Airbus Helicopters is experiencing slower-than-expected deliveries for the H175 super-medium twin, certified during the oil-and-gas market’s frenzy but now, as with every rotorcraft in its category, suffering from the sharp downturn.

In May 2014, 21 deliveries were planned over the 2014-2015 period. At the time, AIN could see at least 14 H175s on the final assembly line. Yet, only six aircraft were in service as of late February 2016.

Only one company, Belgium-based NHV, is operating the type. NHV has logged 3,000 hours in 1,500 flights with its H175s. The operational readiness rate is above 90 percent, according to oil-and-gas sales manager Travis Latiolais.

The second launch customer, France's Héli-Union, has canceled its order, according to a source close to the operator. Russia's UTAir, the third one, did receive one example of the H175 but has leased it back to Airbus. The airframer is using it for marketing purposes. Last June, Milestone Aviation Group announced that it had increased its orders and options for the H175 to a total of 28.

In addition to the six aircraft in service and to the leased-back one, three additional H175s have been rolled out of the factory. Two are to be delivered to NHV and one to Mexico's Pegaso, which will operate it in the Gulf of Mexico. A total of 10 deliveries are scheduled this year.

The first handover of a VIP-configured H175 is slated for mid-year. “We have to certify VIP-specific components such as the swing door, steps, etc.,” industrial program officer Grégoire Verlut said. The first search-and-rescue variant, also undergoing a certification process, is to be delivered next year to Hong Kong’s Government Flying Service.

The weak production rate so far has been largely offset, in terms of workload, by changes requested by customers, according to Patrick Bessière, H175 program manager. For example, a last-minute choice for the windshield deicing option involves a lot of rework, he said. Airbus’s efforts to standardize the offshore oil-and-gas configuration mainly relates to electrical harnesses, but options normally have to be integrated early in the manufacturing process.

The standard production lead time for the H175’s oil-and-gas version is 30 weeks. Chinese partner Avicopter, which supplies subassemblies such as fuselages and tailbooms, is said to have “the basics in place.” The 50-percent stakeholder in the program has thus reached “the breaking point to accelerate” production. An Airbus employee is in charge of quality control in Tianjin, China before the subassemblies are shipped.

​​Further Developing the H175’s Oil-and-gas Version

A number of options and improvements are to become available soon on the H175, especially for offshore oil-and-gas operations. ADS-B out was certified in mid-February. A search-and-rescue mode for the autopilot is expected to be approved this summer. The optional Rig’N Fly automated system, designed to make approaches to platform-based helipads safer and simpler, is to be certified in the first half of 2017.

This year, mtow will be raised to 7.8 metric tons (17,180 pounds). This will translate into a 300-kg (660-pound) payload enhancement or an additional 40 nm in range. Whether the new mtow will be offered as standard or as an option is not determined yet. It does not involve any hardware or price change but may impact service life, program manager Patrick Bessière explained.

Limited icing protection is to be certified by year-end, too, with full protection planned for 2019 or 2020. ­

FlightSafety International (Booth 4245) will offer training for the Airbus Helicopters EC145 in a new Level D simulator at Metro Aviation’s Helicopter Flight Training Center in Shreveport, La. This is the first simulator of its kind in North America and was developed in cooperation with Metro. Training will begin later this year and FlightSafety will provide initial and recurrent training under its Part 142 single certificate.

The new FS1000 simulator built for the EC145 is equipped with FlightSafety’s Vital 1100 visual system, CrewView collimated glass-mirror display and 60-inch electric motion base. The Vital 1100 visual system provides detailed mission-specific imagery with improved scene content and environmental effects. The CrewView glass-mirror increases visual clarity and brightness while eliminating image degradation and distortion in the boundary areas.

Training for the Airbus Helicopters H135 is currently offered by FlightSafety in Dallas. Simulators for the Airbus Helicopters AS350B2 and H135 are now available in Shreveport. FlightSafety’s new learning center in Denver will provide training for the Airbus Helicopters AS350B3, H130, H135 and the Bell 407GXP using Level D-qualified simulators. FlightSafety also offers training for helicopters manufactured by Finmeccanica, Bell and Sikorsky and offers courses through its learning centers in Dallas, Lafayette, West Palm Beach; Stavanger, Norway; and Farnborough, UK.

