During the beginning of 2021, E-Distribuzione had to renew the power line between two small Italian towns south of Varese. But before that let’s discover the company who played the Key role during this operation.
Rotex helicopter
Rotex Helicopter has been the leader in Europe with its K-MAX for over 20 years. “Our strength is that we have focused solely on the k-max and heavy load transport. The k-max is a single-seat helicopter with a very good price/performance ratio for loads up to 2’700 kilos” the Project Manager of Rotex Helicopter stated.
They do a lot of different jobs, but thanks to the large number of people on the ground, Rotex Helicopter have employees from the logging industry and they specialise in transporting wood and dismantling trees directly from the ground, as visible on their Youtube Channel.
Kaman K-MAX K-1200
The K-Max K-1200 was exclusively designed for transporting loads.
The single-seater was developed and manufactured in America by Kaman Aerospace. With an empty weight of 2’300 kg and a payload of 2’722 kg, the Kaman is one of the few helicopter types with a higher payload than empty mass.
Due to the special design with intermeshing rotors, the k-max is very appreciated working with it, because it is not very noisy and there is not much wind under it.
The only minor loss in performance at high altitudes and at high temperatures makes the K-Max an extremely reliable for transporting all kinds of loads.
The K-Max impresses with its manoeuvrability and economic efficiency. If you want to check the technical data, you can visit the dedicated section of their website.
It requires very special logistics. For the movement of ground crews as well as for the management of customer orders. They always manage to do a tour, which means that the helicopter does not return to the base every evening. It goes from customer to customer.
From the end of March, they will have a third K-max, which will allow Rotex Helicopter to be available at home and abroad without any problems.
The Italian job
E-distribuzione at the beginning of the year decided to remove entirely the red power line and to retrofit completely the blue one.
So last month they came to install the new poles on the blue power line and dislocate three coils either. Then after the constructor has dismantled the old poles from both lines and gather the debris in some big-bags, they returned last week to collect and put everything in one place where it would have been possible to dispose them.
Sling load operations
Load pick-up
The operation consists in securing the load before the helicopter arrives. Care must be taken to ensure that no one is in the helicopter’s danger zone during this type of operation. It is very important that no one is underneath when the helicopter arrives. You never know how a load will react, and it’s impossible to predict how people around the load specialist might react. It is important to keep them out of the area. The blades of the K-MAX are low and on the sides. That’s why our team is always in radio contact with the pilot in order to give him indications of height and obstacles (cables, trees, …).
Load drop
Then when everytihng is secured, the helicopter trasnfers everything to the designated landing field where everything will be collected, unhooking as seen in the video. Then the team on the ground remove all the banding strips on the load after the helicopter has gone. The target is lean the load on the ground in the way that after the detachment it doesen’t require any further movement.
Hot Refuel
This is a standard procedure for lifting helicopters. This saves time during operations.
With the K-MAX, it’s reccomended to fly with about one hour of fuel plus reserve.
This allows the helicopter to be lighter and more manoeuvrable.
Teamwork and CRM
An important part of the work is also the briefing and preparation of the transport.
Every transport is different, so a direct contact with the customer even before the lift takes place is important. That helps to gather every information possible and a site inspection before is the key to success, in order to discover many threats as possible.
There are several project managers. The project manager of France and Italy took care of this operations.
It’s strength for Rotex Helicopter to have project managers for each area, everyone knows their region and is available to prepare the sites.
The most important aspect of transport is safety.
On the day of the job, the briefing with the teams is important. Especially because is not rare to cooperate with teams who have never worked with the K-MAX or even a helicopter before.
With a briefing, everyone knows what they are doing and where the important safety points are.