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Trevor’s relationship with Nepal
He owned a coach company and ran tours from England to Nepal and India in the 60s. He did multiple visits via Nepal through to India each year with young people wanting to see the world by road. His next association with Nepal was in about 1992 as a member of New Zealand Parliament when he took his wife by road through India to Nepal to renew friendships after the Prime Minister’s Commonwealth conference in Delhi.

Then in 1995 he returned to Nepal (at his own expense) to get two New Zealand girls out of jail for having false visitor permits. He discussed the matter with the Prime Minister and was successful in getting them and two English boys out of jail and back home. The time was early January and freezing cold and they didn't want to stand in a long queue and wait in the cold so they opted to buy what turned out to be phony Visas from a crooked travel agent. It was difficult as some of the Nepalese cabinet wanted an example made of foreigners breaking the rules, but the PM was extremely supportive and they were subsequently released to Mr Rogers’ care.

The Nepal PM has been sick recently and Trevor is going back to Nepal in April, to renew friendships and make new ones with the new political scene in Kathmandu and to see who is now in power after the political unrest and what problems he has to sort out in order to ensure that the project runs as smoothly as possible.

The Everest Rescue Trust is a non-profit organisation. All generated profits go to worthwhile projects in Nepal to benefit the high altitude Sherpa people and will be administered by a board of management from appointed officials and organisations in Nepal.

Peter Hillary's Role in the Project
Peter Hillary is the Trust‘s patron and also raises funds year in and year out for the Himalayan Trust, Sir Edmund Hillary’s Trust in Nepal. Peter is an outstanding human and is one of New Zealand's greatest adventurers in his own right, having climbed Everest twice. Trevor specifically asked him to be the Trust’s patron and discussed this with Sir Ed, to ensure that there was no conflict in either time or commitment. Sir Ed thought Peter would be an excellent patron, as do we.

Peter is extremely busy but will be involved in the test period in the Mt Cook region of New Zealand’s South Island. He gives advice when requested, keeps in touch and visits our facility as often as his timetable allows and will certainly be in Nepal several times with us during this project.

Mark Inglis’ Role in the Project
Mark Inglis is the Trust‘s ambassador and in 2006, was the first double amputee to summit Everest. He has visited our production facility multiple times, spoken to school kids as part of the Kids Adventure interactive learning programme and assisted with discovering the true needs of the Nepalese high altitude villagers on a recent trip to Nepal.

In addition to being the Ambassador for the Everest Rescue Trust, Mark has created a New Zealand based charitable trust Limbs4All as well as being an in demand international motivational speaker. He has also created a new range of sports drinks and super-high energy gels, aptly named PeakFuel. PeakFuel has been designed as a blend of minerals, sugars, and caffeine to enhance sports performance.

Project Cost
As yet the final cost is still open as there is a significant testing cost still to be undertaken. The final figure will not matter as this helicopter will be donated to the Everest Rescue Trust whatever its development costs have been.

Everest Rescue Trust - Self funding explained
TGR Helicorp Ltd is building the helicopter and is covering all its costs, and the Everest Rescue Trust will be given the helicopter at no charge. TGR is also building the hangar and other buildings using Nepalese workers and tradesmen from Namche Bazar. The land is to be leased from the Namche Bazar villagers, providing a further income to the village. The trust will have income from sponsors and other income will come from the charges for rescue. We are talking to the Nepalese officials about a compulsory insurance for trekkers and climbers. People already pay upwards of US$40,000 to get the chance to climb Everest so a relatively small extra charge for insurance shouldn't be a problem, especially when the important decisions to rescue can be made in hours not days and without insurance approval delays.

We intend the Alpine Wasp’s charges to be similar to existing helicopter charges in the area - in the order of US$10,000. There is no value in low charges as they would cause pressure on the small helicopter companies working and struggling to make ends meet in Kathmandu. Our proposal for compulsory insurance would mean that in an emergency there would be no delay in undertaking a rescue. At present to organise an evacuation, someone has to go down to base camp (sometimes days) to call for help and the insurance question has to be resolved as to who pays before anything happens. Then on approval a helicopter gets rescue climbers up to near to base camp one at a time (because of height) and then once they are all at base camp they still have to climb to assist. This can take days yet hypoxia or oedema kills in hours. Once approved, the Alpine Wasp can complete a rescue in a maximum of three to four hours from notification.

