London Heliport

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The London Heliport (also: London 's Vertical Gateway ) is a heliport in London, situated on the south bank of the Thames.

History

The heliport was established by the British aircraft manufacturer Westland Aircraft, the first hint of a helicopter found a Westland Widgeon HR5 ( aircraft registration mark: G- ANLW ) on April 8, 1959 instead of John Fay as a pilot. The official opening was performed on 23 April 1959 Mr John Hay of the Conservative Party, who was at that time Secretary of the UK Department for Transport ( Department for Transport ).

Westland Aircraft was acquired in 1987 by the British GKN which offered for sale to the helipad in 2000, with Harrods Aviation was awarded the contract. The British Weston Aviation Limited took over the estate in 2003 by Harrods Aviation and sold it further in 2007 to the British by food group. The von Essen group ordered the PremiAir Aviation as operator of the heliport. In the course of the renovation and modernization of the system by the von Essen group, Hotel Verta was built with 70 rooms adjacent to the site. In April 2011, the von Essen Group went bankrupt and sold to the helipad to the British investors David and Simon Reuben. The adjoining Hotel Verta was sold for around £ 20 million to a private investor.

The London Heliport is the only heliport in London, has the official status. In other landing sites, as an example the Vanguard Helipad (coordinates: 51 ° 29 ' 26 " N, 0 ° 1' 32 " W51.490608 - 0.025423 ) near the Convoy Wharf has a permit from the Civil Aviation Authority CAA be obtained before landing.

Location

Located on Lombard Road in London's Battersea, the heliport is about six kilometers from the Palace of Westminster. Since the Heliport subject to strict conditions, which are based primarily on safety and noise, the arrival and departure is allowed only across the river. Furthermore, the operating hours are from 07:00 clock to 23:00 clock limited early evening. For large events such as the Ascot horse racing daily maximum of 1,000 flight movements must be carried out, the maximum number of arrivals and departures is limited to 12,000 annually (excluding Police and rescue operations ). Compliance with these guidelines is monitored inter alia by the London Heliport Consultative Group, which is made up of residents of the city districts Wandsworth, Hammersmith and Fulham and Kensington and Chelsea.

Use

The heliport is mainly for passenger transport for the surrounding airports ( including London Heathrow Airport or Gatwick Airport ) but also used as a starting point for scenic flights and for police or rescue operations. There are seven pitches for helicopter and a gas station with Jet A -1 exists, where the spaces are not used for simultaneous use. The lifting capacity of built on stilts in the river bed landing platform is just over 16 tons, thus, larger helicopters such as the Sikorsky S-92 can land.

For a small two-seater helicopters like the Robinson R22 around 450 Euros to be paid on landing fees. Since the shelves are limited, parking fees of around 360 euros for one hour will be charged for this class helicopter.