Christoph Munich Upgrades to H145D3

DRF Luftrettung, January 22, 2022 - New helicopter for the region: On January 6 at noon, an H145 aircraft with a five-blade rotor entered service as the new Christoph München.

The helicopter is lighter than its predecessor and thus offers a higher possible payload with the same performance.

In addition, the fifth rotor blade makes it even quieter in the air, which benefits patients and crew. With the change of model as part of the fleet renewal, the air rescuers are pursuing their goal of constantly advancing the development of air rescue.

"There was a special surprise at the beginning of the year at the DRF Luftrettung station in Munich: A brand new H145 with a five-blade rotor arrived at the station and the crew put it into service ", says Sascha Netzer, station manager and pilot in Munich.

"Of course we're curious to see how our new Christoph München will fly" .

“We have already heard some enthusiastic reports from colleagues at the stations who are already using the H145 with five-blade rotor. So our expectations are high. And we are very pleased that we now have even better options for the care of our patients.”

Helicopter converted by DRF

The first H145 helicopter with a five-blade rotor arrived at DRF Luftrettung facilities in December 2020 and was equipped there for station operations.

Since then, the DRF Luftrettung has continuously added more H145s with five-blade rotors to its fleet. Munich is the seventh station that has received a machine of this type so far.

In autumn 2021, the DRF Luftrettung converted one of the existing aircraft in its own workshop to the five-rotor blade system for the first time - as the first Airbus customer worldwide to achieved this.

The process required for this, including all the necessary approvals, had previously been developed in close cooperation with Airbus. Within the next three years, DRF Luftrettung plans to convert all of its H145 helicopters from four to five rotor blades. In the future, DRF Luftrettung will also be able to offer this conversion to external customers.

Munich air ambulance

The intensive care transport helicopter used at the Munich station at the Grosshadern Clinic is ready for action 24 hours a day .

Intensive care transports are mainly carried out in southern Germany, if necessary also to neighboring countries (Austria). Incubator transports and other intensive medical maximum therapies such as ECMO, ECLS or IABP also take place regularly. A Pod incubator is used for newborns.

For emergency operations, the crew is alerted in Munich and the surrounding districts if necessary - these can also be carried out at night according to special procedures.

Christoph Munich was put into service on April 1, 1991 as Germany's first intensive care transport helicopter. The Munich station was also the first in Germany to use night vision goggles from July 2009 .

The goggles attached to the pilot's helmet intensify the residual light that is present at night and thus offer the pilot very good visual orientation in the dark.