The funds raised from rescues will pay for fuel and servicing costs, staff wages and land leases. The rest of the surplus will be directed to charities either operated by the Trust or to other Trusts such as the Himalayan Trust headed by Sir Edmund Hillary. Annual Audit costs and TGR audit staff will be at TGR's cost as will the training of operators and servicemen from the village to run the base station. The board of management will be responsible for decisions to rescue both climbers and trekkers. The other possibility we are pursuing is rescues on the Tibetan side of Everest as there are as many climbers and therefore, rescues needed on that side of the mountain. Some work has already been done by Nepalese officials with the Chinese in Beijing, who were very receptive as this makes trekking in Tibet more attractive if people can be rescued.

Although the rescue missions cannot be free as this is not practical, we will not act as a taxi service to tired climbers or take tourists up the Mountain, no matter how much money is offered. Quite apart from the desecration of the mountain, massive altitude changes would kill anyone taken straight up in a matter of minutes. Under no circumstances will this happen under the Trust’s charter. The Alpine Wasp is a rescue helicopter and a rescue helicopter only.

Finding People
We have been developing a personal emergency locator transmitter (ELT) and we are proposing that the Nepalese government will make it compulsory for every climber and trekker to carry one of these devices. The Trust will hire them out for a reasonable charge and the Trust will use the income from the hire to further benefit the Nepalese people. The transmitter will be about two inches square and half an inch thick. When things go bad the climber lifts the cover and pushes the activation button. The base station picks up the signal on its computer overlay map of Nepal as each transmitter has a different encoder code. The information supplied at hire includes useful information about the climber, such as nationality, height, weight, gender etc. The position of the transmitter (i.e: the patient) is shown on our system and we are able to produce a mission program immediately for the helicopter to go directly to rescue the climber. This is still subject to the information being supplied by the base station operators to the Trust’s board of management who have the final say to rescue or not.

Alpine Wasp Ceiling
The Alpine Wasp will reach the top of Everest and with changes we are building in, it is expected to exceed this height. Our aim is to carry 500lbs (227kg) to the top of Everest (equivalent to the weight of two large people) land, and take off with this weight at 29,035ft (8,850m). This is part of the testing program we are developing on different sections of the mountain such as the South Col to ensure that we can get to the person that needs rescuing.

The Alpine Wasp’s Base
The "Death Zone" is from the top of Everest down to 25,000 ft. The majority of Everest is about 35km from the Base Station in Namche Bazar. A little further to the Tibetan side of the mountain but line of sight mostly.

Manufacturing Status
All plugs and molds were completed by December 2006. The various parts of a test fuselage have been completed in fiberglass and are being made into a full size mock-up as the Alpine Wasp helicopter stands 39ft (11.9m) long by 7ft (2.1m) wide (including the landing undercarriage) and 15ft (4.6m) high to the top of the radar dome. This will be painted in the Alpine Wasp colour scheme and will be used to show what the real thing looks like to interested parties at schools and malls and as a fundraising promotional tool.

We have also completed a new specially designed masthead gearbox and a new tail fenestron gearbox with seven tail rotor blades. Electronics are almost completed and we have designed the multi camera system for the bulbous nose to transmit real time video stream to the base station where the operator controls the helicopter by VR. We have also developed a new engine version for this helicopter with many new and different parts and increased horsepower.

The first of two Alpine Wasp fuselages in Carbon Fibre/Kevlar will come off the molds by early May and we are planning to start testing in late May and for the rest of 2007 around Mt Cook in New Zealand’s Southern Alps. Mt Cook was chosen as we are advised by Peter Hillary and Mark Inglis that wind conditions around this 12,500ft (3,810m) mountain and the associated Southern Alps are far worse than on Everest. In January 2008 we move the program to Namche Bazar at 11,290ft (3,440m) in Nepal for the testing around Everest and setting up for the climbing season in late April to early June when the jet stream which covers the last 3,000ft (914m) or more of Everest moves some 9,000km north into Tibet and Mongolia.
 
Alpine Wasp suitability for very high altitudes and testing
The helicopter is designed specifically for high altitude operations. The helicopter needs to be stable in turbulence and we want some practice operating in difficult conditions, wind shear, fog, gusting winds etc. In-house experts, Peter Hillary and Mark Inglis, say that even though it’s only 12,500ft (3,810m) high, Mt Cook has some of the worst winds and most changeable conditions in the world, much worse than on Mt Everest. This is because the winds come across the Tasman Sea (one of the roughest pieces of water in the world) from Australia, some 1,200 miles (~1,900km) away, then burst up the Southern Alps (the backbone of the South Island) before sweeping on eastwards and out to sea towards South America approximately 6,000 miles (~9,600km) away. By comparison the Himalayas are in the middle of a huge continent and don't get these extremes in wind. The top 3,000ft (~1000m) or so of Mt Everest is in the Jet stream for a good part of the year, but not during the climbing season (mid April to mid June). Everest does get storms as do all mountains and they can be horrific, but for its size Mt Cook takes a lot of beating for foul unpredictable conditions.