Airbus Helicopters is exhibiting the H215 heavy twin here at Heli-Expo and is planning a demo tour in the U.S. right after the show. A major target is California’s Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, which has issued a tender for 15 helicopters. The winner could be announced at the Aerial Firefighting 2016 convention late in March in Sacramento. “If we win, this will be fantastic publicity,” said Fabrice Arfi, Airbus Helicopters v-p for business development. The requirement is for carrying 2.5 metric tons of water and accompanying firefighters, according to Arfi.

Airbus Helicopters also sees a huge potential for the replacement of aging Sikorsky S-61s and Russian Helicopters Mi-8/17s. But these markets were so far deemed out of reach. At the factory the company is now building in Brasov, Romania, lower labor costs will combine with a new industrial model. Only two standard configurations–a short and a long fuselage–will be offered, still allowing customers to add optional equipment. “In Brasov, we think we will reduce costs that we did not manage to reduce in Marignane [where all Super Puma family helicopters had been manufactured so far],” a spokesman told AIN. The first H215 delivery from Brasov is expected in mid-2017.

The H215 is the new name of the AS332C1e/L1e, and while it can be viewed as a lower-cost version of the H225, it features modern avionics, including the same four-axis autopilot. In a basic aerial work configuration, price is said to be in the $15.4 to $16.5 million range.

One of the NTSB’s primary goals, as described in its 2016 Most Wanted List of Transportation Safety Improvements, is to “expand the use of recorders.” These include cockpit image recorders, and Outerlink Global Solutions (Booth 9337) offers its Iris system with a new digital camera to help fulfill this goal.

Iris monitors voice and up to 300 parameters, providing operators with real-time insight into in-flight performance and status. Features include global push-to-talk radio and immediate alerts and warnings with aircraft data transmitted every 10 seconds.

The Iris camera, which has a variable focus that allows it to accommodate any cockpit size, provides HD video at a 30-Hz frame rate per second. It can provide video synced with the five-channel voice recorder, flight data and detailed animation.

“We recognized the significant drawbacks to the current video recording options currently available,” said Jeff Warner, Outerlink sales director. “Our Iris system leaves no uncertainty to the NTSB investigators with the capability of multiple 1080p HD video cameras and audio synced with the most comprehensive flight data available.”

Materials and manufacturing make the new helmet mount and battery pack for night-vision goggles offered by Aviation Specialties Unlimited (ASU) lighter, smaller and more durable than previous products, according to Jim Winkel, president of ASU.

With the new mount, goggles can be easily mounted to the helmet with one hand, while previous models required both hands, according to ASU (Booth 2000). The designs of the mount and battery pack are compatible with existing helmet mounts, battery packs and goggles. Flight-testing is under way, with certification expected this summer.

“The older helmet mounts are bulky and can break easily if the goggles are not inserted properly,” explained Kim Harris, ASU director of flight operations. Due to their weight, “They can cause discomfort to the head, neck and back with prolonged use.”

Aircraft coatings specialist PPG Aerospace (Booth 203) launched its new mobile app, which features information on the company’s transparencies, coatings, sealants, packaging and application systems as well as transparent armor and chemical-management services. There are also links to the company’s website and online technical data and material safety data sheets.

The app includes a map of PPG’s global aerospace sites as well as product and purchasing information. Users can submit questions and find information on PPG’s exhibits at trade shows. The free app can be downloaded from the Apple iTunes Store, BlackBerry World and Google Play.

“Customers said they wanted more product information, so we designed the PPG Aerospace mobile app as a convenient way to communicate with them and other users,” stated PPG senior marketing specialist Cindy Bandula Yates. “We created an infrastructure that enables us to easily update and expand resources, so once users download the app, they can automatically take advantage of new features.”

Curtiss-Wright Defense Solutions (Booth 111) and Ultra Electronics Flightline Systems (Booth 11445) have joined forces to develop Fortress HUMS, a compact and lightweight (13-pound) ED-112A-compliant cockpit voice and flight data recorder with integral health and usage monitoring system. The Fortress HUMS is optimized for use in rotorcraft and installs in a single box. The system is connected through a single cable routed through the aircraft and is suitable for retrofit or new rotorcraft.

The system combines Curtiss-Wright’s next-generation Fortress crash recorder with the integrated HUMS developed by Ultra Electronics. Fortress HUMS’s algorithms calculate the remaining useful life of components, potentially generating cost savings and increasing aircraft availability by reducing or extending maintenance beyond conservative periodic routines.

