Humming bird

Eurocopter were in an ideal position to produce the type of helicopter required, since they had basically been doing it for years. But they had generally concentrated on medium to large machines, mainly for utility purposes. But in 1992 the company initiated a market study of the requirements for a smaller machine. What they reckoned was needed was a lightweight five-seat helicopter that was cost effective to build and run, but offered the reliability expected from a modern helicopter. These requirements dictated the basic design of the EC120 Colibri, and the prototype flew in April 1995.

Two things stand out when one initially approaches the EC120. The first is that it very definitely looks like a close cousin to the Gazelle. While Eurocopter emphasise that the EC120 is a new design, and who am I to doubt them, its ancestry appears to be fairly obvious. But this is no bad thing. The Gazelle was an excellent helicopter for its time, and is also extremely good-looking. And the next thing that strikes one about this newcomer is that it is an exceedingly beautiful helicopter. It is tall and graceful, it has a sleek and streamlined design, and there are modern looking curves everywhere. Comparisons may be odious, but they are inevitable, and if an EC120 was standing next to a Jet Ranger, it would be obvious which one was produced thirty years later. And while looks may not be overly important to everyone, if I was spending over three-quarters of a million pounds, I’d want my helicopter to look good too.

Innovation has extended beyond the appearance of the helicopter. The next most obvious thing is the absolutely huge amount of luggage space behind the cabin. Most helicopters have only room for a couple of weekend bags at best; the fuel tank gets in the way. But Eurocopter have effectively split the tank in two, so that there are two fuel tanks, one above the luggage compartment and one below. The space in the middle is massive, large enough for around five big suitcases. With access from the back as well as the side, there is also room for longer items like skis or golf clubs. Customers have been seen storing children’s buggies in it; one pilot even apparently even uses it for transporting car engines. Certainly there is plenty of room for the family holiday in France, or the ski-ing trip with friends, without anyone being minimalist as far as luggage is concerned. This was unheard of until now, in a helicopter of this size.

The passenger-friendly thinking doesn’t stop there. The cabin is roomy enough for five adults to sit in comfort. It is fairly high, but the skids have a wide step running the full length of them. This means that access is not difficult, even for children, or for women wearing skirts. And while there are conventional doors on the right hand side, there is a large sliding door at the back on the left, making access even easier. Most passengers would entirely approve of this helicopter.

Once inside, the rear seats are slightly raised, so as to be above the level of the pilots’ seats. Also, there is no barrier between the back and the front seats, unlike in some helicopters. This means that visibility from the back is fantastic, and passengers need not feel cut off in any way from what is going on in the front. The whole effect is more like being in a luxury car than a helicopter. Eurocopter has obviously really thought through the needs of the private owner, and it shows.

When it comes to safety, similar care has been taken. As would be expected from a modern helicopter, the seats are crashworthy, and are designed to absorb impact in the event of a heavy landing or accident. But Eurocopter have gone one step further. When the back seat harnesses are in use, a pin is engaged on the shock absorbers, so that they “know” which seat is occupied. This means that the specific seats which are occupied are supported in the event of a crash. Clever stuff.

Still on the safety theme, the height of the helicopter means that the main rotors are well above the heads of embarking and disembarking passengers. And at the back, a fenestron replaces the conventional tail rotor. This means that the blades are enclosed, so no-one can accidentally walk into them. In the early days, fenestrons were criticised for being extremely noisy. But the EC120’s “third generation” fenestron has asymmetrically spaced blades, a design which cuts down the noise dramatically, to the point that one can carry on a conversation in the vicinity of a Colibri while it is taking off. And fenestrons look a lot nicer than conventional tail rotors.

There are those who criticise the fenestron design, citing “fenestron stall” as a major problem. However, no-one really seems to know quite what this is. Apparently, in the early days of fenestrons, there were a series of accidents, associated primarily with manoeuvres such as spot turns and wingovers where tail rotor effectiveness was essential. Eurocopter did extensive flight tests, but found it impossible to replicate the problem. Their conclusion – fenestron stall is a myth, one that has passed into the folklore of rotary aviation. And as a non-expert on this specific topic, if Eurocopter tells me fenestron stall doesn’t happen, and are happy to incorporate the design into a number of their helicopters, I’m quite happy to fly them.