We will be experimenting with both horizontal and vertical stabilisers on the Wasp because these are areas of flight control that are very important in the thin air around and on top of Mt Everest. The Wasp has TGR’s newly developed high lift rotor blades and testing will be on stable flight and control in wind turbulence and much more. We are all very excited at the Wasp's capabilities and testing time will be extremely popular with staff who may get to ride in our piloted Alpine Sherpa overviewing the test program of the Wasp, but more about the Sherpa at a later date.

Timeline - Namche Bazar?
The temperature can get down to -45°C (-49°F) at this time of the year up in the mountains at Namche Bazar. With final village approval we hope to start the buildings in May 2007 and finishing sometime in September. The start will be dependent on weather conditions, final approval by the village elders of Namche Bazar and getting the equipment up to the village.

Alpine Wasp Specs
The Alpine Wasp fuselage is 33ft (10m) long but with the rotor blades being 34ft (10.3m) in diameter. The overall length is 39ft (11.9m), fuselage width is 31 inches (0.8m) but overall width is 7ft (2.1m) including the width of the undercarriage. The fuselage height is 9ft (2.7m), with the masthead and rotor head adding 3ft (0.9m) and the undercarriage adding a further 3ft (0.9m). This gives an overall height of 15ft (4.6m).

The Alpine Wasp’s weight is expected to be in the order of 1060lbs (480kg) and it will be able to carry a 500lb (227kg) payload to 30,000ft or higher.

DeltaHawk Engine Specs
The Alpine Wasp has an amazing V4 two stroke reversed rotation diesel engine that is vertically mounted. It’s been built by DeltaHawk Engines in the USA with many parts built by TGR.

While the engine is diesel powered, it is important to note that it is a specialist aircraft engine not a converted automobile engine. TGR manufactures the complex supercharger and reverse rotation engine parts in close partnership with our manufacturer using our two 4-axis CNC (computer numerical control) machines. The engine is supercharged, turbo charged and intercooled so thin air is not a problem! We are intending to exceed the height of Everest by a considerable margin and the Alpine Wasp has more than enough horsepower to do the job!
 
Operation
Alpine Wasp has cameras, forward looking in the nose bulb and looking down in the nose bulb giving a 180 degree view to the base station operator, (180 degrees up and down and 180 degrees left to right). Further cameras (one under each wing) are to assist the recovery of climbers and provide an overview of the recovery pod and a further camera is in the base of the fenestron looking forward and showing the landing undercarriage to the base station operator to give spatial depth. We have a small camera mounted on the proboscis to assist with recovery of the climber and finally, another camera inside the recovery pod to observe the patient.

The Wasp at this stage has infrared (IR) cameras in the nose bulb to allow flight in fog. We also have on board two special systems which allow absolute accuracy in terms of pinpoint positioning and identification of "Cumulus Granite" in mist, fog or heavy snow. These systems are being tested this year in New Zealand. We may put more infrared cameras in the helicopter depending on the testing developments this year in the Southern Alps and Mt Cook so this remains flexible at this stage.

All this happens in real-time so the base operator actually sees what is happening immediately.

Autonomy
The Alpine Wasp is a fully autonomous flight helicopter but will be manually controlled from the base station to allow for positioning for a rescue. The Alpine Wasp has a very sophisticated master computer which has its own mission program. The operator can change the mission at will using the base computers and transmitting the changes over a real-time data link to the helicopter.
 
The proboscis
The operator controls the helicopter proboscis which has a small high resolution camera mounted one metre back from the end of the proboscis. There is also a small high quality speaker (and shielded microphone) so that the operator can communicate directly with the climber being rescued. The probe extends out to 28ft (8.5m) from the helicopter and has a cable attached to a magnetic clip on the end of the proboscis. On the end of the cable is a Kevlar strap loop which is half a metre in diameter and has a 20 ton breaking strain.
 
The operator extends the proboscis out to the climber using laser distancing equipment and via the speaker tells the climber to slip the Kevlar loop over his head and under his arms and to slide the slip clamp up to his chest. This tightens the loop securely around his chest and can be completed even if the climber has frostbite or other injuries to his extremities. The operator then advises the climber that the helicopter is backing out. The weight of the climber releases the magnetic clip holding the cable to the probe automatically and the cable and climber swing down under the helicopter. It’s likely to be one hell of a bungee jump and while terrifying, better than being left to freeze to death on the side of a mountain!.