Fortress HUMS can accommodate up to 60 smart sensor channels. The distributed sensor network acquires all data parameters required for both HUMS and flight data recorder functions. This includes vibration data for mechanical diagnostics, engine monitoring and airframe monitoring; platform dynamics for rotor track and balance; analog and digital signals for HUMS usage monitoring, exceedance monitoring and regime recognition; and Arinc 429, analog and digital signals for flight data recording. Fortress HUMS can operate with the cockpit-area microphone, HD color camera, recorder independent power supply and ground replay software to provide cockpit voice, video and flight data recording capability. Fortress HUMS sensors can be repurposed, added or removed and then reprogrammed without the need to remove hardware from the aircraft.

Honeywell is taking a more cautious tone in its latest turbine-powered civil helicopter purchase outlook, which calls for 4,300 to 4,800 civil helicopters to be delivered from this year to 2020. This is some 400 helicopters fewer than in the avionics and engine manufacturer’s previous five-year forecast released 12 months ago, thanks to slower global economic growth and increased volatility in oil-and gas-related markets.

“The current global economic situation is causing fleet managers to evaluate new helicopter purchases closely, and that’s why we’re seeing a more cautious five-year demand projection compared with previous years,” said Honeywell Aerospace defense and space president Carey Smith.

While the survey showed new purchase-plan rates were stable, operators cited fewer total new model purchases over the five-year period. Make and model choices for new purchase decisions are most strongly influenced by range, cabin size, performance, technology upgrades and brand experience, according to the survey. By cabin size, light turbines are expected to account for 54 percent of deliveries over the forecast period; light twins, 11 percent; medium twins, 28 percent; and heavy, 7 percent.

South Korean firefighting and rescue operator National 119 chose Canadian maintenance, repair and overhaul provider Heli-One to conduct 12-month inspections on its Airbus Helicopters H225 fleet. The work was completed earlier this month at the customer’s facility in Seoul by a Heli-One team based in Stavanger, Norway.

This was the second 12-month inspection Heli-One has conducted for National 119, with the first having been completed in December 2014. Heli-One (Booth 5151), which is headquartered in Vancouver, holds an approved maintenance organization certificate from South Korea’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. The company also has bases in the U.S. and Poland.

“Operating a fleet of rescue aircraft means keeping all of our helicopters flying is critical to our ability to save lives,” said a National 119 spokesperson. “Heli-One’s expertise with the H225 aircraft and ability to perform the inspections at our facility will enable us to quickly return the helicopters to vital service.”

Officials from Rolls-Royce and Innova Aerospace signed an agreement yesterday at Heli-Expo 2016 to launch a technical development program to certify the RR300 turboshaft engine for the Innova Helicopters C630, a composite, single-engine helicopter. The agreement was signed by Jason Propes, senior vice president of helicopters and light turboprop engines for Rolls-Royce, and Greg Fedele, executive vice president of corporate development for Innova Aerospace.

Innova Helicopters, formerly known as Innova Composite Helicopters, is located at North Shore Airport in Auckland, New Zealand. Privately owned Innova Aerospace also owns Sierra Industries and Skyway Group. The C630 is a 3,200-mtow, five- to six-passenger utility helicopter with range of up to 450 nm (no reserve) and cruise speed of 125 knots.

Under the three-year support agreement Rolls-Royce will provide technical installation support the C630 certification program. Product development is expected to take 24 to 36 months. The initial type and production certificates are planned to be issued by the New Zealand CAA.

According to Tim McGrath, Rolls-Royce vice-president of customer business, officials of the two companies met at Oshkosh in July 2011. “We were impressed with the design of the helicopter and thought our engine would be a good fit,” he said. “That started the relationship.”

Said Fedele, “When choosing an engine for the C630, we wanted a partner that was as innovative as our company. We found that partner with the team from Rolls-Royce. We continue to build a world-class production and engineering team in New Zealand as we advance our certification program.”

Rolls-Royce already is building 100 RR300 engines per year under a contract with Robinson Helicopter for the R66, and McGrath said Rolls would have no problem increasing the production rate to accommodate the Innova C630.

Marenco Swisshelicopter will sign a letter of intent with Canada’s Horizon Helicopters for one SKYe SH09 here at Heli-Expo 2016. Whitehorse, Yukon-based Horizon specializes in mining support, firefighting and mountain operations. This is the third helicopter sale for Marenco in Canada. Marenco also announced a second letter of intent from existing customer Rotorworld, which placed its first order in 2014. The second SH09 will be based in Costa Rica.

