I just saw an s55qt fly by in Wenatchee. Did not know any of them were still flying. Anyone know who operates them these days?

I know the guys in Brewster use the round motor s55's but this was a s55qt. The turbine powered 5 bladed one that papillon tried to use in Vegas and the canyon. 

Pretty sure that one has been up in Brewster as well.  

Why did Pappillon drop them?

Papillon quit on the QT after an engine failure out of Las Vegas. They were being assisted in the maintenance by the Flim Flam Florida Guys who developed the model changes. The engine had been abused in the certification process.  The Garrett was single shaft and had difficulty recovering RPM if drooped. That was a concern of the guys flying and why we didn't use the quieter reduced rpm mode (Not a factor in this accident).

They never got to the planned four-bladed Huey tail rotor replacement of the original Sikorsky two paddle rotor that would have completed the quieting. Mr. Halvorson was not afraid to risk capital on his dreams but he gave up on the S-55QT when the EC-130 became a reality.

The accident had little to do with the Papillons decision to cut the Whisperjet program. After the accident, which was completely avoidable, we developed a complete training and support program to reintroduce the aircraft to their fleet, and did so with several airframes. The TSE-331 did a fine job once the aircraft was inflight, it just didn't like hovering before takeoff...it preferred to roll off the ground. We really needed about 300' of asphalt and the ship would lift a house. If not, you're always on the edge of temperature limits. As for the FL guys, the Vertical Aviation folks did a fine job with the ship.

The primary issue was poor training. In the accident, the pilot flew the aircraft to the ground at 60 knots. This ship autorotative profile calls for 35mph which produces 900fpm. For an aircraft with a 53' rotor diameter, it was impressively agile. I firmly believe if they would have let us continue testing, the S-55QT could eliminate its H/V curve. Also, other than time limits on the blades, the tail rotor was not an issue in the Canyon.

The helicopter was being operated as a sightseeing flight to the Grand Canyon. The pilot reported that during cruise flight the rotor and engine noise suddenly decreased and the helicopter began a descent. During the ensuing forced landing, the helicopter landed hard. The helicopter was fabricated from an ex-military remanufactured and modified Sikorsky S-55 (UH-19D). The original radial reciprocating engine had been replaced with a Garrett Gas Turbine TPE 331 modified to a TSE 331 IOUA 511SW. It had a 6,000-hour time between overhaul. According to maintenance records dating back to July 3, 1985, the accident engine P-54083 operated in more than one Fairchild SA226 airplane in Australia, and several rotary wing S-55 aircraft during their certification in the United States. Following the accident the engine was shipped to the modifier for functional testing in a cell. The engine started and idled normally. Increasing the rpm to the certified operating specification of 101.5 percent revealed no abnormal conditions. The test propeller was moved from the start locks and increasing torque load was applied. As the torque was increased the engine responded normally until approximately 60 percent torque when the indicated engine rpm rapidly decreased and an emergency shutdown was initiated. The process was repeated through 12 cycles, during which the indicated rpm began a sudden rapid decrease when torque was increased. Test cell troubleshooting failed to identify or correct this condition. During manual rotation of the propeller following the final cycle some "slipping" was noted between the output shaft and the main rotating group. Subsequent examination of the gearbox revealed disengagement of the sun and bull gear assembly. Examination revealed fretting damage to the retaining nut and mating surfaces related to loss of specified torque. Visual examination of the sun and bull gears revealed severe damage to the mating splines of both gears. About 9 months before the accident the original manufacturer issued a service bulletin providing for the replacement of the affected components; the engine modifier recommended replacement of the components prior to further operation. Examination of past oil analysis samplings revealed increases of iron and magnesium over a period of time, with analysis report comments of "Alert" and "Iron Appears High."

Probable Cause: The failure of maintenance personnel to accomplish a service bulletin addressing the potential failure of engine drive gears, and the ignored oil analysis testing results that indicated an impending internal engine failure that subsequently resulted in the loss of engine drive to the main rotor during flight.

Big Tree Aviation out of Salem OR has em now.

Thank you. I had thought they dismantled all the whisper jets

Doesn't look like a S55QT to me??

Here the other Whisper Jet, Doesn't seem to be the S55QT, 

with a stripper pole and couches giving "rides" in chicago.

was the most fun I've ever had - WS55III.

Flew the H19 in flight school. I really loved that thing, except for force on the left pedal, it was a big old baby buggy. As I recall, it floated down in autos almost in slow motion. We flew the Hiller H23 in primary and the size of the Sikorsky was quite a contrast.

 I would love to restore one some day.

The pedal forces were ugly.  In our conversion courses we taught flight without hydraulics.  Won't last too long without them.  Rotor system 53', same as the UH60.  The S61 and S76 were quite the gentle machines.  I thought the 76 was a tad more complicated to truly understand but with simulator every six months one could get pretty good with the thing.