HELICOPTER TO ARRIVE

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30936, 17 December 1965, Page 16

HELICOPTER TO ARRIVE

First Of 13 For N.Z. (N.Z. Press Association) WELLINGTON, Dec. 16. The first three of 13 helicopters ordered for the Armed Forces will arrive at the Auckland R.N.Z.A.F. base tomorrow, at the end of the delivery flight as freight aboard an R.N.Z.A.F. Hercules transport They are Bell Sioux, a light three-place machine which will be used by the Army as close support, and flown by Army pilots. Two other types of helicopters are included in the Government approval. They the the larger Bell Iriquois, which will be used for transport and general purposes and flown by R.N.Z.A.F. pilots, and the anti-submarine Westland Wasp, which will be carried in the new frigate. H.M.N.Z.S. Waikato. and flown by naval officers. Servicing inspections, checking spares and support equipment and other essential preliminaries will preclude the operation of the Sioux for other than test flying during the first few weeks. The first three Sioux helicopters will be followed later by another three. These will be demonstrated as a special display at Hobsonville late in January. Five Iriquois are due next year and two Wasps in 1987. The first formal course of training on the helicopters for both Air Force and Army pilots will start in February, but limited flying in support of Army territorial exercises will take place at the end of January. Squadron Leader G. C. Hubbard, of Blenheim, will soon complete training courses on the Sioux and Iroquois helicopters in the United States.