hai convention news 03-03-15

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HAIConvention News ®

MARCH 3, 2015

AW609 gets a new home base, and big performance upgrades by Mark Huber

AgustaWestland announced last night that the AW609 civil tiltrotor will be manufactured at its plant in Philadelphia, Pa. and that most flight test activity will be moving to the U.S. The Ital-ian manufacturer also revealed significant pay-load and range improvements for the 609 that could potentially give it an mtow equal to or in excess of 17,500 pounds in STOL or running takeoffs and a standard maximum range with-out reserves of 750 nm or 1,100 nm with aux-iliary fuel tanks. Maximum cruise speed will remain 275 knots at 25,000 feet.

Program manager Clive Scott said he expects the AW609 to be priced comparable to a con-ventional super-medium helicopter when cus-tomer deliveries begin in 2018 after anticipated

FAA certification in late 2017. Scott expects the price to be announced by year’s end, and he added that a speculated price of $24 million “was not far off.” AgustaWestland is expected to announce a major offshore energy customer for the AW609 at 10:45 a.m. today, at an event at the company’s booth (5111).

Scott said that AgustaWestland had made substantial progress since buying out Bell Heli-copter’s share of the program in 2011 and becoming the official type certificate applicant in 2012, with significant systems changes, airframe improvements and overall aircraft optimizations. The two flying prototypes–one in Texas and the other in Italy–together have accumulated more Continued on page 46 u

AIRBUS HELICOPTERS TO UNVEIL X4 MEDIUM TWIN, HOPING TO REVERSE SLUGGISH SALES

Airbus Helicopters’ financial performance was revealed last week when parent Airbus Group disclosed its 2014 results. Overall, the division recorded net orders for 369 helicopters, with 33 cancellations eroding the 402 gross sales. The slightly declining net order intake was valued at €5.5 billion ($6.2 billion). Backlog as of December 31 showed a similar evolution at €12.2 billion ($13.7 billion). This represented almost two years of produc-tion, as last year’s revenues amounted to €6.5 billion ($7.3 billion), a slight increase. Earnings amounted to €413 million ($463 million), another mod-est improvement. Meanwhile, research and development spending stayed on an ascending curve, at €325 million ($364 million).

Today at Heli-Expo 2015, the company will unveil the X4 medium twin, a replacement for the AS365/EC155 Dauphin family. The latest teasing image suggests the X4 will sport an innovative biplane stabilizer, swept-tip Blue Edge main rotor blades for quieter operation and the manufacturer’s signature Fenestron shrouded tail rotor, which might be canted.

Airbus Helicopters CEO Guillaume Faury earlier said the new helicopter will re-use the in-house-developed Helionix avionics suite. Power-on was achieved late last year and the first flight is slated for this year. –T.D.

Everything you need at Heli Expo 15 in the palm of your hand.Available for all your mobile devices ainonline.com/mobile

Heli-Expo 2015 is poised to be the biggest show yet by R. Randall Padfield

This week’s Heli-Expo 2015 in Orlando is on track to be another record breaker, setting new highs for exhibitor and visitor participa-tion. According to show organizer Helicopter Association Interna-tional, the global rotorcraft indus-try is largely enjoying positive business conditions, despite the oil price uncertainty facing its key clients in the energy sector.

“Heli-Expo, being the larg-est helicopter trade show in the industry, has created again its natural excitement in the indus-try,” Matthew Zuccaro, HAI pres-ident, told AIN. “Usually we break the previous year’s record

in one or more of three categories: first-time exhibitors, total number of exhibitors or total attendance. I think we have a good chance in breaking the record for total attendees this year. We’re hoping to get about 20,000 to 21,000.” Continued on page 46 u

AgustaWestland has revealed that the AW609 will be built in Philadelphia, but more important, production models are on track to deliver better-than-expected performance.

INDUSTRY MAINTENANCE AVIONICS REGULATORY NEW ROTORCRAFT

HONEYWELL FORECAST WEIGHS INHoneywell released its 17th annual five-year rotorcraft outlook on Sunday. The manufacturer sticks with numbers it predicted last year, with civil sales of up to 5,250 turbine helicopters. 2

ENGINE OVERHAUL ON SHOW FLOORDallas Airmotive is placing its technicians on stage, as they overhaul a Rolls-Royce M250 right on the show floor. The MRO had great success with a similar program at the NBAA show last fall. Page 18

PRO LINE FUSION TOUCHSCREENSVisit the Rockwell Collins booth (3262) to try out the touchscreen variant of the Pro Line Fusion avionics suite. The biggest challenge? Getting tradtional avionics and touchscreens to play nice. Page 20

HAA REGULATIONS LOOMINGWith the deadline for compliance set for April 22, the sweeping Helicopter Air Ambulance rule has some operators anxiously awaiting final guidance from the FAA for the agency’s inspectors. Page 30

BELL UPDATES 505 AND 525Bell’s Model 505 light single and 525 super-medium twin are working their way through their respective certification programs. To date, progress is running apace, according to Bell. Page 38

Matthew Zuccaro, HAI president

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Police helicopter unit shares its tragic lessonsby Mark Huber

The New Mexico State Police (NMSP) today shared lessons learned and reforms it instituted after the fatal crash of its AW109E helicopter on June 9, 2009, during a search-and-rescue mission in night instrument meteorological con-ditions and mountainous ter-rain. NMSP chief pilot Tom Long told an audience at the Heli-Expo show in Orlando that the agency took a hard look at itself and its policies and procedures following the issuance of a critical report on the accident by the National

Transportation Safety Board. The NTSB has placed public sector helicopter safety on its “2015 most wanted list,” not-ing 130 accidents among oper-ators in that sector over the last decade.

Long said that the NMSP reforms were instituted in con-formance with industry stan-dards using best practices established by the Airborne Law Enforcement Association (ALEA). The NTSB report also triggered the implementa-tion of a comprehensive oper-ations and risk-management

program and improved com-munications including utili-zation of a joint tactical air controller (JTAC) who can be deployed with a ground unit.

The risk-management pro-gram includes factors such as weather and crew fatigue tied to a numeric scale. “If the num-bers are too high, we work to mitigate the risk factors. We either execute, modify or can-cel the mission,” Long said.

He said that risk manage-ment was propagated up the chain of command and was transparent. The forms are completed by hand. “This isn’t electronic. I want everyone to sit down and think about this,” Long said.

To take emotion out of the cockpit, dispatch no lon-ger tells crews the nature of

the mission, only its location, until the decision to launch has been made by the crew.

Long stressed that every-one in the unit contributes to its standard operating proce-dures and that it is a “living document.”

The NMSP also added a dedicated tactical flight offi-cer (TFO) program. Prior to the accident, pilots relied on ground troopers who did not have any formal aviation train-ing, to act as spotters and sec-ond crewmembers. “That is not the case anymore. In fact, we do not allow third parties in the helicopter. Our TFOs are now trained, and that includes night-vision goggle training. Everyone in the unit is a JTAC. They are experts in using the FLIR [forward looking infrared camera] and experts in navigation. We also teach them how to land in the event something happens to the pilot. These things reduce pilot workload. On some mis-sions we even take two TFOs–one in front and one in back. We have an extra FLIR screen in the back,” Long said.

The NMSP also is equip-ping flight crews with personal locator beacons and the Spider Tracks aircraft tracking sys-tem. “I can pick up my iPhone and see where that helicopter is 24/7,” Long said. o

2 HAI Convention News • March 3, 2015 • www.ainonline.com

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Officer Tom Long, chief pilot of the New Mexico State Police aircraft section, addresses Heli-Expo attendees during the NTSB session on safety involving public sector operations.

China order is one sign of Bell’s future marketby Mark Huber

Chinese crop-spraying con-tractor Qiqihar Kun Feng General Aviation ordered a pair of Bell 407GX helicopters and signed a letter of intent for five of the manufacturer’s new 505. The deal, announced yesterday, represents the sec-ond order Bell Helicopter has received from a major Chinese agricultural group.

“For many years Qiqihar Kun Feng has utilized leased helicopters in their opera-tions,” said Chris Jaran, vice president of Bell Helicopter in China. “We are proud they have chosen Bell helicopters as they build a reliable fleet of self-owned aircraft.”

Demand for new civil heli-copters in China has been boosted by the government’s long-awaited relaxation of flight operations rules in air-space below 1,000 meters

(3,281 feet). By the end of 2015, there will be only a few restricted military zones in the country’s lower airspace, excusing operators from the need to file flight plans that are difficult to get approved.

Despite declining U.S. Defense Department spend-ing and a worldwide contrac-tion in new civil helicopter sales in 2014, Bell Helicopter CEO John Garrison said that the company is “bullish” for a “return to growth this year.”

Over the last 30 months Bell has laid off more than 3,000 workers as deliveries of the military Bell/Boeing V-22 tiltrotor have been reduced from 41 in 2013 to an esti-mated 21 this year. Production of that aircraft is scheduled to end altogether in 2019 unless Bell receives further orders.

Bell posted revenue of $4.2

billion in 2014 and currently derives 62 percent of its total revenues from U.S. govern-ment programs. Although the V-22 program is winding down, Garrison said he is optimis-tic about the third-generation V-280 tiltrotor Bell is devel-oping for the Pentagon’s Joint Multi-Role Technology Dem-onstrator (JMR-TD) competi-tion. That aircraft is scheduled to make its first flight in 2017 and Garrison said that con-tinuing global instability, and the need to transport troops quickly over increasingly lon-ger distances, will make it an important military tool mov-ing forward.

New-product ProgressWhile Bell (Booth 337)

has made significant head-count reductions, Garrison noted that the company tri-pled its global sales and mar-keting force, updated legacy civil platforms and is making good progress on the new 505 and 525 programs. The latter’s engines and tailboom were installed last week. Bell aims for first flight in the second

quarter of this year. Bell deliv-ered 178 civil helicopters in 2014, down from 213 in 2013.

Garrison said that Bell is committed to maintaining its manufacturing, engineering and test facility for civil heli-copters in Mirabel, Canada. He said the 525 is being pro-duced in Amarillo, Texas to take advantage of excess plant capacity there caused by slow-ing V-22 production. The eco-nomics of the 505, expected to be priced near $1 million, dictated that it be assembled at a green-field facility. Bell is building that helicopter in Lafayette, La. o

Bell Helicopter CEO John Garrison is confident the company is on the right track for the coming year.

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EASA approves S-76D; Sikorsky adds iFly appby R. Randall Padfield

Sikorsky Aircraft’s new-est civil helicopter–the S-76D–achieved approval for VIP operations in Europe from EASA on February 25, Sikorsky announced at Heli-Expo 2015. The FAA had granted the type certificate for the baseline S-76D in October 2012. Sikor-sky’s flight test program added expanded certifications. More than 800 S-76s have been deliv-ered globally since 1979.

“The S-76D already has seen great success in offshore and VIP operations in Trinidad and Tobago, Korea and China, and has entered into search-and-rescue service with the Japan Coast Guard,” said Sikorsky Commercial Systems & Ser-vices president Shane Eddy. “We have high expectations for the aircraft’s acceptance, per-formance and importance to

our European customers.” The aircraft destined for the

Japan Coast Guard was deliv-ered to Mitsubishi in July last year and became the first S-76D configured for SAR and to enter service in Japan. Sikorsky and Mitsubishi have contracted for 11 of the model for the Japan Coast Guard.

Delivery of the first S-76D was to the Bristow Group (Booth 5031) in December 2013.

There’s an App for That!Sikorsky Aircraft (Booth

4537) also announced the expansion of the iFly Sikorsky iPad application to include the S-76D. The app replicates com-mon performance calculations outlined in helicopter model-specific flight manuals, allowing the user to configure an aircraft, evaluate its weight-and-balance

and conduct common perfor-mance calculations.

The app for the S-76D is expected to become available through the Apple App store in April to customers who have a publications subscription via the website for Sikorsky 360 support services. The purchase of an S-76D includes three

years of publications subscrip-tion service.

The company introduced the first iFly Sikorsky app last year for the S-92. There are now more than 350 users of the app.

Sikorsky Innovations, a tech-nology development organiza-tion within Sikorsky Aircraft, developed the app as part of a

three-pillared approach to creating new technologies in the areas of speed, autonomy and intelligence.

Separately, Sikorsky announced that an S-76D would embark on an international demonstration tour starting next week in Southeast Asia. Events are planned in Indone-sia, Malaysia and Thailand. o

www.ainonline.com • March 3, 2015 • HAI Convention News 3

HELICOPTER JOB MARKET SET TO HEAT UPOnline aviation job portal JSfirm.com has released the results of

its 6th annual hiring trends survey and the results are looking promis-ing. “This year’s results show that our industry is continuing to trend in the right direction,” said company manager Jeff Richards. “There will be more hiring in 2015 than in any of the past six years.”

Of the 342 aviation companies surveyed, nearly 80 percent reported they are anticipating moderate to significant growth over the coming year, and 92 percent indicated they will be adding staff. Six percent of those companies expected to add more than 100 employees each.

Based on the results of the survey, the second quarter of the year is expected to be the busiest in terms of hiring, with skilled mainte-nance technicians making up the most in-demand need. Nearly one-third of the respondents noted that lack of experience is the biggest challenge they face in finding qualified aviation talent, followed by the location of the job and candidate pay expectations. Over the past year, 72 percent of the companies surveyed reported they did not cut any jobs (a 4 percent increase over 2013), while 55 percent said they had a staff attrition rate of less than 5 percent. –C.E.

Garmin shows ADS-B gear; radar altimeter and wx radar

Garmin International arrives in Orlando for Heli-Expo 2015 with multiple new offerings for helicopter pilots and operators.

Addressing the equipage re-quirements of automatic depen-dent surveillance-broad-cast (ADS-B), Garmin is introducing its GDL 84H and GDL 88H datalinks, which meet the require-ments for ADS-B out while receiving and dis-playing ADS-B in traffic and weather on a mobile device or compatible pan-el display in the cockpit. Among their specific “safe-ty-enhancing features” for helicopters are Garmin’s TargetTrend, On Scene mode and TerminalTraffic.

TargetTrend enhances the traffic display to help pilots better visualize the trend of traffic threats as related to their aircraft. On Scene minimizes nui-sance traffic alerts, for exam-ple when operating near other helicopters during news-gath-ering operations. Terminal Traffic provides a compre-hensive picture of ADS-B-equipped aircraft and vehicles in the airport environment.

“We have leveraged our expertise in the helicopter indus-try to offer immediate benefits to helicopter operators today, while allowing them to meet the requirements of ADS-B out by

December 31, 2019,” said Carl Wolf, Garmin v-p of aviation sales and marketing.

Both the GDL 84H and GDL 88H provide rule-compli-ant ADS-B out solutions for U.S. helicopter operators and offer the latest traffic-alerting

capabilities and flight informa-tion services-broadcast (FIS-B) weather.

Garmin (Booth 809) is tar-geting the second quarter of this year for supplemental type certification (STC) for installation of the GDL 84H and GDL 88H on “several popular helicopters.”

Garmin now offers the GI 205, a standalone radar altim-

eter display, to satisfy new FAA helicopter operating requirements with a com-pliance deadline of April 24, 2017. The radar altime-ter package includes a dig-ital GRA 55 radar sensor, GI 205 radar altimeter indi-cator and two antennas for $11,995.

For Part 135 opera-tors, the GR 55 fulfills new radar altimeter equipage requirements established by the FAA. When paired, the GRA 55 and GI 205 create a complete radar altimeter solution.

Tailoring equipment to unusual mission require-ments, Garmin has created night-vision-capable ver-

sions of its GTR 225 com and GNC 255 nav/com radios.

Finally, the company announced that its helicopter- optimized GWX 70H weather radar has been enhanced for more challenging environ-mental conditions. –R.R.P.

JSfirm.com job portal employees here at Heli-Expo include, left to right, Louis Hout, Abbey Hutter, Sam Scanlon and company manager Jeff Richards.

While ADS-B weather is a giant step forward, onboard radar such as the Garmin GWX 70H can be even better.

Certified by the FAA in 2012, Sikorsky’s S-76D, the latest in the legacy series, received EASA certification for VIP ops last week.

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Universal, Sikorsky ink SBAS dealby R. Randall Padfield

Universal Avionics Sys-tems (Booth 1564) signed a more than $11-million agree-ment with Sikorsky Aircraft on February 23 to supply 132 satellite-based augmentation system (SBAS) flight man-agement systems for Sikorsky S-92s destined for a number of operators that include PHI, CHC and Bristow. Deliveries of the Universal SBAS FMSs are expected to begin in a few months and continue through 2020, according to Robert Clare, director of sales at Uni-versal Avionics.

Although the total order aver-ages about $85,000 per aircraft, the cost to the customer will vary by the enhancements added and the number of units ordered.

The SBAS FMS for the S-92, which is configured with the latest version of Universal’s

multi-mission management soft-ware (1101 MMMS), provides the capability for instrument approaches to offshore rigs and platforms and ADS-B. PHI was the first S-92 customer to use ADS-B, Clare said.

He explained that the SBAS FMS is enhanced with P-Rnav capability and fuel management; it also accommodates and is con-figurable for greater-than-stan-dard-rate turns and offers six distinct search patterns, drift-ing target and mark-on target. Night-vision goggle compatibil-ity is another option.

Enhancement FeaturesMissions supported by the

S-92 SBAS FMS include mari-time support; search and rescue; border patrol and surveillance; airborne law enforcement; intelligence surveillance and

reconnaissance; and geophysi-cal survey.

Universal has been doing business with Sikorsky for about 27 years, starting with the S-76 and then transitioning to the S-92. Lloyd Helicopters was Universal’s first big FMS user in the late 1980s, Clare noted. o


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ONE...TWO...THREE, PUSH!

