Former Dutch Alouettes fly in South Africa

Thanks to the Dutch Alouette Foundation we have become aware of the residence of two former Koninklijke Luchtmacht (KLu, Royal Netherlands Air Force) Aerospatiale SA316B Alouette III helicopters.

Still painted in its final blue colours and with A-301 serial, this SA316B (c/n 1301) is now registered as ZU-RNP. The helo is owned by someone who calls himself 'a passionate aviator and flies from Johannesburg.

The second one is ZU-RIK, which is owned by Martin Schulze who flies former Dutch A-275 (c/n 1275) from Durban. 'RIK' is also still sporting its former Dutch livery and serial.

Both owners have emphasized that they feel the need to maintain the heritage of the machines and keep them in the original condition. And that is something we can only be grateful for!

In the years 1964-1965 the Koninklijke Luchtmacht received 50 Sud Aviation SE3160 Alouette IIIs from the French production lline. These were later supplemented by 27 Dutch licence built examples.

They were operated in observation, light transport and Search and Rescue tasks. In the mid-nineties most of the faithful Alouettes were withdrawn from use and sold to the Air Forces of Chad, Malta and Pakistan and various civilian operators, technical schools and museums.

But four airframes remained and were upgraded to SA316B status. These are the now South African helicopters A-275 and A-301, together with fellow SA316B's A-247 and A-292. During their upgrade all four were given a new 'Royal Blue' colourscheme to indicate their use for VIP (Gouvernement, Dutch Royal Family) transport tasks.

Photo of ZU-RNP by Andrè Venter