So the EC120 seems to be a safe and passenger-friendly design, but what about the pilot? Here too, Eurocopter seems to have come up trumps. Starting with the walk-around, they have again incorporated a number of improvements and innovations. None of them are earth-shatteringly new, but all are well thought out and useful. Everything is easy to see, and easily accessible to the pilot. On the left side is a large “window” which enables one to see the gearbox and hydraulics, and a smaller one enables an engine oil check. So all the fluid levels the pilot wants to check before each flight can be instantly reached from that large step on the skid. For more detailed checks at the start of each day, a large panel on the left hand side is easily removed, giving access to the Arrius 2F turbine engine and a number of other important components. Despite the height of the main rotors, they too can be easily reached, by large and strategically placed steps on the side of the fuselage. So there’s no need to go hunting for a ladder before you leave that hotel where you’ve just spent the night. Eurocopter appear to have thought of everything.

Climbing aboard is as easy for the pilot as for the passengers. The door glides open with the assistance of a gas strut; this also prevents the door blowing out of your hand in a strong wind. It latches into position easily once aboard. The seats can be moved forward and back, and so can the pedals, enabling a comfortable seating position for pilots of just about any size and leg length. Harnesses are standard four-point, and fasten easily. The cyclic is in a comfortable position, even if you’re a shorter-than average pilot, as I am. In some helicopters I find that the seats and pedals can be adjusted comfortably, but no-one has thought to check that the cyclic is then in a suitable position, but in the EC120 there is no problem. The cyclic grip has buttons on it for just about everything you can think of, so that you can change radio frequencies, transmit, and perform a number of other functions, all while hovering if necessary. The collective has buttons for landing lights, hydraulics, and a scroll button for the Vehicle and Engine Multi-Functional Display (VEMD).

The VEMD is a wonderful piece of kit that in my opinion should be fitted to all helicopters. It consists of two glass screens, fitted into the middle of the instrument panel, which display all the information you could possibly need. The lower of these screens has three modes – the operational mode, the configuration mode, and the maintenance mode – which between them tell the pilot everything he could possibly want to know about the state of the aircraft. There is all the usual information such as fuel content, OAT, engine oil temperature and pressure, etc. In addition load data can be entered, and the display will show the aircraft weight in relation to the maximum weight for IGE or OGE hover, depending on the conditions. A maintenance record page records every flight, and shows if there have been any over-speeds or other problems. This could be a boon for private owners leasing a helicopter to schools, or schools authorising self-fly hire. No more: “I think maybe I over-sped the engine, but I’m sure it was only for half a second”. The record will show what exactly happened, and for how long. All the information can be downloaded on to a laptop or PC if required. It all sounds complicated, but in practice it is easy to simply scroll through until you find the page that is required. A great system!

However, the really, really wonderful part of the VEMD is the upper display – the First Limitation Indicator (FLI). This is an analogue display which integrates the T4, Ng (engine rpm) and torque readouts into one clear dial, labelled from 1 to 10. The numbers are arbitrary, but basically when the dial goes above 9.6 you know you are close to the maximum power available, and close to exceeding one of the above parameters. You don’t need to know which; you can simply fly the gauge. At 9.5 the numbers will change to a warning amber, to remind you to lower the collective, and there is an aural warning as well, should it be required. So pilots can keep their eyes out of the cockpit, and those new to turbine helicopters don’t have to remember the limitations while scanning three different and unfamiliar gauges. The FLI is great and deserves a prize.

