June 2013 Serving the Worldwide Helicopter Industry rotorandwing.

com

Synthetic Vision&
Safety Upgrades
Fighting the Flames
Paris: What to Expect
Australia’s Tony Dalton

Our customers excel at designing helicopters that raise
the bar for customer satisfaction. Robinson’s revolutionary
R66 is the latest example. A sleek blend of elegance and
power, the R66 sets a new standard for high altitude
performance and mission capability. At Rolls-Royce,
we’re proud our RR300 turboshaft engine is the power
www.rolls-royce.com
GTP 9534 (2013)
Altitude with
attitude
behind this refined aircraft. We spent years developing
an engine that provides more power at a lower cost. Now
we’re expanding our family of service centers to ensure
R66 owners are never far from the solutions to keep them
where they belong: flying.
Trusted to deliver excellence
EDITORIAL RADIO AUDIO DIGITAL AUDIO AUDIO-RADIO MGMT
Andrew Parker Editor-in-Chief, aparker@accessintel.com
Andrew Drwiega International Bureau Chief/Consultant,
adrwiega@accessintel.com
Ernie Stephens Editor-at-Large, estephens@accessintel.com
Claudio Agostini Latin America Bureau Chief

Contributing Writers: Chris Baur; Lee Benson; Shannon Bower;

Igor Bozinovski; Keith Brown; Tony Capozzi; Keith Cianfrani;
Steve Colby; Frank Colucci; Dan Deutermann; Ian Frain; Pat Gray;
Emma Kelly; Frank Lombardi; Elena Malova; Vicki McConnell;
Robert Moorman; Douglas Nelms; Mark Robins; Dale Smith;
Terry Terrell; Richard Whittle.

ADVERTISING/BUSINESS
Jennifer Schwartz Senior Vice President and Group Publisher,
jschwartz@accessintel.com
Randy Jones Publisher, 1-972-713-9612, rjones@accessintel.com
© 2013 Cobham. All rights reserved.

Eastern United States & Canada

Carol Mata, 1-512-607-6361, cmata@accessintel.com

International Sales, Europe/Pac Rim/Asia

James McAuley +34 952 118 018, jmcauley@accessintel.com

DESIGN/PRODUCTION
Gretchen Saval Graphic Designer
Tony Campana Production Manager,
1-301-354-1689 tcampana@accessintel.com
David Hurwitz Web/E-letter Production Associate,
1-301-354-1459 dhurwitz@accessintel.com

AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT
George Severine Fulfillment Manager, gseverine@accessintel.com
Jonathan Russo Marketing Manager, jrusso@accessintel.com The most important thing we build is trust
Customer Service/Back Issues 1-847-559-7314 rw@omeda.com

LIST SALES
Statlistics
Jen Felling ,1-203-778-8700, j.felling@statlistics.com Communication Without Limits
REPRINTS RADIO - FLEXCOMM™ Cobham Aerospace
Wright’s Media, 1-877-652-5295
sales@wrightsmedia.com #1 tactical communications solution Communications
Maximum interoperability: coverage of every 6400 Wilkinson Drive
ACCESS INTELLIGENCE, LLC aeronautical, public service, military voice Prescott, AZ 86301 USA
Donald A. Pazour Chief Executive Officer communication frequency
Ed Pinedo Executive Vice President/Chief Financial Officer 1-928-708-1550
Maximum power = clear, long-range
Macy L. Fecto Executive Vice President, Human Resources & sales.prescott@cobham.com
Administration communication
Heather Farley Divisional President, Business Information Group
Sylvia Sierra Senior Vice President of Corporate
Audience Development AUDIO - N301A
Robert Paciorek Senior Vice President/Chief Information Officer
Michael Kraus VP, Production, Digital Media & Design Ideal for single-/multi-user networks
Steve Barber Vice President, Financial Planning and Internal Audit Enhanced noise reduction
Gerald Stasko Vice President/Corporate Controller
Alison Johns Vice President, E-Media, Business Information Removable, customizable legends
Group
DIGITAL AUDIO - DACS
Visit us at Booth 537
The most-installed digital audio system ALEA Annual Conference
on civil aircraft July 17-20 l Orlando, FL
Enhanced performance
For photocopy or reuse requests: Reduced weight, complexity, cost
1-800-772-3350 or info@copyright.com
Flexible and configurable

AUDIO-RADIO MANAGEMENT - ARCDU

Total control of all aircraft communications
Access Intelligence, LLC Significant space and weight savings
4 Choke Cherry Rd., 2nd Floor
Rockville, Md. 20850 - USA Reduced power consumption
Phone: 1-301-354-2000, Fax: 1-301-354-1809
E-mail: rotorandwing@accessintel.com www.cobham.com

J U N E 2 0 1 3 | R OTO R & W I N G M AGA Z I N E 3

 Editor’s Notebook
Agusta’s Western(land)
Expansion: Philadelphia
By Andrew Parker
A
gustaWestland is making its
expectations for success in the
North American market very
clear. With opportunities in
the U.S. government markets expected
to top $20 billion over the next 15 years,
according to AgustaWestland North
America Chairman and CEO R. Scott
Rettig, the company seems bullish in the
face of sequestration issues and its own
internal problems.
AgustaWestland – at least its North
American unit – appears unfazed by
the February ouster of its former CEO
Bruno Spagnolini and former head
of parent company Finmeccanica,
Guiseppe Orsi, who are facing trial in
Italy following charges of bribery from
an Indian procurement contract for
12 AW101s in VIP configuration.
Along with the competitions for
the U.S. Army’s Armed Aerial Scout
(AAS), VXX Presidential Helicopter
and U.S. Air Force UH-1N replace-
ments, foreign military sales (FMS)
“are becoming a low-hanging fruit for
all of our competitors in the U.S. mar-
ket space. We have broken through
with a sale to the Egyptians, and we
look to follow through with a number
of other interests,” Rettig said. The
company has delivered two AW139s
to the Egyptian Air Force with a third
scheduled for handover in July.
One of my first impressions
when walking the production line
at AgustaWestland’s manufacturing
plant in Philadelphia was how ready
to accept this challenge the North
American subsidiary is. Clean shop
floors and organized workspaces,
toolboxes with electronic tags that tell
you what’s missing at the end of the
day, rows of neatly stacked parts bins
all color-coded, supporting warehouse
space – everything one might expect
of a post-millennium production
facility. But from all outward appear-
ances, AgustaWestland Philadelphia
4 R OTO R & W I N G M AGA Z I N E | J U N E 2 0 1 3
also seems primed for further growth,
evidenced by a recently established
second AW139 production line and
gear up to build the AW169.
AgustaWestland Philadelphia
CEO William Hunt pointed out that
the location has experienced 72 per-
cent growth in revenue over the past
seven years, from $217 million in
fiscal year 2005 to $771 million in
FY12. The number of employees has
risen from 170 in June 2006 to around
560 people currently, “and in terms
of aircraft deliveries we’ve increased
our production rates by 42 percent.”
AgustaWestland has invested more
than $110 million in the United States
in the past six years, Hunt added.
During a tour of the facility, Hunt
showed the spot where the AW169
will call home starting in May 2014.
He explained that the existing pro-
duction line is made up of various
stations, and each helicopter stays at
a station for eight days before it moves
up the line – regardless of how simple
or complex the tasks at a given stop.
During a press briefing before the tour,
Rettig noted some of the potential growth
areas that the manufacturer is targeting
in the military and parapublic markets.
These include competitions for the AAS,
VXX and UH-1N replacements. He also
mentioned the U.S. Department of Jus-
tice, Department of Homeland Security,
Customs & Border Patrol, Coast Guard
and the FMS program as areas where
AgustaWestland is seeking to expand.
Retting pointed out that the North Ameri-
can unit operates under a Special Secu-
rity Agreement (SSA), which “allows us to
maintain a classified clearance and bid on
U.S. military programs.”
The national security helicopter
“is a venture for us with Philadelphia,”
Rettig continued. “We believe over
the next 20 years that this notion
of a non-combat ‘national security
helicopter’ will be very relevant to the
aparker@accessintel.com
U.S. government and to other nations.
The 139, 169 and 189 family of aircraft
map to that nicely as aircraft with
terrific price points. The commercial
consumptions in the market should
drive the costs down in competi-
tion with our U.S. competitors, who
are – broadly speaking – focused on
their combat assets, bringing V-22s
and Black Hawks to the market space.
We don’t believe that level of combat
capability, especially when CONUS
[contiguous United States] require-
ments are in play, is necessary.”
Maryland State Police officers were on
hand during the tour, which also involved
a peek at various hangars, a weather
simulation building, paint booths and
avionics integration area. Maj. Frank
Lioi, assistant bureau chief for MSP –
who said that he’s relatively new to the
unit – described the difference between
operating the AW139 and the unit’s
20-year-old Eurocopter AS365 Dauphin
as “night and day.” MSP flies a multi-
role operational profile that consists of
around 80 percent EMS and 20 percent
law enforcement. “We can get more
equipment on [the AW139], we can
transport more patients, and we’re going
to have two flight paramedics instead of
one – those types of things,” he said.
At the end of the tour, pilot Pat
McKernan and copilot Steve Labows
took a group of reporters up in an
AW139 in the colors of Helicopters
New Zealand (HNZ). After liftoff we
headed down the Delaware River,
with views of downtown Philadelphia,
Interstate 95, rows of housing devel-
opments and some of the other inter-
esting landscape features around the
city. The flight ended with a circling
around the AgustaWestland complex
at PNE to get the proper perspective
of how expansive the site is.
To see a video of the AW139 per-
forming a takeoff procedure, visit
www.rotorandwing.com
W W W. R O T O R A N D W I N G . C O M
 Visit us at the
When Lives Paris Air Show:
Row A 330 and
Are on the Line, ST-E198

Use Rescue
Hoists You
Can Trust.
Goodrich & Hamilton
Sundstrand are now
UTC Aerospace Systems.
UTC Aerospace Systems rescue
hoists are trusted by rescue
specialists worldwide. No matter
what you fly, we have a hoist
that is right for your platform.
Our hoists provide long-term
operational efficiency with the
lowest life-cycle cost in the
industry. But most importantly,
our hoists help save lives.

To find out more visit

www.utcaerospacesystems.com
or email sis@utas.utc.com
 THIS MONTH FROM
Personal|Corporate Commercial Military Pub

34 DEPARTMENTS
12 Rotorcraft Report
22 People
22 Coming Events
46 Training News
49 Classified Ads
51 Ad Index

(Above) Australian Tiger. Photo courtesy ADF (Bottom) AW

Philadelphia paint booth. Photo by Andrew Parker (Right) Sikorsky
S-70A during a firefighting operation. Courtesy LA County Fire
COLUMNS
4 Editor’s Notebook
8 Feedback

FEATURES
COVER STORY
10 Meet the Contributors
50 Leading Edge
52 Safety Watch
28 ■ Seeing What You Should be Missing
Getting a first-hand look at Honeywell’s synthetic vision on an AW139 54 Military Insider
flight around New York City. By Ernie Stephens, Editor-at-Large

34 ■ Decade of Change for Australia’s Military

Q&A with Tony Dalton, head of the Australian Defence Force’s
Helicopter Systems division. By Andrew Drwiega, International
Bureau Chief

38 ■ Paris Prepares for Aviation Takeover

12
Organizers report more than 430,000 square feet of space booked
through January, with over 340 business chalets at Le Bourget Airport.
By Rotor & Wing staff

42 ■ Fighting the Flames

Helicopters and the equipment they support are an essential component
to aerial firefighting. By Mark Robins

On the Cover: Honeywell’s synthetic vision screen shows a red warning for approaching skyscrapers
in downtown New York City. Photo by Ernie Stephens, Editor-at-Large

6 R OTO R & W I N G M AGA Z I N E | J U N E 2 0 1 3 W W W. R O T O R A N D W I N G . C O M

 Vol. 47 | No. 6
June 2013

blic Service Training Products Services

42 ONLINE
www.rotorandwing.com

POST YOUR HELICOPTER PHOTOS

• Have any breathtaking helicopter photos that can hang with the best of them?
Submit them on our Facebook page: www.facebook.com/rotorandwing

SIGN UP FOR THE ROTOR & WING COLLECTIVE

• Subscribe today for our free weekly e-letter for helicopter news—The Rotor & Wing
Collective, which features an in-depth Story of the Week, Top News Picks, Helicopter
Jobs and links to Rotor & Wing’s Facebook and Twitter pages. Sign up now by
visiting: www.aviationtoday.com/rw/collective_form.html

WHAT DO THE EXPERTS THINK?

• Ask questions to three experts on the topics of helicopter aerodynamics, AS9100
quality management systems audits and night vision goggle (NVG) certification
at rotorandwing.com. Che Masters, certification engineer for NSF-ISR, discusses
aerospace quality registration. Frank Lombardi, test and evaluation pilot, provides
insights about the science behind helicopter flight. NVG certification expert Jessie
Kearby fields questions about NVGs for both military and commercial uses.

DIRECT TO YOUR DESKTOP: CHECK YOUR E-MAIL

WEEK OF JUNE 1:
• Digital edition of Rotor & Wing June 2013. Electronic version with enhanced web
links makes navigating through the pages of Rotor & Wing easier than ever.
WEEK OF JUNE 17:
• Rotor & Wing’s Military Insider e-letter. Get the latest updates from helicopter
defense companies around the world, from Andrew Drwiega.
WEEK OF JUNE 24:
Get connected: • HOT PRODUCTS for Helicopter Operators—Latest in equipment upgrades, performance
Become a fan of Rotor & Wing on modifications, training devices and other tools for the rotorcraft industry.
Follow us on @rotorandwing
TO SUBSCRIBE TO ANY OF OUR EXCLUSIVE EMAIL PRODUCTS, GO TO:
WWW.ROTORANDWING.COM

The editors welcome new product information and other industry news. All editorial inquiries should be directed to Rotor & Wing magazine, 4 Choke Cherry Rd., 2nd Floor, Rockville, Md. 20850, USA; 1-301-354-1839; fax 1-301-762-8965. E-mail: rotorandwing@
accessintel.com. Rotor & Wing (ISSN-1066-8098) is published monthly by Access Intelligence, 4 Choke Cherry Rd., 2nd Floor, Rockville, Md. 20850, USA. Periodical postage paid at Rockville, Md. and additional mailing offices. Subscriptions: Free to qualified individuals
directly involved in the helicopter industry. All other subscriptions, U.S.: one year $89; two years $178. Canada: one year $99; two years $198; Foreign: one year $129; two years $258.
POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Rotor & Wing, P.O. Box 3089, Northbrook, Ill. 60065-3089, USA. Change of address two to eight weeks notice requested. Send both new and old address, including mailing label to Attn: Rotor & Wing magazine, Customer Services,
P.O. Box 3089, Northbrook, Ill. 60065-3089, USA or call 1-847-559-7314. E-mail: RW@omeda.com. Canada Post 40612608. Return Undeliverable Canadian Addresses to: IMEX Global Solutions, P.O. Box 25542, London, ON N6C 6B2.
©2013 by Access Intelligence, LLC. Contents may not be reproduced in any form without written permission.
Publication Mail Sales Agreement No. 40558009

