A visit to London Heliport
As an avid lover of everything aviation, I was over the moon to move close to London Heliport and be able to watch operations as I cycled along the Thames. I was even fortunate enough to bump into Tom Cruise one evening on my way to the gym and chat about aviation, after he flew in with his Airbus H125. Yes, he’s a very nice guy!
I decided to email Matt Rice, the Heliport manager, to ask about having a peek behind the scenes and he was accommodating and lovely.
The day I visited was fairly miserable and operations were limited due to quite heavy rain, so Matt and I had a chat over a cup of coffee.
London Heliport may look like a fairly modern addition to the London riverside but it’s actually been in operation since 1959, when it was known as Battersea Heliport. At that time it was owned by Westland Aircraft and Harrods. It was later purchased by the Ruben brothers, who also own London Oxford Airport, with sponsorship provided by Edmiston since 2019.
The bread and butter business for the Heliport is, of course, shuttles to and from London Biggin Hill Airport for corporate clients to quickly get into London. It takes approximately six minutes. Then you have wealthy private travellers using the Heliport to travel to events around the UK, from Silverstone and Glastonbury, to Ascot and Goodwood. In all approximately 9,000 movements a year, capped at 12,000 by the local council. Not everyone loves the Heliport but Matt is trying to encourage local support by allowing free landings for the London Air Ambulance service when they’re not able to return directly to the Royal London Hospital’s helipad.
Operationally, they offer a local air traffic service with onward transfer and Category H2 Rescue and Fire Fighting Services. Marshalling is provided for all ground movements from the Final Approach Take-Off (FATO) platform which is elevated and extends over the Thames, as well as Jet A1 fuelling facilities.
Circuit height is 1000 ft flown in a non-standard dumbbell pattern over the river. Crosswind and base legs are reduced to turns, which are made over the river from circuit height.
Space at the Heliport is limited. There are three helicopter parking areas and three slots on the apron, plus, at a push, temporary parking on the FATO platform. On busy days it’s not unusual to see passengers disembarking onto the FATO and then straight into power up and a nose down fast departure back out over the river.
Although the standard shuttles will be AgustaWestland AW109s and AW139s from Castle Air and Thunder Aviation, you do see a great variety of helicopters visiting the facility, from MD 530s to the huge Sikorsky S-92 ‘Helibus’ and, as framed and displayed on the wall of Matt’s office, the occasional Boeing AH-64 Apache!
Thank you to all the team at London Heliport for a lovely day!
Lisa Hurley
Main image: Simon from London, United Kingdom, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
