Yesterday, Schweizer 333 G-TAME departed Shoreham Airport by road after being purchased by Fuchs Helicopter, the Swiss operator.

The UK fleet of five Schwiezer 333s has not flown for some time and originally numbered five.  In May this year we reported G-TAMB had been bought by Fuchs, and now G-TAME has followed the same route.

The first four, registered G-TAMA, B, C and D were bought by Total Air Management Services “TAMS” at Sheffield after they won a pipeline survey contract with Transco, part of National Grid, in 2005.  A fifth example was bought pre-owned from France as G-TAME, where it had been operating on a US registration.  TAMS experienced some issues with the S333, and was noted a number of times leasing in hours on Bell 206 helicopters when there was no availability on their 333 fleet.

When TAMS was bought by Longmint Group, the company was effectively merged into another of their subsidiaries, Fast Helicopters, and the Schweizer 333 fleet moved (largely by road) in January 2009 to Fast’s base at Shoreham and they have flew little after that.  They have also been advertised for sale for some time.

Jeremy Parkin – HeliHub.com

File photo