W W W. R O T O R A N D W I N G . C O M J U N E 2 0 1 3 | R OTO R & W I N G M AGA Z I N E 7

 Feedback
Personal|Corporate Commercial Military
Other Side of History
I was enjoying reading the May
2013 print edition, when one article
caught my attention. I’m talking about
Andrew Drwiega’s article on page
20, “Margaret Thatcher’s Falklands
Defense Required Extensive Helicop-
ter Operations on Land and at Sea.”
The Falklands/Malvinas conflict is
still running in the United Nations and
other international forums, as there is
still no final decision the correct way
to refer to it, as I mentioned naming
the islands with both English and the
Argentine titles.
As the subject is very sensitive one,
and you have many readers not only in
Argentina but in South America too, I
think is more appropriate to mention
the islands with both names, Falk-
lands/Malvinas is not just an Argen-
tine subject but a Latin American one.
Besides that, for a magazine that tries
to be more “international” as stated in
the same edition, ignoring the other
side of the history – Argentine heli-
copter operation in the war – seems
unfair.
Pablo Slavik, Helicopter Pilot
San Juan Province Government Aviation Branch
Former Argentine Army Aviation Pilot
V-22 Airborne Early
Warning and Control
Online response to “Osprey Takes on
Greyhound in Fight Over U.S. Navy’s
COD,” May 2013, page 18:
The VRC’s need/require augment by
Bell-Boeing V-22s for long range delivery
of time sensitive/mission critical (TS/
MC) cargo to amphibious and STOVL
platforms. This will solve so many prob-
lems for the Amphibious Ready Groups.
Should the light carrier concept actually
take off with Marine F-35Bs on board, a
tanker will be required. This is a relatively
easy modification to the V-22. Rigid fuel
bladder refueling modules would require
more plumbing and perhaps additional
Do you have comments on the rotorcraft industry or recent articles and viewpoints we’ve published? Send them to Editor, Rotor
& Wing, 4 Choke Cherry Road, Second Floor, Rockville, Md. 20850, USA, fax us at 1-301-354-1809 or e-mail us at rotorandwing@
accessintel.com. Please include a city and state or province with your name and ratings. We reserve the right to edit all submitted
material.
8 R OTO R & W I N G M AGA Z I N E | J U N E 2 0 1 3
Public Service
R&W’s Question of the Month
Which manufacturer(s)
do you think will win the
U.S. Navy’s relaunched VXX
Presidential Helicopter
replacement program?
Let us know, and look for your and others’
wresponses in a future issue. You’ll find contact information below.
support equipment tied down in the
cargo area. The more difficult problem
is airborne early warning and control
for light carrier battle groups. The V-22
cargo space is spacious compared to the
cramped spaces in the E-2C. Additional
consoles and mission support should be
possible. Since this support will be for
amphibious missions as well, the extra
space will be filled quickly.
Since some of our allies have a simi-
lar requirement, some kind of co-de-
velopment should be possible between
the U.S., Great Britain, Italy, India and
perhaps Spain. The foreign military sales
(FMS) market is opening for the V-22. If
a viable pressurized AEW&C V-22 with
a reasonable persistence on station can
be devised, it may have customers in
everyone with a little flattop.
Curtis Conway
Poor Judgment
Online response to “NTSB: Texting,
Distracted Multitasking Factors in 2011
Helicopter EMS Crash,” www.rotorand-
wing.com, April 2013:
It’s sad that we have to continue to
see and read reports of pilot error in too
many of these accidents. Sad three inno-
cent people who were counting on the
pilot being a professional, ended up losing
their lives due to his poor judgment skills.
Everyone is a loser here.
Andre Leonard
Training Products Services
Rotorcraft Design Versus
Fixed-Wing: Where Do You
Draw the Line?
The following comments appeared at
www.facebook.com/rotorandwing
dwing in response to the question,
“With several forward-looking rotor-
craft designs beginning to emerge such
as Sikorsky’s X2 and Eurocopter’s X3,
how do you define what makes up a heli-
copter?”
Ray Leavitt: Just categorize it as VTOL
(vertical takeoff and landing).
Ian Phillis: The answer is in the name,
if it is fixed-wing then all the surfaces that
provide lift are fixed. If any of the surfaces
that provide lift move in relation to the
aircraft then it is a conventional or com-
posite helicopter.
Michael Reilly: Can it glide without
power? If so, why?
Burkhard Domke: How about dif-
ferentiating by the direction of airflow
through the rotor plane in cruise: With
helicopters, airflow enters from the top.
With autogyros, the airflow enters from
below. The latter should be true for the
X3, the X2 is a helicopter unless the
coaxial rotors go into autorotation in
high-speed cruise. The V-22 is a... err...
tiltrotor.
W W W. R O T O R A N D W I N G . C O M
Innovation. Reliability. Performance.

Attention to detail has made the Aeronautical Accessories brand a world leader in rotorcraft parts
and accessories. We take great pride in offering specialized products that enable our parapublic
and HEMS customers to carry out their unique, life-saving missions. In keeping with our customer-
centric approach, we have designed our External Rescue Hoist Kits for maximum safety, versatility,
ease of installation and operation. Contact our team today to learn more about how we can expand
your capabilities.

www.aero-access.com | sales@aero-access.com | 1-800-251-7094

©2013 Bell Helicopter Textron Inc. All rights reserved.
 Meet the
Contributors
LEE BENSON is a retired senior pilot for the has served as managing editor of Rotor & Wing.
Los Angeles County Fire Department. Before A former U.S. Army helicopter pilot, Nelms
he was named senior pilot, Lee ran the avia- specializes in writing about helicopters.
tion section’s safety and training programs,
including organizing the section’s yearly
safety meeting with other public agencies and the press. MARK ROBINS is an experienced and accom-
plished editor who has bylined more than 50
full-length feature articles in his career, most
ANDREW DRWIEGA, International Bureau dealing with technical and manufacturing
Chief, is a senior defense/aviation journalist developments. He has written for such tech-
with a specialization in international military nical trade magazines as Quality and Electronic Packaging
rotorcraft. Based in London, he has reported and Production. He has also worked full-time for the editorial
from Iraq and Afghanistan on numerous occa- departments of the American Society of Civil Engineers and
sions on attachment with American and British helicopter Society of Manufacturing Engineers.
forces. Andrew is a member of the Army Aviation Association
of America, the Royal United Services Institute, the Air Power
Association and is an associate member of the Royal Aero- ERNIE STEPHENS, Editor-at-Large, spent
nautical Society. He has a BA (Hons) degree in War Studies. 27 years with a major county police
Andrew covers defense and global rotorcraft markets. department, retiring as a decorated ser-
geant and chief pilot of its aviation sec-
tion in 2006. He began his flying career
THIERRY DUBOIS is a long-time contrib- in the late 1980s when he earned his rotorcraft license
utor to Access Intelligence publications. and incorporated a small aviation company as a side-
He has been an aerospace journalist for line to his law enforcement career. Ernie holds a B.S. in
12 years, specializing in helicopters since Management of Technical Operations and an M.S. in
2006. He writes on technical subjects, Aeronautical Science from Embry-Riddle Aeronauti-
both for professional media and a popular science maga- cal University, where he is also a professor and former
zine in France. Follow him on Twitter: @aerodub director of academics for one of the school’s satellite
campuses. He has been writing features and columns
for Rotor & Wing since 2003, and has performed evalu-
FRANK LOMBARDI, an ATP with both fixed- ation flights in some of the latest, most technologically
wing and rotary-wing ratings, began his flying advanced rotorcraft in the world. In 2008 and 2009,
career in 1991 after graduating with a bach- Ernie was nominated for the Aerospace Journalist of the
elor’s of science in aerospace engineering, Year Award.
working on various airplane and helicopter
programs as a flight test engineer for Grumman Aerospace
Corp. Frank became a police officer for a major East Coast TERRY TERRELL gained his early avia-
police department in 1995, and has been flying helicopters tion experience as a U.S. Navy fixed-wing
in the department’s aviation section since 2000. He remains instructor and U.S. Coast Guard aircraft
active in test and evaluation, and holds a master’s degree in commander, where his service included
aviation systems-flight testing from the University of Ten- SAR in Sikorsky S-61s. Terry served as a
nessee Space Institute. cross-qualified captain and safety special projects officer
with Houston’s Transco Energy, and later with Atlanta’s
DOUGLAS NELMS has more than 30 years of experience as an Kennestone AVSTAT Helicopter Ambulance Program
aviation journalist and currently works as a freelance writer. He and Georgia Baptist LifeFlight.

10 R OTO R & W I N G M AGA Z I N E | J U N E 2 0 1 3 W W W. R O T O R A N D W I N G . C O M

Helicopter Training Solutions.
Better decisions, better outcomes.

Comprehensive
training offering?
Training solutions covering all
types of Trainers, Flight Simulators Training regulations?
and Training Services Innovative technologies and established
know-how give you access to the highest
standards of certification

Mission readiness?
Full mission preparation and rehearsal
for individual and collective level tasks Worldwide support?
A worldwide presence, ensuring added
value support and enhanced services

Training is key to mission success. Whatever your

mission, Search & Rescue, Oil & Gas operations,
Fire Operations, Civil Security or Medical Emergency,
Thales offers a complete range of helicopter training
solutions and turnkey services. With innovative modeling
technologies, we create realistic cues and fully immersive environments
to reach operational efficiency. Our bespoke training solutions support
your key priorities: safety of your crews and success of your missions.

To learn more, scan the QR code or visit thalesgroup.com

Personal|Corporate Commercial Military Public Service
■ PRODUCTS | AIRFRAMES
AgustaWestland to Bolster Philadelphia
Production Line with Addition of AW169
The North American arm of AgustaWest- plant in Vergiate, Italy. (The company
land uncovered plans April 30 to build also lists its facility in Yeovil, UK as
the AW169 at its 275,000-square-foot “playing a major role” in the AW169 pro-
U.S. manufacturing complex at North- gram). The announcement was revealed
east Philadelphia Airport (PNE), becom- during a media facility tour guided by
ing a second location to the OEM’s AgustaWestland Philadelphia CEO
William Hunt along with AgustaWest-
Last phase of the production line for
assembly of the AW139. Each helicopter land North America
stops at a given station for eight days. Chairman & CEO R.
Scott Rettig. Also on
hand were various
plant managers and
representatives
from Maryland
State Police, an
AW139 opera-
tor. The event
featured a
demo flight
Photos by Andrew Parker
12 R OTO R & W I N G M AGA Z I N E | J U N E 2 0 1 3
Training Products Services
aboard a Pratt & Whitney PT6C-67C
powered AW139 in the paint scheme of
Helicopters New Zealand (HNZ), whose
aircraft will be supporting offshore oil
operations in the Philippines starting in
September 2013.
AgustaWestland currently has more
than 80 orders for the AW169, represent-
ing 38 operators in 16 countries. “The
team was made aware [April 29] at an
all-hands meeting to a round of applause,”
Hunt said of the continuing AW169
expansion. “Part of our journey is not just
growing in revenue and growing in peo-
ple, but expanding our ability to do what
the parent site needs us to do to support
the overall AgustaWestland plan.”
AW Philadelphia has a number of buildings for
testing, including this weather simulator.
W W W. R O T O R A N D W I N G . C O M

The current timetable calls for
the AW169 to join the Philadelphia
production line in May 2014, with first
deliveries in early 2015. “The master
schedule has us producing up to 20 units
annually by 2017, so in three years we
will go from zero to 20, which doesn’t
sound that fast, but it is in the produc-
tion world,” noted Hunt. Philadelphia
currently produces the AW139 and
AW119, including the new AW119Kx,
which is being developed with launch
customer Life Flight Network featuring
Garmin G1000H avionics. FAA certifi-
Pilot Pat McKernan
points an AW139
toward downtown
Philadelphia during a
demo flight.
W W W. R O T O R A N D W I N G . C O M
cation for the Kx variant was expected
in late May.
During the facility tour, Hunt con-
firmed that Philadelphia recently creat-
ed a second line related to the increase
in the production rate of the AW139.
He described some of the workflow
related to managing a production line,
saying that AgustaWestland uses a
“pulsing line.” Every eight days, he
continued, “we move the line, the air-
craft pulses from stage to stage. Each
of those stages has different work content,
so as I said the first one is avionics and the
second may be mechanical
systems. Imagine that
in those stages, depend-
ing on the configuration,
the work value is going
up and down, yet the
aircraft move every eight
days no matter what. If
the work content on this
is 50 percent more than
[a subsequent stage], it
still flows down the line
in the same number of
cycle days as an easier
configuration. So the job
is constantly flowing the
work crews into each
of those areas, by skill,
and the main three skill
categories are avionics,
Rotorcraft Report
AgustaWestland North America
CEO R. Scott Rettig with a
Homeland Security AW139M.
AgustaWestland Philadelphia CEO William
Hunt explains some of the inner workings of
the AW139 production line.
mechanical and structural. We work
two main shifts, and we have a partial
third shift.” Hunt remarked that it
currently takes “95 days from the time
that the aircraft is delivered into the
assembly world to the time we deliver
it to the customer.” David Holmes, vice
president of operations, added “with a
goal of 90 days.” Hunt concluded that
“we are confident that inducting the
AW169 line here will just be a con-
tinuation of our ability to improve on
the product,” using the processes and
experience learned from building the
AW139 and AW119.
To see a video and more photos
of the AgustaWestland Philadelphia
tour, check out rotorandwing.com
and facebook.com/rotorandwing
J U N E 2 0 1 3 | R OTO R & W I N G M AGA Z I N E 13
 Rotorcraft Report

■ PRODUCTS | R&D ■ MILITARY | VIP/HEAD OF STATE

Eurocopter Demonstrates ‘Me Too’ Navy Restarts VXX

Optionally Piloted Helicopter Presidential Helo
Eurocopter conducted Replacement Program

Photo by Andrew Drwiega

the first public flight of Optionally manned The U.S. Navy is trying once more to replace the U.S.
demonstrator.
its optionally manned Presidential helicopter fleet. On May 3, the Navy
capability in late April at issued a Request for Proposal (RFP) for industry to
the Istres air base, located respond in 90 days with their submissions for an
in the south of France aircraft to replace the current 11 VH-3D (a version
and near the company’s of Sikorsky’s Sea King) and eight VH-60N ‘White
Marignane facility. Hawk’ helicopters (modified Sikorsky UH-60As).
The demonstration The acquisition will be for a fixed-price incen-
aircraft, an EC145 with 70 tive engineering and manufacturing development
lbs of control equipment contract (EMD) with production expected to begin
onboard, flew two dem- by mid-2014 for a total of 21 aircraft. Initially six test
onstration paths within a aircraft would be delivered, four of which would
restricted area inside the enter service. According to the RFP, a further 17
airfield. The first flight, helicopters would be produced to the following
with a pilot onboard but schedule: four in low-rate initial production (LRIP)
not controlling the air- 1; five in LRIP 2; and the final eight in full-rate pro-
craft, flew a 4D (four-dimension) flight path that involved remotely duction.
controlled takeoff, flying a programmed route via waypoints at differ- Capt. Dean Peters, program manager, said that
ent heights and speeds to represent a cargo run, followed by a return he expected “a full and open competition to select
flight using another route to demonstrate a simulated ISR mission. This a prime contractor that can best integrate mature
was then repeated completely unmanned and remotely piloted. subsystems into an air vehicle currently in produc-
The optionally piloted program, known only to a select group with- tion for an affordable solution that meets mission
in the company, was started in September 2011 at Eurocopter’s Donau- requirements.”
worth facility. The first unmanned flight occurred on April 12, 2013 The Presidential helicopter squadron, HMX-1
and this was the second. However, there have been more than 20 flights (Marine One) is manned by U.S. Marine crew-
including monitoring by men but the competition is managed by the Navy’s
Tech demonstrator in flight.
test pilots and engineers. NAVAIR (Naval Air Systems Command).
The EC145 has not flown Both types of current service helicopters are
for longer than 15 minutes, now well past their lifecycle limits, with the VH3-
at a speed not exceeding Ds being introduced in the mid-1970s and the
35 knots and a maximum VH-60Ns in the 80s. The previous attempt to
height of 300 feet within replace the presidential helicopter fleet came to an
Eurocopter

the controlled abrupt end in April 2009.

airspace at The Lockheed Martin/AgustaWestland VH-71
Istres. Kestrel (a version of the AW101 Merlin) had been
This news selected in favor of Sikorsky’s H-92 Super Hawk in
should not be January 2005. However, by 2008 the expected cost
taken in terms of the replacement aircraft (28) had risen from just
of how fast, or over $6 billion to around $11.2 billion (around $400
how high, or million per helicopter, roughly four times currently
Interior view of the Eurocopter optionally piloted for how long predicted for the Joint Strike Fighter), with the even-
demonstration aircraft, based on the EC145.
– but rather tual figure predicted to be in excess of $13 billion.
that Eurocopter has proved it now has the capability to produce a non- In 2009, the newly sworn-in President Obama,
platform centric optionally piloted vehicle, something the company under immediate pressure to cut budgets, instruct-
says is of interest to its customers who would have a use for it. The U.S. ed then-Defense Secretary Robert Gates to look
Army has UH-72 Lakotas; the Royal Air Force has taken delivery of closely at the whole presidential helicopter project,
new Puma Mk2s; and of course there are numerous military custom- which resulted in the program being halted after
ers for the EC725 and NH-90. This is just the beginning. —By Andrew nine aircraft had been produced. —By Andrew
Drwiega, International Bureau Chief Drwiega

14 R OTO R & W I N G M AGA Z I N E | J U N E 2 0 1 3 W W W. R O T O R A N D W I N G . C O M

Optimized for the rotorized:
New Garmin GTN™ for helicopters.