Marenco brought the full-scale mockup of the SH09 light single to its Heli-Expo booth (3006). The new helicopter’s development schedule has slipped, and EASA certification is now expected next year. As of early February, flight testing was scheduled to resume before the Heli-Expo show.

“We are moving from developing a helicopter to creating all the processes we need to make sure we get the quality right, such as obtaining production organization approval,” CEO Martin Stucki told AIN. The company has grown to more than 100 employees. An additional 30 or so experts, outside Marenco, work on the project.

The first flight of the second prototype (P2) was pegged for the second half of February. “I wish we had done it earlier, but sometimes you are not in control of everything,” Stucki said. As of early February, ground testing had begun. Two test pilots are involved in the program.

P2 will open the flight envelope. P1, which first flew in October 2014, has not gone beyond translational speed (i.e. 15 knots) in more than 40 test hours. As for altitude, initial certification will go up to 13,000 feet, for flight in the Alps, Stucki explained. A certification upgrade will then raise the altitude to 25,000 feet, he added.

A third prototype, P3, will also be part of the certification program, which is expected to total several hundred flight hours. P3 will help determine the final changes on the aircraft before it reaches the production standard.

Stucki denied that the rotor head has been entirely redesigned, as suggested earlier. “We changed the concept a little bit,” he said. The new rotor head will first fly on P2 and then, “most probably,” be retrofitted on to P1. No major design changes were done on P2, according to Stucki, but small ones include replacing control push-pull cables with rods.

Last fall, EASA certification was still scheduled for “between June and October 2016.” It is now planned for 2017, followed by FAA validation approximately one year later. “We have enough funding until the first delivery,” Stucki said.

With a 5,842-pound mtow, the SH09 is designed to carry one pilot and seven passengers, which positions it at the higher end of the single-engine helicopter segment. Features include a composite-material airframe and a 1,020-shp Honeywell HTS900 turboshaft. Preliminary data indicates 140 knots at high speed cruise, 430 nm range and five hours of endurance. Sling load capability is expected to be 3,300 pounds.

On-condition maintenance for gearboxes, rotor blades and the engine will be another strong point, chief commercial officer Mathias Sénès told AIN.

The SH09's main competitors are the Bell 407, the Finmeccanica AW119 and the Airbus H125 and H130, according to Sénès. Dual hydraulic and electric systems will be standard on the SH09, which he expects will be a differentiator. These redundancies will become important as the market grows for single-engine IFR operations, he explained.

As of early February, the company had received letters of intent from about 45 customers for a combined 72 helicopters. The first deliveries are expected to take place immediately after certification in 2017. The supply chain will have been activated and final assembly of a few aircraft will have started prior to certification, Sénès said.

Marenco is already organizing customer support operations. With European customers that will receive their SH09s first, Marenco plans to test a fast-delivery process for spare parts.

Honeywell (Booth 4945) is taking a more cautious tone in its latest turbine-powered civil helicopter purchase outlook, which calls for 4,300 to 4,800 civil helicopters to be delivered from this year to 2020. This is some 400 helicopters fewer than in the company’s previous five-year forecast released 12 months ago, thanks to slower global economic growth and increased volatility in oil-and-gas-related markets.

“The current global economic situation is causing fleet managers to evaluate new helicopter purchases closely, and that’s why we’re seeing a more cautious five-year demand projection compared with previous years,” said Honeywell Aerospace defense and space president Carey Smith. Notably, the survey found that new helicopter purchase-plan rates in India and Brazil exceed the world average by a “wide margin.”

While the survey showed new purchase-plan rates were stable, operators cited fewer total new model purchases over the five-year period. Make and model choices for new purchase decisions are most strongly influenced by range, cabin size, performance, technology upgrades and brand experience, according to the survey. By cabin size, light turbines are expected to account for 54 percent of deliveries over the forecast period; light twins, 11 percent; medium twins, 28 percent; and heavy, 7 percent.

Global Demand

Looking at world regions, the survey indicated that Latin America leads all global regions in the rate of new aircraft purchase plans, despite an economic slowdown in Brazil. Respondents in the region expressed strong fleet replacement and growth expectations that were well above the world average, with 36 percent saying they plan to purchase a replacement or additional helicopter. This is up 8 percentage points from last year’s survey, Honeywell said.

