Tag: EC-030

Photo Report – HBB to the Rescue as Well!

Posted in Military / PoliceTagged , , , , , 1 Comment

By me
All photos me too, copyrighted

Hot on the tail rotor of my previous post come yet more Eurocopter news from the Croatian Police 🙂 . Not two weeks after 9A-HBA – the service’s first EC-135 – had started active duty has a second example joined the fleet. Christened 9A-HBB, this machine is also an EC-135P-2+, and sports pretty much the same family tree as its predecessor: manufactured in 2008 for Spain’s Guardia Civil (and coded HU.26-14), but never taken up and instead placed in long-term storage until being sold to Croatia late this year. Like HBA, it was also delivered with flight hours in the low dozens – and like HBA it still needs to be fully kitted out before assuming its intended border patrol role.

Thankfully, on the day of its arrival we’d had another of those beautiful, oddball days in the middle of an otherwise dreary month, making for some excellent photographic opportunities… 🙂

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Approaching RWY 10S(un). Even though they’d spent most of the day rumbling around and across Southern Europe on HBB’s delivery flight, the crew was still ready, willing and able to fly a few photo passes down the airfield…
Cooling down after the delivery ceremony in the company of 9A-HBA. Originally flying under a Spanish flag and temporary reg - EC-030, still partially visible on the tail - HBB was "rebranded" into its Croatian identity within seconds of the rotors stopping.
Cooling down after the delivery ceremony in the company of 9A-HBA. Originally flying under a Spanish flag and temporary reg – EC-030, still partially visible on the tail – HBB was “rebranded” into its Croatian identity within seconds of the rotors stopping.