Tested and certified to the FAA’s stringent environmental standards for helicopters, our GTN 650/750
series avionics bring serious high-tech to the tough ops. They’re available with night vision goggle
(NVG) display compatibility – as well as high-res, 5-color HTAWS terrain alerting with voice callouts
of altitude on descent1. Teamed with our G500H flight displays, they provide touchscreen data
entry and integrated nav positioning – with some 30,000 additional low-altitude obstacles in their
databases. Other highlights include: Electronic mapping and charts. Remote transponder and audio
control2. Weather, traffic, and data link options. Radar altimeter interface3. And much more.

For details, see your Garmin dealer or garmin.com/helicopters

GTN Series
©2013 Garmin Ltd. or its subsidiaries
1
NVG compatibility and HTAWS alerting are optionally available. 2 Transponder and audio systems sold separately.
Remote audio processor functions available on GTN 750 series only. 3 Optional GRA 5500 radar altimeter sold separately.
 Rotorcraft Report

■ PRODUCTS | ENGINE TECHNOLOGY ■ PRODUCTS | OFFSHORE

TECH800 Engine Demonstrator Explores S-92 Platform

the Move to Cleaner Skies Approach System
Moving a step closer toward cleaner and quieter aircraft, Gets FAA Seal
TECH800. Turbomeca displayed its core TECH800 demonstrator Sikorsky Aircraft has obtained FAA
engine in public for the first time on Friday, April 26. This approval of its automated S-92
innovative core engine demonstrator was designed and “Rig Approach” system for offshore
tested by Turbomeca, although the program is the result operators developed with PHI Inc. The
Turbomeca

of cooperation between 34 partners from 10 European approach lowers cockpit workload by

countries, including 18 SMEs and 12 universities and 60 percent and increases performance
other research centers. Reducing engine emissions is one in bad weather and other operating
of the aims of the Clean Sky program, which comprises conditions, according to Sikorsky. The
six integrated technology demonstrators. Two of those six programs include creation of the approach traces back
Sustainable and Green Engines (SAGE) as well as Green Rotorcraft. to 2007, when a PHI pilot spoke with a
Within SAGE, there will be five engine demonstrators to promote a range of Sikorsky pilot about developing a safer
innovations including those aimed at reducing noise. The Green Helicopter devel- method for landing on offshore oil
opment will equally look at “rotor blades and engine installation for noise reduction, platforms. Sikorsky conducted flight
lower airframe drag, integration of diesel engine technology and advanced electrical tests of the system in 2011, working
systems for elimination of noxious hydraulic fluids and fuel consumption reduction.” with FAA toward certification during
Turbomeca’s core engine has been designed for future helicopter turboshaft 2012 and into 2013. FAA officials flew
applications in the 800kW power class. The key technologies “are related to the the system in February 2013 as part
compressor architecture and performance, the combustion chamber enabling of a certification review. PHI Chief
lower emissions, the turbine operating at a very elevated temperature and a high Pilot Paul Perkins notes that the Rig
efficiency power turbine.” Although not specific, Turbomeca reports significant Approach “will play a huge role in our
savings in fuel consumption and reduced CO2 emissions. This is the start of a S-92 IFR operations by providing the
series of demonstrations across the fixed and rotary wing innovations sector crew with automation that reduces
planned between 2013 and 2015. Resulting technologies should begin to be incor- the workload at critical times during
porated into commercial projects from 2016. —By Andrew Drwiega, International the instrument arrival procedure and
Bureau Chief Read the full story at www.rotorandwing.com provides additional barriers to CFIT.”
Read the fully story online at
■ SERVICES | FINANCING www.rotorandwing.com

Waypoint Acquires Capital to Fund ■ COMMERCIAL | AIRFRAMES

Helicopter Leasing Expansion
Enstrom to Expand
A new investor group is providing $375 million in equity growth capital for Limerick, Michigan Plant,
Ireland-based Waypoint Leasing, as the company looks to expand its grow its fleet.
Waypoint has a U.S. office in Darien, Conn. The investor group includes MSD
Part Services
Capital, Soros Fund Management and the Cartesian Capital Group. Waypoint plans Enstrom Hel icopter Cor p. is
to use the money to acquire more helicopters and increase its offerings to oil and gas, planning to double the current size
EMS and passenger transport operators across the globe. The company recently of its Menominee, Mich.-based
signed a multi-year agreement with AgustaWestland to add AW109 GrandNew, manufacturing plant to 77,000 square
AW169, AW139 and AW189 helicopters to its fleet. feet. Expansion plans include new sand
blast booths for component parts and
expanded flight line areas, allowing
the company to continue bolstering
its workforce, after hiring more 100
new employees since 2011. The plant is
scheduled to produce 32 helicopters in
Boeing

2013 and 45 in 2014. Enstrom intended

to host a groundbreaking ceremony
Boeing has completed the first flight of the UK Mk6 Chinook. Read the story at during May, with construction set to
www.rotorandwing.com begin this summer.

16 R OTO R & W I N G M AGA Z I N E | J U N E 2 0 1 3 W W W. R O T O R A N D W I N G . C O M

pushing boundaries

From navigation to propulsion, from space travel to

logistics, Honeywell solutions are trusted by commercial
and defense customers because they work. They improve
performance and safety while reducing costs. In other words,
they help you do more for less.

For more information, visit aerospace.honeywell.com/boundaries

© 2013 Honeywell International Inc. All Rights Reserved
 Rotorcraft Report

■ MILITARY | AIRFRAMES ■ PRODUCTS | ENGINES

New Zealand Orders 10 Kaman Safran Acquires Rolls-

Seasprites
The New Zealand Ministry
of Defense has agreed to buy
10 SH-2G Super Seasprites
from Kaman Aircraft Corp.
According to Kaman, the
$120-million contract includes
spare parts, a full mission flight
simulator and related logistics
support for the multi-mission
Royce Share in RTM322
SH-2G.
Engine Program
Safran, parent company of Turbomeca, has
reached an agreement to acquire Rolls-Royce’s
50 percent share in the joint RTM322 helicopter
engine program for $380 million. The transaction
is subject to regulatory approvals, and would give
Safran the revenue related to the Rolls-Royce
share of the RTM322 program, which amounts to

Kaman
helicopter. New Zealand is approximately $110 million per year.
scheduled to Under the agreement, Turbomeca will
SH-2G on tarmac. begin taking assume control of the RTM322 program. Sup-
Photo by Ernie Stephens

delivery of the helicopters beginning later this year.
The SH-2G is currently in operation with the Royal
New Zealand Navy, along with the Egyptian Air Force
and Polish Navy. Kaman started the H-2 Seasprite
program in the late 1950s, flying for number of years
before retiring them in June 2001.
For more on the history and lineage of the Sea-
sprite, see Editor-at-Large Ernie Stephens’ 2009 article, “Putting the
‘Super’ in the Kaman Super Seasprite.”
porting the RTM322 would allow Turbomeca
to enter the more powerful 3,000-shp helicopter
engine segment, where it currently has no offer-
ings. The company is looking to supply about
3,500 engines to existing military and civilian
rotorcraft in the range from eight to 13 tons, as
operators continue a trend toward requiring
higher engine power. Safran expects the acquisi-
tion to close by the end of the year.

POP 200
World Class Performance
FLIR / Day TV / Laser Range Finder
Affordable, Proven Capability for Military and Law Enforcement
For more information call (571) 447-9894 or email info@starkaerospace.com

18 R OTO R & W I N G M AGA Z I N E | J U N E 2 0 1 3 W W W. R O T O R A N D W I N G . C O M


■ COMMERCIAL | OFFSHORE
Shell Inks Five-Year
Contract with CHC
CHC Helicopter has reached a five-year agreement
with Shell International Exploration and
Production to supply helicopters in support of
deepwater exploration. The arrangement calls for
two Eurocopter AS332 L2 Super Pumas to provide
passenger transport and EMS services for Shell’s
Noble Globetrotter II deepwater drillship off the
coast of sub-Saharan Africa. The multi-million
dollar contact is set to begin in July 2013.
■ SERVICES | AVIONICS
EASA Approves Aspen
Upgrades to R44
The European Aviation Safety Agency has issued
a supplemental type certificate (STC) covering
installation of the Aspen Avionics Evolution H-series
PFDs and MFDs on the Robinson R44. The STC is
part of a previously announced Western Avionics
type certification for N-registered aircraft.
More than JUST a switch.
Natural Beauty.
No Alterations.
1.888.848.4768 vivisun.com Pushbutton Lighted Switches
W W W. R O T O R A N D W I N G . C O M
Rotorcraft Report
■ MILITARY | UNMANNED
Northrop Grumman Dubs MQ-8C as
‘Rotary Wing UAV of the Future’
A full scale mock-up of Northrop Grumman’s MQ-8C, MQ-8C at Sea-Air-Space.
the unmanned platform that is to succeed the MQ-8B,
Photo by Andrew Drwiega
was on show in early April at the Navy League’s
Sea-Air-Space exposition at National Harbor, Md.
The MQ-8C is built around the Bell 407 helicopter
while the MQ-8B was originally modeled around the
Schweizer 333 platform (UTC absorbed Schweizer
in August 2004 and the company is now a subsidiary
of Sikorsky). Michael Furqua, director of business
development tactical unmanned systems, said of the MQ-8C: “This
is the rotary wing UAV of the future. It will have 14 hours endurance
and triple the payload of the MQ-8B—that’s 600 lbs.” The MQ-8B has
an endurance of around eight hours with a 170-lb payload. Fuqua said
that the U.S. Navy currently operates 28 MQ-8Bs. The UAS has seen
service in Afghanistan since May 2011, as well as Libya and Africa
with AFRICOM (U.S. Africa Command). Missions have focused on
Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) operations as well
as over-watch with daily operations sometimes reaching up to 17 hours.
Deployments have reportedly exceeded 500 flight hours and by the end
of March 2013 the whole fleet had exceeded 8,000 flight hours. —By
Andrew Drwiega Read the full story at www.rotorandwing.com
For over 40 years, VIVISUN
has brought natural beauty
to the cockpit. From
helicopters to high flyers,
we’ve lit up the sky with
maintenance-free operation,
MIL-SPEC NVIS compatibility,
true color recognition, and
sunlight readability. Mother
nature won’t compromise
her glowing reputation —
why would you alter yours?
J U N E 2 0 1 3 | R OTO R & W I N G M AGA Z I N E 19
 Rotorcraft Report
■ SERVICES | AIRFRAMES
Eurocopter Identifies EC225 Gear Bevel Shaft Cracking
Eurocopter “now
fully understands
Photo by Andrew Drwiega
the root cause of the
cracking and need
to go to validation
of both the final
and immediate
fix,” said outgoing
P re s i d e n t a n d
EC225 program head Janick Blanc. CEO Lutz Bertling
at the company’s
headquarters in Marignane on April 18. He was addressing the
problem with the main gear bevel shaft that has been identified
as the “root cause of the crack initiation” that lay behind the May
10 and Oct. 22, 2012 ditchings of EC225 Super Pumas in the
North Sea, owned respectively by Bond Offshore Helicopters
and CHC Scotia Helicopters.
“The final fix will include a partial redesign of the shaft within
the same forged part. There is a residual stress caused by the
manufacture process and when combined with corrosion,”
explained Bertling. “In the history of the company we have never
had a technical issue that has impacted so much,” he added.
The timeframe to get the type back into operation depends
on the progress of discussions currently underway with the
authorities, but Bertling believes it will be no later than the third
business quarter of the year, although previous expectations for a
return to service date have slipped.
■ COMMERCIAL | MILITARY
Multi-Year Contracts Anchor GKN Aerospace’s Defense
Business Despite Turn Toward Civil
Marcus Bryson, CEO of GKN Aerospace, reports that the
company’s sales are up 13 percent to just under £7 billion.
GKN is a Tier 1 supplier to the aviation industry and operates
through four divisions with facilities in 35 countries and an
employee base of 50,000.
Bryson said that GKN has turned its traditional reliance of
the defense market around from 70-30 percent defense/civil
to only 39 percent of turnover today. That change happened
in the last decade. However, the company is far from shunning
the defense market, it has just reacted quickly to the downturn
in defense spending.
Military sales are predominantly split between the United
States (26 percent) and Europe (13 percent). Bryson said that
the company was benefiting in the U.S. from being involved
in multi-year programs such as Bell/Boeing’s V-22, Sikorsky’s
UH-60 Black Hawk and in the ongoing development of its
heavy lift helicopter, the CH-53K (for which GKN builds the
20 R OTO R & W I N G M AGA Z I N E | J U N E 2 0 1 3
Janick Blanc, head of the EC225/725 program, expanded
on Eurocopter’s findings, declaring that the failure was not
due to a “unique cause but a combination of three factors.”
Rotor & Wing understands these to include the initial manu-
facturing process together with water ingestion, which can
cause corrosion. Said Blanc: “Eurocopter engineers have
been able to reproduce the cracking in their laboratories and
can induce the crack propagation.”
Blanc revealed that the company had created the crack
propagation in “eight shafts” and that they could now create the
conditions for it to occur and were conducting flight trials to
measure the rate of propagation.
“We are now in the process of communicating the findings
to the authorities,” said Blanc. He added that a short-term fix
involved the development of software and the installation of
a couple of warning lights in the cockpit, but that no further
additions or sensors to the existing health and usage monitoring
system (HUMS) was required. This fix was being validated and
certified through the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA).
“We are providing all the data that we have to the authorities
and meetings are taking place continuously,” said Blanc. “We’ve
had good exchanges with EASA, and we are confident that we
will have an outcome sometime in May.”
The implementation will be free to operators. Eurocopter’s
results have still to be validated by the Air Accidents Investiga-
tion Branch (AAIB) and EASA. —By Andrew Drwiega, Interna-
tional Bureau Chief
rear fuselage). “Being with mature and multi-year programs
is a good place to be,” he said. GKN’s income from these pro-
grams will be steady throughout during the acquisition of each
aircraft: around $3 million for every CH-53K and just under
half a million for each V-22 and UH-60.
Byson stated that the value of the defense business to GKN
has risen from around $700 million in 2003 to $3.5 billion
today.
However, he did not see any upturn in defense spending
for the next four or five years, particularly in the company’s
main markets. The company has been a supplier of parts and
components outside of Europe to other OEMs including
India’s Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL).
The company is also working with Bell Helicopter on the
525 Relentless program, providing metal and composite pan-
els and parts.
Read the full story at www.rotorandwing.com
W W W. R O T O R A N D W I N G . C O M
 Rotorcraft Report

■ MILITARY | AIRFRAMES the sensor off the ground and the change in weight balance of the aircraft.
The timeline for the OH-58F CASUP program is as follows: Milestone B was
First OH-58F reached on Dec. 21, 2010 (allowing the aircraft to move into the development stage);
CASUP Flies at the critical design review took place in 2012; the limited user test will be held in
Redstone Arsenal November 2014; Milestone C in March 2015; culminating in first unit equipped by
The first OH-58F Kiowa Warrior has late 2016. The Army’s intent is to eventually field 368 OH-58F Kiowa Warriors. —By
conducted its maiden flight at Redstone Andrew Drwiega, International Bureau Chief
Arsenal, Ala. There are currently three Read the full story at www.rotorandwing.com
aircraft with the U.S. Army—two
OH-58Fs and one OH-58D with F
model. Col. John Lynch, TRADOC
HR Smith
capability manager, emphasized that Group of Companies
the aircraft were the first to feature the
CASUP (Cockpit and Sensor Upgrade Total
ANTENNA
Program) improvements.
The overall weight of the Kiowa
Warrior has been reduced by 160 lbs,
not a huge amount in terms of giving it
better ‘hot and high’ performance, but
as Col. Lynch said “they have been trad-
Solutions
ing both fuel and ammunition in the
fight; this means that a Kiowa Warrior
could now have an extra 30 minutes
fuel, four rockets or another 200 rounds
of ammunition.” He later added that the
new sensor would help the OH-58F
in its mission: “We have been closer to
the enemy than we ever envisaged [in
Afghanistan].”
The main design change has been
to strip the mast-mounted sensor away
from the top of the aircraft and replace
it with a Raytheon designed nose
Total SAR Solutions
mounted AN/AAS-53 Common Sen-
sor Payload, includes cutting-edge sens-
ing technologies such as an advanced
infrared camera, a color electro-optical
camera and an image intensifier. Bell
Helicopter was involved in resetting the
landing gear to adjust for the height of

OH-58F first flight.