The rest of the instrument panel is fairly standard, with ASI, altimeter, VSI, AI, Nr gauge, clock, glass compass, and radio altimeter. This is what was fitted on this particular machine, but some of these are optional or additional. All of them are on the left side of the instrument panel. G-ZZOE had a Garmin 540 fitted in the centre of the panel below the VEMD, but many owners prefer to have a GPS on the right side, and there is plenty of room for it there. The instrument panel on the test machine, and indeed on all of those in the UK, is not the standard one fitted by Eurocopter, but a larger one designed by UK distributor McAlpine, so that standard-sized instruments can be fitted. Eurocopter’s original panel apparently has much smaller instruments, about which an earlier writer once commented that they had taken miniaturisation too far. Be that as it may, one of my few criticisms of the EC120 is that for someone of my height, the UK instrument panel now obstructs forward visibility to some extent. This is only noticeable on the ground and in the hover, for in the cruise as the EC120 flies noticeably nose low, so it is not a problem. In any case it is an annoyance rather than a major problem, and could be easily solved by making the pilots’ seats raise and lower as well as go forward and back – Eurocopter and McAlpine, take note!

Time to go flying. With the upper VEMD display showing separate gauges in order to monitor the start, the twist grip on the collective is rotated, and the start-up initiated in the usual manner. As the rpm passes 60%, the starter is released, and the display changes to the FLI. All of this is straightforward, and should not prove too difficult even for the pilot new to turbine helicopters.

The rotors turn clockwise in the usual manner of French helicopters, so I had to remind myself that right pedal is needed on take-off; and the EC120 needs bootfuls of it. However, despite the unfamiliar footwork, it feels very stable in the hover and while hover-taxiing. With only two people and no luggage, the helicopter accelerates quickly and climbs smoothly at over 1500 fpm at 65 kts. Levelling off to the cruise, the most noticeable thing is the markedly low nose attitude. This is off-putting at first, and I’m sure I won’t be the only pilot who finds themselves constantly climbing for the first few minutes. But once accustomed to it, forward visibility is improved dramatically, and the view from the raised seats at the back must be nothing short of magnificent.

Eurocopter says that the Colibri’s recommended cruise speed is 103 kts, but it certainly seemed happy at 120 kts, flying smoothly with plenty of power in hand. Of course, we were two-up with no luggage, but either way, this is certainly fast enough to make the EC120 a realistic real touring machine. In the cruise, it is exceptionally stable for a relatively small helicopter, and I found that it could be flown hands-off for at least ten seconds. This is of course not long compared to those helicopters with autopilots, but it is long enough to re-fold a map, sort out airfield information, and so on. Stability has been increased by incorporating gurney flaps in the tail to equalise the lift, and it certainly seems to work. Again, it is a small innovation, but a very useful one. Flight time with full fuel is around three hours, though this will of course depend on the weight of people and luggage being carried. Five-up, with a full avionics kit, and loads of luggage, you are unlikely to be able to carry more than two hours fuel. But these types of weight and balance choices are normal in aviation, whatever you fly.

Flying fast in straight lines with little pilot intervention is all very well, but this is a helicopter, and most rotary pilots want to play. And here, the EC120 really comes into its own. The controls are extremely responsive, and the spheriflex head means that the helicopter can be thrown around the sky far more safely than those machines with teetering heads like the Jet Ranger. Outside the UK, these helicopters have been used by the military, for exciting manoeuvres that most civil pilots have never even learned. So while I didn’t try anything too dramatic, I do know that it handled steep turns, quick stops, and similar manoeuvres in a manner which gave me confidence and made me want to do more. And when instructor Dick Ormshaw demonstrated a couple of wingovers, I think I acquired that stupid grin that most helicopter pilots recognise so well.

Autorotations are relatively benign. There is plenty of lime to lower the lever, and having an aural warning for both high and low rotor rpm is very comforting. The flare is gentle, and everything happens at a very civilised pace, especially for those of us more used to small piston helicopters. And it’s reassuring to know that if an engine failure happens for real and you get it wrong, at least you can’t remove the tail rotor. We didn’t try simulated hydraulic failure, but apparently the accumulator pressure gives you around a minute and a half to slow down, sort things out, and decide where to land. Again, this is very reassuring, especially for the relatively inexperienced pilot.

