Helicopter Harvesting

Helicopter harvesting is an aerial harvesting system whereby logs are lifted out vertically of the forest and flown to the roadside or drop zone. It was first introduced to Sarawak in 1993 when a major timber company brought in the Sikorsky S-64E to extract logs.

The use of helicopters provides a viable and an alternative harvesting system to the conventional ground-based system using crawler tractors. Different types of helicopters are now being used and these are as outlined in the table below:

Kamov Ka-32	MIL 8
MIL Mi-26	Sikorsky S-64F

Advantages of helicopter harvesting system

• High machine productivity of about 70%
• High production rate averaging from 150 to 170 m³ per effective flying hour for the Sikorsky S-64F and from 50 to 60 m³ per effective flying hour for the Kamov and MIL 8
• Reduced harvesting damage to surrounding trees
• No exposed ground surface due to the absence of skid trails
• Negligible increase in stream turbidity
• Less roads required because flying range is up to 2 km. Road density can be reduced to about 5-6 metres/ha for a combined helicopter and tractor operations is about 50% less than that for the conventional tractor operation

Disadvantages of helicopter harvesting system

• High ownership and operating cost of the helicopter
• Less utilization of standing timber resource because of the selection of trees with sound, merchantable timber to ensure only high quality logs are lifted out