HR Smith Group of Companies www.hr-smith.com

HR Smith t Street Court t Kingsland Specmat Technologies Inc t 215 Dunavant Drive
Leominster t Herefordshire t HR6 9QA t England Rockford t Tennessee t
TN37853 t USA
Armed Scout Helicopter Project Office
T. +44(0) 1568 708744 E. sales@hr-smith.com T. +1 (865) 609 1411 E. sales@specmatinc.com

W W W. R O T O R A N D W I N G . C O M J U N E 2 0 1 3 | R OTO R & W I N G M AGA Z I N E 21

 Rotorcraft Report

PEOPLE

Portugal’s Omni
Helicopters Inter-
n at i o n a l ( O H I )
has hired Richard
Burman as
group CEO. OHI
shareholders Stirling Square Capital
Partners and Omni Netherlands
supported the move. Burman comes
from Bristow Group, where he was
senior vice president of global
operations, taking that role in 2010
after serving as Bristow’s senior vice
president for the Eastern Hemisphere.
Burman also previously worked at Baker
Hughes as regional general manager for
Africa and the Mediterranean.
Anthony Moreland is Bell Heli-
copter’s new managing director for
North America, responsible for sales
and marketing in the U.S. and Canada.
Moreland comes from Sikorsky Aircraft,
where he led the North American and
Global Accounts group. A U.S. Army
officer qualified on the Apache and
Cobra, Moreland is returning to Bell,
where he formerly worked in a number
of roles, most recently as executive direc-
tor of business development and market-
ing for Bell’s Commercial division.
American Euro-
copter hired Mike
Spears to serve as
senior director of the
UH-72A Lakota Pro-
duction and Retrofit
facility in Columbus, Miss. He will take
over from Fred Gerard, senior director
of LUH Production, who has accepted a
coming events
job at Airbus in Mobile, Ala. Gerard has
led Lakota production since the program
began in 2006. Spears will lead helicopter
repairs and modifications and work with
U.S. Army and government operators.
He previously worked as general man-
ager at the Sikorsky Aircraft production
facility in Troy, Ala. While at Sikorsky he
oversaw a group of 800 people working
on the U.S. Navy H-60 repairs/modifica-
tions program for in-country and foreign
military sales (FMS) contracts.
Standard-
Aero has promoted
Keow Keong Low
to Asia regional
manager for heli-
copter programs.
He will provide marketing and service
support for Rolls-Royce M250 and
RR300 operators in the Asia-Pacific
region. Low’s responsibility will span
from Russia to India to Japan, and to the
south in Indonesia and the Philippines.
He previously worked for StandardA-
ero’s Airlines & Fleets division, where
he was regional sales manager.
Camarillo, Calif.-based Merex has
named Christopher Celtruda CEO,
responsible for the Merex Group and
the company’s recently acquired ALCO
aircraft equipment overhaul and repair
business in Livermore, Calif. He replaces
former president & CEO Andy Shams,
who will continue as chairman of the
board. Celtruda was formerly managing
principal at Destiny Equity Partners, with
other previous experience at Gardner
Denver, CIRCOR Aerospace, Honeywell
International/AlliedSignal and General
Dynamics. A Six Sigma black belt, Cel-
truda is a member of the Association of
the U.S. Army, Air Force Association,
Navy League and National Business
Aviation Association (NBAA).
Ralf Kannefass
is the new head of
programs for EADS
division Cassidian.
He also takes a role
as a member of
Cassidian’s Executive Committee. Kan-
nefass was previously head of the Turbo
Equipment unit within the Oil and Gas
division of Siemens Energy.
Keith Ray and Mike Sela have
joined the sales and support team at
BLR Aerospace. Ray will have respon-
sibility for sales in BLR’s commercial
helicopter segment. He comes from
Bell Helicopter subsidiary Aeronautical
Accessories, where he was sales and
marketing manager. Sela, who previ-
ously served as a CH-53 crew chief in
the U.S. Marine Corps, joined BLR in
2010 in a technical support role install-
ing FastFin and Winglet systems.
Spectrum Aero-
med production
manager B ob
Daily has obtained
Bronze Level of his
SME Lean Certi-
fication, following four months of
classes through training and testing
organization Dakota MEP. Daily was
also involved in Spectrum Aeromed’s
recent AS9100 certification effort.

June 17–23: Paris Air Show, Le Bourget, Paris, France. Visit Aug. 12–15: AUVSI Unmanned Systems 2013, Washington
www.paris-air-show.com Convention Center, Washington, D.C. Visit www.auvsi.org

June 29: Rotors ‘n Ribs, Goshen, Ind. Contact Indiana Helicopters
at 1-574-233-1040 or visit www.indianahelicopters.com
July 29–Aug. 4: EAA AirVenture, Wittman Regional Airport,
Oshkosh, Wis. Visit www.eaa.org
Sept. 24–26: Helitech International, ExCel London. Contact
Helitech, phone +44 (0)20 8271 2155 or visit www.helitechevents.
com
Oct. 21–23: AUSA Annual Meeting and Exposition,
Washington, D.C. Visit www.ausa.org

22 R OTO R & W I N G M AGA Z I N E | J U N E 2 0 1 3 W W W. R O T O R A N D W I N G . C O M

Focus

Lives are on the line

When a rescue hoist is all that stands between life and death, you
need to know it will work. Breeze-Eastern equipment is designed and
hand crafted by the world’s most experienced and knowledgeable
helicopter rescue hoist experts.
Breeze-Eastern is the world’s only dedicated helicopter hoist and winch provider. breeze-eastern.com
 Rotorcraft Report
■ MILITARY | FLIGHT TESTING
L-3 Wescam Completes MD540 Flight Demos for MX Series
L-3 Wescam has conducted flight demonstrations for several
new weapon systems at the U.S. Army’s Yuma Proving
Ground in Arizona, using MD500 helicopters. The flight
tests demonstrated L-3 Wescam’s MX series designator
systems, including the MX-10D, MX-15D, MX-25D and
MX-RSTA. The company funded the demonstrations as
part of a risk-reduction effort in response to constrained
defense budgets of potential users worldwide.
Flight tests featured an MD540 with the MX-10 sys-
tem firing an FN HMP 400 .50 cal machine gun and an
MD500E using the MX-10D to fire an M134 mini-gun.
The MX-10D, MX-15D and MX-25D were integrated
■ MILITARY | AIRFRAMES
Army Advisor Pours ‘Cold Water’ Over AAS Tech Demos
The U.S. Army’s Armed Aerial Scout (AAS) procurement
saga took another twist in May when Lt. Gen. William Phillips,
Army acquisition advisor to the Secretary of the Army,
AIRCRAFT FUELLING SYSTEMS
Refinery to end user and all the steps in between.
DESMI ofers practical solutions across the full
range of applications with reliability and versatility
as a key function.
Currently supplying majority Fuel Handling
Systems in the UK. Among other references are:
Australia, Africa, Sweden, Belgium, Italy, Spain
and the UN.
PROVEN TECHNOLOGY
www.desmi.com / *"
(757) 857 7041
24 R OTO R & W I N G M AGA Z I N E | J U N E 2 0 1 3
and tested two weapon
control systems from an
MD500E and a Cessna
L-3 Wescam
208 Caravan. Additional-
ly, the MX-25D shot two
Hellfire missiles from a
Boeing AH-64D Apache
Longbow and the MX-
RSTA was demonstrated
in environmental condi-
tions similar to those in
Afghanistan. MD540 used in the flight tests.
appeared before a Senate Armed Services Congressional
subcommittee on Airland.
Commenting on last summer’s flying technology demon-
strations provided by each helicopter manufacturer looking
to participate in a new Request for Proposal (RFP) for an AAS
platform, Phillips stated: “We didn’t find a single aircraft that
was out there that could meet the Army’s requirements...so if
we were to go forward with an Armed Aerial Scout it would
essentially be a development program.”
The decision has been shelved again until the late summer.
The choice now seems to be heading toward either a new
development program or providing the current aircraft, the
Bell OH-58D/F Kiowa Warrior, with a service life extension
program (SLEP). A stop-gap solution was currently being field-
ed with is the cockpit and sensor upgrade program (CASUP)
to a limited number of OH-58Ds.
Many of the industry competitors had voiced publi-
cally their satisfaction with the Army’s evaluation team dur-
ing the technology demonstrations, including EADS North
America (AAS-72X/+), Bell Helicopter (OH-58 Block II),
Boeing (AH-6), MD Helicopters (540F), and AgustaWestland
(AW169 AAS). Sikorsky is interested too, with its still-in-
development S-97 Raider (X2 derivative).
In addition, Lt. Gen. James Barclay, deputy chief of staff of
the Army (G-8), had previously told the committee that cuts in
defense spending in areas including “acquisition priorities and
modernization programs” were likely to be impacted over the
immediately foreseeable years. He added that funds needed to
be allocated to resetting the Army once it came out of Afghani-
stan. He said all the equipment needed to be reset so that it
could be returned to units for future operations. “Failure to get
this right will impact the equipment readiness of our units for
years to come,” he noted. —By Andrew Drwiega
W W W. R O T O R A N D W I N G . C O M
 Rotorcraft Report

■ PRODUCTS | TECHNOLOGY
X-Plane Project Gets Early
Submission: Hybrid RotorWing
How do you get high-speed, efficient performance from a
hybrid rotorcraft design? The U.S. Defense Advanced Projects
Agency (DARPA) is looking for organizations to help answer
that question as part of its vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL)
X-Plane program, and an Australian company is suggesting
one possibility for the 52-month effort that has a budget of
around $130 million.
StopRotor Technology, based in Sydney, is putting forth its
Hybrid RotorWing, which the company says can fly as either a
helicopter or fixed-wing aircraft. Central to the aircraft’s design
is the stop rotor technology, which switches between rotary
and fixed-wing “in a manner previously unexplored in the his-
tory of VTOL development,” the company claims. All previous
stop rotor designs have either sought to stop the rotors during
forward flight or proposed
Graphic of Hybrid RotorWing. an “impractical fuselage lay-
out.”
StopRotor Technology is
currently undergoing proof
StopRotor Technology
accidents in Alaska over a 12-year period, according to
FreeFlight.
The program was also meant to provide a model for
the agency’s nationwide deployment of ADS-B, a funda-
mental equipage component of NextGen. FAA funded
the installation of the first-generation systems during the
“Version 1” Capstone program, and now will complete
“Version 2” of the program, installing newer rule-compli-
ant ADS-B avionics provided by FreeFlight Systems. Free-
FLight will remove the “Version 1” avionics, replace them
with its RANGR FDL-978 XVR transceiver.
“The rule-compliant ADS-B avionics upgrade program
is a significant win for our company and for the hundreds
of aircraft owners who participated in the development of
ADS-B,” said Tim Taylor, CEO of FreeFlight Systems. Free-
Flight will provide FAA-approved ADS-B avionics for up
to 600 aircraft that are currently equipped with the Ver-
sion 1 ADS-B equipment as part of the first phase of the
Capstone Project. All aircraft operating in the NAS will
be required to be equipped with rule compliant ADS-B
Out systems by 2020. —By Woodrow Bellamy III
Read more at www.aviationtoday.com/av and for
aviation industry news go to www.aviationtoday.com

of concept prototype testing

using computer simulations
and flying models. While the
Hybrid RotorWing is still in
the development phase, the
company plans to contact
DARPA’s X-Plane program manager, Ashish Bagai.
Whether the concept is a fit for the program or not, Stop-
Rotor Technology envisions that the aircraft “could fulfill a
useful role in the rapidly expanding UAV [unmanned aerial
vehicle] industry.”
The company is also looking for partners in the DARPA
program. Spokesperson Deanne Watkins noted that, “we are
keen to discuss collaborative proposals with leading innovative
aerospace companies.”

■ PUBLIC SERVICE | AVIONICS

FreeFlight to Provide Avionics

for Capstone ADS-B in Alaska
FAA has selected FreeFlight Systems to provide upgraded
automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B) avionics
to fulfill the requirements of the second phase of its Capstone
Project.
The project was originally launched in 1999 as a joint gov-
ernment-industry research and development effort to improve
air traffic safety in Alaska, where aircraft are constantly flying
in airspace beyond radar coverage. The avionics provide ter-
rain, weather and traffic data for pilots on cockpit displays, and
resulted in a 57 percent reduction in the number of aviation

W W W. R O T O R A N D W I N G . C O M J U N E 2 0 1 3 | R OTO R & W I N G M AGA Z I N E 25

 for Helicopter Operators

AERO Specialties
Offers JetGo GPUs
AERO Specialties JetGo line of 28.5V
DC diesel hybrid aircraft ground
power units (GPU) provide impressive
continuous and peak power in addition
to offering advanced aircraft protection
systems. The compact size and light
weight make our JetG o ground
power unit a nimble unit that is easily
maneuvered, whether it’s across the
ramp or around the globe. These GPUs
provide a sophisticated ground power
solution for aircraft engine starts and
avionics maintenance, as well as electrical, air and environmental systems support.
JetGo GPUs have been specifically designed to meet the increasing demand in the aviation industry for a quieter, envi-
ronmental friendly, yet powerful ground power unit. Its brilliant design, from both a functional and aesthetic standpoint,
has set a new standard for 28V DC ground power units. Its amazingly compact size, peak power, aircraft protection fea-
tures, operator safety and ease of use have truly made this a unique and venerable unit. Already a popular unit with military
installations, FBOs, MROs and regional airlines; these ground power units have also become a hit with rotorcraft operators
and flight departments who appreciate the self-sufficient operation and simple controls!
For more information, visit Aero Specialties on the web at www.aerospecialties.com

Sandel Primary Navigation Displays and

Primary Attitude Displays
Primary Navigation Displays from Sandel enable you to upgrade your cockpit
with a compact, affordable navigation solution. Sandel is the horizontal situation
indicator (HSI) replacement specialist, offering 3- and 4-ATI retrofit solutions for
most applications. Designed to simplify installation, our patented SandelSmart
I/O® (input/output) automatically accepts inputs from digital and analog
aircraft sensors, multiple HSI navigation modes, and supports additional safety
enhancements including Stormscope® weather mapping, traffic and datalink
weather uplinks.
Sandel’s Primary Navigation Display products are the perfect update for aging
electromechanical attitude directional indicators (ADI). Providing reliable, easy-
to-read attitude information, our retrofit units accept input from virtually any
gyro source, providing a clear, reliable depiction of the aircraft’s attitude in pitch
and roll. Expandable through SandelSmart I/O, our primary attitude display
products are modular and work in almost any aircraft type and configuration,
supporting both analog and digital avionics systems.
To help you Spring into action, Sandel is offering limited specials on all product
purchases of a 2-Pack or more. To learn more, visit www.sandel.com/
upgradeforLESS

26 R OTO R & W I N G M AGA Z I N E | J U N E 2 0 1 3 W W W. R O T O R A N D W I N G . C O M

 The battery you rely on
to secure your operations

copyright Eurocopter PECCHI Anthony

Saft is the world leader of battery systems for the aeronautics industry with its batteries on-board two thirds of the worldwide fleet
of civil and military aircraft.
The most advanced Ni-Cd technology, first developed by Saft, is used in its ultra low maintenance ULM batteries. Investing in a
Saft ULM® means investing in a battery that has the industry’s lowest Total Cost of Ownership thanks to its reduced maintenance
and extended life duration.
Plus, since the battery serves a flight critical function, ULM batteries must meet more than 100 qualification criteria giving you full
confidence that your investment will provide the necessary safety for your passengers.

Visit us at Paris Air Show 2013, Paris, France, Hall 2B, D137.
www.saftbatteries.com
 PRODUCTS | AVIONICS

SEEING WHAT YOU

SHOULD BE MISSING
Testing out Honeywell’s synthetic vision on
a company-owned AgustaWestland AW139
during a flight around New York City.
By Ernie Stephens, Editor-at-Large
Photos by Ernie Stephens

28 R OTO R & W I N G M AGA Z I N E | J U N E 2 0 1 3 W W W. R O T O R A N D W I N G . C O M

 Synthetic Vision

Honeywell’s synthetic technology offers environmental cues, plus

obstacle avoidance information. In this case, a collision with the buildings
highlighted in yellow are approaching turning red (see cover image), when
a collision will occur in 20 seconds or less if evasive action is not taken.

