecourt. Amazing!!

[blueg33]

Prone to tail rotor failure so I wouldn't buy one to fly. Beats a gnome as a garden ornament but I always fancied an F4 for that

[Taffer]

^ How about a Nimrod - I imagine there'll be nine for sale fairly soon.........

Would love a Gazelle though. Oh, and the licence to fly it, the space to store/operate it, and the small mountain of money to keep it fuelled, serviced and flying.

[Simpo Two]

Taffer said:

^ How about a Nimrod - I imagine there'll be nine for sale fairly soon.........

And a nice new aircraft carrier if you can wait a bit. Currently at 99p on eBay.

[mrloudly]

Try insuring a Gazelle privately, very difficult now because of a few high profile incidents...

From what I read it takes some handling (It's a slippery beast and needs careful management).

[mrloudly]

Try insuring a Gazelle privately, very difficult now because of a few high profile incidents...

From what I read it takes some handling (It's a slippery beast and needs careful management).

[EagleSkinner]

RVVUNM said:

I was in the Army Air Corps for four and a half years from 1979 to 1984 with these brilliant helicopters. They worked hard every day and had the best of maintenance,wish I could afford one just to put in my garden.

REME tech and tiffie 1971 to 1988 - Gazelles were beautiful to fly and maintain...

...if you're a civvy owner. The fact that we "invented" floor protectors because squaddies boots went through the honeycomb floor structure like an elephant's feet into butter probably describes why we'd have sold our grannies if the higher ups would have listened and bought us the Eceureuil.

Lovely helicopters, honest, but not really suited for the army life. Good for the RAF and Navy of course but joking aside - if you knew where t apply the hide-face, they would serve well - and work well, from minus 40 to plus 40. From Eastern Africa via the Falklands to the North Cape.

I'd buy all thirty now - if I were planning an air training, charter, taxi or flightseeing service and probably 30 mill just for the deposit. Good luck to whoever gets the hammer! Easy and economical to maintain and will definitely come with clean records...

[speedtwelve]

First time I tried hovering was in a Gazelle. They're great fun; fast, responsive and a tad twitchy compared to other helicopters with autostabilisation. On that same first sortie we did some confined area work; I remember sitting on a forest floor, rotors running, surrounded by trees, while some bloke walked nonchalantly past with his dog.

IIRC the wipers and door handles are off a Citroen...

[Elroy Blue]

You'll have some fun with the CAA if you mention ex-mil Gazelles.

[eharding]

Elroy Blue said:

You'll have some fun with the CAA if you mention ex-mil Gazelles.

There are CAA machinations afoot for ex-military CAA Permit-to-Fly types in general - in particular, the proposed change that would limit the maximum number of POB to four, which will be a blow to some of those outfits operating large historic types which have traditionally managed to transport the entire required ground contingent to airshows on board - if the proposed change comes to pass, most of them will have to find alternative transport - or simply not go.

There has been a grey area in the CAA Permit regulations regarding the number of POB allowed for rotorcraft - some types - not sure if the Gazelle was included - had a restriction that other than the flight crew, a maximum of two 'technical support staff' could be allowed on board to facilitate ground operations (if the Gazelle was included in that category, then I've seen a couple of very elderly ladies in the back of one - clearly having a whale of a time - who must have also been pretty good with a spanner)

Edited by eharding on Wednesday 27th October 19:11

[Elroy Blue]

You are correct. No passengers, but support staff allowed. And yes, there have been some 'strange' looking support staff. All ok intil you have an incident.

[topsparks]

My friend in Iver Heath has one sat in his back garden,not had a go in it yet but its a loud beast as I can always tell when its flying nearby.Dodgy tail rotor or not I think I would prefer to fly in a Gazelle than have another flight in his R44!.

[Geneve]

Great looking helicopters - looks belie its age. Low skids, quite refined and good performance. True that they can be twichy, care with CofG (esp on stretched variants) and CAA and insurers are very wary, not helped by recent incidents. Quite a few are on eastern European regs. MW Helicopters art Stapleford seem to specialise in refurbishing them.

Pics here http://www.abpic.co.uk/search.php?page=0&q=Aer...

[speedtwelve]

The whistling chicken leg.

[IanMorewood]

I assume one of the HRH's was using one the last weekend, it was parked up on the front garden at Chatsworth House, I had a good look round, it looked pretty good still for a 30 year old helicopter.

[topsparks]

No pics of his one on that site,will pop round tomorrow and take some pics