Our Helicopters
For all our Kyrgyzstan heli ski operations we use Russia's made Mi-8 MTV (NATO reporting name "HIP") known as Mi-17 outside of Russia and which is commonly known in many countries of the world. It is powered by two turbo-engines and has an excellent safety record. The Mi 8 MTV helicopters used by Fantastic Asia for heli ski operations in Kyrgyz Tien Shan mountains carries two pilots - which means double safety, a flight engineer, 2-3 guides and up to 15 clients. All ongoing maintenance is provided by certified full time flight engineer. The helicopters are equipped with radio connected to guide's walkie-talkies to ensure communication between guides, pilots and weather station at the base. All helicopters carry extra medical kit as well as resque equipment.
We work directly with Helicopter wing of Kyrgyzstan Air Forces along with their highly trained pilots in order to deliver you a high standard of mountain heli travel. All pilots have many years of mountain flying experience and as such we guarantee you will be in good hands.
General MI-8 MTV/MI-17 characteristics
* Crew: Three – 2 pilots and 1 engineer
* Capacity: 32 passengers or 4,000 kg (8,800 lb) on internal/4,500 kg (10,250
lb) external hardpoints.
* Length: 18.42 m (60 ft 5 in)
* Rotor diameter: 21.352 m (69 ft 10 in)
* Height: 4.76 m (15 ft 7 in)
* Disc area: 356 m2 (3,830 ft2)
* Empty weight: 7,100 kg (15,700 lb)
* Loaded weight: 11,100 kg (24,470 lb)
* Max takeoff weight: 13,000 kg (28,700 lb)
* Powerplant: 2x Klimov TV3-117VM turboshafts, 1,450 kW (2225 shp) each
Performance
* Maximum speed: 250 km/h (156 mph)
* Range: 950 km (594 miles)
* Service ceiling: 6,000 m (19,690 ft)
* Rate of climb: 8 m/s (1,575 ft/min)
* Disc loading: 31 kg/m2 (6 lb/ft2)
* Power/mass: 0.26 kW/kg (0.16 hp/lb)
* Fuel consumption: 600 kg/h (1,320 lb/h)
More information about Mi-8MTV/MI-17