The rotorcraft segment is among the most humble in aviation. Sometimes it takes brain power to get the job done, but as often as not, a strong back is the tool of choice. In the build-up to opening day here at Heli-Expo, workers at Metro Aviation show their best side as they lean in to reposition a display helicopter at their booth.�

MACQUARIE LEASES EIGHT MORE HELICOPTERS

Macquarie Rotorcraft Leasing announced deals for the lease of eight new and pre-owned helicopters at the Heli-Expo show. Under terms of the deals, Macquarie (Booth 5832) will lease one new Sikorsky S-76D to National Helicopter Services of Trinidad and Tobago and a combination of seven new and used Bell 412EPs to Mexico’s Heliservi-cio. Both operators support the oil and gas industry.

The Macquarie banking group launched its rotorcraft leasing divi-sion in 2013 to supply aircraft to operators serving the energy, emer-gency medical, search-and-rescue, utility and executive transportation sectors. Macquarie Rotorcraft Leasing’s chairman is former Sikorsky president Jeffrey Pino.

Old-school organization strives to push researchby Curt Epstein

Since 1943, the American Helicopter Society (renamed AHS International in 1997) has served as the world’s oldest and largest professional society for vertical flight, representing the designers, engineers and manu-facturers of rotorcraft. In addi-tion to serving as a conduit of information and technology amongst the industry, the group’s activities extend to lobbying, education and public outreach.

At a session here at Heli-Expo, AHS executive direc-tor Michael Hirschberg updated the audience on the group’s latest

activities. Over the past year AHS’s lobbying efforts have been successful in the resto-ration of millions of dollars of vertical lift research funding to the budgets of the U.S. Army and NASA after they were ini-tially slashed.

In response to a spate of heli-copter crashes in the early 2000s, the group founded the Interna-tional Helicopter Safety Team (IHST) with the stated goal of reducing rotorcraft accidents by 80 percent by 2016.

While it has achieved a

current reduction of 30 to 40 percent, Hirschberg admits that that goal will not be met with only one year left, but the group remains undaunted. “We’re going to keep driving and try-ing to reach the ultimate goal of zero accidents because there’s really no percentage of accidents that’s acceptable,” he said.

Toward that end, the group is involved with several initia-tives, which it believes will help improve rotorcraft operations. In concert with HAI, the Gen-eral Aviation Manufacturers Association and the Aircraft Electronics Association, AHS is supporting the development of an alternate means of com-pliance for IFR certification of single-engine helicopters with-out changes to rulemaking. “We think this is going to really help in safety and basically to allow lower-cost helicopters to be bet-ter operated and have more capability,” noted Hirschberg.

Regarding the “Helicop-ter Air Ambulance” rule about radar altimeter equipage for all Part 135 helicopters by 2017, the organization believes that urg-ing the FAA to accept HTAWS as an alternate means of com-pliance would be a much more capable and safer way to reduce controlled flight into terrain accidents in general.

While all aircraft are man-dated to be equipped with ADS-B by 2020, AHS in coor-dination with HAI is urging operators to adopt the technol-ogy as soon as possible to start taking advantage of the bene-fits the system offers, and AHS is also advocating the devel-opment of standards for light-weight, low-cost flight data monitoring systems, in response to recent developments in such systems by manufacturers. o

Michael Hirschberg, AHS International executive director, updated HAI on the six-decades-old group’s activities.

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Universal Avionics FMS

MYGOFLIGHT INTRODUCES CONNECTED FLIGHT PRODUCT LINE

MyGoFlight, which provides iPad and tablet gear for pilots, is debuting its Connected Flight concept and product line for helicopters at Heli Expo 2015. The company’s Connected Flight mounts, knee-boards, screen protectors and other accessories make using an iPad in the cockpit safer, easier and more secure, according to the company.

Additionally, the Denver-based company’s flight bags are designed to protect the iPad or tablet, while providing efficient storage for MyGoFlight Connected Flight products. When paired with an ADS-B Receiver, an aviation app with moving-map, and satellite voice/text communication, the products create Connected Flight capability.

“The iPad is increasingly being used by helicopter pilots, yet the cockpit was not designed with the device in mind,” said Charles Schneider, MyGoFlight CEO. “Our products solve many of the challenges of how and where to mount the device, and how you can see and oper-ate the screen in such a bright and vibrant environment.”

Here at the show, MyGoFlight (Booth 4106) is hosting two “iPad Takes Flight!–The Connected Flight Edition” seminars (today, 3:30p, Room 320E; Wednesday March 4, 10 a.m., Room 320C) to explain and demonstrate the Connected Flight con-cept. Seminar participants are requested to bring their iPads with charts loaded to follow the real world scenarios the company will present. –J.W.

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Whatever your mission, THE SIKORSKY S-76D™ HAS YOU COVERED

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VIP OIL SAR EMS

GE is still charged up; Milestone ‘a great fit’by Charles Alcock

The numbers and the busi-ness rationale behind the recently completely acquisition of heli-copter leasing group Milestone Aviation by GE Capital Aviation Services (Gecas) are fascinating. Richard Santulli, the father of fractional ownership, founded the Ireland-based company back in August 2010 by raising around $500 million in launch capital with a consortium of investors led by The Jordan Company pri-vate equity group. Just over four years later, he convinced Gecas to pay $1.775 billion and cover Milestone’s debt as the price of entry to a market segment that the leasing group has not previ-ously been involved in.

When Milestone (Booth 4220) started building its rotorcraft leasing portfolio–now valued at around $3 billion–the oil and gas sector was strong and anticipated

demand for helicopter opera-tions in support of exploration and production activities was expected to boom. And indeed it did boom, especially in what were then dynamic emerging markets like Brazil and Nigeria.

Around mid-2010, when Milestone’s founders were gath-ering launch capital, the crude oil price was hovering around $80 per barrel. By the end of that year, their optimism must have seemed entirely vindicated as the price climbed to nearly $100. As of mid-October 2014, when Gecas first announced its intention to buy Milestone, the oil price was around $85. But until a late spike in trading on January 30, the day the take-over closed, the price of a barrel barely reached $50–represent-ing just over a 50 percent decline over the previous 12 months.

However, no one can accuse Santulli and the rest of the Mile-stone founders of bailing on the business at a time of market decline. All are remaining in their current roles, Milestone presi-dent Daniel Rosenthal continues to lead the company’s existing management team, along with other founding executives John Burns, Robert Dranitzke, Mat-thew Harris and Walter Horst-ing. But it does beg the question as to whether they and Gecas might feel the need to recalibrate their target market for the heli-copter leasing sector in view of the energy sector’s troubles.

In early February, several leading oil exploration and pro-duction companies announced significant reductions in planned capital expenditure for 2015. For instance, BP chief executive Bob Dudley said that the UK-based group will cut investment by 20 percent this year in response to what he described as the worst oil industry slump since 1986.

The Milestone fleet now con-sists of 178 helicopters worth around $3 billion, and it holds orders and options for another 121 aircraft with an aggregate purchase price of $2.7 billion. The existing aircraft are being flown

by 32 operators in 26 countries.African operator SonAir is

a prime example of Milestone’s client base. In June 2014, it took delivery of three Airbus Heli-copters EC225s that it has leased from Milestone for use in the oil fields of Angola.

Milestone’s leasing customers also include operators active in sectors other than energy, such as search-and-rescue and emer-gency-medical operations. For instance, in 2015, Bristow Heli-copters Limited–a large oil-and-gas support operator–is set to begin providing search-and-res-cue operations in the UK on behalf of the country’s Maritime and Coast Guard Agency. It will use 11 Sikorsky S-92s and one AgustaWestland AW189 that it agreed to lease from Milestone in November 2014.

“The acquisition of Mile-stone is a key part of our growth strategy for 2015 and beyond, as we add an experienced team and expand into a natural adjacency for us, helicopters,” commented Gecas president and CEO Nor-man Liu.

Between now and the end of 2019, Milestone is offering available delivery positions for seven different helicopter types, as follows: S-92 (35 on order or option), EC225 (24), AW189 (27), S-76D (17), EC175 (5), AW139 (5) and AW169 (8).

In 2014, Gecas, which is a leading player in the airliner leasing market, recorded reve-nues of $5.242 billion, down by 2 percent compared with 2013. Profits, however, increased by 17 percent to $1.046 billion.

“The Milestone acquisition is a great fit for GE–it combines Gecas’s global reach and 45-plus years in leasing commercial jets with a fast-growing helicopter-financing platform that will diver-sify our business and put our capital to work at good returns,” said GE Capital chairman and CEO Keith Sherrin when the acquisition was announced in October 2014. “The addition of Milestone will deepen out domain expertise in aviation and oil and gas, two critical GE industries.” o

Enstrom TH180 flies in for Heli-Expoby Mark Huber

Enstrom is displaying a fly-ing prototype of its new TH180 two-seat piston-powered heli-copter here at Heli-Expo (Booth 1828). The TH180 made its first flight last month and a second ship is under construction and will soon join the flight-test pro-gram, according to Orlando Alaniz, the company’s director of sales and marketing. Enstrom also recently received a con-forming 210-horsepower HIO-390 engine from Lycoming that will be fitted to a test TH180. Enstrom is targeting the first half of 2016 for certification and delivery, and Alaniz said the company already has received an unspecified number of let-ters of intent from prospective customers.

Enstrom announced the TH180 at Heli-Expo 2014 and displayed a full-size mock-up. The new helicopter is a scaled-down version of the company’s popular FX-280 three-seat model and uses its type certificate and rotor sys-tem, moves that should simplify certification. Compared with the FX-280, the TH180 has more robust landing gear and weighs 500 pounds less, about 2,250 pounds maximum gross weight. Company officials said the TH180 should post direct oper-ating costs of $175 per hour and

an hourly fuel burn of less than 12 gph. While a price has yet to be set, Alaniz said he is confident that it will be less than $400,000.

The TH180 features a GS Engineering engine governor and an electric clutch switch, and the governor can be activated or overridden at the pilot’s dis-cretion. Fuel capacity will be 40 gallons, and the helicopter’s use-ful load should be around 700 pounds. Alaniz said the company had yet to disclose a final deci-sion on the TH180’s standard avionics package and probably will not develop non-training- related options packages until after the TH180 is certified. However, the TH180 on display does contain elements of the standard avionics package.

Enstrom’s expanded and remodeled production plant in Menominee, Mich. has the capacity to build 100 TH180s per year, according to CEO Tracy Biegler. Construction on the new $8 million, 77,000-sq-ft expansion was completed last year. It doubles the company’s space under roof and adds new administration and engineering offices. Concurrently, Enstrom also has been increasing its pay-roll, adding 90 employees over the last two years. Total employ-ment now stands at more than 250. “We have a nice core group and all the right management in place,” Alaniz said. “We have a new director of opera-tions, a new director of infor-mation technology and we are

making good progress. We have the right guys in the shop who know how to go out there and make things happen, and we have a new master production plan that allows us to be more efficient.” Enstrom delivered 24 turbine single 480B and 480B-G helicopters in 2014 and two of its legacy piston models.

The new 480B-G is equipped with the Garmin G1000H glass panel avionics system. The base price is $1.415 million. The 480B-G was certified in July 2014, and the first customer deliv-ery was made in October 2014. The G1000H system in the 480B features a stacked configuration that mimics the aircraft’s original instrument panel and allows the display screens to be accessible from both pilot positions.

Enstrom was purchased by China’s Chongqing Helicop-ter Investment Co. in late 2012. That purchase has not only provided the capital for plant expansion and product devel-opment, it also has further opened the Chinese market to Enstrom. “China is doing real well for us. We’re averaging sales of about 10 ships a year there, mostly 480s,” Alaniz said, not-ing that he expects sales there to increase proportionate to air-space deregulation.

Alaniz said that while Russian end-users remain interested in buying new Enstroms, “The pol-itics has gotten in the way, and it has been tough in that regard. o


First announced at last year’s Heli-Expo, Enstrom’s TH180 is now flying, with certification targeted for the first half of next year. A two-place derivative of the three-seat FX-280, the TH180 is powered by a 210-hp HIO-390 piston engine from Lycoming.

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Mick Maurer (center left), president of Sikorsky Aircraft, and Richard Santulli (center right), chairman of Milestone Aviation, sign purchase agreements for 30 S-92A and S-76D helicopters (with options for 24 more) during the 2013 Heli-Expo show in Las Vegas.

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SKYe SH09 first flight augurs well for salesby Thierry Dubois

Marenco Swisshelicopter (Booth 3718) has announced the first sale of its single-engine

SKYe SH09 in Africa, to Henley Air. The letter of intent from the South African operator brings

the manufacturer’s order book to a total of 60 units. Based at Johannesburg’s Rand Airport, Henley Air’s activities range from passenger transport to utility and training.

The first flight of the SKYe SH09 took place on Oct. 2, 2014 in Molis, Switzerland. With chief test pilot Dwayne Williams at the controls, the helicopter performed

five hover flights, accumulating 20 minutes in the air. The prelim-inary flying and handling char-acteristics of the aircraft have thus been confirmed, according to the company.

Stealth Test ProgramSince then, however, Marenco

has been remarkably silent on the ongoing development of the new helicopter. It did not officially announce any other flights, although AIN learned that a second hover flight took place in November. Early in Feb-ruary, chief commercial officer Mathias Sénès said weather had limited the number of flights, especially as the helicopter’s doors have been removed in this early phase of tests. He would not disclose any other details.

Marenco Swisshelicopter, a start-up company, has tar-geted EASA certification of its clean-sheet-design for late 2015, and the company views the Airbus Helicopters AS350 Ecureuil as its main compet-itor. The SKYe SH09 is pow-ered by a Honeywell HTS-900-2 turboshaft. With a 5,842-pound mtow, it will be able to carry one pilot and seven passengers, which positions it at the higher end of the single-engine helicop-ter market. The sling load capa-bility is 3,300 pounds.

The project, an offshoot of the machine-tool specialist com-pany, was unveiled in 2011 and the prototype was displayed at Heli-Expo last year. o


The Marenco SKYe SH09 made its first flight in October in Molis, Switzerland.

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LCI launches into 2015 with strength in numbersby Charles Alcock

Leasing group LCI Heli-copters has begun 2015 with a flurry of activity that has seen it add customers in the emergency medical services (EMS) sector and further increase its aircraft portfolio. The company believes that the downturn in the oil and gas industry will not have a seri-ous long-term impact on this part of its business. At the same time it is seeing growth in other areas and may have more new business to announce here at the Heli-Expo show this week.

Last week, LCI (Booth 4604) signed agreements with two Aus-tralian operators for a total of 10

new AgustaWestland AW139s. Australia Aviation agreed to lease six AgustaWestland AW139s to be operated for Air Ambulance Victoria. These will be delivered during 2015 and 2016 and will be modified in Australia for emer-gency medical operations.

Separately, Westpac Res-cue Helicopter Service is to lease four AW139s that will be delivered in the second half of 2016 after being fitted out for emergency medical and rescue service. The aircraft will be oper-ated in the state of New South Wales on behalf of government-backed healthcare provider

NSW Health, using bases in Newcastle, Tamworth and Lis-more. The 10-year lease is sup-ported by Westpac Banking.

On February 17, LCI con-firmed firm orders with AgustaWestland for 11 more helicopters valued at $125 million. The aircraft, which had been covered by earlier options, are a mix of AW139s, AW169s and AW189s. They will be delivered in 2015 and 2016, taking the total size of the LCI fleet to almost 90 rotorcraft. Apart from one of the AW139s, which is part of the group of aircraft going to Australia, all the other new models are being bought by LCI on a speculative basis.

“The emergency medical sec-tor is strong,” LCI chief execu-tive Mike Platt told AIN. “We have been able to get operators

to see that leasing makes more sense than buying helicopters.” According to LCI, many emer-gency medical operators are run as not-for-profit organiza-tions that receive monthly fees from governments. This makes paying monthly lease charges more compatible with their cash-flow situation.

EMS Needs the Latest Tech“Most EMS services are

using older equipment or have seen a big increase in demand [for flights],” added Platt. According to LCI, the EMS sec-tor has a strong need for the lat-est safety technology because pilots have to be able to fly in and out of almost any location at very short notice. Helicopter operators serving the oil and gas industry at least have the advan-tage of knowing exactly where they are going to be flying to on any given day.

LCI is responding to a request for information issued by Ontario-based air-ambulance service provider Ornge, which is considering whether to replace its existing AW139 fleet. Platt said he is also in contact with another Canadian EMS pro-vider that may be in the market for new rotorcraft.

The tumbling price of crude oil has induced energy groups to institute aggressive budget cuts, but LCI believes this will have a relatively short-term impact on

demand for helicopter services. Platt said he isn’t seeing a sig-nificant dip in flying associated with production activities, which involve long-term commitments and is where most new helicop-ters are active. There is some reduction in service to shal-low-water sites, mainly involv-ing single-engine aircraft, and in some cases helicopters are being moved from exploration and development projects to produc-tion activities.

The offshore wind energy industry is another sector in which LCI is seeing new demand for leased helicopters. In Octo-ber 2014 it signed an agree-ment to lease a new AW139 to HeliService International, which is supporting operations in the North Sea and Baltic Sea.

LCI now has significant order backlogs with both AgustaWestland and Airbus Helicopters, but Platt empha-sized that the company also has a keen interest in possi-ble orders for models such as the Sikorsky S-92 and the new Bell 525. “We do like the AW139, which is effectively in a class of its own without much competition,” he commented. “There is a lot of demand for it and good retention rates, plus AgustaWestland can also offer the AW169 and the AW189 for people to move up to. It’s a good family concept.”

At last year’s Heli-Expo show, Ireland-based LCI ordered almost $1 billion worth of new helicopters from AgustaWestland and Airbus Helicopters. o

HAI, FAA FORUM TO TACKLE ADS-B EQUIPAGE CONCERNS

Concerned about the looming 2020 deadline for ADS-B out equipage, the HAI and FAA’s Rotorcraft Directorate are hosting a joint forum at Heli-Expo at 10 a.m. today in room S210B to discuss means to encourage early equipage. The forum follows a Jan-uary HAI/government-industry forum, where senior FAA officials detailed their concerns about slow prog-ress in equipping the helicopter fleet, despite suc-cessful trials such as those involving operations over the Gulf of Mexico.

