Interview with Keith Stephens,
owner of Advanced Flight.
What gave you the idea to carry out such a long
distance ferry flight?
Keith Stephens: While consulting on the purchase
of the helicopter, the owner asked if I was interested
in flying his EC130 B4 from London to Auckland.
In the spirit of adventure, he thought it would be an
original way to discover the different countries enroute,
from the vantage point of the co-pilot’s seat in his
helicopter.
And you agreed?
K. S.: Yes. The idea of flying halfway around the world
in a helicopter was too much of a temptation. Jerome
West, an Advanced Flight pilot, completed the flights
from London to Singapore.
At that point we suspended our trip for a month
because the helicopter owner had to return to New
Zealand on business. Eurocopter South East Asia
completed the 100 flying hours inspection and I took
over on December 4, 2006 to complete the trip.
So how was the trip?
K. S.: Great. The days were long though, with five to
eight flying hours and only one stopover during the day.
I had carefully planned out the safety aspects of the trip
before we left, so everything went smoothly. We had
additional fuel reserves of 650 liters on board so we
were able to travel long distances without refueling.
Any bad experiences along the way?
K. S.: We were unlucky with weather conditions
departing Singapore, with plenty of violent storms,
rain and bad visibility. I remember things got
complicated in Indonesia. When I wanted to land in
Jakarta, we couldn’t understand the orders from the
control tower and vice versa. We had to circle the area
for half an hour before receiving authorization to land.
What’s more we only had Jeppesen IFR information
and no maps of the country – the flight would have
been impossible without GPS.
There is a lot of ocean to cross between Australia and
New Zealand, and once more bad weather departing
from Sydney had us flying with one hand on our
lifejackets the whole time, just in case… In total, it took
two days to cross the Pacific Ocean, with stops on two
small islands along the way.
What is your best memory of the trip?
K. S.: Even though you have to stay
concentrated on flying, you see incredible
things from the sky, like the wild camels in
Australia for example. We also flew over bush fires
in Australia, which were really spectacular. Discovering
so many different landscapes across so many different
countries leaves you with unforgettable memories.
How did the EC130 B4 behave?
K. S.: The EC130 B4 is a high performance helicopter,
and it did itself proud throughout the trip. We also
appreciated the excellent Eurocopter support, especially
from ESEA. I think it’s fantastic that Eurocopter personnel
are driven by such passion for the products. Eurocopter
is a company which gives 100% to continuously improve.
As a customer, we can’t praise this attitude enough.
