QGAir Rescue (State of Queensland) Agusta AW139 Helicopter VH-ESH Ferries North via Gladstone and Mackay Airports

On Thursday 24 January, Queensland Government (QGAir) Rescue (State of Queensland) Agusta AW139 helicopter VH-ESH was noted ferrying North through Central Queensland Airports.  The Agusta initially flew into Gladstone Airport from Archerfield and after taking on fuel it departed to Mackay Airport.

VH-ESH is pictured above departing Mackay Airport for Townsville.

While VH-ESH has been operating out of Archerfield around the South East corner in recent days as "Rescue 500", it seems to heading to Far North Queensland - possibly to Cairns - to replace fellow QGAir Rescue AW139 VH-EZJ which has been operating in Far North Queensland as "Rescue 510".  I presume that VH-EZJ will ferry South in the coming days to Archerfield where it will undergo planned maintenance.

As we have mentioned previously, this is part of the 'rotational system' the service utilises to ensure the even distribution of flying hours on each of the QGAir Rescue helicopters.  This system avoids the need to have multiple helicopters offline for simultaneous scheduled maintenance.

Finally, as also mentioned previously, a pair of brand new Leonardo S.P.A. Helicopters (Agusta) AW139 - VH-EGF and VH-EGK - have recently been registered to QGAir (State of Queensland) and are believed to be hangared and being prepared for service at Archerfield.  These should possibly join the QGAir fleet soon.

All photos taken by 'JM'  ©