To meet the deadline, six helicopters would need to be equipped every day, “but that doesn’t seem like it’s happening,” Lance Gant, acting manager of the FAA’s Rotorcraft Directorate, told operators at the January forum. He added that equipage is one of the issues most concerning to him. ADS-B out is a “fairly simple thing to do,” Gant said. ADS-B in, however, is proving more technically challenging, although it is not required under the regulations.

Keeping up with installations is particularly import-ant because many operators also are juggling a series of other equipment deadlines over the next five years,

stemming from the helicopter air-ambulance rule released last year.

Both Gant and Flight Standards director John Dun-can, who also spoke to operators at the January forum, stressed that the directorate is working to smooth equipage approvals. “We’re going to take advantage of delegation or whatever we can to streamline these approvals,” Duncan said. “It’s a big chore…Six a day is a lot.”

Duncan encouraged operators to report issues that crop up during the installation process. “I know I’ll hear horror stories about installations in the field,” he con-ceded. This is because expertise on the technology varies in the field and each installation involves a differ-ent level of complexity, he added. The FAA has devel-oped an ADS-B focus team to work through the issues, he said, but the agency needs specifics surrounding installation problems to properly address them.

“Despite the challenging deadline, HAI and the FAA believe there may be creative solutions to the challenge. And they want HAI member input,” HAI said in announcing the forum. –K.L.

LCI’s helicopter leasing activity focuses on air-ambulance services, for which the AgustaWestland AW139 is an ideal platform. Offshore oil-and-gas exploration, though challenged by low prices, continues to require rotorcraft services. And now, offshore wind energy is sparking fresh demand for helicopter support operations.

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Honeywell helo forecast: 5,000 deliveries by 2018by Chad Trautvetter

Between 4,750 and 5,250 new civil helicopters will be delivered over the next five years, accord-ing to Honeywell’s 17th annual turbine-powered civil helicop-ter outlook released on Sunday ahead of this week’s Heli-Expo. Overall demand remains steady from Honeywell’s previous 2014 to 2018 forecast, with moder-ate improvement in new heli-copter purchase plans offset by the short-term uncertainty of large-fleet operators due to lower oil prices and fluctuating mar-ket currencies. This year’s fore-cast is based on surveys of more than 1,000 chief pilots and flight department managers of compa-nies operating 3,400 turbine and 400 piston helicopters worldwide.

North America accounts for the largest share of new helicop-ter purchases in Honeywell’s lat-est outlook, with demand from the U.S. and Canada up nearly eight points year-over-year, to 34 percent. Europe is expected to be the next largest consumer of new helicopters, accounting

for 24 percent of the demand, followed by Latin America, 19 percent; Asia-Pacific, 14 per-cent; and Africa and the Middle East, 9 percent.

“Near-term demand appears stable despite a pullback in 2014 deliveries and ongoing concerns with the energy sec-tor,” said Honeywell Aerospace Defense and Space president Mike Madsen. “Purchase inter-est for helicopters in training, tourism, firefighting and law-enforcement categories is trend-ing up, influenced by increased utilization rates and helicopter replacement cycles.”

Operators intending to pur-chase a new helicopter between this year and 2019 noted several reasons for their decision to buy. According to Honeywell (Booth 1918), this includes the age of their current aircraft, encom-passing factors such as mainte-nance costs, performance erosion and safety concerns; contracted replacement cycle; and warranty expiration. For those surveyed,

make and model choices for their new aircraft are strongly influ-enced by range, cabin size, perfor-mance, technology upgrades and brand experience.

Light single-engine helicopters continue to be the most popular segment, garnering almost half the new purchase interest in Hon-eywell’s latest survey. The Airbus EC130/AS350, Bell 407 and 505 and Robinson R66 were the most frequently mentioned models in this class, the company said.

Intermediate and medium

twins are the second most pop-ular class, with about 31 percent of total survey participants plan-ning to buy a new model of this type. According to Honeywell, the most frequently mentioned models in this segment were the AgustaWestland AW139 and AW169, Bell 412, Airbus EC145T2 and Sikorsky S-76.

Demand for “emerging su-per-medium-class helicopters such as the AgustaWestland AW189, Bell 525 and Air-bus EC175…might be under-

represented in the current sam-ple,” Honeywell noted.

The light-twin class accounts for about 19 percent of the demand in the forecast, with the Airbus EC135, Bell 429 and AgustaWestland AW109 the most mentioned by those surveyed. Heavy multi-engine helicopters, such as the Air-bus EC225, AgustaWestland AW101 and Sikorsky S-92, “registered small but steady lev-els of new helicopter purchase plans” in the outlook. o


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Helicopter Flying Looking Up in 2015

Helicopter fleet utilization is expected to increase this year, according to Honeywell’s latest near-term helicopter forecast. In North America, 27 percent of helicopter operators surveyed plan to fly more this year; 6 per-cent plan decreases. Latin Amer-ican operators, however, are more optimistic, with 45 percent planning to increase activity; 4 percent plan to fly less.

In Europe, 10 percent of oper-ators are planning increases and 4 percent decreases. In the Middle East and Africa, 18 percent expect to increase flying, with only 3 per-cent planning decreases. And in the Asia-Pacific region, 14 per-cent of operators plan more fly-ing and 6 percent plan decreases.

Oil and gas operators reported the highest annual flight-hour use per aircraft last year (approxi-mately 850 hours). Tourism and law enforcement followed (in the 600-hour range) EMS, train-ing, firefighting and general util-ity logged about 400 to 450 hours per year. Corporate operators reported the lowest annaul aver-age use, at just more than 360 hours per helicopter. –C.T.

Purchase plans by regionTurbine-powered, civilian helicopter purchase outlook

2015

This analysis is based on Honeywell customer expectation surveys, an assessment of consensus forecasts, a review of factory delivery rates and analysis of future new helicopter introductions.

5-Year Survey respondent fleet replacement and expansion plan percentages

Middle East and Africa replacement and addition rates highest in the world.

18% 25%20%

32%28%

Middle East & Africa

North America

Latin America

Europe

Asia Pacific

Helicopter deliveries=250

17TH Annual

FORSALE

Dual-use or multi-purpose aircraft allocated to primary usage category.

Light Single-Engine and Twin-Engine models account for 67% of expected purchases.

Projected 10% to 22% improvement during 2015–2019 period. Utility and Law Enforcement trend up.

49% Light Single-Engine

18% Light Twin-Engine

31% Intermediate & Medium Twin-Engine

2% Heavy Multi-Engine

25% Corporate

8% Oil & Gas

18% Emergency Medical Services/SAR

18% Law Enforcement

1% News & Television

30% General Utility/Other/Incl. Tourism

4,300

2010–2014 2015–2019

Helicopter deliveries= 275

Planned usage of new helicoptersPurchase plans by sizeGlobal deliveries

4,750–5,250

Global purchase plans rose 3 points- U.S. leads improvement

Fleet replacement plans call for a number of light single-engine helicopters such as the Airbus AS350B3.

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Bell’s Garrison: New programs at full speed by Mark Huber

Bell Helicopter has no inten-tion of taking its foot off the gas when it comes to new product development, CEO John Gar-rison told AIN. “We’re not cut-ting back on our investment accounts. Our IRAD [inter-nal research and development] spending is actually going up slightly this year. We’re not cut-ting investments and we are working hard to drive produc-tivity and drive out underlying infrastructure costs so that we can continue to fund the invest-ments we know we need to make to be successful in the future.”

He stressed that Bell is not delaying new programs either, in particular the new 525 Relentless super-medium twin, even in the face of the lagging global economy and lower oil prices. That helicopter has been assembled, is currently under-going safety-of-flight testing and should make its first flight within weeks. Garrison also noted that the new Bell 505 light single, which made its first flight on November 10, already has attracted 300 letters of intent from buyers and is a poten-tial candidate to replace the U.S. Navy’s aging fleet of 119 Bell TH-57 Sea Ranger train-ers, derivatives of the discontin-ued Bell 206. “We think the 505 is going to be very strong with the turbine training segment,” Garrison said. “We think the autorotative capabilities of the aircraft, given its 206 L-4 drive train and components, are going to be quite strong and it will be an excellent VFR trainer.”

Bell and partner Lockheed

Martin were also selected by the U.S. Army last year to build a Joint Multi-Role Technology Demonstrator (JMR-TD) to fly by 2017, part of the Pentagon’s Future Vertical Lift (FVL) pro-gram. Bell is fielding its V-280 third-generation tiltrotor in a two-way competition with a team from Sikorsky and Boeing that could eventually lead to orders for up to 4,000 aircraft.

Garrison said Bell began positioning itself for the cur-rent new helicopter sales down-turn in late 2012 when the U.S. military’s planned order reduc-tion of Bell/Boeing V-22 tiltro-tors–Bell’s largest program by far, accounting for more than one-third of the company’s total revenues–began to take shape, cutting the annual production rate virtually in half from 40 in 2013 to 37 in 2014 to as few as 22 aircraft this year.

Cutback Impacts“In the world we live in

today, the aircraft is in high demand on a daily basis,” Gar-rison said. “It’s still our largest program and it is very import-ant. But when your largest program’s volume has been vir-tually cut in half, it has a pretty significant impact. The [U.S.] government is trying to get the most value for the dollars they invest. So are our commercial customers, and we’ve had to take difficult actions, including significant headcount reduc-tions since December 2012, to adjust the size of the company for our military side of the busi-ness. Our manufacturing team

also has made substantial pro-ductivity enhancements and we are working hard with our ven-dor and supply base. Sixty per-cent of a cost of a new aircraft is purchased [from suppliers]; we are working very diligently with our supply base in this zero-inflation environment to be sure that we are getting value for dollar. Those three things have positioned the company going forward.”

Bell began multiple rounds of layoffs in 2013 and 2014 of hundreds of hourly workers and more than 100 salaried engineers in Texas and Canada and also offered buyout packages to work-ers age 55 and older. The total reductions represent approxi-mately 10 percent of Bell’s total employment. Bell’s 2014 reve-nues dropped by $304 million compared to 2013, “primarily the result of lower V-22 and com-mercial deliveries,” according to the company. Last year Bell delivered “57 commercial heli-copters, compared to 75 units last year.” “We lost some sales as the result of the Russian ruble crisis in the second half of the year,” he said. Garrison also cited the “general economic malaise out-side the United States” as hav-ing a negative impact. Sales

picked up slightly in December and he expressed guarded opti-mism about 2015 sales. “Obvi-ously time will tell, but the best predictor of commercial sales is global gross domestic prod-uct growth. It’s never a straight line. But Bell is expanding its market presence globally and we did have some nice wins in a tough market.” These include the Canadian coast guard (an order for 15 new 429 light twins), the Philippine depart-ment of national defense (eight new Bell 412EPs), Reignwood Investment in China (60 Bell 505s) and the Swedish national police (seven Bell 429s). “We’re continuing to execute a strategy to ensure that our products are competitive and upgraded and that we have the right talent in countries and regions to go after every sale possible.”

Garrison said the drop in oil prices would not cause Bell to slow the 525 program and that the current oil price envi-ronment has not produced any drop-off in sales interest in the aircraft. “People are looking at a longer-term horizon. The oil business is highly cyclical, but the deepwater rigs are multi-bil-lion dollar, in some cases multi- decade programs. Short-term fluctuations in the price of oil do not necessarily impact these operations. If they are in pro-duction, they are going to keep

producing. On the development side, the effort may be ame-liorated a little bit, but for the most part they are continuing. Obviously it is a concern and it is causing operators to look at their cost structure. But we feel that we are very well-positioned with the 525 to provide added value to the operators and the end-users.”

Training BundlesPart of that added value could

come in the form of aircraft sales bundled to pilot and techni-cian training using new simula-tors from sister Textron company TRU Simulation + Training. Garrison said that Bell already had selected what is now a TRU company to build the 525 simu-lator before Textron bought it in 2013. (Textron formed TRU that year by acquiring Opinicus and Mechtronix and merging them with Textron’s former AAI Logistics and Technical Services division. In 2014 TRU purchased ProFlight, a Cessna CitationJet and Conquest training com-pany.) TRU is currently build-ing a full-motion simulator for the 525 and the 429 and a cock-pit marketing simulator for the V-280. Textron Aviation, Bell and TRU also are opening a training academy in Valencia, Spain. Bell is relocating its training acad-emy, including main flight and simulation activities, back to its upgraded campus in Fort Worth, Texas.

“The marketplace has asked for improvements in simula-tion training, more use of sim-ulation,” Garrison said. “We’re expanding our training acad-emy into Europe and Asia because customers are looking for a regional training solution. We believe that in partnership with TRU we can offer that regional training solution.” However, he stressed that TRU was Bell’s preferred, but not sole-source vendor. “We have customers with large installed bases of aircraft that are work-ing with other companies and want to continue those relation-ships. We will continue to work with those companies, primarily FlightSafety and CAE, as our customers demand.”

Garrison said that Bell’s plate is full. “We’re working on three new products and are continuing to upgrade our existing platforms. We understand that to be compet-itive in the marketplace you have to have competitive products.” o


Bell Helicopter CEO John Garrison said the company is seeing no drop-off in sales interest for the upcoming 525 Relentless super-medium twin.

Bell Helicopter is partnering with Lockheed Martin to develop a candidate for the U.S. Army’s Joint Multi-Role Technology Demonstrator, the V-280 Valor tiltrotor.

Visit us at booth #2237

Simplex set to fight fire in Chinaby Curt Epstein

Aerial application provider Simplex Aerospace has received a Validation of Supplemental Type Certificate (VSTC) from the Chinese aviation author-ities for its Fire Attack system

intended for use on the Bell 412. The approval makes it the first FAA STC validated for aerial firefighting in China. In the U.S., the STC on the system is valid for all medium Bell helicopters, and

the company expects that even-tually to be true in China as well.

During the past two years, the Portland, Ore.-based manufac-turer has added new function-ality to the Model 304 system (a cutaway of a similar system is on display at Booth 4622), such as the ability to carry passen-gers with the hover refill pump installed. According to Sim-plex, with the addition of its new stowable hover pump latch aft hook, operators are permitted the flexibility to stow the aerial refill pump and carry passengers, making it the only helicopter firefighting system to offer such multi-mission capability.

The model 304 is the largest designed for Bell medium heli-copters, with a 375-gallon water- and foam-carrying capacity, and it can quickly be installed and removed with no required air-frame alterations. According to company president and CEO Mark Zimmerman, the 304 Fire Attack system is the only one available for the medium Bell family that is approved by the FAA for use in night oper-ations. Other features include selectable drop patterns, mul-tiple drop capability and auto-matic emergency water drop in the event of an engine failure.


MASS. STATE POLICE ACCEPT LATEST METRO EC135

Specialty helicopter com-pletions provider Metro Avia-tion recently delivered its fourth outfitted Airbus Helicopters EC135 to the Massachusetts State Police Air Wing. Since 2009, the Louisiana-based company (Booth 2428) has worked with the law enforce-ment unit, which responds to more than 1,900 mission requests each year, providing search support, incident- and scene assessment, aerial pho-tography and surveillance.

“Metro Aviation has inte-grated the FLIR, Aerocomput-ers, Helinet downlink and L-3 DVR to assist our crews in sup-porting our public safety mis-sion,” said unit commander, Lt. Robert Smith.

“They were very specific on the needs and specifica-tions for their mission profile,” noted Milton Geltz, who is the managing director of Metro Aviation. –C.E.

Simplex’s Model 304 fire attack system on the Bell 412 received approval to operate in China.

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BBA boosts engine support activitiesby Kerry Lynch

BBA Aviation units Dallas Airmotive and H+S Aviation are pouring millions of dollars into expanding their facilities and capabilities as the companies continue to focus on expanding their presence in the rotorcraft powerplant maintenance, repair and overhaul market.

H+S Aviation in early December opened a new facility in Abu Dhabi to handle a series of new authorizations, while Dallas Airmotive plans to open its new test facility and center of excellence at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport late in the third quarter.

These efforts stemmed from a project launched a few years ago that executives internally called “sea change,” said Dal-las Airmotive president Doug Meador. The companies gave a thorough evaluation of their operations and direction and

made a strategic decision to exit some work, consolidate facili-ties, build new ones and refocus on growth areas. “We identified rotorcraft as an opportunity for us,” Meador said.

Dallas Airmotive and H+S Aviation already had stakes in the rotorcraft MRO market, he said. But the companies are mak-ing a concerted move to expand the portfolio of work to have a reach as expansive as their fixed-wing portfolios, he said.

In the past year, the two busi-nesses picked up new authoriza-tions for several Pratt & Whitney Canada engins along with the Rolls-Royce 300. As a result, the companies collectively have capabilities to support more than 20,000 in-service helicop-ters and roughly two-thirds of the engine models. Last sum-mer, BBA (Booth 3700) detailed plans to invest $43 million to

support these authorizations.Both Dallas Airmotive and

H+S Aviation announced the newest Rolls-Royce designa-tion at last year’s Heli-Expo and began work on their first cus-tomer engines last May. That authorization was followed by the P&WC announcement.

Middle East PresenceH+S Aviation was awarded

designated overhaul facility authorization for the PW200, PW210, PT6C and PT6T in the Middle East. The appoint-ments came in addition to H+S Aviation’s authorization for the PT6T that had been in place since June 2009 at its Ports-mouth, UK headquarters. H+S Aviation built the Abu Dhabi center to accommodate the newest Middle East work. “We have supported customers in the Middle East for decades,”

Meador said. The new center, however, “is the first bricks and mortar” presence in the Middle East for the company. The cen-ter in late February was in the final stages of approval from the General Civil Aviation Author-ity of Abu Dhabi.

