The good weather has been great for flying and has seen both branches flying record breaking monthly hours. Unfortunately helicopters lives are not infinite and each Robinson is timed out after 2200 hours of flying. Once the aircraft reaches its total allowable time it has to have a complete overhaul. The overhaul involves completely rebuilding the machine so that it comes back out of the workshop as new with many of the key components either restored or replaced.

With all these hours been put on the machines it has meant one of our beloved R22’s, G-DHGS, reached her 2200 hours faster than expected. The machine is now currently being rebuilt at its maintenance base. The picture below shows the shell of G-DHGS after being stripped as part of its overhaul.

The good news is that the R22 shortage was quickly corrected with the new edition of G-HIEL. G-HIEL will now be based at Blackbushe and available for lessons as well as self fly hire.