In terms of projected regional demand for new helicopters, Latin America is now the second-highest hottest market, trailing only North America. Operators in this region favor light single helicopters (about 50 percent) and light twins (about 35 percent), with the balance being intermediate and medium twins.

The Middle East and Africa has the second-highest new purchase rate among the regions in the survey, with up to 30 percent of respondents saying they are going to replace their helicopter(s) or add more. More than 60 percent of planned new helicopter purchases are intermediate and medium twin-engine models, according to Honeywell.

In North America, purchase expectations fell two percentage points, to 15 percent, but still provide a “strong base of demand” for light single-engine (more than 60 percent) and intermediate or medium twins (nearly 25 percent). Still, “North American purchase plans are a significant component of the overall 2016 survey demand and help support global industry demand projections by virtue of the large fleet active in the region,” Honeywell said.

European purchase plans decreased slightly, to 25 percent, with continued weakness in reported Russian buying plans. However, the sample of Russian operators responding to the survey was small, adding “some uncertainty” to the overall European results, the company noted. This region tends to favor light twins and light singles.

Purchase plans in Asia Pacific were 16 percent, down 4 percentage points from last year’s survey. This is due to a gloomier outlook in China, where the economy is slowing and an anti-luxury backlash has emerged due to the government’s crackdown on corruption.

Charles Parks, Honeywell’s director of market analysis and author of the survey, told AIN that he is cautiously optimistic about helicopter purchase prospects in Iran, now that an international nuclear agreement is in force and sanctions are being lifted. However, the company did not survey any Iranian operators, so it does not have any concrete data to forecast demand in this country.

Bell Helicopter (Booth 317) formally launched its parts-only aftermarket service plans for customers with in-production and some legacy helicopters.

Bell’s Customer Advantage Plans will offer a fixed cost per flight hour with the goal of either meeting or beating the direct operating costs customers are already experiencing, according to Glenn Isbell, executive vice president, customer support and services. Isbell told an audience here at Heli-Expo that the plans were “not about high prices and partial coverage that are available in other areas. This is about guaranteed direct maintenance costs at a price that strengthens your business.”

The first announced customer for the plan is HEMS provider CareFlite of North Texas, which operates four Bell 407GXs. Bell also announced comprehensive coverage on the new 505 light single for parts and the engine for around $300 per flight hour. The rate couples Bell’s Customer Advantage Plan with Turbomeca’s Service by the Hour program. Customers will have premier access to Bell Helicopter’s dynamic components and Turbomeca’s standard engine exchange at no extra charge.

The Customer Advantage Plans feature two simple comprehensive plans with holistic coverage options including the standard and premier plans. Both cover the basic helicopter configuration with optional coverage for non-standard kits. Customers get preferred rates at Bell customer service facilities, the plans are transferable upon aircraft resale and there are no “buy-ins” for select premier fleet customers.

Isbell said, “There’s really two different offerings that we are going to have. There are the plans that we are going to sell to new aircraft. Those don’t change much and there is not a lot of variation. We’ll take into account how big a fleet they have and how much they buy, but they are pretty standard. Our big difference is that we are offering these to existing fleets. That is where we will tailor them specifically to how many aircraft they have, where their aircraft are in their operation.”

Isbell said the program may eventually be expanded to include labor.

In an effort to reverse slumping user ratings for its product support, Sikorsky has engaged in a major, multi-faceted overhaul of its customer product support business, and it will highlight those changes here at Heli-Expo, in a special customer support zone at the company’s booth (2617).

Sikorsky had already laid the foundations for the upgrade before its purchase by defense giant Lockheed Martin, according to Joe Triompo, the airframer’s recently-named vice president of customer support. “Clearly the survey results that we received from our customers and some of the feedback that we had received [said] that Sikorsky wasn’t as focused as it needed to be on customer service.”

To address that, here at the show, the Connecticut-based rotorcraft manufacturer announced the official grand opening of its new customer care center, which is staffed 24 hours a day, to provide immediate assistance in repair situations. The company’s telephone hotline feeds directly into the AOG support center, which has an integrated team consisting of customer service representatives, engineers and inventory and parts procurement specialists, who can guide the field service representatives and field repair teams around the world. Another function of the facility is a fleet management center staffed with analytical engineers and technical experts, which accumulates and reviews data from the Health and Usage Management Systems installed on Sikorsky’s S-92 and S-76 fleets around the world, to identify trends for forecasting parts wear and replacement schedules. Triompo said the S-92 fleet has now surpassed the one million hour service mark, providing an abundance of such data.