T
hink back to the first time
you saw a multi-function dis-
play (MFD) screen in a cock-
pit. For me, it was around
1987, when I saw a McDonnell-
Douglas F-15E Strike Eagle on static
display at an air show. The high-tech
fighter had a head-up display and
thermal imaging system, too. That
was all exceptionally impressive to
me, a lowly student pilot with just a
few hours in a Robinson R22. It might
have been a couple of years after that
before I saw a “TV screen” in anything
that was not a military aircraft.
Most avionics historians, however,
cite 1982 as the point in time when
glass cockpits made the jump from
military and space applications to com-
mercial aircraft. And after relatively
inexpensive microprocessors arrived
on the scene in the late 1990s, even
two-seater piston airplanes had GPS
with colorful, digital images to help
aviators find their way.
But have you ever noticed that cock-
pit technology – at least the really cutting-
edge stuff – commonly found aboard
corporate airplanes seems to take much
longer to reach the rotorcraft world?
Many believed that helicopter users
represented such a small slice of the
aviation pie, glass avionics for rotorcraft
didn’t warrant a lot of research and
development. After all, it was designed
for high-speed, high-altitude, cross-
country travel in jets and turboprops.
Helicopters, on the other hand, were
these slow, utilitarian things used for
short hops close to the ground.
Well, it’s a new day! The sophisti-
cated avionics suites once reserved for
airliners and top-of-the-line corporate
jets are now standard fare aboard a
wide range of helicopters. You can even

W W W. R O T O R A N D W I N G . C O M J U N E 2 0 1 3 | R OTO R & W I N G M AGA Z I N E 29

 Products | Avionics
get an after-market, digital display suite
for a Robinson R22!
In an effort to prove that the newest
and most exciting technology is making
its way to the helicopter community,
Morristown, N.J.-based Honeywell
International invited Rotor & Wing
to come fly one of its latest helicopter
avionics prototypes. The engineers
call it the “Smart View System” – SVS,
for short.
SVS is what the tech world refers
to as “synthetic” technology. It starts by
taking data on the locations of streets,
waterways, power lines, terrain and
buildings, and uses the data to pro-
duce a colorful, digitized, moving-map
depicting of that information. (That’s
the “synthetic” part.) But Honeywell’s
system designers went one step further
by precisely superimposing an infrared
(IR) image over that digital map. The
result is an MFD image that displays
the environment ahead of the aircraft
based upon what mapping data says
ought to be there, and what the thermal
imager actually finds there. For exam-
ple, a data-driven rendering of a river
will show a blue band weaving through
a city. But since the information on its
shape is just an average that cannot
show how its dimensions have changed
w ith the
tides, the
Obstacle screen approaching i m a g e
New York City skyline. m ay n o t
accurately
represent
its true
appear-
ance at
any given
time. The
IR camera
mounte d
under the
nose of the
aircraft,
Ernie Stephens
however, is
delivering
a thermal
l o o k- s e e
that w ill
show the
30 R oto r & W i n g m aga z i n e | j u n e 2 0 1 3
waterway’s actual dimensions at that
exact moment. That marrying of data
and IR information is what Honeywell
calls a “Combined Visual System,” or
CVS.
CVS was actually certified for fixed-
wing aircraft several years ago, and has
since been hailed as a valuable tool,
particularly at night when uncharted
towers can pop up out of nowhere, and
deer can be found strolling onto a run-
way just as a pilot is about to land.
“We’ve been doing research and
development work with helicopter
SVS for about seven years,” said Dr.
Trish Ververs, Honeywell’s crew inter-
face and platform systems research
scientist. “But you can’t just take this
technology, throw it into helicopters
and expect it to work.”
The reason for the delay between
the FAA’s acceptance of the equipment
aboard airplanes and its approval for
use in helicopters is a simple matter of
aerodynamics: Helicopters don’t move
like airplanes.
The data-generated and IR images
presented to the pilot on the cockpit’s
MFD must show what’s in the aircraft’s
flight path. That’s a snap for an airplane,
since with few exceptions its nose is
pointed in the same direction that it’s
going. But in order to meet the tough
standards required for FAA Part 29
(airworthiness standards for transport
category aircraft) approval, engineers
have to prove that the data and ther-
mal images provided by the CVS will
show what’s in the direction of flight,
even when the nose of the helicopter
is, let’s say, pitched up 10 degrees while
at a steep angle of descent. Honeywell
has cracked the code for doing that
in rotorcraft, and as of this writing, is
completing the tests needed to get it
certified.
I was taken to Honeywell’s corporate
flight line at Morristown Municipal Air-
port (MMU), and over to the company-
owned AgustaWestland AW139. From
all outward appearances, N139H was
like any other AW139, except for a Max-
Viz EVS-1500 IR camera in an enclosure
mounted under its starboard chin.
Honeywell’s lead helicopter pilot,
Marc Lajeunesse, parked me in the
left seat and he took the right. After
a routine startup, he set my left MFD
to display the CVS system, and the
right one to show a “god’s-eye view”
integrated navigation screen. The three
remaining screens – one center and
two in front of him – were the standard
flight instrument, system monitoring
and navigation displays found on Hon-
eywell’s Primus Epic system.
Once airborne and tracking through
New Jersey towards the southern tip of
Staten Island, the SVS – that’s the data-
only map – provided me with a digital,
out-the-front view of the roads, hills,
power lines and towers in my path,
along with the usual flight information,
such as airspeed, altitude and heading.
Located near the center of the screen
was a small, green circle with one line
coming out of the top and one on each
side. Fighter pilots will recognize it as
the flight path vector (PFV), which
uses the aircraft’s pitch, roll and power
to show where the aircraft will go if left
in that profile. So, had I reduced power
and begun a descent, the PFV would
have slipped off the horizon, and grad-
ually moved towards to the bottom of
the screen to indicate where we would
end up. Had I banked left, it would have
moved left, and so on.
Honeywell’s engineers also drew
a white “zero pitch” line across the
screen. Any feature that protrudes
above this line is at an elevation that
will eventually put you in harm’s way if
you maintain that flight profile.
As we reached Lower Bay near Stat-
en Island and turned north towards the
Varrazano Narrows Bridge, Lajeunesse
asked me to compare what I saw of the
western shoreline through my window
to what I saw on the SVS. As with most
systems, the digital image was just a
rough calculation of where the water
stopped and land began.
“Now, look at this,” said Lajeunesse,
as he switched the screen to CVS mode
– the one that uses the IR camera.
Instantly, a transparent IR overlay
centered itself on the screen, and used
www . r o t o r a n d w i n g . c o m

S
ikorsky Aircraft Corporation is powered by two
principles: innovation and safety. The company’s
innovative helicopters have long been renowned not
only in the aviation industry, but also in the public imagination:
The BLACK HAWK.® The SEAHAWK.® The SUPER STALLION.™
The SEA KING. ™
Sikorsky military helicopters serve 25 nations throughout
the world including all five branches of the United States
armed forces. Commercially, the S-76® helicopter is the leading
choice of Fortune 100 companies. Not surprising, considering
Igor Sikorsky is a renowned aviation pioneer whose legacy
still leads the helicopter industry.
Sikorsky was awarded the development contract for the
United States Marine Corps CH-53K heavy-lift helicopter.
It will be the U.S. military’s largest and heaviest helicopter
with twice the lift and radius of action as its predecessor.
“Our constant innovation in aircraft design and manufacture
includes industry-leading safety systems and thinking,” says
Mick Maurer, Sikorsky’s President.
CEOs on Training
A SERIES
“FlightSafety
shares Sikorsky’s
safety-first focus.”
MICK MAURER
President, Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation
Mick Maurer joined UTC in 1989 at the corporation’s Otis Elevator Co. unit, where
he worked in positions of increasing responsibility until 2000, when he joined
Sikorsky as Vice President, Enterprise Planning and Development. Most recently,
he served as President of the Sikorsky Military Systems unit, responsible for the
U.S. and international military program and product line management, customer
relationships and military aircraft delivery. He was an officer in the U.S. Navy’s
nuclear submarine program and served onboard the ballistic missile submarine
USS George Washington Carver prior to joining UTC. He is a graduate of the
U.S. Naval Academy and holds a master’s degree in engineering from Johns Hopkins
University and a master of business administration degree from Stanford University.
The S-92® helicopter leads the safety category with fully
redundant systems that are a generation ahead. Safety was
designed into the S-92, making it the first helicopter to meet
stringent safety requirements established by the FAA and EASA.
Maurer adds, “FlightSafety shares Sikorsky’s safety-first focus. As
our authorized training provider, FlightSafety’s Level D helicopter
simulation helps us to achieve our innovation and safety objectives.”
BLACK HAWK,® SEAHAWK,® S-76,® and S-92® are registered trademarks of Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation.
For more information, please contact any of our Learning Centers or call Scott Fera,
Senior Vice President, Marketing: 718.565.4774. Our headquarters are at the Marine
Air Terminal, LaGuardia Airport, New York 11371-1061. Email: sales@flightsafety.com
flightsafety.com A Berkshire Hathaway company
 Products | Avionics
the heat signatures of all that lay in front
us to show what was actually there.
The moving, digital image was now
enhanced with black, white and grey
outlines of every feature, from private
piers jutting out from the shore, to small
boats headed for New York Harbor.
“Now, what if it was dark and you
had to make an emergency landing?”
Lajeunesse asked. I was way ahead of
him. The shoreline was now crisp and
precise, and not just a casual, featureless
curve. If it had been nighttime, I would
have been able to see exactly where I
could have made an emergency landing
without getting wet, or ditched without
being split in half by a cargo ship.
Farther up the river, as Lower Man-
hattan was coming into view, all of the
bells and whistles of CVS came into
play. As the IR image gave me details of
small boats, buildings, and even other
aircraft, the enhanced ground proxim-
ity warning system (EGPWS) began
identifying potential obstacles.
The EGPWS finds obstructions,
and then does a split-second collision
evaluation. If it decides that your heli-
copter is lined up to hit something – in
our case, the skyscrapers near Battery
Park – the screen will outline the struc-
tures in yellow to indicate that at your
current speed and trajectory you are
30 seconds from hitting it. If you do not
alter your course, altitude or speed to
avoid it, the color will change to red, let-
ting you know that you are now 20 sec-
onds from an unfortunate encounter.
That’s good news when visibility poor.
After flying up the Hudson River
Honeywell’s AgustaWestland AW139 testbed
helicopter prepares for a demonstration flight
around New York City and surrounding areas.
32 R oto r & W i n g m aga z i n e | j u n e 2 0 1 3
to the George Washing-
ton Memorial Bridge, then
reversing course to run
the New Jersey shoreline
towards Hoboken, it was
time to see what SVS and
CVS had to offer when flying
approaches.
Ernie Stephens
L ajeunesse re ceive d
approval to shoot a visual The Max-Viz EVS-1500 infrared camera is mounted in a
to Runway 5 back at Mor- fixed housing under the chin of the helicopter.
ristown. Once lined up 4 nm
out, I compared the view out
the window with what the synthetic while jets are quite fast machines,
information was telling me. they’re only swift going forward. Heli-
Even from as far out as the final copters, as we all know and love, move
approach fix, the SVS drew a blue, forward, backward, sideways, and can
diamond-shaped target on the end of spin on their yaw axis at pretty impres-
Runway 5. Without the IR image on, I sive rates. Consequently, digital and IR
was still presented with a colorful, GPS- images can be useless if they cannot
like display of the airport environment. refresh themselves quickly enough to
With the CVS up, the screen showed keep up with the aircraft.
me IR images of houses, roads, automo- So, while on the closed runway, I
biles, and distant towers. Either way, all asked Lajeunesse to put the AW139 in
I had to do was adopt and hold an atti- an in-ground-effect hover, and stomp
tude and airspeed that would put that in some pedal. As he did, my eyes were
green PFV circle inside of the diamond, glued to the display. Even at a pretty
and that’s exactly where I would end up. robust yaw rate, both the digital data
It’s redundant when the sun is up and image and the IR view kept up with
VFR conditions prevail. But what if it us. The results were the same when he
was dark, and the landing area was an executed an exaggerated quick stop.
unimproved hole in the trees, unlit heli- That was it for me, so we parked the
port, or remote medevac scene that the ship back at the company hangar.
pilot was not familiar with? The crew Make no mistake about it; Hon-
would be able to get an excellent look at eywell’s SVS/CVS synthetic avionics
almost every hazard before committing gear seems to have made the transi-
to a landing, plus be able to judge their tion from the fixed-wing world to the
descent path above featureless terrain. whirly-world. It manages to keep its
Before calling it a day, Lajeunesse camera pointed where it ought to be,
asked the tower if we could have Run- gives the pilot a ton of useful informa-
way 13/31 for tion, and can be turned off and on as
a little while. needed. It takes the color, database-
Once approved, driven map many of us have grown to
we taxied to the rely on, and make it even more useful
approach end of by adding a sharp, IR overlay to the
13 so I could put screen. Once the FAA certifies it – and
the CVS to one I suspect that it will – it should find
last test. lots of fans.
You see, syn- Ververs still calls the helicopter
thetic vision has version of all of this a “work in prog-
Ernie Stephens
b e e n a b o a r d ress.” Many of these features, “we
c o m m e r c i a l would expect to transition into the
planes for over eventual product,” she reported. “But
10 years. And some of them may not.”
www . r o t o r a n d w i n g . c o m
 Helicopter

Europe’s top helicopter event in 2014

Solutions for
Extensive networking possibilities
any mission
Exceptional conference offer
May 20–25, 2014
Berlin ExpoCenter Airport
www.ila-berlin.com

Hosted by
 MILITARY | Q&A

HMAS Tobruk’s embarked MRH90 helicopter conducts a

Highline Transfer with Tobruk’s sea boat as part of NUSQN
808 Operational Test and Evaluation for the aircraft during
Tobruk’s 2012 South West Pacific Deployment.

A DECADE OF
ADF

CHANGE FOR AUS

The Australian Defence Force’s (ADF) nine helicopter types are
being changed over a decade and the man coordinating the
transformation is Rear Admiral Tony Dalton, head of the Helicopter
Systems division. He recently briefed Rotor & Wing on the progress
and future outlook.
By Andrew Drwiega, International Bureau Chief

R
ear Admiral Tony Dalton
became head of Helicopter
Systems for the ADF in Sep-
tember 2012. He joined the
Royal Australian Navy (RAN) in 1980,
graduating as a pilot in 1981 and going
on to fly helicopters with four RAN
helicopter squadrons, an exchange post-
ing with the UK’s Royal Navy and a tour
flying peacekeepers in the Sinai.
Counting time on the Iroquois, Sea
King, Gazelle and Seahawk, he has
logged a total of more than 5,500 heli-
copter flying hours. He completed Com-
mand and staff training at the U.S. Naval
War College in Newport, R.I. Back in
Australia he served in the Navy Avia-
tion Project Office within the Defence
Materiel Organization. Further ahead
he became Commander Fleet Air Arm
in 2008. In 2010, he was promoted to
Director General Navy Aviation Systems
before moving to head the Helicopter
Systems division.
Rotor & Wing: Please provide an outline
of the current types and size of the Austra-
lian Defence Force rotary fleet.
Tony Dalton: The Army currently
has 34 S-70A-9 Black Hawks, 22 Tiger
(EC665) Armed Reconnaissance Heli-

34 R OTO R & W I N G M AGA Z I N E | J U N E 2 0 1 3 W W W. R O T O R A N D W I N G . C O M

 Australia’s Tony Dalton

Rear Admiral Anthony Dalton, CSC,

RAN in front of a MRH90 from 808
Squadron at HMAS Albatross.

