DRF Luftrettung, April 24, 2023 - New helicopter for the region: Since April 17, 2023 an H145 with a five-blade rotor and winch is in service at the DRF Luftrettung station in Freiburg, a premiere for civil air rescue in Germany.
Thanks to the fifth rotor blade, the new Christoph 54 is even more stable in the air, which benefits both the patients and the crew.
With this model change, DRF Luftrettung is continuing to modernize its fleet.
The Freiburg crew was able to put the new H145 helicopter with five-blade rotor and winch through its paces last weekend.
The machine was available to the air rescuers just in time for the spring winch training with the Black Forest and Württemberg mountain rescue services and the DLRG Breisgau.
“Eleven stations of the DRF Luftrettung are already flying with the new five-blade technology. However, we are the first to use a H145 five-blade rescue winch as of today. This is also a premiere for civil air rescue in Germany,” explains Oliver Barth, station manager and pilot of DRF Luftrettung in Freiburg.
“Our expectations were not disappointed. We are very satisfied, the new helicopter is great”.
Not only the crew, but also the patients will benefit from the pattern change: Because the helicopter not only has less vibration, but also has a higher payload capacity.
As a result, more fuel can be tanked, which increases the range and is advantageous, for example, in the case of urgent transports of seriously ill patients between clinics.