HELICOPTER OPS: GEORGE TONKING
I’m writing this month’s column far from my family, at the tail end of several days of monstrous looting in South Africa; looting, staunched for now after regular citizens rose up against the organised chaos around them with brooms, buckets and arms linked in solidarity. I’M NO GOOD WITH A BROOM and a bucket, but a helicopter? Now that I am comfortable with. A few days into what the government has been calling an insurrection, with all of the violence, criminality and destruction up to that point restricted to KwaZulu-Natal, I was called out to what seemed to be an isolated protest action in Alexandra, Johannesburg.
If you are a regular reader of my column, you will know that I normally fly a Robinson R44, a lightweight machine that lends itself to the observation type of security patrol flying we usually do. But as events transpired, and the full extent of the violent riots and looting gained momentum, it was clear that I needed some extra torque for better manoeuvrability and to be able to carry some extra weight.
A b i r d ’ s -e y e repor t dispels much of the unreliable repor ting
To be honest, after my many years in the security industry, I believed that the media was blowing the kerfuffle out of proportion and that it would be over before it started. But in reality, our air wing at Bidvest Protea Coin was called upon heavily during this time, supplying 10 helicopters for security as well as a Cessna Caravan to transport critical equipment between provinces. I ended up flying in many different roles, several new to me.
22
August 2021
Our arsenal of Airbus Squirrel helicopters was out of the country on various missions, so I turned to the Robinson R66, a reliable turbine workhorse, with much lower operating costs than the Squirrel as a bonus. Another important factor in the R66’s favour is that it runs on Jet A1 fuel as opposed to Avgas 100LL, which the R44 uses. This becomes particularly significant when flying longer missions away from our Gauteng bases, with possible fuel supply constraints. The R66 is also relatively easy on fuel in comparison