STRALIA’S ADF

copters (ARH), six CH-47D Chinooks,
40 Bell OH-58 Kiowas, and 10 (of the 19
to date) MRH-90s (multi-role helicop-
ters). The Royal Australian Navy (RAN)
has 16 S-70B-2 Seahawk “classics,” 13
AS350BA Squirrels and 5 MRH-90s
(with six Sea Kings just having been
retired). There are also three Bell 429s
used for training aircrew and two Bell
412s used for loadmaster training. That’s
nine types with a total of around 150
helicopters.
Rotor & Wing: What are you currently
looking to modernize?
Dalton: The current focus right now
is Black Hawks and Sea Kings being
replaced by MRH-90. The Sea Kings
are being disposed of; we are selling five
to a UK-based logistics company that
will use them for spares and are in the
process of jumping through the hoops
with U.S. International Traffic in Arms
Regulations (ITAR) – even though our
Sea Kings were a Westland product, they
were built under license to a U.S. design
and ITAR still applies. We are retain-
ing one Sea King for the Fleet Air Arm
museum at HMAS Albatross.
The Air 9000 concept is the strategic
program of ADF rotorcraft capability.
Including Tiger, which is being procured
through Air 87 that predated Air 9000, if
you look at this decade, we will change
every helicopter the ADF owns. Phase
2, 4 and 6 of Air 9000 is the MRH 90
program – troop lift, then Black Hawk
replacement, then Sea King replace-
ment. Phase 5C is the Chinook replace-
ment program and we already have a
foreign military sales (FMS) agreement
with the U.S. government for seven
Boeing CH-47Fs. Phase 7 is the heli-
copter training system that is currently
in the tender evaluation phase and will
ultimately replace the Squirrel, Kiowa
and the two leased types. And Phase 8 is
the acquisition of 24 MH-60R Seahawk
Romeos, also through FMS, that will
replace the Seahawk “classics” and the
[Kaman] Seasprites that we didn’t quite
get into service. The introduction of the
two Canberra Class Landing Helicop-
ter Dock (LHD) ships is a game changer
for the ADF. The MRH-90 fits into the
amphibious mindset by providing a
more robust aircraft for the maritime
environment. We will operate the
Army and Navy MRH-90s as one
fleet. The Navy will continually use six
aircraft operationally but they will all
be taken from a central pool – so their
next aircraft may have previously come
from the Army. There will be one paint

W W W. R O T O R A N D W I N G . C O M J U N E 2 0 1 3 | R OTO R & W I N G M AGA Z I N E 35

 MILITARY | Q&A
Short-term lashings are removed from an MRH-90 aircraft,
Poseidon-14, embarked on HMAS Choules off the coast of
Townsville, North Queensland.
ADF
scheme for all of the aircraft.
We will also have the Tiger operating
from the LHD when we achieve its Final
Operational Capability, but this won’t be
until 2015-16. We watched closely what
the French did in operating from FS Ton-
nerre, one of their Mistral Class amphibi-
ous ships, in Libya so we have confidence
that Tiger can work in that type of envi-
ronment. Although the decision to build
the LHDs was made after the Tiger deci-
sion we now need to demonstrate that
we can take it to sea.
The new Chinook Foxtrots will come
with a rotor-brake to enable them to also
operate from the LHD. So troop carrying
and helicopter insertion will be possible
from the LHDs – they can house up to a
reinforced regiment of soldiers – wheth-
er for power projection, operational
reasons or disaster relief.
Rotor & Wing: How about the new Air
9000 Phase 7 Helicopter Aircrew Training
System (HATS)? I understand this is one
that industry is waiting on?
Dalton: Yes, HATS will not only replace
the Squirrel and the Kiowa helicopters,
but we have asked industry to focus
primarily on the system and not the
platform. We will have a joint helicopter
school at Nowra for both Army and
Navy helicopter personnel. That is in
tender now and industry is awaiting our
down-select decision. We are looking
for at least two, possibly three options
(from the five received), although we can
also go directly to one and then develop
whatever is selected to the Final Com-
mitted Proposal. The final selection deci-
sion will be in the first half of next cal-
endar year (2014) with money available
from July 2014. The initial downselect
will occur within the next few weeks. We
36 R OTO R & W I N G M AGA Z I N E | J U N E 2 0 1 3
didn’t put a lot of boundaries down – just
two engines on a flying platform and
we didn’t specify the ratio of live verses
synthetic.
Rotor & Wing: Do you see synthetic play-
ing an increasing role in training?
Dalton: We will move towards syn-
thetic. Those solutions are becoming
more realistic all the time and there is
also the cost saving factor, but there is a
balance between that and real exposure,
which always has some benefit. What
we ask aircrew to do is challenging:
operating at low level and during the
night on NVGs (night vision goggles),
often in poor weather, or returning to
a ship at night in poor conditions. You
need some experiences in the real world
to understand the consequences and
perspective that such conditions bring
– that edge is hard to replicate in a simu-
lator. Competences are interchangeable
between Army and Navy, although the
Navy has its aviation warfare officers and
the Army its loadmasters – but HATS
will deliver an all-encompassing system.
What is good is that each of the propos-
als has approached this challenge slightly
differently.
The next evaluation phase with
the final contenders will be workshop
based. We need to be really comfort-
able that industry has set up a process
to deliver what we expect. We don’t
want to find we haven’t evaluated
closely enough and it falls over.
Rotor & Wing: And the RAN now has
a solution it likes with the selection of the
MH-60R?
Dalton: Air 9000 Phase 8 means 24
Sikorsky MH-60Rs replacing 16 Sikor-
sky S-70-B Seahawk classics and the 11
Kaman SH-2G Super Seasprites that we
didn’t manage to get into service. We
will accept our first two aircraft from
the Lockheed Martin production line
in Owego, New York later this year in
December. We have learned from the
Air Force Super Hornet purchase by
staying in America for 12 months to
operate alongside a U.S. Navy squadron.
We will ultimately have seven helicopters
in Jacksonville, Florida, and will build
up our knowledge base and tactics,
techniques and procedures (TTPs) in a
training program that is already under
contract. We have already got aircrew
undergoing conversions and they were
joined by the maintainers in April. This
will build to 112 ADF personnel by the
time we bring everything home at the
end of 2014.
We want to mitigate the risk and
limit the potential for surprises. We can
use their [U.S. Navy] simulators and at
the end of 2014 bring all 112 people and
seven aircraft back to Australia so that
we can generate the first ship’s flight in
2015. The final Romeo aircraft will be
delivered to us in 2016 as the program
has been accelerated, but the limiting
factor is training the people, not the
aircraft delivery. While doing this,
however, it is important to maintain
our capability at sea so we have military
response options to any challenge.
We have established that each
Romeo flight will go to sea with two
aircrews, noting that we will retain the
current Seahawk classic crew model
of a single pilot in the right hand seat, a
non-pilot aviation warfare officer in the
front left seat and a non-commissioned
sensor operator in the back. Working
on the Seahawk classic we usually have
11 maintainers, while on the Romeo
W W W. R O T O R A N D W I N G . C O M

we expect this to increase to between
11 and 13, although we won’t make
a final decision until we get more
knowledge about the aircraft. But it will
certainly have more systems, weapons,
the Mark 54 torpedo and also we will
be introducing Hellfire – rail-launched
missiles, which hasn’t been done before
in our Navy! That the Romeo was
in-service with the U.S. Navy was a
decisive factor for us. It has flown more
than 100,000 hours and they have over
120 machines in service. We are the
first export customer, it is considered
a low-risk program and there is a spiral
upgrade that we will tap into and –
where it makes sense – will stay with
the U.S. Navy baseline configuration.
We need to focus on ensuring that the
sustainment package is right and the
Australian modifications are com-
pleted quickly and correctly.
Rotor & Wing: There have been delays
in bringing both the Tiger and the MRH-
90 into service. Why, for example, was
the Tiger program located in Darwin,
which seems not to have the ideal condi-
tions for introducing such a sophisticated
helicopter?
Dalton: Australia is a big country and
there are few places that do not have
harsh environments. The Tiger is a key
part of the 1st Aviation Regiment and the
capability is co-located at Robertson Bar-
racks in Darwin alongside Army’s 1st Bri-
gade. At Robertson Barracks, they have
access to huge training area. We do have
issues with corrosion and the tropical
conditions in Darwin with 100 percent
humidity. But Darwin is an important
place for us to operate. There was a delay
to our initial operating capability (IOC).
Testing the Hellfire went reasonably well.
We had other issues and perhaps the
biggest concerned the Thales TopOwl
helmet. The Army transferred from
ITT’s ANVIS 9 night vision goggles to
the TopOwl and while it had advantages,
the fidelity of the images wasn’t as good
as we needed so that slowed us down
– and we didn’t deploy at night. Those
issues are now resolved and we are now
flying with TopOwl 3, which has same
acuity of ANVIS 9s. I flew with both
W W W. R O T O R A N D W I N G . C O M
during a single night and found the com-
parison quite useful. We now have a very
powerful system and extremely accurate
gun slaved to the pilot’s head movement.
Combine that with Hellfire and we have
a sophisticated and lethal weapons sys-
tem. Having achieved IOC last Decem-
ber, Tiger deployed to South Australia
with 7 Royal Australian Regiment for an
exercise during which it demonstrated
the capability to operate day and night
into a high threat environment.
Rotor & Wing: What have been some of
the lessons learned in bringing new plat-
forms into service, particularly when you
look back at the original timeline?
Dalton: One of the things that has
slowed the Tiger program is an imma-
ture support network where not all the
elements were in place. The subcon-
tractors were not on contract; it’s really
been a matter of having to get the supply
pipeline in place and working. We would
order a part and it would take a year to
turn around. Even now we still aren’t
able to generate the rate of effort that we
would really like. Eurocopter was told
that we are unhappy and we have seen
them put a lot more effort into correct-
ing this, particularly over the last 12
months. There was a contractual dis-
pute over spares during which time we
had to buy more out-of-contract. We
have seen an impressive increase in the
amount of spares we are now carrying.
Rotor & Wing: Are you involved in any
Tiger user group?
Dalton: We have observer status on
the European Defence Agency’s (EDA)
Organization for Joint Armament Coop-
eration (OCCAR) for the Tiger heli-
copter program, and we are looking to
formally join. That will be interesting as
we will be the first user outside Europe
and we hope that will give us a little bit
more influence.
Rotor & Wing: And the same for the
MRH-90?
Dalton: There are different groups
within NAHEMA (the NATO Helicop-
ter Management Agency) and we par-
ticipate in the NH-90 user community.
As I said, we are seeing the benefit of a
sustainable supply chain for Tiger now
Australia’s Tony Dalton
it is out of production but the focus in
Europe is still on the production line for
the NH-90 and not so much supporting
the aircraft in service.
Rotor & Wing: How have you got the
MRH-90 back on course of the grounding
incidents and it being listed as a Project of
Concern?
Dalton: In April 2010 we had an engine
failure with an aircraft climbing out of
Adelaide. We were very surprised as the
engine is the Rolls Royce-Turbomeca
RTM322 [now fully owned and sup-
ported by Turbomeca]. The problem
revolved around an issue called thermal
bowing and engine cooling. Different
shafts cool at different rates. We are man-
aging it now through cooling runs and
blow-throughs on engine start-up, these
will be automated on the introduction
of the next FADEC [full authority digital
engine control] update and will become
transparent to the pilot.
Rotor & Wing: What are the upcom-
ing milestones for the full delivery of the
MRH-90?
Dalton: Getting the military type cer-
tificate and the service release certificate
allows us to move on to the next opera-
tional milestones [this was achieved
on April 17, 2013]. After that will be
obtaining the IOC for the Navy, because
we have a capability gap now due to the
retirement of the Sea King. By the middle
of this year we want to achieve a flight
embarked on a naval vessel for day oper-
ations. Next, by mid-2014, we want the
first IOC for Army, which is more com-
plex as we need to conduct air-mobile
operations with more aircraft, more tac-
tics and so on. We have been seeing the
problems that the Italians have seen.
The Germans have benefited from the
work we have done in Australia – the
windscreens were prone to cracking.
We have new sand filters. We still have
got issues with the door mounting of
the machine guns, the robustness of the
aircraft’s floor, with the cargo hook, the
width of the seats – and we are working
our way through those. These are the
things that you find when you take a
new capability into service, and you do
it ahead of everyone else.”
J U N E 2 0 1 3 | R OTO R & W I N G M AGA Z I N E 37
Photo by Andrew Drwiega COMMERCIAL | EVENT COVERAGE

PREPARES FOR AVI

Training, employment opportunities among the
highlights for the 2013 version of biannual event,
scheduled for June 17 to 23 at Le Bourget
Airport near the French capital.
By Editor-in-Chief Andrew Parker and International Bureau Chief Andrew Drwiega

38 R OTO R & W I N G M AGA Z I N E | J U N E 2 0 1 3 W W W. R O T O R A N D W I N G . C O M


IATION TAKEOVER
B
y the end of June, Le Bour-
get will be transformed,
once again, into the aviation
industry’s largest trade show.
Helicopter manufacturers including
AgustaWestland, AVIC, Bell, Boeing,
Enstrom, Eurocopter, HAL, KAI, Rus-
sian Helicopters, Sikorsky and others will
join the many service and equipment
suppliers from the rotorcraft industry, in
addition to the miles of fixed-wing air-
craft displays and space-focused exhibits.
According to Paris Air Show Chair-
man and CEO Emeric d’Arcimoles,
exhibit space at the 50th iteration of the
event – which first launched in 1909 –
sold out in January, with a total of 580,000
square feet (54,000 square meters) of
W W W. R O T O R A N D W I N G . C O M
stands. Through mid-March, upwards of
2,000 exhibitors (from 44 countries) and
110 aircraft had registered, with another
30 aircraft or so expected by the time the
show kicks off in mid-June. There will be
more than 340 business chalets, totaling
430,000 square feet (40,000 square meters)
of covered space. Outside space comes
in at around 460,000 square feet (43,000
square meters), with 2 million plus square
feet (192,000 square meters) dedicated to
aircraft static displays. Paris will feature 27
national pavilions, with the top six coun-
tries represented coming from the host
country France first, followed by the U.S.,
Germany, UK, Russia and Italy.
The projections for 2013 stack up
against the record-breaking 2011 ver-
Paris Prepares
AgustaWestland took the wraps off
the AW189 at the 2011 Paris Air
Show. What will be in the headlines
during this year’s event?
sion, which saw 2,113 exhibitors (from
45 countries), 150 aircraft on display,
151,000 trade visitors and 204,000 attend-
ees from the general public, according to
figures from d’Arcimoles. Organizers
claim that 1,400 aircraft were sold dur-
ing the course of the last Paris Air Show,
adding that 7,000 people were involved
in the setup for the weeklong undertak-
ing. That number is set to jump north for
the 2013 version, with more than 20,000
expected to join the setup effort this year.
Organizers have invested more than
$60 million in the show since 2003,
according to d’Arcimoles. Some of the
new services available for 2013 include
free wi-fi service in the halls, chalets
and static displays; exhibitor events and
J U N E 2 0 1 3 | R OTO R & W I N G M AGA Z I N E 39
 COMMERCIAL | EVENT COVERAGE
Helicopter Stuff: OEM Stops at Paris
The following is a list of booth numbers at the Paris Air Show for rotorcraft
original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). For a complete list of engine
and avionics providers, as well as exhibitors offering helicopter support
equipment and services, visit www.paris-air-show.com
Company Location
AgustaWestland Chalets (A) 232 and (A) 260
AVIC (China) Chalet (B) 1
Bell Helicopter Textron Exterior W 24
Boeing Chalet (A) 324 and (B) 321
EADS Exterior F 220 and Hall 2a 253
Enstrom Helicopter Hall 3A 93
Eurocopter Chalet H 420
Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) Chalet (A) 124
Kaman Aerospace Chalet (C) 4
Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) Chalet (A) 110 and Hall 3 B 8
Lockheed Martin Chalet (A) 316 and Exterior E 180
NH Industries
Russian Helicopters
Exterior E 216
Hall 2a C 198
Sikorsky Aircraft Chalet (A) 330 and Hall 3 A 149
Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) Hall 4 E 75
new products posted online; and a radio technical expertise to do that,” Avinco
station dedicated to information about CEO Francois Gautier told Rotor &
air show traffic. The hours of operation Wing during an interview at Heli-Expo
are expanding, as exhibitors can start in March. Started as a financing and
the day at 6:30 am and visitors at 8:30 support company for large fixed-wing
am. Paris will play host to a number of aircraft, Avinco has found recent suc-
business-to-business (B2B) meetings cess in the rotorcraft sector, setting up
with a special emphasis on training, transactions involving more than 220
employment and career advancement. helicopters over the past decade.
Gautier remarked that the helicop-
ter leasing business “will grow up to
Photo by Andrew Parker
a certain point – I don’t think it will
reach what you see on the fixed-wing
side – but operators need to manage
their balance sheet in a way that they
need to lease more and more. They
need the ability to get capacity quicker.”
Brazil, Southeast Asia, India and Russia
Avinco founder and CEO Francois Gautier. are some of the emerging markets that
Avinco is seeking to expand in, accord-
Avinco Tops Ten ing to Gautier, who founded Avinco in
2003 and previously worked for Airbus,
Monaco-based Avinco is marking 10 ATR and Aerospatiale (now EADS).
years in business at the Paris Air Show,
fresh off a transaction with CHC Heli- Eurocopter’s Focus on
copter. Avinco, which primarily deals Innovation
with Eurocopter models, arranged an Innovation will be the theme of Euro-
AS365 N3 for CHC, following transac- copter at Paris this year, as it will be
tions involving an AS332 L2 and EC155 across the whole EADS group. One of
B1 in early 2013. the highlights of Eurocopter’s participa-
“What makes us unique is we have tion will be the static display of its X3
the ability to move helicopters from one technology demonstrator, which toured
segment to another, and we have the the U.S. last summer. Also on display
40 R OTO R & W I N G M AGA Z I N E | J U N E 2 0 1 3
will be some of the latest members of
the Eurocopter family, including the
EC645 T2, the AS565 MB Panther and
the EC135.
There is a new CEO at the helm,
Guillaume Faury, 45, who succeeds Lutz
Bertling after his move to Bombardier
Transportation. Faury already has a
decade of previous management experi-
ence with Eurocopter (1998 to 2008) in
posts that included chief engineer for
the EC225/725 program, head of the
heavy helicopter flight test department,
executive vice president for commercial
programs and executive vice president
for research and development.
Turbomeca’s Pivotal
Year
According to Pierre Fabre, Chairman
and CEO of Snecma (Safran), 2013 will
be a “pivotal year” across the majority of
the organization’s programs.
On June 21 and 22, Safran is using
the airshow to recruit new employees.
Named “Talent2Days,” the event hopes
to attract more than 100 new employees
for specific jobs within the group.
In terms of helicopter engines, Bet-
tina Frey, vice president of communi-
cations, said that Turbomeca will be
showing its Ardiden 3, Arrius, Arriel
and the newly
introduced tur-
Sikorsky Canadian CH-148
boshaft Arrano. Cyclone at the 2011 show.
The latter was
launched at
Heli-Expo in
Photo by Andrew Drwiega
March. It is
a 1,100-shp
engine designed
to power four-
to-six ton heli-
copters and fits
b e twe en the
Arriel and Ardiden performance ranges.
At its launch, Turbomeca Chairman
and CEO Olivier Andries explained the
reasoning behind the name. “Tradition-
ally, our engine names have links to
the Pyrenees mountains, near where
Turbomeca has its headquarters. Arrano
means “eagle” in the region’s Basque
language.”
W W W. R O T O R A N D W I N G . C O M
 Photo by
REGIS
YOUT ER
INTER R
www.h EST
elitech
events
.com/rw