Dallas Airmotive, mean-while, received authorization for the PW200 and PW210. Like H+S Aviation, Dallas Airmo-tive is investing in new facilities to accommodate the additional work, breaking ground last Octo-ber on a new 200,000-sq-ft facil-ity that will house the rotorcraft center of excellence. That facility will share a 20-acre parcel with a new six-cell test center also under construction at DFW.

During the groundbreaking, Meador called the center “the future of Dallas Airmotive” and said the new facilities were part of an evolution of how the com-pany does business. “We have known for some time that we need to expand our focus and pursue opportunities in differ-ent markets,” he said “That’s

why our new rotorcraft center of excellence and six-cell test facility are so important.” Three of the test cells are dedicated to turboshaft engines.

Dallas Airmotive is transi-tioning its M250 work formerly conducted at the Premier Tur-bines facility in Neosho, Mo., along with the RR300 work, to its shop in Grapevine, Texas while construction continues on the DFW facility. Ultimately, the M250 and RR300 work will be conducted at the center of excellence at DFW.

The facilities, Meador added, help bring the companies closer to the customer base. “A lot of what we’re doing is setting up our business around our cus-tomers.” This includes being available in every region where the customers operate. The newest authorizations already are bringing in a steady flow of business, he said. They also position the company for the future, as some of the older-model engines that it has long supported start to phase out. o


Dallas Airmotive booth reprises engine build-upby Kerry Lynch

Dallas Airmotive, building on the experience it had with its display at the NBAA conven-tion last October, is rebuilding an engine at its Heli-Expo booth (3700). This time, the Dallas-based repair and overhaul shop will rebuild a rotorcraft engine–the Rolls-Royce M250. “We had great success at NBAA with the PT6A,” said Dallas Airmotive president Doug Meador. “This will become one of the signa-tures of our displays.”

During the NBAA show the display brought in substantially more foot traffic, as much as three to four times what Meador said he had seen in the past. “It brought a lot of people by

who didn’t know who we were,” he added. But also important, Meador said, is that the exhibit enables Dallas Airmotive to dem-onstrate the technical capabilities and knowledge of its staff.

For Heli-Expo, the company brought four dedicated staff, three technicians and one tech-nical expert available to answer questions. The company will pace the rebuild over the three-day show, something that the smaller M250 engine permits.

A substantial amount of work goes into the development of the display, including a cou-ple of practice runs in a simu-lated display environment. This enables the team to put the

infrastructure to a full test run. “We try to mimic our shop the best we can,” Meador said.

The Heli-Expo display uses the same basic design of the NBAA display, but it also will incorpo-rate new features based on les-sons learned from the NBAA show. This includes more out-reach with social media and the addition of a narrator who will be available to detail the work.

Amelia Rose Earhart, the pilot who last year circumnav-igated the globe in a Pilatus PC-12 NG, has agreed to narrate the project, but her involvement with the display extends beyond that. Meador credits Earhart with coming up with the concept of the display in the first place. Her suggestion came during a PT6 anniversary celebration event late last summer, when aer-obatic champion Kirby Cham-bliss had expressed an interest to Dallas Airmotive executives about how engines were built.

“I thought it was a fantas-tic idea,” Meador said, after dis-cussing it with Chambliss, who is sponsored in part by Dal-las Airmotive, and Earhart. He returned to his team with the concept. “Everybody thought I was crazy,” he recalled, but the idea took root and in about six weeks, the company reconfigured the display, con-ducted trial runs on the PT6A and built a special hoist for the engine to bring to the NBAA show. “We had to recreate that small area of the booth in six weeks,” Meador said. o

ARCHANGEL SENSORS REPLACE COSTLY GYROS

Archangel Systems (Booth 4275) comes to Heli-Expo with a new certification achieved in December for its AHR150A and AHR300A air data atti-tude heading reference sys-tems (ADAHRS). The company received European TSO approval for the sensors, allowing them to be used in small and large air-plane and helicopter installations.

“This is Archangel’s first TSO outside of the U.S., and we’re pleased that is it on our flagship product,” said Bill Dillard, Arch-angel director of emerging tech-nology. “Because the ADAHRS are exportable worldwide, we get lots of interest from the European community. The ETSO really supports those customers and their programs.”

Archangel is expecting TSO approval of its AHR75 AHRS shortly; this unit doesn’t include the air-data sensors contained in the AHR150A and -300A. In the U.S., Erickson was the first cus-tomer for the Archangel ADAHRS, and the MD Helicopters MD902 Explorer with the Universal Avion-ics InSight flight deck will also use that system.

The key benefit of the Archan-gel micro-electromechanical sys-tems (MEMS)-based AHRS is that it replaces traditional mechani-cal gyro-based instruments. The AHR75 weighs five to 10 pounds less than a comparable gyro. “With a spinning-mass gyro, you have to have more spares on the shelf than

with a MEMS-based AHRS,” Dillard explained. “There’s that dead cap-ital of having spares on the shelf, and there is the ongoing refurbish-ment cost, maintenance, manpower to remove and replace and to over-see the refurbishment schedule.” In the rotorcraft environment, Archan-gel MEMS-base AHRS have a mean-time between failure of more than 12,000 hours.

The first customer for the AHR75 is Marenco Swissheli-copter, which is developing the clean-sheet SKYe SH09 helicop-ter. Archangel has sent engineer-ing prototypes to Marenco in advance of receipt of the TSO. Some of the Archangel custom-ers include Airbus military aircraft and Boeing rotorcraft. Upgrades using Archangel products are also available for the Bell 206 series.

Eagle Helicopters has flight tested the AHR75 in an Airbus AS350 upgraded to the Sagem ICDS avionics suite. “We want to add it to our STC,” said Eagle vice president Joe Rough.

Eagle has done about 100 of the Sagem upgrades, but using the old Crossbow AHRS or an AHRS offered by Sagem. The Crossbow unit is no longer avail-able for civil aviation applications, and the Sagem AHRS is designed for larger IFR helicopters with sophisticated autopilots, Rough said, “which is way overkill. We went to Archangel, they sent us a unit for testing and it’s performed really well.” –M.T.�

Dallas Airmotive is building up an engine like this at its Heli-Expo booth (3700).

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Fingers do the flying with Pro Line Fusionby Matt Thurber

Visitors to the Rockwell Col-lins booth (3262) at Heli-Expo will be able to fly the compa-ny’s new Pro Line Fusion avion-ics demonstrator. “We’re taking another step forward to build an offering around Pro Line Fusion that can cover multiple segments of the civil rotary market and multiple missions for civil heli-copters based on years of heli-copter experience in government markets,” said Andrew Jetton, Rockwell Collins manager of global strategic marketing for civil rotary wing.

The Pro Line Fusion demon-strator is equipped with a collec-tive and cyclic. This flight deck is intended primarily for twin-en-gine helicopters (Part 27 and 29) and thus has features opti-mized for two-pilot cockpits. “The copilot is there as a mis-sion assistant,” Jetton said, “who can make greater use of the touchscreens, setting waypoints, pulling up charts, etc. The touchscreen lets them do that more efficiently. The pilot-in- command may not be touching the screens at that point.”

There are other benefits to touchscreens as well, and these have to do with design of the pilot-avionics interface. Many avionics manufacturers, for exam-ple, are eliminating the tradi-tional FMS control-display unit (CDU) in favor of simpler and more intuitive touchscreen con-trols. “It isn’t just about reach-ing out and touching the PFD,” said Jetton, “but what can you do with all the controls in the center console today? The capabilities

of Pro Line Fusion allow us to take some functions like the FMS CDU and radios and vir-tualize them on a touchscreen. We’re cleaning up the look and feel of the cockpit, which reduces the number of LRUs and wiring and makes the system more soft-ware-driven. It makes changing things more easy.”

Pro Line Fusion engineers and designers are working with helicopter operators and pilots to determine the best way to apply touchscreens for new commercial helicopters. “Mak-ing touchscreens isn’t a chal-lenge,” Jetton said. “It’s really a question of the software that’s enabled by the touchscreens and what is the allocation of tasks for this environment for the phase of flight or between the PFD and the console or nav displays. The real thing touchscreens give you is the ability to ‘touch what you want to change.’ If you want to change something, look where the information is displayed, and you’re able to touch that and tell it what to change. Rather than look down, look through a menu and enter keystrokes. [It’s based on the] phase of flight and what function makes sense, versus tra-ditional avionics.

“The challenge is to get tradi-tional avionics and touchscreens to work together. Like a cursor-control knob; the way the system behaves is the same, but you’re touching the knob rather than the screen. Knobs could be on the cyclic [or collective].” So the interface could involve pointing and clicking as an alternative to

touching a screen. The goal, he emphasized, is helping the pilot fly head-up, without having to keep looking down at cockpit displays and controls.

For the Heli-Expo demonstra-tor, Rockwell Collins is showing how pilots can choose their inter-face, either touchscreen or tradi-tional controls. “Everything you can do on touchscreens you can do on control panels,” said Jet-ton. “We need to be able to do both. Some of the things we do on the key-panel with some shortcut keys are easier for pilots than using the touchscreen. And

[some] older pilots are resistant to touch. We’ve got to be able to have a system that enables both.”

Rockwell Collins is also adapting capabilities that it has developed for military applications, such as search-and-rescue missions and air-borne radar approaches, which are ideal for oil-rig opera-tions. “Fusion has the flexi-bility to bring that in, from a human-machine interface stand-point,” he said. “The search-and- rescue function is expanded com-pared to the fixed-wing version because of the types of missions

that [rotorcraft] fly.” The Pro Line Fusion FMS for helicop-ter applications thus contains helicopter weight-and-balance, performance, transition-to-hover and other rotorcraft-specific functions. “That’s a big break-through for us,” he added. “We know all the mission functions and how helicopters behave. We have to have the human-machine interface right in Fusion so we can do it more efficiently.”

Rockwell Collins is working with helicopter manufacturers on opportunities for Pro Line Fusion applications, primarily for new programs, but there could be some retrofit opportunities. “There are elements of the sys-tem and ways to take components to make them available as retro-fits,” said Jetton, “but the major-ity of platforms are forward-fit.

“This won’t be our first touchscreen in the helicopter market,” Jetton noted, although the products being demonstrated represent the company’s first inte-gration of Pro Line Fusion and touchscreens for rotorcraft. The AW169 has an optional touch-screen control that replaces the FMS CDU and will introduce touchscreen control into the heli-copter market, he said. Agusta Westland’s AW609 tiltrotor also will offer touchscreen features in its Pro Line Fusion-based flight deck. o


PUT ‘ER THERE, BUDDY

One of the most profound statements about Heli-Expo comes in loud-and-clear in the days leading up to the ribbon-cutting of the actual show. The rotorcraft industry’s annual get-together is unique among trade shows in that the wares it represents often arrive by air, and under their own power. What better way to show off the great flexibility and versatility that vertical flight affords its customers.

All the displays in this Pro Line Fusion flight deck are touchscreen-capable, but the choice of how to implement touchscreen capability and traditional controls depends on the rotorcraft platform and operating environment, according to Rockwell Collins.

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Airbus Helicopters CEO anticipating a banner yearby Thierry Dubois

Airbus Helicopters CEO Guillaume Faury in late January predicted that 2015 will be a year of steady deliveries and brisker orders, while heavy helicopters will represent growing importance in the model lineup.

Faury appeared confident that the oil price collapse may hold some opportu-nities. Major exploration projects have been revised or stopped, but the level of oil production remains high. The trend to reduce costs may call for newer-generation

helicopters, which are cheaper to oper-ate than older ones. “The most profitable fields are not necessarily the ones closest to the shore,” Faury added. Offshore oil-and-gas accounts for some 15 percent of Airbus Helicopters activity.

A replacement wave for light helicop-ters may be expected but probably not until 2017. Broadly speaking, the civil market will remain under pressure and uncertainty, he explained. Nevertheless, and partly helped by military sales, Faury expects the company’s book-to-bill ratio to be greater than one, unlike in 2014. He foresees stability in deliveries, nota-bly with 45 to 48 civil and military Super Pumas. Production will ramp up for the Dauphin family and EC175. In the lat-ter’s case, the entry into service late last year will demonstrate the new type’s “rel-evance and reliability.”

The manufacturer saw a slight decrease in orders and deliveries in 2014, compared to previous years. The Marignane, France-based company handed over 471 aircraft last year and garnered 402 orders, in both cases 5-percent drops from the year before. Faury said that Airbus delivered 44 per-cent of the 736 civil and parapublic heli-copters weighing more than 2,860 pounds (thus excluding the Robinson R66) that were delivered worldwide last year.

Since the record year in 2008, the pro-duction mix (combining civil and mili-tary) has changed drastically at both ends of the spectrum, with deliveries of light singles down to 223 and heavy twins up to 101. The latter number includes 35 civil Super Puma-family AS332s and EC225s.

On the orders side, light models, ranging from the EC120 to the EC135, have seen sales drop. Strong performers include the EC145 (115 civil and military bookings) and the Super Puma family (32). A notable exception in the medium and heavy categories has been the EC175, at eight orders in 2014. “This was below my expectations,” Faury said.

China is still far from fulfilling its promise but ranked second among coun-tries, just after the U.S., at 29 civil deliver-ies. One of them, an EC135P2e, was the first-ever dedicated EMS helicopter in the country. Airbus is supporting Avicop-ter in its effort to fly the first AC352–the counterpart of the EC175–this year.

Meanwhile, the economic situation in Russia has had a severe impact. UTAir has suspended the shipments of the 14 EC175s it still has on order after having received the first one. A source familiar with UTAir told AIN that the operator’s plans for offering offshore transporta-tion services have been severely hit by the weak ruble and the oil price collapse. o


Dauphin Upgrade Program Terminated

Airbus Helicopters CEO Guillaume Faury confirmed that last year, the AS365N3e upgrade program for the Dauphin medi-um-twin family was terminated. “This was an arbitration with the X4,” he said. The AS365N3+ and the EC155B1 continue to be offered.

Yet, N3e demonstration flights with prospect customers had begun. The medium twin was to use an upgraded rotor head and reinforced main gearbox. This should have both cut direct maintenance costs by 10 percent and helped with han-dling the increased power. New features in the Turbomeca Arriel 2N turboshaft–now certified–were to yield a 750-pound increase in mtow at ISA+20 conditions. Air-bus is carrying on with the military version, the AS565MBe Panther, the first delivery of which is planned for 2017.

Unveiled at Heli-Expo in 2011, the Dau-phin N3e program was initially calling for first delivery to happen in late 2013. AIN understands that N3e program delays short-ened the time gap with the X4’s planned entry into service, thus weakening the case for a further AS365 upgrade. Faury said the N3e was not yet close to certification when it was canceled last year.� n

Operations Manual for EC225

Airbus Helicopters last year published a flight crew operations manual (FCOM) for the EC225 heavy twin in offshore oil-and-gas service, a document that gives the manufacturer’s guidance for best use of automation and crew coordination. The FCOM was created in a working group formed with joint operators Avincis, Bristow and CHC. Airbus thus claims to have written the first-ever FCOM for a rotorcraft.

There is one FCOM per model, type of mission and related configuration. Proce-dures dealing with optional items that are part of the configuration are merged with standard procedures. This makes a differ-ence concerning where the pilot should look for supplementary information in the flight manual. For example, in the procedure for a Category A takeoff in an offshore mission, the procedure for arming the emergency flotation gear is integrated.

“The FCOM is based on complete mis-sion descriptions,” said Alain Madec, Air-bus head of customer flight operations services. Crew workshare during takeoff is clearly described. On another page, a table shows those autopilot mode combinations that are not recommended.

Airbus officials emphasize that the FCOM “is not just another book.” The flight manual answers certification requirements, while the FCOM answers operational needs. It is supposed to help operators devise their operations manual, as required by their national authority.� n

Airbus Helicopters captured 44 percent market share last year, for civil helicopters weighing more than 2,860 pounds, like this EC135.

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Airbus ‘a whole other world’ for new Phoenix Heli-Supportby Kerry Lynch

Phoenix Heliparts is expanding into Airbus Helicopters support with the opening of a new maintenance center in Scottsdale, Ariz. The addition of the new Phoenix Heliparts base, which will oper-ate as Phoenix Heli-Support, marks the first major expansion for the 12-year-old company (Booth No. 2059).

The new location comes via the acquisi-tion late last summer of the maintenance, repair and overhaul assets of Vertical Avia-tion at Scottsdale Airport. The acquisition included three hangars, tools, documenta-tion and other assets, providing a second location for Mesa, Ariz.-based Phoe-nix Heliparts. The Scottsdale facility will operate as both an Airbus Helicopters and Turbomeca service center, but under a separate Part 145 repair station certificate from the Mesa operation.

Moving into support of the Airbus Helicopters product lines is a key step in the growth of the company, said Phoenix Heliparts president Tina Cannon, noting that the manufacturer accounts for more than 60 percent of the market. “It’s very significant,” she said. “We have another

factory. We also have a whole other mar-ket–we have a whole other world.”

Phoenix Heliparts, which Cannon and her husband Darin Cannon founded out of their garage in 2003, supports a vari-ety of product lines, from Bell and MD Helicopters to Dash 8 airplanes to vari-ous avionics and electronics. “We’ve been very methodical about how we built our company,” Cannon said, adding that opening the new location is “a natural progression” for the company.

Phoenix Heliparts has had three tech-nicians endorsed on Airbus helicopters, primarily on the AStar, but Cannon said it was not a market the company had pre-viously pursued. “The Airbus market is very different,” she said, from the work with the manufacturer to customer rela-tionships. When Vertical Aviation became available, it gave Phoenix Heliparts the opening to move into the market. But, Cannon stressed, “We didn’t want this to be seen as just an add-on. We want this to be seen as an authorized service cen-ter and as a commitment to the market.”

The company worked closely with

Airbus Helicopters before and after the acquisition, establishing a strong work-ing relationship that she said is critical to the success of the new venture. The com-pany also has trained 15 technicians to work on the Airbus or Turbomeca lines. Darin Cannon, who is vice president of operations, is leading the new Phoenix Heli-Support facility.

