Hi everyone, I wanted to retrace the exploits of the two French pilots Jean Moine and Contamine who were the first to reach the summit of Mt. Blanc in '55 with this helicopter and create a Yt video about that. The problem I can’t reach the summit. I tried to climb with half fuel (to lighten the weight) as they did but I can’t reach the 15,776.67 feet high summit. Has anyone succeeded? In theory with the engine power of this G2 model it should make it. I arrive just below the Dôme du Goûter (14,121 feet). I am probably doing something wrong (I have the easy settings in the helicopter). Has anyone attempted the feat yet? thanks for the support.
Made it!
I had to carefully watch the wind, i used live weather. At the start at Megeve it was only 120 @ 8kt, and it took a long time to cross the valley. Mixture set to about half already. Once closer to the mountain, the wind changed to 60 @ 20kt and i was slowly able to position myself upwind to the mountain ridge. Climb rate for 20 minutes was less than 500ft/min most of the time. After 12000ft the wind picked up to 70 @30kt. Flying sideways, at about 500ft above the ridge, the wind took me up like an elevator. 1500ft/min! At the top the wind was 40kt, i had to fight to not go over and down the other side. I found out i must have some addon for the guys waiting at the top!
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Thanks for the report Smitty! I will try again hoping to find favorable conditions. Maybe it also depends on the mixture. To retrace the 1955 feat I will try to start from Le Fayet (although there are no helipads), stopping first on the Dôme du Goûter, 2 kilometers (1¼ miles) northwest of the summit of Mont Blanc, at 4,304 meters (14,121 feet). The two French pilots left at 5:15am on June 6 and reached the summit in about half an hour. (5:43AM). Nice addon on the summit.