The only dedicated civil and

para-public helicopter event in Europe
An unmissable event – Europe’s only 100%
helicopter show, bringing the international
and national rotary wing market together.
Register your interest in the
show by visiting
www.helitechevents.com/rw
An annual event taking place in ExCeL
London 2013
Meet over 200 expert exhibitors at the show
Join the high level, 3 day industry conference
Opportunities for customer demonstration flights
Discover the latest helicopter products services,
parts and accessories
Keep up to date with what’s new in the industry

Have a Smartphone? Join & follow us

Search for helitechevents on these
Scan this QR barcode social media channels
to be taken directly
to the Helitech
Supported by Organised by
International website
LA County Fire Department PUBLIC SERVICE | FIREFIGHTING

Helicopters and the equipment they support are an

invaluable component to aerial firefighting.
By Mark Robins

42 R OTO R & W I N G M AGA Z I N E | J U N E 2 0 1 3 W W W. R O T O R A N D W I N G . C O M

 Fighting the Flames

Helicopters can access remote

forested or mountainous areas that

T
would be difficult to transport ground he use of helicopters to drop fire retardant, foam or water to suppress
personnel and water trucks to. wildfires is an essential firefighting tool. Their speed, mobility and delivery
capability make them very effective resources in support of firefighters on
the ground. Small, medium and large helicopters can carry from 100 to 3,000
gallons of water, foam or retardant in either buckets slung beneath the aircraft, or in
fixed-tanks.
The helicopter’s value is the capability to “shuttle water from nearby sources to the
most critical areas quickly,” says Samuel Evans, former U.S. Army Colonel (Ret.) and
senior research assistant at the applied research laboratory at Penn State University
in University Park, Pa. “Although fixed-wing aircraft can deliver more water (or other
retardant), they lack the more precise delivery capability of a helicopter. They also
require a runway/airfield to reload. If a fire isn’t ‘conveniently located’ near an airfield,
time between turns on a fixed-wing can be excessive.”
Helicopters “not only allow teams to reach the scene more quickly, but they also
allow for increased precision during operations, as the helicopter’s speed and position
can easily be adapted to the environment at hand,” notes Benoit Terral, aerial work/
firefighting operational marketing manager for Eurocopter in Marignane, France.
In addition to delivering water and transporting people to/from fires, rotorcraft
support various aerial work operations. “The helicopter is used in aerial reconnais-
sance for reporting fires, mapping fires, directing other aerial firefighting assets on
fires, delivering equipment to remote areas, and providing hoisting, medevac and
situation monitoring capabilities to ensure the safety of people involved in firefighting
efforts,” says Shawn Bethel, division manager, Firefighting division for SEI Industries
in Delta, BC.
The helicopter’s role in firefighting “has become increasingly important over
the last 30 years and continues to evolve as technology has changed,” explains Mike
Atwood, founder and president of Boise, Idaho-based Aviation Specialties Unlim-
ited (ASU). “The Yellowstone Park Fire was a turning point in fighting fires with large
helicopters. If it had not been for the two Type I helicopters making multiple water
drops in very rapid succession, a great deal of the historic park buildings could have
been lost.”
According to the U.S. Forest Service, helicopters were used to combat wildfires in
California as early as 1947 and their usefulness at moving personnel rapidly around
a fire was quickly recognized. Initially, helicopters were just used for tactical and
logistical support for ground crews. In 1957, the Los Angeles County Fire Depart-
ment experimentally used a Bell 47 to lay hoses using belly-mounted trays. In the
mid-1950s, Jim Grady of Okanagan Helicopters reportedly developed the first water
bucket with Henry Stevenson in a machine shop in Nelson, BC. This “Monsoon
Bucket,” a converted 45-gallon drum with a trap door in the bottom actuated by the
pilot in flight, became operational in 1962.
Rotorcraft also supply “a point attack capability and rapid turnaround that no
other asset can provide,” says Jerry McCawley, test pilot and flight safety engineer at
Lockheed Martin, Owego, N.Y. “Their ability to use water sources close to the fire
such as ponds, streams or even swimming pools allows helicopters quick turns and
more on-station time than fixed-wing assets, as well as the ability to drop very accu-
rately on any hot spot that needs attention in a fire. This is particularly useful in fires
in urban areas and was showcased with spectacular results in the fires that hit Sydney,
Australia a few years ago. [They have] the speed and ability to get past fire lines and
attack from any angle. Trucks often have to fall back due to fire encroachment – heli-
copters do not have this problem.”
What about the extra cost incurred by helicopters fighting fires? McCawley believes
with all the costs associated with ground crews and the far larger numbers of per-

W W W. R O T O R A N D W I N G . C O M J U N E 2 0 1 3 | R OTO R & W I N G M AGA Z I N E 43

 PUBLIC SERVICE | FIREFIGHTING

Firefighting buckets are
collapsible, and able to be
transported inside the helicopter
and deployed within seconds to
make drops on fires.
Columbia Helicopters
sonnel required to devices to combat fires. The most popu- due to bucket contact with rotors, trees
man the trucks the lar of the buckets is the Bambi Bucket, or objects
cost disadvantage introduced to the rotorcraft community There is an ongoing argument in
is diminished or by SEI Industries in 1982. It is “the first terms of which device, bucket or tank,
negated. bucket that is collapsible, and able to be is best. “Both are used for the same
Lee Benson, transported inside the helicopter and application and both are successful,”
helicopter consul- deployed within seconds to make drops says Keith Saylor, fire ops manager at
tant and retired on fires,” notes SEI’s Bethel. The Bambi Columbia Helicopters, also based near
senior pilot for the Bucket is sold in more than 110 coun- Portland, Ore. “The tank is the main
Los Angeles Coun- tries. It is lightweight, easy to use and difference between them. Many heli-
ty Fire Department, relatively inexpensive to buy and main- copters used for this purpose are stan-
stresses that heli- tain, according to Bethel. “There are dard category aircraft used for another
copters do not put some Bambi Buckets that arrive at SEI’s aspect for flying years ago. If you have a
out fires, teams put plant in Vancouver for repair that are helicopter that has a hook on it and it’s
out fires. “These 20 years old. SEI’s Bambi Bucket offers certified with a belly hook, it can safely
te a m s i n cl u d e a range of models between 72 gallons to be used for firefighting just by putting
many facets but at 2,600 gallons, allowing a Robinson R44 a long line and a bucket on it. When
a minimum they to a Boeing Chinook and everything in it comes to tanked aircraft, there are

include command
structure, logistics,
communications,
hand crews, cater-
pillars, fire engines
a n d a i r c r a f t ,”
he says.
Benson, also a Public Service colum-
nist for Rotor & Wing, explains that heli-
copters “act in a support role, and when
used correctly they are providing direct
support to the hand crews, dozers or
infrequently engine companies. The pur-
pose of the helicopter is to make the units
above be more effective. Hand crews can
only cut lines to a given flame height, the
dozers can work greater flame length but
there’s still a limit. When the flame height
exceeds this value, the helicopter is there
to knock the fire down to enable the fire
line to be extended by either the crew or
dozer. Engine companies are supported
by the helicopter dropping around struc-
tures to lessen the flame height and
between to help ground personnel put some hoops that must be jumped
out the fires.” through to get the tanks approved, but
Tankers can be filled on the ground once done, that aircraft can be used in
(by water tenders or truck-mounted a firefighting mode.”
systems) or water can be siphoned Helitankers “normally have a larger
from lakes, rivers, reservoirs or a por- capacity than the Bambi buckets, but
table tank through a hanging snorkel. weigh more and are more complex in
Pilots can program the tank dump installation and operation,” McCawley
doors from the cockpit to control the says. “Buckets are as simple as it gets.”
volume of water and number of drops. Mike Reightley, president of Bend,
Popular firefighting helicopters include Ore.-based Kawak Aviation Technolo-
variants of the Bell 204 and the Erick- gies, believes that in this debate, the
son S-64 Aircrane helitanker, which answer depends on the application.
features a sea snorkel for filling from a “There are conditions in which each
natural water source while in flight. device has its advantages and in the
According to Mark Zimmerman, end, all are necessary tools in the
president and CEO of Simplex Aero- helicopter firefighting arsenal,” he says.
space of Portland, Ore., fixed tanks “Fixed tanks tend to be preferred over
have several advantages over buckets buckets in urban or urban interface
including: areas such as Southern California in
• Ability to fly at higher speeds that they eliminate the risk of an inad-
• Ability to fly over urban areas vertent jettison over a populated area.
• More accurate
water drop
Russian Helicopters

intensity to enable the engine company •Quickerresponse

the environment it needs to do its job of time as the tank
protecting a structure.” can remain
Evans agrees that it takes a “team installed on the
approach” to put out fires. “Unfortunately, aircraft while the
like military operations; it takes ‘boots aircraft performs
on the ground’ for the best chance for other functions,
success,” he says. “Helicopters are a great such as transport-
capability, but a in a supporting role.” ing cargo or per-
sonnel The use of helicopters to drop fire
Tanks and Buckets • FAA certified retardant, foam or water to suppress
wildfires is an essential firefighting tool.
Buckets and tanks are the main delivery • Fewer accidents

