Taking celebrities home

This summer RotorMotion, a helicopter charter company based at Redhill in Surrey, celebrated ten years of business with a party and flights in their Agusta 109s. Their success prompted the question: why do some helicopter companies do well, while others fail to get things off the ground! This is the story of Philip Amadeus and his company.

Philip started RotorMotion in 1997, when he met a man who had just bought an Agusta 109A and was thinking of getting an AOC. The owner had the capital, Philip, who is an ex-military pilot, had the expertise, so RotorMotion Ltd was set up on a 50/50 basis with Philip as MD. At that time no one else was chartering Agustas in the London area, as they were thought too expensive to run compared to the popular Twin Squirrel. However, an extension of the major component’s life from 2400 hours to 3600, brought in by Agusta, based on historical reliability, made the machines more attractive to potential buyers and operators.

A year and a half later, with the company losing money, the original owner wanted out...