While Sikorsky has had account service managers in the past, it has recently increased staffing so that every commercial helicopter customer now has an assigned representative within the company. “He’s clearly the eyes and the ears of the customer,” Triompo told AIN, “giving us feedback as to the customers’ needs and desires and expectations. He’s also responsible to us internally to be sure that we’re having the appropriate-level meetings with the customer and reviewing their data with us.” The company has also relocated some of its technical support engineering staff to the new location in Trumbull, Conn., for easier access to maintenance experts.

In the past, all Sikorsky spare parts were dispatched from the company’s warehouse outside Atlanta, Ga., but in an effort to speed the delivery of spares, Sikorsky has just established its first forward stocking location, essentially a parts depot, in Stavanger, Norway, to support one of the world’s largest concentrations of its products. “Having material at the location of that fleet we see as a big advantage for our customers,” Triompo said. “Our plan is to open up a number of other forward stocking locations during the year so that we could again focus our material at the sites where our fleets are flying.” At the Stavanger location, which will also serve Europe, Sikorsky’s multi-million inventory is managed by material requirement planning (MRP) systems, which communicate directly with the new Trumbull service center.

Other locations eyed for parts warehousing include Brisbane, Australia-based MRO provider Helitech, which was acquired by Sikorsky more than a decade ago. This past year it was designated as the manufacturer’s first factory-authorized S-92 customer support center in the world. Last month, the company designated UI Helicopter in Yesan, South Korea, as an authorized customer support center to service the nearly 20 Sikorsky S-76s and S-92s currently operating in the country. Of the more than 20 support centers authorized by Sikorsky worldwide, only a small number are approved to provide MRO services for both of the manufacturer’s commercial transports. “We take a great privilege in our relationship with Sikorsky, since we are the founder of the helicopter industry in the Republic of Korea, with a long history in its profession,” said Albert Rim, president and representative director of UI Helicopter.

According to Triompo, who joined Sikorsky last July after more than three decades with former owner UTC, where served as president of United Technologies Aerospace Systems, and more recently vice president and general manager of UTC Power, Sikorsky is finalizing approval for two additional support centers, one in southern California, and one in Ontario, Canada. “Our goal is to achieve customer service excellence,” he told AIN. “I think we’ve really regained the focus and are committed to our customers from a standpoint of keeping them flying. We’ve put in more customer service centers, we’ve opened up the customer care center with the AOG and the fleet management, we’ve refocused the organization on customer support and we want to get that message out to everybody.”

Air Zermatt has ordered the Marenco Swisshelicopter SKYe SH09, becoming a launch customer for the new single-engine turbine helicopter. The Swiss operator, which was founded in 1968 to perform rescue missions in the Alpine regions and has expanded into a number of operations, said increasing requirements for performance and operational flexibility “require a conceptually new single-engine turbine.”

Air Zermatt CEO Gerold Biner added, “Important for us is the fact that Marenco Swisshelicopter enables us to influence the helicopter’s design with our 45 years of experience in aerial work and air rescue.”

Marenco Swisshelicopter, which just began flight testing the second SKYe SH09 prototype, is hoping for EASA certification in 2017 with FAA validation a year later. The company also kicked off Heli-Expo with a letter of intent from Canadian operator Horizon Helicopters.

Aviation Specialties Unlimited (ASU) has renamed N16HT Pro, its wireless recording and image-sharing night vision system, to Ecliptus, to make it more appealing to a larger audience. It has also started a Kickstarter campaign for a new product for a military-grade NVG GoPro video recording device.

“Ecliptus is the first product designed and developed by ASU that can be used in a variety of places by a number of different people, said ASU president Jim Winkel. “The Ecliptus fully integrates and compactly couples a GoPro camera with an intensified night-vision-equipped device without the necessity for large, optical relay lenses that are commonly used today. This opens the device to outdoor enthusiasts, weekend warriors, extreme sports athletes and other consumers.”

ASU (Booth 2000) offers Ecliptus for $5,499, but the company is offering a discount on the product to early adopters on Kickstarter.

