Police Aviation News November 2008

Police Aviation News November 2008 29
Air Ambulance said “Steve’s enthusiasm played a pivotal role in developing the service the
Devon Air Ambulance offers today. Recently, through his training role, he has been able to
share this experience to help develop other Air Ambulance services throughout England,
Scotland and Wales. His death is a great loss, not just personally and to the team here in
Devon, but throughout the UK.”
RECENT EVENTS
The organisers of the first instance where the well regarded Helitech brand was staged on
mainland Europe took them to Portugal. Whilst undoubtedly secretly crossing their fingers
they were publicly predicting Helitech Europe to be a major success. The end result was a
mixed bag of success and failure. Pretty much what might be expected of an event first footing
in the wake of wholly unexpected banking problems. Add to that a general industry opinion
that there are just too many shows, conferences and the like even a disaster could be
forgiven.
Regardless of the undoubted problems that surfaced over the three days Helitech Europe
worked pretty well and it should survive into the future as a biannual event opposite the UK
event if the ongoing ‘credit crunch’ allows. Some shows will inevitably fall by the wayside in
the current financial climate only the strongest stand much of a chance and first footing
shows must clearly be at risk.
According to the organisers Helitech’s first outing to Airport Cascais near Estoril, Portugal
has been well received by both exhibitors and visitors—which is undoubtedly true—but the
attendee count was pretty modest at ‘more than 1,350’ (pre ABC audit). There were 108