As the company rolls out the new oper-ation, it already has captured a number of support contracts for the Airbus products, including with the Oklahoma City Police Department’s Aviation Unit (two AS350s) and the Phoenix Police Air Support Unit (five AS350s). Phoenix Heli-Support also has lined up several local customers.

Cannon noted that the company in the past had received inquiries on whether it would pick up Airbus helicopter sup-port and said it had several customers

with mixed fleets that included Airbus rotorcraft. The expansion enables Phoe-nix Heliparts to provide more compre-hensive support, she said.

Among the mixed-fleet customers was Jack Harter Helicopters. “We are very happy that Tina and Darin Cannon have decided to venture into the Airbus heli-copter market,” said Casey Riemer, vice president and general manager. “We look forward to their team providing us with the same high quality of work on our AS350B2 that they have already delivered while working on our other aircraft.”

Papillon Helicopters staged EC130s at Phoenix Heli-Support’s Scottsdale facil-ity for Super Bowl shuttles. The com-pany also kicked off a “12” promotion to honor its 12-year anniversary: a $12,000 discount for the first 12 AS350 operators to sign up for a 12-year inspection. o


Founded out of a family garage a dozen years ago, Phoenix Heliparts has grown to include support for a wide range of product lines, including rotorcraft from Bell and MD Helicopters. Those marques will be joined by Airbus Helicopters products with the acquisition of what will now operate as Phoenix Heli-Support.

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Turbomeca sees growth in service sectorby Thierry Dubois

Turbomeca is progressing on a number of new engine and dem-onstrator programs, while simul-taneously reinforcing its customer support network, but sales of engines have slowed down.

In 2014, Bordes, France-based Turbomeca, a Safran company, delivered 850 new engines, a 13 per-cent drop. This is mainly due to weaker demand for Airbus Helicopters civil products, CEO Oliv-ier Andriès told AIN. The repair business, by con-trast, grew by 17 percent to 1,750 engines total, result-ing in steady overall reve-nues, according to Andriès.

The 1,100-shp Arrano 1A, a mockup of which is prominent on Turbome-ca’s booth (2620), is set to power the Airbus Heli-copters X4 medium twin. “Three prototype engines have been running on the ground and 10 will be involved in testing by the end of 2016,” Andriès said. Engineers are confident about the level of performance that the trials are revealing, he added.

The 500-shp-class Arrius 2R, a version of the Arrius designed for the Bell 505 Jet Ranger X, has been flying on the new light single since November. Engine certification is planned for late this year, just before the 505’s entry into service in early 2016. “We are preparing a tough ramp-up, targeting 200 engines per year,” Andriès said. Final assembly of the production Arrius 2Rs will take place at Turbomeca’s site in

Grand Prairie, Texas.For the upgraded EC135T3, the

660-shp Arrius 2B2 Plus features a new Fadec, which allows for an increase in the turbine outlet tem-perature resulting in greater power output. New air intakes, lateral as opposed to frontal, reduce so-called installation losses (when the engine

receives a less-than-optimal air-flow). As a result, a relatively minor set of changes boosts power by 6 percent in hot and high conditions, a major improvement for some operators. A retrofit is available for EC135T2 customers, comprising a Fadec software update and small hardware modifications that do not involve the turbomachinery.

On the Russian Helicop-ters Ka-62 and Avicopter AC352 medium twin programs, Andriès predicted first flights in the middle

of the year, powered respectively by the 1,680-shp Ardiden 3G and 1,800-shp Ardiden 3C.

The in-development Airbus Helicopters EC225e is flying with the Makila 2B. “It provides up to 7 percent more power in one-engine-inoperative conditions,” Andriès said. The combustor has a new design for increased temper-ature, and the high-pressure tur-bine blades are thus made with a new material. Separately, the com-pressor will be better protected against erosion, and this particular improvement will be retrofittable.

Airbus’s surprise termination of the AS365N3e Dauphin upgrade has impacted the dedicated Arriel 2N engine program. Turbomeca is thus looking for other applications. The 1,000-shp-class Arriel 2N was certified in December 2014 but Andriès downplayed the need for compensation for the cancellation, hinting at negotiations on a wider scale. Airbus is carrying on with the military version, the AS565MBe Panther, the first delivery of which is planned for 2017.

A 3,000-shp demonstrator en-gine will start partial testing this year. Turbomeca engineers will be-gin with the compressor and add the hot section next year. In the same engine category, Turbomeca took over Rolls-Royce’s share in the RTM322 program in 2013. “We are gearing up to be in a po-sition to launch a turboshaft pro-gram for a 22,000-lb-plus helicop-ter that would enter into service in the 2020s,” Andriès explained.

Another demonstration pro-gram in the 800-shp class has been completed but no short-term appli-cation is in sight. In the 1,000-shp class, a third demonstration pro-gram is in its final phase. It previ-ously laid the foundation for the Arrano, Andriès said.

In the longer term, a promising avenue to cutting fuel consumption is optimizing airflow in the compres-sor. “Progress is quite asymptotic, though,” Andriès said. Hybridiza-tion, such as combining various sources of power, may help, too.

In customer support, the cur-rent number of Turbomeca- certified maintenance centers–36–will double by the end of 2016. One reason for expanding such partnerships is that the number of small operators is set to increase sharply, due to the entry into service of the Bell 505. Andriès claimed to have made significant progress in repairs, as the turn-around time has been halved to 50 days in the past three years for the Arrius and Arriel families. o

Turbomeca’s Arrano 1A engine is set to power the Airbus Helicopters X4 medium twin. A mockup is on display here.

TURBOMECA TAPS INTO 3-D PRINTING

FOR ENGINE NOZZLES

Turbomeca is now using addi-tive manufacturing (or 3-D print-ing) at its factory in Bordes, France. After “years of maturation and prototype testing,” the com-pany said, the first two engines to feature 3-D-printed parts are the Arrano and the Ardiden 3.

Arrano test and production engines will feature fuel injection noz-zles made with selective laser melting (SLM) techniques. This process will also be used to manufacture Ardiden 3 combustor swirlers.

In the case of SLM, a computer-controlled laser shoots pinpoint beams onto a bed of fine nickel-based super-alloy powder, “to melt the metal in the desired areas,” according to Turbomeca. The result-ing build layers are between 20 and 100 micrometers thick.

SLM also simplifies the produc-tion process. A traditional nozzle is made from dozens of different pieces, whereas the Arrano com-ponent is made from a single piece of material. One SLM fusion laser machine is already in service in Bordes, with others to be inte-grated over the coming years.� n

The fusion laser machine at Turbomeca’s Bordes, France facility will manufacture fuel injection nozzles made with selective laser melting (SLM) techniques.

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Sikorsky Humanitarian Service Award Portugal’s 751 Squadron

(Esquadra 751), the “Pumas” of the Portuguese air force, has been selected for this year’s Sikorsky Humanitarian Service Award. The unit flies search-and-rescue mis-sions from three bases in Portu-gal, mostly over vast stretches of ocean. Since it was formed in

1979, the squadron reports it has rescued more than 3,000 people. Now equipped with three-engine AgustaWestland AH101 Merlins, the Pumas cover more than 2.3 million sq mi of ocean–approxi-mately one-third the size of the entire North Atlantic.

Sharing the honors are

approximately 100 pilots, systems operators, rescue swimmers, other aircrew members and main-tenance technicians. The squad-ron’s range of operation increased from 200-nm missions with its original SA330 Puma rotorcraft to missions extending out to 400 nm with the AW101s. It made the

changeover to the longer-legged helicopters in 2005, and the lon-gest unrefueled mission to date covered some 726 nm round trip, lasting 7 hours, 20 minutes. To-tal flight time logged since 751 Squadron’s inception is greater than 40,000 hours; with more than 10,000 hours in the Merlins.

Besides the lifesaving aspect of the SAR mission, the expertise of

the squadron also reaps economic benefits. Portugal’s maritime his-tory dates back centuries, and the country depends on shipping for a significant portion of its na-tional economy. Shipping firms are the more comfortable for knowing that the Portuguese air force fields such a robust search-and-rescue team, covering the second largest SAR region in the world. In addi-tion to 751 Squadron’s Merlins, the Portuguese air force can also deploy P-3, C-130, C-295 and Fal-con 50 fixed-wing airplanes and Allouette III helicopters.

Some notable rescue mis-sions executed by 751 Squadron include lifting five sailors from the MV Kea, a Barbados-registered cargo ship that was sinking 160 mi off the coast of Galiza, Spain in 2010. The Kea was en-route to Colombia from Russia at the time.

In December 2011, one of 751 Squadron’s Merlin’s located and rescued six fishermen from the Vir-gem do Sameiro in the waters north of the Portuguese city of Figueira da Foz. The vessel had sunk three days earlier, and the men had been floating in a life raft until the heli-copter crew spotted them.

Earlier in its history, while still flying the SA330 Puma, the squad-ron flew 163 missions rescuing a total of 1,386 victims of the Tejo River floods of 1979 and 1983. Additional missions included res-cuing 15 sailors from the stricken Angel del Mar; 17 from the Bol-man III in January 1994; and 22 from the Coral Bunker, which ran aground in Viana do Castelo on Christmas Eve, 2000.

The personnel of 751 Squadron, past and present, clearly live up to the unit’s motto, “Para que outros vivam”–“That others may live.” n


SALUTE TO EXCELLENCE

Members of the Portuguese air force 751 Squadron conduct their business by virtue of their unit motto, translated as, “That others may live.”

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HAA deadline looms, as FAA mulls guidanceby Kerry Lynch

The FAA is hoping to have the primary inspector guid-ance for its sweeping helicop-ter air ambulance (HAA) rule in place in March as it works with operators on meeting the April 22 implementation deadline for many of its requirements.

Touting it as the most “signif-icant improvement in helicop-ter safety in decades,” the FAA released the HAA rule in Feb-ruary 2014, requiring helicopter operators engaged in emergency medical services to meet new Part 135 requirements, install new safety equipment, upgrade testing and training and estab-lish an operations control cen-ter. The rule additionally includes certain equipment and other requirements for all Part 135 helicopter operators.

The primary deadline was originally set for April 22, 2014, just a few months after the rule was released. But the agency later extended the deadline by a year, saying the original dead-line provided too little time for the agency and the affected operators to implement the new requirements. At the same time, though, the agency reaffirmed original deadlines for the equip-ment mandates, as well as for the operations control center and pilot-in-command instrument qualification requirements. Man-dates for radio altimeters, emer-gency equipment, helicopter

terrain awareness and warn-ing systems and PIC instrument qualifications are all set for April 24, 2017, while the operations control center needs to be in place by April 22, 2016 and the flight data monitoring system by April 23, 2018.

The FAA has been writing guidance on different aspects of the rule and last fall released the proposed operations specifica-tion covering the rule’s primary requirements. Late last year the agency put out for comments the proposed FAA inspector guid-ance, covering training and test-ing for pilots and training for the operations control specialists.

Operators, facing the loom-ing April deadline, have been anxiously awaiting the final guidance. “It’s coming down to the wire,” said Christopher Eastlee, president of the Air Medical Operators Associa-tion (AMOA). Eastlee noted that operators need the guid-ance before they can update their own operations and train-ing manuals in compliance with the rule. Such updates can be an involved process that takes months. “That process cannot start until the guidance is avail-able,” he said.

Speaking to a recent HAI government-industry forum, Les Smith, manager of the FAA’s Air Transport division, said the agency expects to publish

the primary operations speci-fication in March. Operations specification language regard-ing the data-collection require-ments, however, may come later. Operators are required to col-lect data regarding flights and denied trip requests beginning this year. But Smith told oper-ators that because the affected operations specification involves data collection, it requires Office of Management and Bud-get review. This may push off its release. While the first data report is due in January 2016, Smith assured operators, “We will take whatever data you have. We won’t require the col-lection before the operations specification is released.”

Industry Outreach EffortThe agency has been focused

on inspector training in prepara-tion for the new requirements. It also is planning further industry outreach in addition to the recent HAI Government-Industry Forum, which was also sponsored by the AMOA and the Associ-ation of Air Medical Services.

Operators encouraged the agency to hold gatherings that would enable FAA officials, inspectors and operators to resolve any ques-tions surrounding the rule.

FAA Flight Standards direc-tor John Duncan told attend-ees at the recent forum that the agency is pushing toward perfor-mance-based requirements with the rule. The goal is to provide “a lot of latitude,” he said. “What’s required here is the minimum.”

The agency also is tak-ing a number of steps to help facilitate the equipment dead-lines, particularly as it has lim-ited resources for the necessary approvals. This is particularly important because operators must deal with the 2020 ADS-B out mandate in addition to the HAA requirements.

The FAA consolidated and reorganized its Rotorcraft Direc-torate in the Southwest and cre-ated an organization delegation authorization office to improve its delegation functions. “We want to fully delegate every-thing we can [using a risk-based model],” said Lance Gant, acting director of the Rotorcraft Direc-torate. “We hope to improve the process and speed,” he added, noting this must be accom-plished with safety in mind. “It’s a delicate balancing act.”

Some of those efforts are beginning to pay off. Gant noted that getting HTAWS installed had been a more cumbersome process. Now, field approvals are taking two to three days. Even so, the FAA’s ability to keep up with the multiple approv-als concerns operators. Eastlee noted that the FAA’s resources are already strained by rapid advancements in technology. Along with the mandates, oper-ators already are voluntarily upgrading cockpits with equip-ment such as autopilots.

While concerns surround the FAA’s ability to keep up with the necessary approvals, Eastlee said air-medical operators endorse the equipment mandates. Many air-medical operators have

already complied with some of the requirements, such as for installation of radar altimeters. But the radar altimeter require-ment extends to other operators, who question the need for the expanded applicability. Air-tour operators note the requirement stems from an NTSB recom-mendation that radar altimeters be installed on passenger-carry-ing helicopters that operate in areas where flat light or white-out conditions routinely occur. These conditions are far less likely in air-tour operations.

Duncan, however, told oper-ators that the radar altimeter requirement also is a congres-sional mandate, providing the FAA few options on the issue. However, Duncan suggested that operators could petition for a rulemaking change.

Another concern voiced by operators is the rule’s lack of accommodations for IFR flight. The agency late last year released a follow-on rule facilitating IFR departures at airports without weather-observation stations. Operators view the rule as a step toward correcting an issue cre-ated by a weather minimums pro-vision in the original rulemaking. But, they fear it does not com-pletely address the issue. During the government-industry forum, FAA officials reassured attend-ees that the rule was not intended to restrict IFR flight.

Operators are also wary of the operator control center require-ment. “There is nothing like this in Part 135,” Eastlee said. While many operators have already established the centers, the FAA has not released guidance on the details of the new require-ment. Operators are hopeful that guidance will reflect best prac-tices rather than an entirely new approach that could be costly and complicated to implement.

Overall though, Eastlee stressed the importance of the rule. “We support all of it,” he said. “We just want to make sure the FAA can provide the guid-ance in a timely fashion.” o


The FAA’s upcoming helicopter air ambulance (HAA) rule will require a sweeping list of compliance features, but the agency has yet to offer final guidance for certain elements.

HELO ON WHEELS

During the lead-in to Heli-Expo 2015, ground crew members ready an Airbus Helicopters AS350 for towing to its inside display area from the parking lot of the Orange County Convention Center. �

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Timken refocuses on component workby Harry Weisberger

Timken has reorganized its aerospace business and last year shut down its turbine engine overhaul and repair operations. The company’s Mesa, Ariz. Aerospace Aftermarket division is now focused on its core FAA- approved turbine engine replace-ment parts manufacturing, repair and overhaul capabilities.

“The turbine engine overhaul and repair closing was the big-gest move,” said Larry Shiembob, director of Timken Aerospace Aftermarket (Booth 1100). “A buyer has now acquired it, and we shipped our last engine in November. We’re starting to see the full benefits of this reorgani-zation in improved profitability and focus on core markets.”

He noted that the overhaul and repair business had con-tributed about one-third of the total Aerospace Aftermarket operation’s business. Timken

is moving to offset loss of that revenue by increased empha-sis on its parts manufacturing and overhaul product lines and a streamlined business model. Shiembob said the rationale for terminating the turbine engine overhaul and repair business was recognition that the market had changed significantly since Timken entered the market 10 years ago. ”

Shiembob said that Tim-ken has moved its Rolls Royce 250 compressor case overhaul business from Mesa to its Los Alamitos, Calif. bearing repair facility. “It was up and run-ning in early February at one of the few places where overhaul of the 250 compressor cases is being done. We’ve basically put in a brand new line there. It’s our first attempt to branch out into other types of repairs, and we’re looking at offering other repair products where we can bring

value to our customers.”This includes reintroduction

of manufacturing PT6 reduction gears, expansion of the Timken turbine-blade manufacturing business and continued strong

demand for bearing-overhaul services at Los Alamitos. Shiem-bob said the manufacturing of PT6 reduction gears is going flawlessly. “We continue to sell them, and they continue to

accumulate hours. We recently had the first in-service inspec-tion. The gears looked great and went right back into service.”

He noted that sales of Bell medium-helicopter replacement parts continues to grow, and he also cited progress on cer-tifying a new turbine blade for the PT6A-60 series. He added, “Our main focus remains the

turbine-blade business. We are working with the FAA on cer-tification of the new PT6A-60 turbine blade, and we’re in the last stages of submitting the appropriate paperwork.”

While Shiembob hasn’t seen a resurgence in fly-ing activity, business remains steady for Timken Aerospace Aftermarket. o


Timken has relocated its Rolls-Royce 250 compressor case overhaul businesss from Arizona to California.

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Trouble in paradise as FAA delays Hawaii weather camsby Mark Huber

Don’t expect to see federally-funded aviation weather cameras in Hawaii or the Continental U.S. anytime soon. The FAA has opted to analyze more related data and has deferred making a decision on installing weather cameras in those loca-tions until at least 2018, an agency spokes-man told AIN. Just last year, the FAA had claimed that a “go” decision on the weather cams was “pending” within months. How-ever, competition for FAA resources, par-ticularly the funding of NextGen air traffic control technology, appears to have put initiatives such as weather cameras on the back burner for now.