From the outside, Frasca International’s AS350B2/H125 level 7 flight training device (FTD) on exhibit at Heli-Expo 2016 could be mistaken a full-flight simulator, because it sits four feet off the floor and is covered by a wide dome. When “flying” the trainer it’s easy to get so involved in the highly realistic scenes created by Frasca’s TruVision Global visual system, the vibration base, accurate aerodynamic and low-speed models and the movement of a real yaw string (cleverly controlled by computer and agitated by a fan on the floor below the cockpit) that you forget you are not really moving.

The FTD is almost completed and will be heading back to Frasca’s facility in Urbana, Ill., for the final development before being delivered to Canadian Helicopters at Edmonton Airport, Alberta. HNZ Company, which owns Canadian Helicopters, is sharing exhibit space (Booth 9256) and demonstrating the FTD with Frasca. Delivery is planned for August and qualification expected in September by Transport Canada, according to Randy Gawenda, Frasca business development manager. In fact, Gawenda added, “It will be the first level 7 FTD in Canada.”

The training device is convertible among three different configurations: the AS350B2, AS350B2VEMD and the AS350B3e (now the Airbus H125). The six-channel visual system provides a field of view of 200 degrees horizontal by 70 degrees vertical. It has a customized helicopter mission database that provides a pinnacle landing zone, rooftop helipads, confined landing zones, EMS accident scene, oil rigs and platforms and moving traffic, such as other aircraft and ships.

To meet level 7 FTD qualification requirements, Frasca needed to gather flight and systems data from a real AS350, in addition to data it had acquired earlier. It leased the helicopter from HeliMotion, which is owned by Indiana Helicopters, and flew about 30 flight hours. Gawenda said that a level 7 FTD costs $2 to $3 million while a full-flight level D simulator costs $8 to $10 million. He added that most of Frasca’s products are “fairly customized for each customer, so there are things we need to do specifically for each customer.”

Frasca is also showing a Robinson R44 level 5 FTD and a Sikorsky S92 cockpit procedures trainer (CPT) here at HeliExpo. “This range of helicopter devices on display illustrates Frasca’s expertise as a global leader in rotary-wing simulation as well as the company’s ability to build quality simulation devices for any customer worldwide,” said John Frasca, president of Frasca International.

The R44 level 5 FTD, which Frasca introduced at Heli-Expo 2015, is designed for use by flight schools, commercial operators and parapublic organizations. “We have since put dozens of pilots through it and continued to improve its fidelity and performance,” Frasca said. “We found it to be very effective at teaching hover and autorotations, as well as other tasks more commonly taught in the aircraft.”

The S-92 CPT, which includes all systems and avionics, provides a simulated, stationary cockpit for pilot training. Touch-screen monitors include multi-touch capability, which allows two pilots to activate multiple switches at the same time as part of crew resource training. Entering data into the actual flight management system in the CPT could not be more realistic unless you were in the real aircraft. A video screen above the glareshield simulates the view forward to give the pilots another indication of heading changes initiated by FMS entries.

Since its founding in 1958, Urbana, Ill.-based Frasca has delivered more than 2,600 FTDs and simulators worldwide.

Helicopter EMS provider Air Methods saw its fourth quarter 2015 revenue jump 9.3 percent over the same period a year ago, to $272.4 million; for the year revenue was up 8.1 percent to $1.085.7 billion.

“We are pleased with our fourth quarter results given the severe weather experienced in the quarter and the $4.6 million in costs that were higher than normal,” said company CEO Aaron Todd. Same-base transports declined by 223 in the quarter while same-base weather cancellations increased by 852. For the quarter, air medical services revenue increased by 7.6 percent, to $236 million compared with $219.4 million in the prior-year quarter, while segment net income decreased 2.2 percent, to $49.9 million compared from $51.1 million for the fourth quarter of 2014. The company conducted 15,817 community-based patient transports in last year’s fourth quarter compared with 14,209 in the same period in 2014, an 11.3 percent increase. Net revenue per patient transport increased by 2.2 percent, from $12,238 to $12,508 in the current year quarter. AMS maintenance expense was 16 percent higher in the current year quarter than in the prior year quarter, while total flight volume increased 3.2 percent. Fuel expense per flight hour decreased 19.6 percent.

