If you want to become a display pilot, you need several years of experience as a Super Puma PIC (Pilot in Command). You then prepare for the specific challenges of display flying by attending special training courses.
Usually, the team consists of the commander and six display pilots.

And how can I become an Air Force pilot?
This information is available at:

• SPHAIR (only available in german/french/italian)

The co-pilot or “assisting pilot” must be a display pilot as well and his job is, as the name suggests, to assist the captain, the “pilot flying”.
On command, he lowers the landing gear, for example, and reports current engine data, flight altitude and speed to the pilot flying. He is also responsible for radio communication with air traffic control.

The Super Puma weighs 5,350 kg when empty (without load, fuel or pilots). Its maximum take-off weight is 9,000 kg (or 9,350 kg, when carrying an exterior load).

As you see, we have to balance the weight distribution between passengers, load and fuel so that it falls within a certain range.
If I want to carry a load of 2.5 tons, for example, I first consult the capacity charts: What are the current air pressure and temperature? The wind conditions? What is the altitude of the loading or unloading site (air density decreases the higher up we go)? What is the flight distance and how long will it take?

Passengers need a special authorisation, which is only granted if the task requires their transport by helicopter, e.g. as SAC (Swiss Alpine Club) rescue staff responding to an avalanche accident.

Rotor diameter: 15.6 m
Length (1 main rotor blade in front): 18.7 m
Height (1 tail rotor blade vertically up): 5 m
Undercarriage: 3 x 5.3 m

No. The Super Puma is fitted with state-of-the-art equipment that allows flying by day and night and in all weather conditions. Its cockpit equipment is almost equal to any modern airliner, it even includes an autopilot that supports the pilots during long flights in the clouds. At night, the pilots wear night vision goggles.

All this allows the Super Puma to carry out any mission just about ‘round the clock.

There are many reasons.
The helicopter has two turbines, which are started one after the other. From the outside it looks like the helicopter could lift off using the first turbine but the second turbine needs to be started first as well.
Then the data can be entered into the navigation computers, which takes longer or shorter depending on the mission type.
Some checks can or should be performed only after the starting procedure has been completed.
Therefore it always takes five to ten minutes from the time the rotor blade begins rotating for the first time to lift off.
And sometimes we have to wait for quite some time until we receive clearance from traffic control to roll out or take-off.

It used to be easier to distinguish between the two helicopters. In 2014, however, the Super Puma fleet upgrade was completed, i.e., the cockpit and the navigation devices were brought to state-of-the-art technology standard.

Since then, the interior of the Cougar and the Super Puma has become very similar: both have a glass cockpit and an abundance of monitors!

But from the outside it is difficult to distinguish them as in fact they are the same helicopters. The turbines and the cabin are the same and the construction is practically identical. Nevertheless, the attentive observer can make out this or that detail: The air inlets of the Super Puma’s turbines for example, are all fitted with sand filters – but then, this goes for some of the Cougars as well... The only sure thing you can say: if the inlet grill is of silver colour, it is certainly a Cougar! And if we look up close, we can see that the number and layout of the antennas are different as well.