The delay in implementing a national weather cam system had previously drawn criticism from the National Transporta-tion Safety Board. The NTSB had recom-mended that the FAA draft concrete plans for installing a national weather camera system and noted that the FAA’s initiative was confined to identifying critical instal-lation locations, weather trends and sea-sonal conditions affecting flight safety.

The deferral decision comes just months after the NTSB’s final report was issued on a fatal November 2011 helicop-ter tour crash in Hawaii where access to local weather camera images could have made a difference.

That crash, involving a Blue Hawai-ian-operated Airbus Helicopters

EC130B4, killed five. The NTSB final report on the accident was released on July 25, 2014. It concluded that the accident’s probable cause was “the pilot’s failure to maintain clearance from mountainous terrain while oper-ating in marginal weather conditions, which resulted in the impact of the hor-izontal stabilizer and lower forward portion of the Fenestron with ground and/or vegetation and led to the sepa-ration of the Fenestron and the pilot’s subsequent inability to maintain con-trol. Contributing to the accident was the pilot’s decision to operate into an area surrounded by rising terrain, low and possibly descending cloud bases, rain showers and high wind.”

Issues With New-hiresA spate of fatal heli-tour crashes in

Hawaii between 2004 and 2007 brought increased criticism of, and scrutiny to, the industry. The NTSB faulted heli-tour oper-ators for inadequately training new-hire pilots on the unique particulars of flying in Hawaii. The NTSB reviewed weather-re-lated accidents since 1994 and found “four involved pilots who were relatively new to air-tour operations in Hawaii, three of whom had been operating for less than two months.” The Board cited the pilots’ inexpe-rience in assessing local weather conditions

as a contributing factor and recommended that the FAA develop and require “a cue-based training program for pilots that specifically addresses local weather phe-nomena and in-flight decision-making.”

Hawaiian air tour operators have been working with the FAA for years to get weather cameras installed at strategic mountain locations there without success. Hawaii’s microclimates are localized and change rapidly, and unforecast weather has been blamed for numerous fixed- and rotary-wing accidents. The NTSB noted several items in its chief investigator’s

report on the 2011 Blue Hawaiian crash that touched on the difficulty of obtain-ing accurate weather information in Hawaii. Particularly telling was the inter-view of the company’s chief pilot who noted that while the company’s helicop-ters were fitted with the Garmin G500H system, which can display downloaded weather information, it often had limited utility in Hawaii as airport weather data used for the system was not always appli-cable. “[He] further mentioned that the company has been trying with the FAA to get weather cameras up along the coast-lines of the islands; however, they are hav-ing difficulty getting funding. [He] also stressed that the company has limited radio contact with its helicopters because their radios are restricted to line of sight. There is no repeater; therefore, transmit-ting capabilities are not good,” according to the NTSB report.

The FAA’s own data from Alaska shows that a federally-funded system of 221 aviation weather cameras installed there since 1999 have become a critical aid to flight planning and have enhanced safety. A 2012 FAA survey of Alaska Part 135 operators concluded that weath-er-cam data has become an integral part of flight planning and go/no-go deci-sion-making. The NTSB credits them with contributing to a 53-percent reduc-tion in weather-related aviation accidents between 2008 and 2011. The cameras also helped cut unnecessary flight hours due to unreliability of weather informa-tion by 64 percent.

The FAA Aviation Weather Camera Program Office’s Aviation Weather Cam-eras website is available at http://avcams.faa.gov. The only cameras on that site are the Alaska cams. There are also a number of aviation weather camera views on the web, maintained by various entities.

Blue Hawaiian maintains its own web cams at airports where it oper-ates, although these cameras don’t show off-airport areas where weather has been a problem. o


Helicopter tours are a staple of the Hawaii experience, but localized weather can create deadly hazards. Nevertheless, a plan to install weather cameras is on hold.

Appareo Vision 1000 tracks critical flight databy Thierry Dubois

Appareo Systems (Booth 1950) is here promoting its Alerts (aircraft log-ging and event recording for training and safety) flight data monitoring solution. The system uses an onboard, lightweight camera and accompanying sensors to allow users to replay flight parameters recorded during the flight and review deviations from company and regulatory standards. The main component of the Alerts system, the Vision 1000 hardware, is offered as standard equipment on a growing number of helicopters, nota-bly Airbus Helicopters light singles and twins. The next STC should be for the Bell 407 single.

“The only thing Vision 1000 needs from the aircraft is power,” sales man-ager Casey DeLanghe told AIN. The unit can be fitted under the cockpit’s ceiling and includes a GPS receiver and electronic gyroscopes and acceler-ometers, as well as a microphone and high-resolution camera. The Vision 1000’s small size makes it easy to install, according to the company.

Flight data, images (at four frames per second) and audio are recorded both on an SD card and an internal

crash-hardened memory module. The SD card can store up to four hours of imagery and audio and 200 hours of flight data. The internal memory is lim-ited to two hours of images and audio but has the same capacity as the SD card for flight data.

Multiple ApplicationsThe typical use, DeLanghe explained,

is replaying synchronized flight data, audio and images immediately after a flight. To spot deviations from standard operating procedures or unwanted trends, trigger events are customizable. “On an image, you can zoom in on an instru-ment,” DeLanghe noted. Applications range from maintenance to accident anal-ysis and improving pilot proficiency.

Asked about privacy concerns, DeLanghe emphasized that organiza-tions using Vision 1000 and Alerts should have a “just culture” and use established best practices. “In our servers, the infor-mation is de-identified,” he added. It can be re-identified at the operator’s level through dispatch records, in case of a se-rious deviation.

The Vision 1000 unit sells for “under

$10,000,” DeLanghe said. On the other end of the scale are

Appareo’s Stratus 1 and 2 portable ADS-B receivers, also on display at the company’s Heli-Expo booth. The Stra-tus units are designed to work with the ForeFlight Mobile iPhone/iPad app. Both the Stratus 1 and 2 are equipped with a GPS receiver, which provides position information to the ForeFlight app, and a dual-band ADS-B receiver, which receives free weather and traf-fic information. The traffic capabili-ties include reception of broadcasts from ADS-B-out-equipped aircraft, on both ADS-B frequencies (1090 and 978 MHz) for the Stratus 2 and 978 MHz for Stratus 1. The Stratus 2 adds AHRS sensors that deliver attitude information to ForeFlight Mobile’s synthetic vision display. ForeFlight itself offers a flight-data recording feature, and a recent firmware upgrade to Stratus 2 enables that device’s own recording functions. Up to 20 hours of GPS and AHRS data can be stored. ForeFlight is available for $149.99/year plus $25 for synthetic vision. Stratus 1 costs $499 and Stratus 2 $899. o


Lightspeed Aviation Excellence in Communications Award

The Helicopter Association International has named Michael Hirschberg, executive director of the American Helicopter Society (AHS) International, as this year’s recipient of the Lightspeed Avia-tion Excellence in Communica-tions Award, presented annually to the individual or organization achieving the most creative and distinct dissemination of infor-mation about the helicopter in-dustry. AHS International is the world’s oldest and largest verti-cal flight technical society, pro-viding since its inception in 1943 leadership for scientific, techni-cal, educational and legislative initiatives that advance the state-of-the-art in rotorcraft design and development.

The award is being presented at the Salute to Excellence awards ceremony tomorrow at 8 p.m.

“This is such an incredible honor for me and for AHS Inter-national to be recognized for the prestigious Excellence in Com-munications Award,” said Hirsch-berg. “This is like winning the Pulitzer Prize for the rotorcraft industry. Thank you to HAI and Lightspeed Aviation for sponsor-ing the award.”

An aerospace and mechanical engineer by training, Hirschberg is an internationally recognized lec-turer on vertical flight, frequently presenting at meetings, confer-ences and universities, and is the author or coauthor of more than 100 articles on rotorcraft, V/STOL and advanced aircraft develop-ments, including three books. He has served as editor of the AHS’s bi-monthly (previously quarterly) publication Vertiflite for the past 15 years. “I actually started writing for the magazine in ’97 and became the managing editor of the mag-azine in my spare time in 1999,” Hirschberg told AIN, adding that he officially became an employee of the association in 2011, when he was named executive director. In addition to organizing all AHS technical conferences and the society’s annual forum, he also publishes the Annual Forum Pro-ceedings and the Journal of the AHS. “Engineers, technologists and scientists aren’t necessarily the best communicators,” said Hirschberg. “If I can help explain important issues to engineers and translate between engineers and aviators and government planners and have them understand each other, that’s the best way to ad-vance rotorcraft.”

In selecting him for the award, HAI noted that his work on AHS

International publications has made him “an important con-duit for sharing vital information among the vertical lift industry’s technical community.”

Hirschberg earned a bachelor of science in aerospace engineer-

ing in 1991 from the University of Virginia, and his M.E. in mechani-cal engineering from the Catholic University of America (1996). In 2013 he added a master of busi-ness administration from Virginia Polytechnic Institute.

His experience in the industry include eight years as a consultant in the Department of Defense’s Joint Strike Fighter Program office

supporting the development of the X-32 and X-35 vertical flight pro-pulsion systems. Prior to joining AHS he spent more than a decade with Centra Technology, provid-ing technical and program man-agement support on advanced rotorcraft and aircraft concepts to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the Office of Naval Research. –C.E.


Michael Hirschberg

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New assets for Erickson expand Brazil footprintby Mark Huber

Erickson (Booth 1528) is expanding its operations in South America in the wake of its

2013 acquisitions of the helicop-ter assets of Evergreen Helicop-ters and Brazil’s Air Amazonia.

Earlier this year, Erickson announced a two-year deal with Brazil’s HRT Participações em Petróleo to provide two Sikorsky S-76C+ helicopters to service a rig 60 miles off the coast of Rio de Janeiro. Air Amazonia has been HRT’s aerial service provider since 2011. “This con-tract builds on our work being executed in Ecuador, Peru and

Brazil and solidifies our strategic presence in South America,” said Udo Rieder, Erickson president and CEO. “This is our first win in the offshore oil and gas mar-ket and we look forward to con-tinuing to expand our presence.”

Despite the recent downturn in world oil prices, Erickson remains upbeat about the prospects for serving the Brazilian offshore

market. “Brazil is expected to lead the global growth of the oil and gas market over the next sev-eral years and is anticipated to see the highest increase in ranking of the world’s oil reserves between now and 2020,” Rieder said.

Since the Evergreen acqui-sition, Erickson has sought to diversify its service offerings, according to Susan Bladholm, Erickson’s director of marketing and business development. “Our company has experienced tre-mendous change in recent years and we want to stabilize through our diversification. Overall, we want to grow and balance our business lines so we see a reduc-tion in market volatility, healthy organic growth and that we con-tinue to attract and retain the best talent in the business. If we do that, we’ll continue to be able to provide comprehensive solu-tions for some of the world’s most challenging problems. Our core competency is that we truly are a full-service, one-stop global aerial services provider for our customers. They have a need and know that we’ll figure out how to do the job efficiently and safely.”

Bladholm said Erickson’s mixed fleet and experienced workforce makes it ideally suited for diversification and future growth. “We have talent that has been with us for more than 30 years, and we have pilots with 30,000 flight hours. It’s a remark-able group of skilled technicians, engineers, project managers and problem solvers that we have on our collective team. Secondly, our diversification really does differentiate ourselves from the competition. There is crossover capability for our fleet comprised of light, medium and heavy air-craft we can leverage between business lines; we have approxi-mately 86 aircraft in our current fleet, but we lease many more at any given time. That gives us a lot of capability and capacity.”

Erickson is operating in some of the world’s most difficult mar-kets, according to Bladholm. “We do business all over the world, but not only that, we often are located in the most remote areas where little or no infra-structure–meaning roads or run-ways–exist. We currently have our crews and aircraft in Africa, Afghanistan, Greece, Turkey, Australia, Brazil, Peru, Ecuador, Canada and of course in North America. One of our biggest new challenges is learning the South America oil-and-gas mar-ket. Their economy is robust, and we have several contracts in the region, so we’re actively ana-lyzing how to effectively maxi-mize our heli-services there.” o


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BLR provides performance perks for 206L Dual Tailboom Strakes by Kerry Lynch

BLR Aerospace (Booth 2222) recently secured FAA approval for a performance increase for Bell 206L helicopters equipped with its Dual Tailboom Strakes, marking the latest certification in the company’s busy research and development program.

The FAA approval involves a flight manual supplement that permits up to 150 pounds of additional out-of-ground-effect hover performance. This trans-lates into at least a 10 percent boost in useful load, the com-pany said, but the performance increase will vary by operator and depend upon a number of other factors. The approval was BLR’s first for a performance-enhancing product for a light helicopter,

The company sees a broad market for the flight manual supplement: more than 1,700 Bell 206L variants have been delivered. Nearly 100 206-series

helicopters are equipped with Dual Tailboom Strakes. In addition to the 206/206L series, the Dual Tailboom Strakes are installed on various Bell OH-58 (military 206) models and the 205 and 212.

The strakes are designed to control rotorwash, reduc-ing undesired side-ways lift. They also improve stability by reducing turbulence under the tailboom and reducing tailro-tor pedal reversals by up to 38 percent.

BLR couples the strakes with a reshaped vertical fin for its Fast-Fin Tailrotor Enhancement and Stability system. That modifica-tion provides anywhere between 10 to 90 percent increases in use-ful load, depending on model and density altitude.

Initially certified on the Bell UH-1 and 212, the FastFin became standard on the Bell 412EP in 2010. That represented an important endorsement by the helicopter manufacturer, said Dave Marone, BLR vice pres-

ident of sales and marketing. Orders picked up steadily after that, and BLR recently delivered its 850th system.

Along with var-ious 212, 412 and UH-1models, Fast-Fins have been certi-fied on 204 and 205 models. “It is gratify-ing to see the FastFin

technology experience such wide-spread acceptance in so many market segments and regions,” Marone said.

The 412 has provided a steady flow of orders, but growth more recently has come from the

military market, he said. The government/military market accounts for 40 percent of new sales, with orders in 2014 from the military forces in the UK, the Philippines, Colombia, Thailand and Cyprus. Marone attributes the pick up in business to tight-ened military and government budgets, which encourages tech-nologies that boost efficiency.

“Having the ability to fly higher or carry more, all with greater stability, is a significant bene-fit,” he said.

Marone believes business will remain strong, saying the com-pany expects to sell more than 100 of the FastFin systems in 2015. BLR has sold more than 100 a year since 2011.

Even with the growth in the current models, the company is taking the initial steps to expand

into new Bell models and add other manufacturers to the lineup. BLR recently completed initial testing on four new heli-copter models that would bring its technology to Sikorsky and Airbus helicopters for the first time. BLR has successfully flown the performance enhancements on the Sikorsky S-61, Airbus AS350B3e and Bell 407 and AH-1 Cobra.

The preliminary flights val-idated that the technologies will improve out-of-ground-effect hover performance, clear-ing the way for further testing. While still in discussions with the various manufacturers, BLR is continuing the testing and could bring new modifications to the market for those helicopters over the next 12 to 24 months, Marone said. o


Dave Marone, v-p of sales and marketing at BLR.

BLR recently delivered its 850th FastFin aerodynamic enhancement system.


THALES, GREENWICH AEROGROUP FLIGHT TEST LIVEAERO ON S-92

Thales’s LiveTV Satellite Communications and distributor Greenwich AeroGroup (Booth 1546) have demonstrated the LiveAero airborne connectivity system on a Sikorsky S-92 in flight. The first test flight took place September 16 at Sikorsky’s facility in Coatesville, Pa., the companies said.

LiveAero provides three voice channels and one data channel that can be simultaneously used for voice, data and compressed video transmission on helicopters and fixed-wing air-craft. The system can support mission data requirements such as texting, email, Internet access, aircraft health monitoring and VPN connectivity during all stages of flight. Sikorsky chose the companies to install LiveAero on S-92s used for search-and-rescue missions.

“We were able to demonstrate in flight that the ‘Safe Triage System’ has the ability to capture and transmit all vital signs via wireless peripherals directly to emergency medical centers to aid in intelligent diagnosis,” said Thomas Tully, Sikorsky Aircraft engineering proj-ect manager.

Thales (Booth 4255) supplies a multi-element seven-panel phased-array antenna to com-municate with the Iridium network of 66 low-Earth-orbit satellites and manage the bandwidth between satellites. Flight testing included communicating with the Iridium satellites at a variety of azimuths, showing continuous connectivity throughout the flight envelope.

“This confirms that the technology provides the rotorcraft industry with a very sta-ble, high-availability data link,” said Thales LiveTV president Glenn Latta. –B.C.

Vision Systems refines methods for manufacturing components by Mark Phelps

Vision Systems offers a grab bag of innova-tive goodies for helicop-ter operators. A tier 1 supplier, Lyon, France-based Vision Systems (Booth 5404) has a pro-duction unit in Flor-ida and is showing its composite cyclic sticks; foul-weather windows and doors; helicop-ter subsystems; inflight entertainment (IFE) equipment; and a family of solar-protection prod-ucts, including cock-pit blinds, cabin shades and electronically dimmable window technologies.

The company has placed its focus on refining processes such as resin-transfer molding (RTM), thermocompression, thermoforming and drape forming. The result is a family of products that Vision Systems describes as easy to install and maintain and recognized as best-in-class by customers, including Airbus Helicopters.

For example, Vision Systems cyclic sticks are made from composite RTM material, enabling designers to form the complex geometries while maximizing strength and minimizing weight. The all-weather windows are made by combining thermocompression and drape-forming techniques, resulting in windows with high optical quality that are resistant to vibration and impact.

The IFE system on display at Heli-Expo is described as a “scalable and flexible solution” allowing customers to tailor the system to meet their needs. Buyers can customize the user interface and VIP options for work and entertain-ment, including varying configurations.