If the temperature on the mountain is -45ºC (-49ºF), the wind chill will be -150ºC (-238ºF) under the rotor blades so the climber needs to be winched up into the rescue pod quickly. The winch in the rescue pod does this and the pod is at this time hanging straight down from its rear hinges and hydraulic arms to allow the climber to enter easily. The two cameras under the wings enable the base operator to see that the climber is retracting into the pod with no problems and a speaker in the rescue pod of the helicopter reminds the climber to keep his fingers, feet etc inside the pod so that the pod hydraulics can close it properly and safely. The pod has a vinyl pad floor so the climber is comfortable and upon closing an oxygen mask is available. Warm air is ducted from the engine into the pod automatically to help recovery as the Alpine Wasp descends to Namche Bazar.

The proboscis does not stay at its full length, it extends out to take the Kevlar harness to the climber. Once the climber is pulled from the mountain and hangs underneath the helicopter and is being winched up into the rescue pod, the proboscis retracts back into the fuselage.

The rescue pod
It can take two passengers from flat landing areas and is designed to take one at a time with the proboscis system. The recovery pod has two oxygen masks available inside the pod.

Rotor Blades
Our biggest problem manifested itself in the basic rule that as altitude increases, the speed it takes for the blades to go supersonic is less. In other words, as you go up, supersonic goes down. This is not a problem for conventional helicopters which often have blades travelling just under supersonic speeds at the limit of their operational ceilings, so their blades would never actually go supersonic. The Alpine Wasp has such a high operational ceiling that as the supersonic speed comes down with the rise in altitude, the danger of exceeding supersonic speeds at the blade tips rises dramatically. As a result a specific new masthead gearbox was designed, this effectively reduces the mast head speed to allow our rotor blade tips to remain under supersonic speeds even when the Alpine Wasp is a considerable height above Everest.

It’s a little like having your car tuned. Do you want performance? Then tuning your car for this will cost you in economy terms but if you want economy then you don’t get performance. The Alpine Wasp needs maximum blade performance (this means bigger blades, wider blades, different airfoil shape) to use maximum lift in thin air etc. We are operating from a starting point of 11,290ft (3440m) at Namche Bazar. This is the edge of the envelope for most helicopters but exactly where the Alpine Wasp is designed for.

UAV advantages over a Piloted Machine
The advantage with an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is that it flies by computer and the computer reacts far faster than a human can. Piloted helicopters that exist today would have difficulty in getting much above 12,500ft, less than half the height of Everest, and conventional engine types would be struggling to fly and maintain power in the thin air.

There are many crashed helicopters in the Himalayas that attest to flight difficulties using conventional rotorcraft. Our UAV Alpine Wasp helicopters are larger than a normal helicopter, use a diesel aircraft engine designed for aviation (not a converted car engine) and which has no difficulty maintaining horsepower at high altitude rarefied air. Carrying a pilot is superfluous as the Autonomous Alpine Wasp has a flight mission controlled from the base station using real time video imaging and our VR system from multiple cameras in the helicopter nose and elsewhere on the helicopter. The base station operator can alter the mission and take charge of procedures to bring the helicopter in to the climber to be rescued using sophisticated electronic devices and laser distance measurement systems normally not seen in civilian helicopters. The helicopter’s sophisticated computers react and fly the helicopter quicker than a pilot could react.

Safety systems
We are the only licensed helicopter manufacturer in the Southern Hemisphere and we build all our helicopters to the FAA FAR 27 standard with aviation life (TBO's) on all aviation parts engine, gearboxes, rotor blades etc. The Alpine Wasp is as safe as a conventional helicopter and in many ways far safer. The computers on board react to a situation way ahead of a pilot's reaction time and the helicopter has systems on board to protect the helicopter and increase safety margins. All in all we are very proud of Wasp and its capability and have designed it with great attention to detail, performance and reliability.

Nepal Involvement
Trevor has been involved with Nepal since the early 1960's. This helicopter is designed to save people at high altitudes, both in the Himalaya and in other mountain ranges around the world and the Everest region is by far the most extreme proving ground for this technology so it makes sense to test there. However, Everest is also a mountain that claims lives without fail, every year and Nepal is a country where many people die every year due to altitude sickness, falls and other reasons so providing a high altitude rescue service in Nepal is a humanitarian effort and certainly not a PR stunt. The Everest Rescue Trust has been formed explicitly to provide a better standard of living to the people of Nepal and the Alpine Wasp will help channel much needed funds back into the high altitude communities of Nepal where it’s needed.