Air tourism revenues increased 9.8 percent to $28.9 million in the current year quarter compared to $26.3 million in the prior-year quarter. Tourism segment net income was $0.3 million compared to a net loss of $0.4 million in the prior-year quarter. Total passengers increased 10.2 percent to 104,751 during the current quarter compared to 95,064 in the prior-year quarter, while total flight volume increased 8 percent. Tourism fuel expense decreased 23.8 percent.

Air Methods subsidiary United Rotorcraft’s external revenue increased 119.7% to $7.4 million compared to $3.4 million in the prior-year quarter and external earnings improved from a loss of $2.7 million in the year-ago period to a loss of $100,000 in the current quarter.

In the fourth quarter 2015 and in the first quarter 2016, Air Methods repurchased 640,010 of its shares for $25.9 million, leaving $174.1 million remaining on its authorized share repurchase program.

Global heavy-lift helicopter operator and manufacturer Erickson will expand on that latter capability with the announcement here at Heli-Expo that it has been selected as the U.S. manufacturer for the Seeker purpose-built light observation aircraft.

“To ensure the quality of the Seeker’s construction meets the demands of its end users, we are very pleased to have a partner whose dedication to excellence assures us of producing a top-quality aircraft,” noted Seeker Aircraft CEO David Pohlman. The light fixed-wing aircraft with short takeoff and landing (STOL) capability is currently flying operations in more than 10 countries including the U.S., where it is in use by the New Mexico State Police.

Based in Portland, Ore., Erickson (Booth 9251) recently bolstered its leadership by hiring industry veteran Rob Lewis as vice president and general manager of its commercial business unit. Lewis succeeds Andy Mills, who was named vice president of global business development. Also joining the company is Gary Starr, vice president of global supply chain; Erick Nodland, global director of operations; and Chris Maynard, Erickson’s business development manager for Alaska.

Known also for its heavy-lift helicopter maintenance, the company was recently subcontracted by Adams Communication & Engineering Technologies to refurbish two MH-53E Sea Dragons, the largest rotorcraft in the U.S. Navy’s inventory. The company also completed the delivery of the last of five out-of-production tail pylons to Sikorsky to support the U.S. Marine Corps CH-53E program.

On the operational front, the Erickson S-64F Aircrane continues to prove its versatility in a variety of operations around the world. The company was just contracted by NASA to study the concept of using a helicopter to conduct mid-air retrieval of spacecraft upon atmospheric re-entry. The company is also partnering with India’s largest private developer of power transmission systems to install nearly 160 power line towers in the country’s rugged Pir Panjal mountain range. It will mark the first time transmission lines will be constructed in India using a precision heavy-lift helicopter.

Lastly, the company recently announced the renewal of two Canadian aerial timber harvesting contracts, marking the company’s return to its roots. “Erickson has operated in Canada for more than 30 years,” said Mills. “Aerial timber harvesting is where we began as a company.”

Bell Helicopter (Booth 317) formally launched its parts-only aftermarket service plans for customers with in-production and some legacy helicopters.

Bell’s Customer Advantage Plans will offer a fixed cost per flight hour with the goal of either meeting or beating the direct operating costs customers are already experiencing, according to Glenn Isbell, executive vice president, customer support and services. Isbell told an audience here at Heli-Expo that the plans were “not about high prices and partial coverage that are available in other areas. This is about guaranteed direct maintenance costs at a price that strengthens your business.”

The first announced customer for the plan is HEMS provider CareFlite of North Texas, which operates four Bell 407GXs. Bell also announced comprehensive coverage on the new 505 light single for parts and the engine for around $300 per flight hour. The rate couples Bell’s Customer Advantage Plan with Turbomeca’s Service by the Hour program. Customers will have premier access to Bell Helicopter's dynamic components and Turbomeca's standard engine exchange at no extra charge.

The Customer Advantage Plans feature two simple comprehensive plans with holistic coverage options including the standard and premier plans. Both cover the basic helicopter configuration with optional coverage for non-standard kits. Customers get preferred rates at Bell customer service facilities, the plans are transferable upon aircraft resale and there are no “buy-ins” for select premier fleet customers.

Isbell said, “There’s really two different offerings that we are going to have. There are the plans that we are going to sell to new aircraft. Those don’t change much and there is not a lot of variation. We’ll take into account how big a fleet they have and how much they buy, but they are pretty standard. Our big difference is that we are offering these to existing fleets. That is where we will tailor them specifically to how many aircraft they have, where their aircraft are in their operation.”

Isbell said the program may eventually be expanded to include labor.