The system works with a single box and can incorporate hard-wired HD screens or interface wirelessly with mobile devices. External cameras are also avail-able for monitoring and recording the view outside.

Vision Systems electronically dimma-ble windows (EDWs) do double duty, providing solar protection as well as pri-vacy. They can dim from clear to dark in three seconds, reducing glare and heat inside the helicopter, and they help con-serve energy by reducing the need for air-conditioning. Fully dimmed, the EDWs block 99.9 percent of ultraviolet light. Controlled via touch panels or even pas-sengers’ mobile devices, the system has no moving parts, reducing maintenance costs and downtime. Current EDWs are available in flat or curved windows, and the system is available in multizone configuration, customizable with differ-ent colors and tints and also in gradu-ated darkness from top to bottom or vice versa. Vision Systems EDWs can also be combined with motorized roller or pleated shades, bringing warmer design elements to the helicopter cabin. o

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EAGLE COPTERS PREPARES

FOR FIRST 407HP DELIVERIES

Eagle Copters expects to make initial deliveries of its re-engined 407HP in early summer, after securing supplemen-tal type certificates from the FAA and Transport Canada in late 2014. The Canadian company has orders for three of the upgraded Bell 407s.

The 407HP is powered by Honeywell’s 1,021-shp HTS900-2-1D turboshaft, which replaces the original 813-shp Rolls-Royce 250-C47. Equipped with a dual-channel Fadec, the new powerplant delivers up to 22 percent more takeoff power and significantly improved hot-and-high performance as well as improved payload, speed and operating costs.

The upgrade provides a 19 percent increase in gross weight capability at 10,000 feet, and a 40 percent increase in payload at 12,000 feet. Fuel burn is reduced by up to 17 per-cent and direct maintenance costs should amount to around 12 percent less than those for the original 407 model. Spe-cific fuel consumption at takeoff is reduced by 8 percent and by 10 percent at max cruise speeds.

The HTS900 engine was initially developed for Bell’s 417 and ARH-70 programs, which were cancelled, respectively, in 2007 and 2008. Honeywell based it on a new dual-centrifugal compressor architecture, which allows for higher power out-put with lower fuel consumption. According to Doug Kult, the engine maker’s product management director, mainte-nance requirements have been significantly eased by reduc-ing the number of mechanical parts. For instance, the use of a ported shroud avoids the need for a surge line. The use of cooled single-crystal blades means that operators can get 15,000 cycles from this part.

Eagle Copters sales and marketing vice president David Whiting told AIN that while hot-and-high applications are where the new engine “really shines,” he has been pleasantly surprised at the interest shown in the 407HP by operators largely working at sea level. Now that the upgrade has an STC, Whiting anticipates an uptick in sales. “When you are actually flying, it [the performance improvement] becomes very real and you can demonstrate it,” he said. “Now the industry will know what we know.”

The 407HP conversion kit costs $795,000, not including labor. Eagle Copters, which performs the upgrades at its Cal-gary, Alberta facility, estimates that the work takes around 1,000 man hours.

In some cases the upgrade will use 407 airframes pro-vided by customers, but Eagle Copters (Static 4 and 5) will also locate an airframe to be upgraded. The company is offer-ing a trade-in discount for existing C-47 engines. Currently, there are approximately 1,200 Bell 407s in service worldwide.

Eagle Copters, which is a Bell Platinum customer service provider, is aiming to convince the airframer to make the re-engining an option for the 407GX model. The company also has facilities in Chile and Australia and could handle upgrade work if there is sufficient demand from operators in those regions.

Customers can opt to have the conversion kit shipped to qualified maintenance shops of their choosing. The conversion requires minor changes in engine monitoring instruments. –C.A.


Bell updates progress on its two new modelsby Mark Huber

Matt Hasik, Bell Helicopter executive vice president for com-mercial business, reported solid progress on the 505 light-single and 525 super-medium-twin programs going into this year’s Heli-Expo.

The 505 made its first flight in November, and by early February the first flight test vehicle already had flown 50 hours. A second flight test vehicle took flight on Feb. 23, and a third will be added over the the summer. Cumulatively, Hasik expects all three flight-test ships to accumulate 600 to 800 hours during the certification program. To date, he said the program is

“moving along well and we are very confident.”

Hasik said he still expects the 505 to receive Transport Canada certification late this year and said that “for the most part” the supplier team had been selected, including Turbomeca for the dual-channel Fadec Arrius 2R engine (504 shp) and Garmin for the G1000H avion-ics. He said kit design to meet the 505’s three announced basic config-urations–utility, law enforcement, and corporate/VIP–were “well underway.” Hasik did not reveal an exact price for the 505, but said it would be “just over a million

dollars.” He said customer inter-est is strong with Bell holding more than 300 letters of intent.

Bell broke ground on its 505 production plant in Lafayette, La. in August. “We expect to move into that facility in early summer,” Hasik said, adding that assembly of the first production 505s should occur there late this year.

On the 525, Bell is aiming for first flight early in the second quarter of this year. Ground tests on the first test ship currently are underway and a second test ship is moving down the assembly line at Bell’s Amarillo, Texas facility. Altogether, five air-craft will join the flight test program, including three prototypes and two pre-production aircraft. Hasik char-acterized the quality of the part fit and finish on the 525 as “unprece-dented” for Bell. He said the safety of flight checks on the first test ship are largely completed including those for the rotor system, the latter includ-ing blade fatigue tests, dampers and elastomeric CF bearings. Completed drive system safety-of-flight qualifi-cation testing includes the intermedi-ate tail rotor gearbox and accessory gearboxes for the main rotor.

Flight control testing on the dig-ital fly-by-wire system also is going well, Hasik said. The first config-uration of the flight control soft-ware was frozen in November and safety-of-flight tests on it “are pro-ceeding quite well. We do anticipate making changes to the software in response to things that we see [dur-ing flight test] and we will be add-ing capability to the software as the program goes on. We will freeze the software code, in all probability, late in the flight test program.”

Design and development on the first two kits for the 525–oil and gas (OGP) and search-and-rescue– is proceeding after thorough vet-ting with customer advisory groups. Bell is developing 16- and 20- passenger interiors for the OGP mar-ket. “Those are the two largest mar-ket segments we anticipate for the aircraft,” Hasik said. Other kits to be developed include utility, firefighting and corporate/VIP/VVIP. o

The cold Canadian winter hasn’t slowed test-flying for Bell’s 505 light single. It passed the 50-hour milestone early last month.

Bell is shooting for this year’s second quarter for first flight of its super-medium-twin Model 525. Mike Hasik, executive v-p for commercial business, said Bell has plans for VVIP interiors (below) that are “quite extraordinary.” Other markets include utility and firefighting roles.

Honeywell’sHTS900-2-1D

RMCI showing new software for diagnostic, analytic monitoringby Thierry Dubois

RMCI, a Huntsville, Ala.-based company specializing in helicopter health and usage monitoring systems (HUMS) and helicopter flight data moni-toring (HFDM), is here promot-ing its Krēnē analysis software program. Also on display at Booth 4250 and designed for use with Krēnē is RMCI’s light-weight expandable rotorcraft diagnostic system (XRDS).

Krēnē is scheduled to enter service soon with an uniden-tified large-fleet operator. It provides a streamlined inter-face and faster processing of data for monitoring both vibra-tion (revealing aircraft health) and flight parameters (reveal-ing how the aircraft is flown), according to the company. The software can also be used with HUMS hardware made by other manufacturers.

The XRDS is expected to be STC’d on the Airbus Helicop-ters AS350 AStar, Bell 407 and Bell 206 singles in the middle of this year. XRDS is shown here in its latest form factor, about two-thirds the size of the previ-ous iteration.

Using Krēnē with XRDS offers significant speed advan-tages over other systems, RMCI CEO Ken Speaks told AIN. “Downloading takes seconds, as opposed to minutes,” he said, adding that the subsequent data interpretation is much faster with Krēnē as well. By combin-ing HUMS and HFDM analy-sis, Krēnē can allow operators to identify at precisely which point during the flight a particu-lar defect appeared, he said.

Krēnē can also open new ave-nues for monitoring the health of a helicopter. RMCI or the customer operator can create new indicators, shedding light on, for example, a correlation between gear damage and a par-ticular vibration pattern. “This significantly empowers the oper-ator,” Speaks said.

RMCI’s XRDS weighs less than five pounds, including sen-sors, according to Speaks, and its price is said to make it afford-able for light twins and even singles. For its new onboard sys-tem, RMCI is developing “a new patent-pending approach for detecting cracks and moni-toring propagation,” he added.

Speaks and RMCI engineer Lance Antolick will present a

safety case for HUMS at one of the HAI Rotor Safety Chal-lenge sessions tomorrow at 8:30

a.m. in Level III South in the Orange County Convention Center here in Orlando. o


The Krēnē analysis software program allows flight replays with synced images, audio and data.

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L-3’s Lynx transceiver family comes in a variety of flavorsby James Wynbrandt

L-3 Communications (L-3’s Wescam division is exhibiting at Booth 3259) recently unveiled its line of Lynx Multi Link Surveillance System ADS-B trans-ceivers, first announced at last year’s EAA AirVenture show. The Lynx NGT (NextGen Transponder) units incorpo-rate a rule-compliant GPS sensor in a single box, simplifying installation and eliminating the need to wire a separate GPS source.

The product line includes three remote boxes, the NGT-1000, -2000 and -2500, and the panel-mount NGT-9000 ADS-B out/in transceiver with built-in touch-screen display. A remote version, the NGT-9000R, is available without the touchscreen display.

The NGT-1000, -2000, and -2500 series units operate on the 978 MHz Universal Access Transceiver frequency, which meets the 2020 ADS-B out mandate for aircraft that fly below 18,000 feet. At the top end of the line, the NGT-9000 also includes the 1090 MHz Extended Squitter frequency required above 18,000 feet in the U.S. (but usable at any altitude in the U.S. and world-wide), and displays ADS-B in traffic and

weather. Incorporating both 978 and 1090 MHz frequencies maximizes reception of traffic information (ADS-B, ADS-R and TIS-B). The -9000 units can also display L-3’s Traffic Advisory System (TAS) tar-gets, for occasions when ADS-B coverage isn’t available or targets aren’t ADS-B out-equipped, according to Todd Scholten, chief pilot for L-3 Aviation Products. The -9000 installation can include a Wi-Fi module for displaying data on iPad and Android apps.

L-3 Communications’ Aviation Prod-ucts division ACSS (a joint venture between Thales and L-3 Communica-tions) already serves the Part 25 market with the NXT-600 and NXT-800 ADS-B out transponders. The new Lynx sys-tems add Part 23 aircraft to the compa-ny’s product mix. Helicopters can use the NXT-600 or the new Lynx units.

The basic NGT-9000 retails for $6,800 while the NGT-9000D+ with NextGen Active Traffic and antenna diversity is $11,933. The NGT-2000 retails for $3,200 and the NGT-2500 is $3,467. The NGT-1000 is available exclusively through the NextGen GA Fund, and introductory dealer pricing will be $1,599. o


MA

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L-3 Communications features a wide range of affordable ADS-B solutions through its Lynx line of transceivers. The NGT-2500, left, lists for $3,467, while the panel-mount NGT-9000, above, starts at $6,800.

RETRO ROTORS

The Vietnam era produced many of the pilots who established the rotorcraft industry as we know it today. For many of them, the rotary-wing war horse they rode into combat looked a lot like this one, a Bell AH-1 Cobra gunship on display during Heli-Expo 2015.�

AW189 wins FAA blessing, as delivery schedule ramps upby Mark Huber

AgustaWestland received FAA cer-tification validation for its new AW189 super-medium twin on Friday following test flights conducted earlier this year. In February 2014, the AW189 received approval from EASA, which certified a search-and rescue-variant of the helicop-ter in January 2015.

More than 150 AW189s have been sold, including options, and 14 have been delivered to customers as of last week. To date, large fleet customers include the Bristow Group, which has placed a firm order for 11 AW189s for use on a UK search-and-rescue contract and for off-shore operations. Other large fleet cus-tomers include Gulf Helicopters and Era,

with 15 orders each.A civil variant of the military AW149,

the AW189 was unveiled at the Paris Air Show in June 2011 and is 12 feet longer, four feet taller and 5,000 pounds (at 17,900 pounds mtow) heavier than Agusta- Westland’s AW139 intermediate twin. Compared to the AW139, the AW189’s cabin is 25 percent larger, with seating for up to 18 passengers.

Power comes from a pair of 2,000-shp, Fadec-controlled GE CT7-2E1 tur-boshafts. The helicopter has a Rockwell Collins glass-panel avionics suite that is compatible with night-vision goggles, a four-axis autopilot and optional rotor ice-protection system. o�

AgustaWestland’s AW189 super-medium twin has notched sales of better than 150 units, so far.

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Simon Spencer-Bower receives HAI’s W.A. “Dub” Blessing Award

The Helicopter Association Interna-tional’s W.A. “Dub” Blessing Award for the Certificated Flight Instructor of the Year recognizes superlative contributions by a helicopter flight instructor in upholding high standards of excellence. That description certainly applies to this year’s winner: Si-mon Spencer-Bower, the owner, operator, chief pilot and chief flying instructor for Wa-naka Helicopters in Wanaka, New Zealand. With three decades of flight instruction and nearly 21,000 total flight hours, Spencer-Bower was also honored with the Queen’s Service Medal by the New Zealand govern-ment in 2010 for his contribution to safety in aviation. “I feel extraordinarily privileged to be awarded this award, and it’s nice to see that HAI is recognizing people from around the world,” Spencer-Bower told AIN.

While growing up on a farm, Spen-cer-Bower was enthralled by the activities of the crop dusters, and as soon as he graduated from school, he earned his fixed-wing pilot license in 1967 at the age of 18. He soon tackled his commercial certificate, before adding single- and multi-engine helicopter licenses in the late 1970s. “I think there were only two or three civilian instruc-tors in the whole country, and I had a devil of a job getting an instructor to teach me to

fly,” he recalled. “Then you only got about seven hours’ dual instruction, so because I was a fixed-wing pilot, after I soloed I just flew the helicopter around like an airplane and taught myself the rest, basically.”

While he did not intend to become an in-structor, he realized that the dearth of civil helicopter training in the country presented an opportunity. “As a number of people were asking me if they could learn to fly as well, I eventually got my instructor ticket and it started from there.” In his 30 years as a training provider, Spencer-Bower has tallied 12,500 hours in helicopter dual in-struction and estimates that he’s graduated approximately 600 pilots. “We’re not a large flight school, just six or eight employees. For a long period of time it was only me that was instructing, and it just gradually built up. So it’s not a huge number, but in the context of New Zealand helicopter schools, it’s the highest number of any operator in this country.” He is also a New Zealand Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) flight examiner.

Today Wanaka Helicopters operates four Robinson R22s, three R44s and an Airbus AS350 AStar. With more than 15,000 flight hours in Robinson helicopters alone, Spen-cer-Bower is one of the company’s highest flight-hour operators in the world.

In terms of his training mindset, he looks to provide his students with more than the standard stick-and-pedal instruction. “When I learned to fly an airplane, I was taught that way, and when I became a private pilot I was totally unprepared for the real world,” he said. “My overall philosophy is to teach people to have good decision-making skills, so that puts them in good stead for the rest of their aviation career.”

One of his pet peeves over the current level of global training is the reliance on newly-minted instructors. “One thing I have learned is the older and wiser you get and the more experience you have, the easier it is to get students through their license,” he told AIN. “I think half the problem with a lot of organizations around the world is that in-structing is the first job that a lot of pilots get straight out of their commercial tickets, and what happens is you get the blind leading the blind. Even if you do employ a junior in-structor, you need to have a senior old wise owl at the top who can mentor them and pass on good information.”

Along with the ab-initio training his com-pany provides, Spencer-Bower also devel-oped a course that takes into account the island nation’s challenging topography. “Because New Zealand is covered with hills and mountains, one unique aspect of our license is that all candidates must do mountain flying as part of the coursework,” he explained. Even experienced high-hour pilots who had not flown in such situations

could quickly find themselves in trouble. “We found that there are pilots coming in from overseas that had never flown in the mountains before,” he noted. Wanaka’s Ad-vanced Helicopter Mountain Flying Course attracts approximately 20 customers a year.

In addition to instruction, the company provides sightseeing flights over the re-gion’s stunning landscape, which was home to many of the filming locations for the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit movie trilogies. Other missions include transporting hunt-ers, fishermen and skiers to their various remote destinations, all of which can also provide a benefit to students, according to Spencer-Bower. “One aspect of the flight school which is interesting for students is that they can see a commercial operation going on and they can sometimes help out,” he said. “It gives them a little bit of real-world experience.” –C.E.


Pilot of the year

Simon Spencer-Bower is this year’s winner of the Flight Instructor of the Year award from HAI.


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Rolls-Royce Excellence in Helicopter Maintenance AwardChances are anyone who owns, oper-

ates or maintains a Robinson helicopter has either spoken with the 2015 winner of the Rolls-Royce Excellence in Helicopter Main-tenance Award or read some of his work.

Patrick Cox is the director of product support for Robinson Helicopter and is a prominent figure in the development of the technical aspects of all three of the com-pany’s models: the R22, R44 and R66. He co-authored the maintenance manuals for both the R44 and the R66 and has devel-oped many of the procedures, techniques and special tools for all three models.

Though Cox has distinguished himself in the hands-on aspect of developing and maintaining his employer’s products, he is also an inveterate teacher and has taught more than 3,000 maintenance technicians to qualify them to work on R22s and R44s. And as many of the testimonials support-ing his nomination for the award noted, he is always available to help a mechanic, no matter where in the world they might be working. The underlying reason for Patrick Cox’s success is he doesn’t view what he does as his job; it’s his life.

