During recent holiday in the Algarve region, I have also done some helicopter hunting.
The only INEM helicopter in the Algarve is based at Loulé, operated by Inaer / Helisul. There are still using an Italian registered A109, although most of the others are already registered to Portuguese.
At the same base, next to the Bombeiros station, the CS-HEZ is currently based to support the Protecção Civil. This is also owned by Helisul. Unfortunately there was no Kamov 24 based. Outside the fire season you can find this beauty usually here, but due to heavier fire threats in the northern regions, all Kamov’s were based at Beja, Ferreira do Zezere, Braga, Montijo and Santa Comba Dão. In Algarve I’ve only seen lighter helicopters.
Other Protecção Civil helicopters can be found at the Bombeiros in Monchique and Cachopo. In Monchique I found below pictured Helibravo AS350, D-HCLA/42.
In Cachopo CS-HGO/41 from Heliportugal was present
All Protecção Civil / fire fighting helies were marked with the following sticker:
Loulé - Miguel Barros Heliport is the base of HTA Helicopters. I’ve seen 3 AS350/355 helicopters, 1 without rotor.
Best regards,
Michiel