In the circuit, the EC120 is as well behaved as elsewhere, and the nose low attitude and huge windows mean that visibility in all directions is fantastic. I always like to make sure I can see all other aircraft in the circuit, since to our fixed-wing colleagues we seem to be all but invisible! The approach is made at 65 kts all the way to the flare. Again, remembering the bootful of right pedal required as one comes to the hover may take a while to learn, but it should not be a major problem. Landing is straightforward, and happens sooner than expected since the cabin is so high off the ground. Shutting down simply involves closing the twist grip throttle for a brief cooling down period. And post flight, the VEMD can of course by checked for flight time, and…just about anything else you might want to know.

So, the verdict? This is a fantastic helicopter for many uses, with a bunch of really useful innovations. It would be perfect both for private owners, and as a training machine. But naturally all this comes at a price. At around £750,000 for the basic no-frills model, it is significantly more expensive than its closest rival, the Jet Ranger. Maintenance will be significantly cheaper, as modern engines are more efficient than thirty year old ones. But even so, many schools, if not prospective owners, may balk at the initial outlay.

However, this is too good a helicopter not to succeed, and it certainly appears to be doing so. To date, 22 EC120s have been sold in the UK, all of them to private owners, though some of these are also leased to flying schools. Many of these owners take advantage of the customisation service provided by McAlpine Helicopters, the main agent for Eurocopter in the UK. At their premises at Kidlington Airport, McAlpine will take your basic EC120, and make it just the way you want it. You can have any colour leather seats, any sort of avionics kit, a full glass cockpit if you can afford it and that’s what turns you on. Other options include an engine washing device, air conditioning, extreme cold weather cabin heating, and a wire strike protection system. This last is composed of two steel blades, one above the cabin and one below, which will cut a wire before it can wrap itself around the helicopter and cause an accident. Apparently they are fitted to most military EC120s, but rarely to civil machines. When one recalls the number of accidents caused by wire strikes, this is perhaps surprising, and I think it’s an option I’d choose. But everyone’s different, and this fact is what McAlpine cater for. They will also do type conversions, so that by the time your customised EC120 is ready, you can fly it home, pick up the family with all their luggage, and head for the South of France.

But you may not be able to do that in a hurry. For outside of the UK and CAA regulations, these helicopters are gaining in popularity for all sorts of utility purposes, from law enforcement to fire-fighting to power line inspections. In fact, the US has just ordered 50 of them for use by its border patrols. This means that the waiting list for the EC120, worldwide, has jumped from four months to eleven months, while Eurocopter is desperately cranking out more of them.

So if you have around £900,000 for your own customised EC 120 Colibri, I’d certainly recommend you get one. But you might need to be patient.

Technical Data

Weights
Max take-off weight 1,715 kg 3,780.9 lb
Empty weight, standard configuration 960 kg 2,116.4 lb
Useful load, standard configuration 755 kg 1665 lb
Standard fuel capacity 320 kg 703.5 lb

Power Plant 1 Turbomega Arrius 2F turbine engine
Take-off power 376 kW 504 shp

Performance at Max Gross Weight (ISA conditions)
\Max speed (Vne) 278 km/hr 150 kts
Fast cruise speed (at MCP) 227 km/hr 122 kts
Recommended cruise speed 190 km/hr 103 kts
Rate of climb at SL 6.10 m/sec 1,200 ft/min
Service ceiling 5,182 m 17,000 ft
Hover Ceiling OGE at take-off power 2,316 m 7,600 ft
Max endurance without reserve at RCS 728 km 393 nm
Endurance without reserve at 100km/hr-54 kts 4h20

Operation Limitations
Max operating altitude 6,096 m 20,000 ft
Min temperature – 40C
Max Temperature ISA + 35C limited to 50C

Distributor
McAlpine Helicopters Limited
Oxford Airport
Kidlington
Oxfordshire
OX5 1QZ

Tel 01865 841188
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: https://www.eurocopter.co.uk