“I had numerous lucky breaks,” Cox told AIN. “The die was cast when my parents gave me an Erector set when I was still a toddler, as I had shown an aptitude for me-chanical things. Later, as a four-year old, in 1963, my uncle sat me on his lap while he

piloted his Bonanza. From then on I would never miss an opportunity to fly with him until I obtained my own pilot certificate after graduating high school.”

Cox grew up on a family farm in North Dakota and attributes the experiences he gained living that life as a significant influ-ence. “It was my college,” he said. “My grandfather had a machine shop in his basement. My three uncles, in addition to being farmers, were all engineers, and my aunt was head reference librarian for a university. Combining all these Depres-sion-era characters with an impression-able, energetic boy willing to do what he was told and desirous of learning was a recipe for a successful, multi-discipline education. Also, perhaps because of the remoteness of our farm, safety was con-stantly emphasized.”

In 1968 Cox had his first helicopter ride, in a Sikorsky S-61 operated by Los Angeles Airways from Los Angeles to the Disneyland heliport. “That was it, I was enthralled,” he said. After high school, while working line service at an airport to raise money for fly-ing lessons, a friend introduced Cox to Doug Hillman who was working with Rudy Enstrom to certify a light, two-seat piston-powered helicopter. They hired Cox to work for them as a part-time employee.

“Doug had trouble raising capital for the project and they never were able to pay me,

but I learned a lot and I really enjoyed work-ing on aircraft,” he said. “After being an un-paid worker for a while I decided I needed a more reliable income and apprenticed at a corporate flight department, which operat-ed two Rolls-Royce-powered Gulfstreams. The steady income also allowed me to be-gin helicopter flying lessons in the R22; it was serial number 0004!”

Upon completing his apprenticeship, Cox earned his Airframe and Powerplant mechanic’s certificate and went job hunt-ing. “Herb Kelleher personally offered me a job with Southwest Airlines, which was in expansion mode at the time, but I wanted to work with helicopters. I moved to Scottsdale airport and contracted my services to local business-jet and heli-copter operators including the helicop-ter flight school where I learned to fly the R22. I ended up becoming their director of maintenance and at one point maintained 18 helicopters by myself with a dispatch reliability of 98 percent.”

Amassing significant experience with Robinson helicopters and regularly work-ing closely with Robinson Helicopter, Cox received a job offer from Frank Robinson at the company’s headquarters in Torrance, Calif. in 1990. “I have been a mechanic, inspector, technical writer, maintenance in-structor, technical representative, engineer-ing liaison, expert witness and ever a safety

advocate,” he said. “I get to fly and work with very talented people both here and around the world and I enjoy it immensely. I have been very fortunate and I am humbled by Rolls-Royce’s award.”

Cox continues to make himself acces-sible to operators worldwide and has built a well-deserved reputation as the number-one person for Robinson mechanics to turn to for technical advice and solutions. When he isn’t designing, developing or teach-ing, he commutes to the family farm in his Cessna Skywagon. –D.A.L.


Pilot of the year

Patrick Cox, director of product support for Robinson Helicopter, grew up among machinists and engineers.


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HAI teams with GAMA for certification updateby Kerry Lynch

HAI is working with the General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA) to take the next step in a poten-tial rewrite of Part 27 and 29 helicopter certification standards. The associations hope to convene a government-indus-try working group shortly that will assess the need and scope of such a rewrite, said Walter Desrosier, vice president of engi-neering and maintenance for GAMA. The working group will be similar to the Part 23 Aviation Rulemaking Committee (ARC) that comprised a number of inter-national regulators and industry experts.

The FAA already has signed on to such an effort. The agency in Febru-ary 2013 solicited comment on “inter-est in restructuring rotorcraft standards” and asked whether the standards should be completely changed or whether the agency should pursue more targeted changes. The FAA further asked about weight- and passenger-based standards

that separate the certification require-ments of Part 27 and 29.

Nearly 50 groups commented, most seeking at least some level of review of the existing standards. All but three of those commenters supported a close look at the weight and passenger thresholds between the two parts.

After reviewing the comments, the FAA in July 2014 issued a notice say-ing it “has determined that there is suffi-cient interest in the rotorcraft community to pursue further collaboration towards possible revisions to Parts 27 and 29.” The FAA added that it recognized that Part 27 and 29 have not kept pace with tech-nology and capabilities of new rotorcraft.

The interest in updating the standards had been growing over time, but a couple of key catalysts have pushed the issue to the forefront. One involved a petition by Bell Helicopter to increase the Bell 429 maximum weight beyond the certified weight threshold under Part 27. To be cer-tified under the less stringent standards of Part 27, a helicopter may not weigh more than 7,000 pounds. Bell was seeking a 500-pound increase to 7,500 pounds.

While numerous aviation authorities agreed to the weight increase, includ-ing Transport Canada, both the FAA and European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) rejected the petition, in part

out of concern that it would give Bell an unfair competitive edge. At the same time, though, the FAA said it was open to a review of the thresholds.

A second primary catalyst has been the Part 23 rewrite effort. The rewrite will move general aviation certification stan-dards from a prescriptive model to a con-sensus-based approach. Industry groups believe that many lessons learned from Part 23 can apply to Part 27 and 29, Des-rosier said. “The Part 23 rule will estab-lish a baseline on this kind of approach,” he said. FAA Administrator Michael Huerta also has indicated that if success-ful, the FAA could consider expanding the consensus-based approach beyond Part 23.

International Buy-in NeededThe effort, however, is still in the early

stages. HAI and GAMA are assembling a proposal to see if there would be sufficient

support. That support must include international backing, Desrosier said. Noting how dif-ficult it can be to get major rule changes adopted, he said, “We want to make sure we can pull forward with this.”

Internationally, both EASA and Transport Canada have indicated an interest in a Part 27/Part 29 review, Desrosier said. The associations are reaching out to other regulatory

agencies, such as Brazil’s ANAC, to gauge their interest. Once sufficient support is identified, then a government-industry group can narrow the scope and identify specific areas to be addressed. Desrosier characterized the effort as pre-ARC.

HAI president and CEO Matt Zuccaro calls the review long overdue, noting that HAI members overwhelmingly believe the initiative should move forward.

A key concern is that Part 27 helicop-ters have become more complex and their missions have changed to the point that it has “blurred the lines” separating the heavier ones certified under Part 29. Des-rosier said, “There is very little difference between some Part 27 and Part 29 aircraft.”

Zuccaro noted that in the Bell case, both the FAA and the manufacturer have valid concerns, but it highlights the need to hash out these issues. Also, avi-onics, electronics and other technologies are evolving at a fast pace, but the current regulations “can inhibit their introduction to the market,” Desrosier said. Operators would like to add new safety equipment to their helicopters, but the regulations can stand in the way, added Zuccaro.

Desrosier said a concrete recommen-dation for new certification standards could be developed in the next couple of years, but the end result likely would be six or seven years away. o

One of the catalysts in the move to rewrite certification standards is Bell’s request for a weight exemption on its Model 429.

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Both sides cheer FAA measure to track L.A. noise complaints by Kerry Lynch

In a move welcomed by operators and anti-noise activists alike, the FAA is pre-paring to launch a system by early spring to capture helicopter noise complaints involving flights over the Los Angeles basin. The system would mark the first time the noise problem over the region is fully evaluated, said HAI president and CEO Matt Zuccaro, adding it will help the FAA to take a more measured approach to tackling the issue.

The system is the latest in a series of initiatives the agency has taken in regions such as Los Angeles and New York’s Long Island as it faces continued political pres-sure to address helicopter noise concerns.

In Los Angeles, the FAA had long been under local fire for not taking more aggressive action to curb helicopter oper-ations. Driven by community anti-noise activists, lawmakers have pushed for the agency to issue a rulemaking to ban and/or limit operations at certain altitudes and areas of Los Angeles. But the agency has resisted, believing that a collaborative approach involving both the community and operators would address concerns much more quickly. The agency also has expressed safety concerns, given the com-plexity of the airspace in the region.

Congressional FundingNot satisfied with that approach, law-

makers included a measure in a fiscal 2014 appropriations bill essentially call-ing on the FAA either to demonstrate that voluntary measures were working or issue a rulemaking to impose restrictions.

To address the concerns and meet the congressional mandate, the agency agreed to set aside $250,000 for the noise- complaint system. “We have been working diligently on helicopter noise issues in Los Angeles for almost two years,” an agency spokesman said, adding that the noise

complaint system is part of that effort.The agency in late December awarded

a contract to Bruel & Kjaer to develop the system. Software development is expected to be completed within the next couple of months. The system is expected to take into account noise monitors in place at area airports to provide a complete pic-ture. It is expected to track the results of noise-abatement efforts as the FAA works with stakeholders to reach agreement on voluntary routes, procedures and memo-randums of understanding with operators.

The FAA is continuing to meet with operators and community members, and plans to report to Congress shortly on its progress. Some fear that reaching an agreement may be difficult, with some residents seeking far-reaching curbs.

In the interim, the announced noise-complaint system has drawn praise from local lawmakers. Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), who has believed that vol-untary measures are insufficient, said, “The establishment of a countywide helicopter noise-complaint system could be a significant development in our years-long fight to give L.A. residents the relief that they deserve.” Schiff also called the system a necessary first step to gather data about the extent of the prob-lem and potential remedies.

While designed as a venue for com-plaints, operators welcome the opportu-nity to gather noise data. Zuccaro noted that political pressure has created an envi-ronment of “regulation by legislation” without data backing up the need for changes. “It’s a dangerous precedent,” he said, adding that changing routes with-out conducting a full study could com-promise safety. This is particularly true in Southern California. “You couldn’t pick a more congested piece of airspace or a busier one,” Zuccaro said. o


Meanwhile, on the Right Coast...

HAI president and CEO Matt Zuccaro said he hopes the FAA mirrors the Los Angeles sce-nario (above) in New York, where Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) intervened to ensure man-datory routes were implemented over Long Island. The FAA in July 2012 issued an interim rulemaking to mandate what had been tempo-rary routes and then last summer extended the mandatory route requirements for two more years. In extending the routes, the FAA noted that it wanted to “improve upon decreased lev-els of noise that had been voluntarily achieved.” The agency conceded that when it originally mandated the routes, it “did not know the cur-rent rate of compliance with the voluntary route or the circumstances surrounding an operator’s decision to not use the route.” The extension is intended to give the FAA time to more fully eval-uate the routes to determine how effective they

have been and if modifications should be made.Without such an evaluation, Zuccaro fears

operators will face a growing number of restric-tions at the behest of lawmakers. “We’re very concerned about a domino effect,” he said, not-ing officials from other areas, primarily smaller communities, have contemplated whether they too could take action to curb operations in their communities. “Their logic is: ‘The FAA doesn’t control the airspace anymore. It’s elected offi-cials,’” he said.

These actions have ramifications, Zuccaro said. In New York, mandating the routes has concentrated helicopter operations in corri-dors and created new noise hot spots at both ends of Long Island’s North Shore. This has led Schumer to call on the FAA not only to make the routes permanent, but also to include fur-ther restrictions.� n

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Adding together the meeting space and floor space, the convention covers about one million square feet. “We’ll have approximately 750 exhib-itors on the floor and we estimate that the aircraft on display will be about 55,” Zuccaro said. The majority of the aircraft on display are real aircraft, not mockups.

Orders and sales announced during any con-vention are always impossible to predict. Zuccaro noted that, “Over the last few shows, the business level has averaged over two billion dollars for the three days of the convention.”

Helicopter safety is always an important goal of HAI, and the association has increased the num-ber of safety programs available for attendees at this year’s convention. Yesterday, the association kicked off its HAI Safety Symposium with a session led by officials of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and focused on managing risk in public helicopter operations. This was followed by the Safety Directors Forum, which featured discus-sions with senior FAA and NTSB officials on emer-gency response and post-accident procedures.

Started on Monday and continuing through Wednesday is the HAI Rotor Safety Challenge, which is offering 52 free safety events, each last-ing 45 minutes and covering a wide range of topics. Convention attendees who take part in at least six safety events will receive a special cer-tificate from HAI.

Other Heli-Expo activities are aimed at helping students interested in aviation careers and help-ing job seekers make contact with employers. The Helicopter Foundation International, HAI’s sis-ter organization, is hosting mentoring sessions for students today. Also today is the HAI Industry Career Fair for those who want to find that per-fect job in the helicopter industry...or any job.

Highlighting Heli-Expo this year, as it does every year, will be the annual Salute to Excellence Awards dinner on Wednesday evening. These awards honor those who by a single act or a life-time of work have reflected the best of the verti-cal-lift industry.

If you can’t make it to the dinner (and even if you can) check out the pages of this and the next two days’ issues of AIN’s HAI Convention News for stories about all of the Salute to Excellence Awards recipients. o


than 1,000 flight test hours, 600 of those in the last three years, about half of the estimated 2,000 hours required for certifi-cation, Scott said. That includes completing the flight envelope expansion and autorotation test-ing in 2014.

Over the course of 10 flight hours AW609 test aircraft made more than 79 power-off conver-sions from airplane to helicopter mode. AgustaWestland said the tests covered the full windmilling and autorotation envelope and that “the performance of the air-craft exceeded expected char-acteristics seen during [flight] preparation in the engineering simulator.” The company char-acterized aircraft handling dur-ing autorotation as “benign.” The Society of Experimen-tal Test Pilots awarded AW609 pilots Dan Wells, Paul Edwards and Pietro Venanzi, the pres-tigious 2014 Iven C. Kinche-loe award for their roles in those autorotation tests.

Two more test aircraft are scheduled to join the program and will be based in Philadel-phia. Aircraft 3 is currently being assembled at AgustaWest-land’s plant in Vergiate, Italy and should fly there in late spring before being shipped to Philadel-phia where it will be based for a variety of testing, including crit-ical icing trials at the end of this year. Aircraft 4 will be assem-bled in Philadelphia and used for flight testing as well as industri-alization purposes. Scott expects Aircraft 4 to be fully conforming

and fitted with all systems iden-tical to a production model. He said the fuselage for Aircraft 4 was already “on its way” to Phil-adelphia and that assembly of the entire aircraft likely would begin there late this year.

AgustaWestland Philadel-phia president Bill Hunt said that the assembly of Aircraft 4 would be performed is a segre-gated part of the plant and that two to three customer aircraft will be assembled there begin-ning in 2017 as part of a grad-ual production ramp-up. Once production matures Hunt said he expects a second AW609 assembly line to be established in Italy. AgustaWestland Phila-delphia currently assembles the AW139 medium twin and the AW119KXe single and soon will begin production of the new AW169 twin. Hunt said that a large part of the AW609 engi-neering staff, currently working at AgustaWestland’s Arlington, Texas facility, will move to Phil-adelphia over the next year as more, but not all, of the flight test program gravitates there. Philadelphia also will have pri-mary responsibility for AW609 product support.

Changes and UpdatesScott enumerated recent

changes to the AW609. On Air-craft 2 in Italy these include changes to the air data computers and inertial reference platforms, an updated version of the fly-by-wire software, an upgraded flight control system, an automatic test system and a new pitot-static sys-tem, which now uses the same system installed on the AW139 medium twin.

Meanwhile both Aircraft

1, based at AgustaWestland’s Arlington facility, and Air-craft 2 have been flying Cat-egory A takeoff and rejected takeoff profiles that are produc-ing better-than-expected per-formance numbers, Scott said. Overall performance is better due to greater-than-expected benefits from ground effect, recent aerodynamic improve-ments that reduced weight and cut drag by 10 percent, the abil-ity of the AW609 to slow itself on one engine and the robustness of the landing gear. “We can put

the proprotors in super-droop and slow the aircraft down very quickly,” Scott said.

The airframe improvements came in part after delaying the program for vendor re-selection in 2013 on certain components and some aircraft redesign, Scott said. “We were unhappy with some components in terms of performance, weight or cost. So for the last three years we have been working hard to ensure that the aircraft is not only technically acceptable but financially acceptable to the

market in terms of acquisition and operating costs. We have significantly reduced the manu-facturing cost of the aircraft, by more than 10 percent.”

Part of this activity involved the redesign of the main cabin door. The new door is a two-piece clamshell design with an integrated step that is 35 inches wide and lighter than the one-piece door it replaces. Scott said this will allow the AW609 to be manufactured with the same door for all missions–SAR, EMS and VIP trans-port–and this is particularly practical in SAR configuration with a hoist. This practicality can be observed first-hand at Heli-Expo, as AgustaWestland has two AW609 mockups at the show, one in SAR and the other in executive/VIP configuration.

Scott said that 2015 is a big year for the AW609 program because “certification flight test-ing begins now in earnest” as well as other milestones includ-ing fuselage fatigue testing. “We’ve done all the develop-ment testing and all of the auto-rotation and performance work. Now is the time to knuckle down with the FAA” for flight test-ing and demonstrating other items such as the cockpit man-machine interface.

Scott noted that most ven-dors for the program, includ-ing Rockwell Collins for the Pro Line Fusion-based avionics, BAE for the flight control systems and Pratt & Whitney Canada for the PT6C-67A engines, already have been announced and that a few more announcements will be forthcoming for items includ-ing landing gear and the environ-mental control system. o

One of two AW609 cabin mock-ups here at Heli-Expo is configured for VIP transport, above. The flight-test program, below, is halfway through the expected 2,000 hours.

Heli-Expo 2015uContinued from page 1

AW609 gets big performance boostuContinued from page 1

Have you ever wondered how AIN produces its award-winning show dai-ly publications around the world? Well here at Heli-Expo 2015 you can find out if you come meet the AIN editorial team at 11 a.m. on Thursday, March 5 at Booth 2474 in the Orange County Convention Center. You’ll be able to meet AIN editors such as Charles Alcock, Chad Trautvetter, Matt Thurber and Curt Epstein, plus AIN video producer Ian Whelan.

We look forward to telling you how AIN provides the helicopter industry with news around-the-clock and how we produce daily issues at air shows and conventions around the world. We also want to hear your news and your perspective on the challenges facing the industry. � n

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