Skywork Helicopters Aerospatiale AS.350 Squirrel PK-URF Passes Through Gladstone Airport

A really colourful and unique visitor was photographed by local plane spotters Jamie C and Tash C at Gladstone Airport on Saturday 2 November in the form of Skywork Helicopters Aerospatiale AS.350 Squirrel PK-URF.

Skywork Helicopters is a New Zealand-based company that was established in 1997 with one sole aircraft.  Today, the company has expanded and operates a diverse fleet of choppers not only within New Zealand, but also within Australia and Indonesia.  In fact, this particular Squirrel wears an Indonesian registration, and I would suspect that it is the first example of an Indonesian registered aircraft on the CQ Plane Spotting Blog!

It is believed that PK-URF was on a ferry flight from Indonesia to Skywork Helicopter's Australian-base at Wollongong in New South Wales.  It had been spotted at Cairns and Townsville during the week.

I have learned too that one other Skywork Helicopters chopper that I spotted at Emerald Airport in 2011 - Kaman Corporation K-1200 K-Max heavy-lift helicopter ZK-HEE - is also based at Wollongong for most of the year, and was seen assisting fire-fighting authorities during the recent Sydney bushfires.

More information and photos on Skywork Helicopters can be found on their website - http://www.skyworkhelicopters.com/

Thanks Jamie and Tash for sending through these fantastic photos!

Photos taken by Jamie C and Tash C  ©