Abstract
In Italy, differently from others European Countries (Switzerland) where the use of helicopters is more diffuse, log transportation in slop land is generally performed by cable crane although its use is generally difficult and high time consuming for mounting/dismounting the line. With the aim to evaluate the possible use of the helicopter in North West Italian forest an overview of the present use of the helicopter in Italy followed by an operating and economical comparison of wood transport with helicopter and cable crane was made and reported in this paper.
The yarding comparison between helicopter and cable crane has been made in a forestry with an average slope of 40 % located at an altitude ranking from 1,150 to 1,450 m. The average tree diameter considered was about 400 mm with a total volume harvested of 750 m3. In this study, the comparison was performed considering a helicopter with an engine power of 624 kW (useful load of 1,076 kg and a market price of 1,200,000 €) and a cable crane with a nominal power of 104 kW equipped with a motorized carriage.
The overview has pointed out that the helicopter in Italy is mostly employed for transport by the use of the barycentre hook (80 %), but only 1% of this transport system is used for wood due to its higher hourly cost (1,200 € h-1). In the forestry situation examined, logging carried out using the cable crane required a working time of 20 days, while using the helicopter are necessary only 5 days. In contrast, logging performed with the helicopter has a cost of about 60 € m3 that is 4 times higher of the cable crane one (about 15 € m3).