The Trust sees this helicopter as a way to rescue those that cannot be rescued any other way and intends that the technology can be utilised in other areas too. For example, the helicopter (in a different form) could be used to rescue people from boats way out to sea because of its long endurance. TGR Helicorp is giving the helicopter to the Trust and the Trust as a non profit making entity will use its income to help others. The direct benefits to the country cannot be overlooked. It will make trekking and climbing safer and attract more tourists and income for the country and  better opportunities for the Nepalese. The staff of the Trust facilities in Nepal will be comprised of local Nepalese, all of whom will be trained at the Trust’s expense for the skilled jobs they will end up doing.

What Trevor & Glenda get out of it
Satisfaction of success and a hell of a lot of fun. What Trevor does pales into insignificance compared to Sir Edmund’s activities in Nepal over the last 54 years and that is as it should be. We have established the website with a children's site that is free to all children of the world and where their teachers can download curriculum school work developed by our own teacher staff, also free. Trevor and Glenda are giving computers with satellite connections to three schools to  enable the children to talk to other schools worldwide and to allow teachers to talk to their contemporaries. They are also giving a similar computer to one of Sir Ed's hospitals to aid medical diagnosis and to connect the staff there with the rest of the world’s online medical facilities. Why, because they want to, no other reason.

Building in Namche Bazar - Permissions
Building a helicopter base in Namche Bazar does require permission from many people including the Civil Aviation Authority (the CAA), the Nepal Tourism Board, Government, the village elders and the villagers of Namche Bazar. Trevor commenced this task last year with great results but because of the unrest at the time, the heads of departments were very fluid and constantly changing. The Trust’s agent in Nepal is in the process of making a series of appointments for Trevor in late April from the Prime Minister (an old friend of Trevor’s) down through the different departments and members of parliament and cabinets.

Trevor is a retired Member of the National Government in New Zealand and knows many politicians in Nepal but he suspects there will again be many changes and negotiations that are necessary. The Trust wants first to discuss the proposal for the buildings with the village leaders at Namche Bazar because we would lease the land and be providing many jobs on a permanent basis with training and the prestige of being the Rescue Centre of Nepal. However, in the end, this is the villagers’ decision and cannot be thrust down their throats.

Benefits to Namche Bazar?
The benefit to the people in Namche Bazar is as follows:

TGR Helicorp Ltd will train all of the base station operators and license them in New Zealand. The company will also contract the building of the base station and lease the land from the village to provide further income to the village. There will be further jobs ranging from cleaning to food supply for the base station staff and trainee servicemen for the helicopter trained at TGR's facility in New Zealand.

TGR will audit all the licensed workers under its own aviation manufacturer’s licenses and give constant training to a highly skilled standard. All facilities will be manned by Namche Bazar local staff not overseas staff although auditing will be done by New Zealand TGR staff every six months at TGR's expense.

The second building will be the Sagarmatha Medical Centre where prosthetics can be designed and fitted to those Nepalese Sherpas and porters who have lost limbs from frostbite. The Trust has talked to doctors and orthopedic surgeons in Auckland and asked them to give 10 days free per year in Nepal to help and has had no rejections. All are willing to help and the Trust would hope and expect that this is also the same for specialists from other European countries and all over the world.

Finally we intend to build the Sherpa Shed, also manned by villagers, which will provide suitable used and new clothing and footwear to those who want Sherpa work or portage work but cannot fund the equipment and risk losing extremities or even whole limbs to frostbite by repeatedly going above the snowline using poor quality clothing and footwear. This facility will not replace the responsibilities of trekking companies and expeditions to correctly outfit their local staff but the Trust will ensure the Sherpas and porters are provided for as its first priority.

Numbers of people (ground-based pilots, maintenance technicians etc.) to be based in Namche Bazar
We expect to have two alternating ground servicing technicians and four rotating base station operators, all Nepalese. This will be in addition to any cooks, cleaners and staff for the Sagarmatha Medical Centre and Sherpa Shed. The Namche Bazar villagers will all be trained in New Zealand by TGR Helicorp. There will not be any New Zealanders there apart from audit times and the Board of Management (BOM) in Kathmandu will authorise rescues from information given by the operators. The BOM will have the final approval in whether rescues take place or not, no one else.

Trekking and Expedition Companies
The Trust has been overwhelmed by the support from Trekking organisations, climbing groups and climbers. Some did have some initial concerns but the Trust can give a clear promise that it will not be taking tourists up the mountain by helicopter (quite apart from the fact it would kill them, it’s unethical) and we will not be a taxi service for tired climbers. This is something that the Trust is non-negotiable on.

The Everest Rescue Trust is a non profit making entity and everything we do will benefit the Sherpas, porters and their villages. The Trust is delighted to have Peter Hillary as its Patron and Mark Inglis as its Ambassador.

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