44 R OTO R & W I N G M AGA Z I N E | J U N E 2 0 1 3 W W W. R O T O R A N D W I N G . C O M


however, the science behind it and the
Kawak Aviation Technologies
effectiveness has been shown to be
quite effective.”
New solutions are available to give
aerial firefighters the forestry and
environmental requirements indicat-
ing the type, location and volume of
both fills and drops, in addition to pro-
Tankers can be filled on the ground (by viding operational load management
water tenders or truck-mounted systems) and analysis. Mark Insley, P.E. and
or water can be siphoned from lakes, rivers, president of Latitude Technologies
reservoirs or a portable tank through a Corp. in Victoria, BC, says his IONode
hanging snorkel.
system provides data in both real-time
They also mitigate the dangers to some and post-mission analysis. “This lat-
degree of flying a long line implement ter aspect allows stakeholders in all
in an area where hazards such as aspects of the aerial fire attack to get
power lines are more prevalent.” timely and appropriate information,”
Innovative aerial firefighting com- he continues.
panies are always looking for ways to Simplex’s latest product is the Aft
improve their equipment. “The bucket Hook, a latch mechanism that con-
has gone through major changes over nects the end of the hover pump to the
the years with it becoming gated,” aft belly of the aircraft during flight.
Saylor says. “You can adjust the gate Upon reaching a water source, the
or move the gate in an open-and-close pilot can release the latch to deploy the
position, so you don’t have to dump pump and refill the tank. “The FAA
the complete bucket all at one time. It’s prohibits the transport of passengers
called a “torrentula” valve, called that while the hover pump is deployed, but
for a torrential downpour. So you can the Aft Hook provides operators the
split your load 10 times realistically. ability to transport firefighters to a fire
You can open it very slightly to drizzle without having to uninstall and rein-
water and make a long wind-up, or stall the hover pump,” says Zimmer-
open it up and dump it all at once.” man. The Simplex tank model 304 for
Another important development is the medium Bell is the only tank with
the powerfill. “Our buckets have four this transport category, he insists.
pumps in the bottom of them,” Saylor Night vision goggles (NVGs) are
says. “If I can find 18 inches of water being used more frequently to effec-
somewhere, I can set the bucket there, tively fight fires at nights. “At night,
turn the pump on, and it will load the wind is typically down, temperatures
bucket to where it is overflowing. The are down and humidity is up,” notes
advantage is with streams or creeks Atwood. “This aids the helicopter in
close to the fire, you couldn’t get operating efficiencies. Night vision
enough water in them before.” goggles can help spot hot spots and
Many companies are looking can see into the near-infrared range.
beyond conventional drop materi- When using them in conjunction
als. “I think the helicopter can be an with forward-looking infrared devices
extremely effective in the application and laser pointers, operators have the
of gel products and not necessarily ability to perform precise water drops
limited to conventional tank or bucket on hot spots at night. This allows
drops,” says Reightley. “Kawak has firefighting to occur 24 hours a day.”
utilized several of its current systems With these important innovations and
to effectively apply gel via a nozzle their many aerial advantages, helicop-
for accurate placement and swath ters will be successfully supporting
control. Gel application equipment firefighting efforts for many years
will be driven by the acceptance of gel; to come.
W W W. R O T O R A N D W I N G . C O M
Fighting the Flames
California on Fire:
May 2013
As this article was being written
in May 2013, California was suf-
fering the effects of yet another
of its infamous Golden State
fires. According to the Califor-
nia Department of Forestry
and Fire Protection, in the town
of Camarillo, south of the 101
Freeway, approximately 25,000
acres have been destroyed, but
no deaths have been reported.
“We are a little ahead of the
fire season for California, but
California is known to burn
at any time,” says Keith Saylor,
fire ops manager at Columbia
Helicopters. “We currently have
one of our Columbia Model
234 Chinook helicopters work-
ing under an Exclusive Use
(EU) contract with the Forest
Service. The Forest Service has
been using it on fires in North-
ern California so far this sea-
son.”
Lee Benson, helicopter con-
sultant, Rotor & Wing colum-
nist and retired senior pilot for
the Los Angeles County Fire
Department, says: “I can see the
fires from my house.” Benson
attributes part of the fire to Cal-
ifornia’s dry climate. “The wind
was blowing 50 knots; humid-
ity is down in the four to six per-
cent range,” he notes. “Big birds
like crows, hawks and owls are
almost perfect aviators, but
not quite. Sometimes in the
attempt to land on power lines,
they will get on both leads (the
hot and cold) and this fries the
bird. Then the bird falls down
into the brush and a fire starts.”
Although the cause of the
fire remains under investiga-
tion, officials said that they had
ruled out arson and instead
believed the blaze was started
by a small “undetermined road-
side ignition of grass/debris.”
J U N E 2 0 1 3 | R OTO R & W I N G M AGA Z I N E 45
 CATEGORY | INFO
TRAINING NEWS
Avincis Group Strives for ‘Fundamental Cultural and
Behavioral Change’ in Approach to Safety
Bond Aviation has
formally recognized
Engineering Man-
ager John Crowther
and HUMS Engi-
neer Sean Newlands
f o r re c e i v i n g t h e
U. S . Tr a n s p o r t a -
tion Safety Institute
Bond
(TSI) Moral Courage
award in March. The
Capti eft to right, Luke Farajallah,
managing director of Bond Offshore
B o n d te ch n i c i a n s
Helicopters with Sean Newlands, shared the first-time
HUMS engineer and John Crowther, award with the U.S.
engineering manager. Coast Guard out of
Air Station Kodiak, Alaska, who faced the tough deci-
sion of abandoning a rescue mission due to high risk.
FSF Aims to Increase Involvement in Helicopter Industry
Flight Safety Foundation (FSF), an international aviation
safety organization based in Alexandria, Va., paid a visit to
Heli-Expo in Las Vegas during March to renew its dedica-
tion to the helicopter community. Founded in 1947, the
non-profit organization’s mission is “the improvement of
global aviation safety.”
The foundation has “a pretty rich past with helicopters, but
we’ve kind of [inadvertently] drawn away from it in the past 10
years,” said Kevin Hiatt, president and CEO. “But due to what’s
happening in the helicopter end of this business with more
accidents, we’re starting to take more of an active interest.”
Metro Aviation Achieves Level III of SMS Project
Three years after entering FAA’s voluntary Safety Man-
agement Systems (SMS) pilot project, Metro Aviation
has entered Level III of the program. SMS is recognized
by the U.S. Joint Planning and Development Office
(JPDO) and International Civil Aviation Organization
(ICAO) as a measurement for effective management
of safety in the aviation industry. FAA’s SMS pilot stud-
ies assists the agency in developing implementation
46 R OTO R & W I N G M AGA Z I N E | J U N E 2 0 1 3
Honeywell Synthetic Vision 28
CAE Upgrades MH-60R Trainer 48
Safety Watch by Terry Terrell 52
Luke Farajallah, managing director of Bond Offshore
Helicopters, recognized Crowther and Newlands during a
ceremony on April 18 in Aberdeen, Scotland. TSI created
the award to highlight the efforts of those helicopter opera-
tors that put safety first when faced with tough decisions.
For Crowther and Newlands, this meant taking a helicopter
out of service even though it had been cleared to fly. TSI
found out about their decision from reading an article in
Rotor & Wing, “Every Day Safety Plan,” November 2012.
The two Bond technicians noted a small deviation in a
heath and usage monitoring system (HUMS) indication,
and convinced management to take the cautious approach
and pull the helicopter out of service. The incident resulted
in a delay of “a couple hours,” but Farajallah noted that he’s
“pleased that our team spoke up. We want to be in a place
where if anyone’s uncomfortable, then we don’t go.”
Read the full story at www.rotorandwing.com
FSF’s experience and industry knowledge shows that the
use of its Basic Aviation Risk Standards (BARS) system, as
well as confidential safety audits provided by its members, can
assist any operation with the effective management of risk.
“We need to make sure that safety isn’t something
that’s just added on to the top of an operation,” said Hiatt,
a former captain and chief pilot for a major airline. “It has
to become a core value. We have to manage the risk.” Visit
www.flightsafety.org to learn more about the organization,
its information databases, and its safety programs. —By
Ernie Stephens, Editor-at-Large
strategies and oversight interfaces for managing safety.
Metro Aviation has committed to establishing an
active SMS for its Part 145 Repair Station in Shreveport,
La., and expects to enter Level IV of the FAA program in
2014.
Read more about recent completion projects at
Metro involving the Calstar and EagleMed fleets at
www.rotorandwing.com
W W W. R O T O R A N D W I N G . C O M
 L-3 Link to Build UH-60M
Trainers for Taiwan
Arlington, Texas-based L-3 Link Simulation & Training
as obtained a U.S. Army Program Executive Office (PEO)
for Simulation, Training and Instrumentation contract
covering two Sikorsky UH-60M operational flight trainers
(OFTs) for the Taiwan Army. The trainers will resemble
similar units in use with the U.S. Army’s Flight School XXI
program.
Plans call for the first OFT to arrive at the Taiwan
Army’s Shinshou facility in fourth quarter 2014, with the
second trainer online in first quarter 2015. L-3 Link will
also supply logistics support under a one-year contract
with an option to renew.
L-3 Link
UH-60M simulator showing formation flight.
W W W. R O T O R A N D W I N G . C O M
Max-Viz-1500 Enhanced
Vision Approved for Bell 429
Astronics Corp.’s Max-Viz-1500 enhanced vision system (EVS)
has been approved as an option for the Bell 429 single-pilot cock-
pit. The Max-Viz-1500 provides a dual optical field of view for
improved situational awareness during all phases of rotary and
fixed-wing flight. Pilots are given the option to select wide-angle
and telephoto views. Bell is offering the EVS on new factory 429s,
and also as a retrofit option for existing 429 operators.
Rotorcraft Accident
Investigation Training Course
Available Through NTSB
Ever wonder what it’s like to investigate a helicopter accident?
For a fee, the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board
(NTSB) is offering to explain how it works. NTSB will host a
five-day training course on rotorcraft accident investigation
from June 17 to 21 at its Training Center in Ashburn, Va. Pro-
cedures and investigation methods will be discussed along
with examples from recent probes. For more information,
visit http://go/use.gov/TkSR.
J U N E 2 0 1 3 | R OTO R & W I N G M AGA Z I N E 47
 CATEGORY | INFO
CAE Upgrades U.S. Navy MH-60S Flight Trainer
The U.S. Navy is re-entering an updat-
ed Sikorsky MH-60S operational flight
trainer (OFT) into service at the Naval
Air Station (NAS) near San Diego,
Calif. CAE provided a “technology
refresh” for the trainer, adding motion
To locate your Robinson dealer,
visit www.robinsonheli.com
or call 310-539-0508.
An engineering company
48 R OTO R & W I N G M AGA Z I N E | J U N E 2 0 1 3
seats, an upgraded image generator
visual system and a new Barco CD2260
visual display system. The upgrades
will ensure concurrency with other
MH-60S trainers and operational
MH-60S helicopters.
Sikorsky’s MH-60S is designed
to perform vertical replenishment
(VERTREP), combat search and res-
cue (CSAR), special warfare support
and airborne mine countermeasures
(AMCM) missions.
Colorado Heli-Ops
Expands Fleet,
Training Services
Colorado Heli-Ops is expanding its
helicopter fleet and services, following
a move to a larger facility in November
2012. The Bloomfield, Colo.-based heli-
copter training company has added a
new Robinson R44 Raven II and an R22
to its fleet of flight training helicopters.
The company is also now offering heli-
copter maintenance outside of its hangar
located at Rocky Mountain Airport.
AW139 Sim Begins
Ops at FlightSafety
Lafayette Center
FlightSafety International (FSI) has
indoctrinated its new Level D-qualified
AgustaWestland AW139 full flight simu-
lator (FFS) into the initial pilot training
courses at its learning center in Lafayette,
La. The simulator comes with a Honey-
well Primus Epic avionics suite for single
and dual-pilot use. It can be configured
for a number of applications, including
offshore, EMS, law enforcement, SAR
and firefighting. Other features include
FlightSafety’s Vital X visual system, four-
axis autopilot, enhanced ground proxim-
ity warning system (EGPWS), GPS with
wide area augmentation system (WAAS)
capability, and enhanced ground proxim-
ity warning system (EGPWS).
FSI has also recently expanded the
courses at its Dallas site to include the
Sikorsky S-76B. The company plans to
transfer the S-76B simulator from its
facility in West Palm Beach, Fla. to its
support site in Tulsa, Okla., where it will
undergo refurbishment before heading
to Dallas in third quarter 2013.
W W W. R O T O R A N D W I N G . C O M
 International Marketplace
Helmets
ANVIS 6 HELICOPTER HELMETS (Kevlar helmets and
spares including: HGU models). NOMEX coveralls, jackets,
gloves, etc. factory new, in stock. Sage green and desert
tan. GOVERNMENT SALES, INC., 89 Francis Ave. Hartford,
CT 06106, Tel: (860) 247-7787, Fax: (860) 586-8020.
Catalogue on website: www.aviationhelmets.com

Heliport Lighting
HELIPORT LIGHTING FAA-approved equipment.
MANAIRCO, INC. (419) 524 - 2121, www.manairco.com

#1 for Dauphin Parts

We own and stock the largest inventory

of independently held Dauphin
helicopter spare parts available on the
market today.
Rotables, hydraulics, avionics &
instruments ready to ship worldwide.
Parts for exchange and outright sales.

Phone : +41 52 345 3605

Fax : +41 52 345 3606
US-Phone : +1 207-513-1921
E-Mail : mail@alpine.aero
Web : www.alpine.aero

W W W. R O T O R A N D W I N G . C O M DECEM
JUBN
E RE 2 0 1 32 | R OTO R & W I N G M AGA Z I N E 49
 COMMERCIAL | TECHNOLOGY
Leading Edge
By Frank Lombardi
Automatic Flight Control Systems
H
elicopter drivers usually
start out their lives in very
basic machines limited in
power, and with no help
when it comes to commanding the
aircraft’s petulant tendencies. The
green pilot must sense every rotation,
translation, and acceleration and react
accordingly to produce the desired
flight condition. This can make for a
very tired pilot at the end of the day.
As we gain skill and experience and
move on to larger, more capable aircraft,
we are rewarded with the addition of
automatic flight control systems (AFCS)
designed to lower workload by produc-
ing a more well-behaved flying machine.
The term “AFCS” covers a list of devices
used in various ways to alter or improve
aircraft stability and handling qualities,
or to permit certain parts of a mission
to be flown automatically. It can be con-
sidered the portion of the flight controls
that are moved automatically by a device
other than the pilot.
There is a usual hierarchy to any
AFCS (see figure); and although the
acronyms describing the different
levels can vary, the hierarchy can be
divided into an inner and outer loop.
The inner loop is primarily governed
by sensors monitoring internal condi-
tions directly related to the helicopter,
such as roll, pitch, and yaw attitudes,
rates, and accelerations. The outer loop
deals with conditions external to the
helicopter such as airspeed, altitude,
and navigational information.
Beginning at the innermost level of
an AFCS, you will usually find a stabil-
ity augmentation system, or SAS. The
job of the SAS is to provide short-term
“rate damping.” Disturbances such as
50 R OTO R & W I N G M AGA Z I N E | J U N E 2 0 1 3
wind gusts are detected as roll, pitch,
and yaw rates through the use of gyros,
and the AFCS quickly commands an
actuator to move a control surface to
counter it. Just like a child on a swing
who is pumping their legs out of sync
with the pendulum motion, after a few
moments the oscillation is brought to a
stop. SAS actuators are usually in series
with the pilot’s controls, and typically
don’t move them, so their motion is
transparent. These types of actuators
tend to be fast-moving, and have lim-
ited authority. SAS ultimately makes
the helicopter less “twitchy.”
In its basic form a SAS cannot tell
the difference between a pilot-induced
disturbance through use of the con-
trols, or a wind gust. This can actually
end up making the helicopter handle
sluggishly. The stability and control
augmentation system, or SCAS, is
the next level in the AFCS hierarchy,
and addresses the problem of a pilot’s
control inputs being damped by the
SAS. In this case, when a control move-
ment is sensed, it is fed forward into the
AFCS, causing the initial movement
of the SAS actuator to be in the pilot’s
desired direction. This “rate quicken-
ing,” as its called, enhances aircraft feel
to the pilot.
The last level in the inner loop
employs attitude stabilization equip-
ment, or ASE. At this level, through the
use of rate or attitude gyros, the system
will produce control inputs to restore
the actual roll, pitch, or yaw attitude
that had just been disturbed. This is
especially helpful to the pilot that finds
themselves in the clouds, as a SAS or
SCAS will not really help keep them
right side up.
Moving to the outer loop of AFCS
hierarchy, we finally get to what is
considered an “autopilot.” At this level,
the system sensors work to maintain
desired airspeed, altitude, and sideslip.
This is commonly done with the use of
actuators placed in parallel to the pilot’s
controls. They are generally slower
moving, but can have up to full author-
ity to move the control surfaces as
necessary to maintain the desired flight
condition. When you see the flight
controls moving eerily by themselves,
it is due to the AFCS commanding the
parallel actuators.
The highest level and outermost
loop of an AFCS is the “operational
autopilot.” It is at this level that the
system can command higher functions
such as point-to-point navigation or
automatic tracking of an instrument
landing system (ILS).
This basic description of an AFCS
would not be complete without men-
tioning the force trim or artificial feel
system, which aids in holding the con-
trols in a desired trim condition, and
is a necessary part of most automatic
flight control systems. It “anchors”
the cockpit side of the system and lets
the SAS do its job. With the trim sys-
tem turned off, the pilot becomes the
anchor. The best AFCS have excellent
“fly-through” characteristics, in other
words, the pilot can get on the controls
and make changes to the aircraft’s flight
path/condition without having to fight
or disengage the AFCS. That said, hav-
ing an understanding of your automatic
flight control system, all its capabilities,
and all the possible failure modes still
remains an essential part of any pilot’s
knowledge base.
W W W. R O T O R A N D W I N G . C O M
advertising sales reps

International Marketplace
Carol Mata U-ZIP-IT™
6409 Nasoni Cove Anti-Exposure
Breathable Dry Suit
Austin, TX 78749
512-607-6361 Office The X-Back
512-426-1579 Cell Air Crew Vest™
cmata@accessintel.com Designed for Safety, Mobility,
Ease of Donning and Comfort

Randy Jones
Protecting Aviators Since 1920
320 Decker drive, Suite 249
Las Colinas (Irving) TX 75062
972-713-9612 Office
214-679-4615 Cell
rjones@accessintel.com

James McAuley
Cortijo LoCota, 42, Casa Las Flores
Santa Rosalia,
29551 Campanillas Malaga, Spain
Tel/Fax: +34 952 118018
jimediaservices@aol.com

advertiser index
Page# ..... Advertiser........................................................................................................................................................Website
25 ....................Aero Dynamix.....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................www.aerodynamix.com
9.......................Aeronautical Accessories.......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................www.aero-access.com
19 ....................Aerospace Optics Inc. ...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................www.vivisun.com
49 ....................Alpine Air Support.........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................www.alpine.aero
56 ....................American Eurocopter .......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................www.eurocopterusa.com
49 ....................BorgWarner.........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................www.aerospace.borgwarner.com
23 ....................Breeze Eastern.................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................www.breeze-eastern.com
49 ....................Chopper Spotter ..............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................www.chopperspotter.com
3.......................Cobham......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................www.cobham.com
24 ....................Desmi Pumping ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ www.desmi.com
31 ....................FlightSafety...........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................www.flightsafety.com
47 ....................Frasca International .......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................www.frasca.com
15 ....................Garmin International .................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. www.garmin.com
17 ....................Honeywell ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................www. aerospace.honeywell.com
21 ....................HR Smith ...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................www.hr-smith.com
55 ....................Kallman Worldwide ...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................www.kallman.com
33 ....................Messe Berlin..............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................www.ila-berlin.com
41 ....................Reed Exhibitions/HeliTech ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... www.reedexpo.com
48 ....................Robinson Helicopter............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................www.robinsonheli.com
2.......................Rolls Royce ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................ www.rolls-royce.com/defence_aerospace
27 ....................Saft ......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................www.saftbatteries.com
18 ....................Stark Aerospace.............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. www. starkaerospace.com
51 ....................Survival Products .....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................www.survivalproductsinc.com
51 ....................Switlik ...........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................www.switlik.com
49 ....................Tanis Aircraft........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................www.tanispreheat.com
11 ....................Thales ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................www.thalesgroup.com
CV0 ..................Transaero............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. www.transaeroinc.com
5.......................UTC Aerospace Systems.........................................................................................................................................................................................................................www.utcaerospacesystems.com
53 ....................Vector Aerospace...........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................www.vectoraerospace.com
W W W. R O T O R A N D W I N G . C O M J U N E 2 0 1 3 | R OTO R & W I N G M AGA Z I N E 51
 TRAINING | RECURRENT
Safety Watch
By Terry Terrell
Knot Tying, Then and Now
M
y father was a U.S. Navy
hero in World War II, so
at an early age I had devel-
oped a keen appreciation
for several aspects of seamanship, and
became, largely in an effort to please
my dad, something of a junior knot-
tying expert. I pursued this admit-
tedly arcane activity with great energy,
memorizing a respectable vocabulary
of useful knots, and precisely how to
tie them. I could deliver rote verbal
recitation outlining when each knot
should be used, and could define why
a given knot would meet require-
ments of a given circumstance, satisfy-
ing a given need. Eventually, though, I
was able to see that all this memorized
information represented only partial
knowledge.
In those days I had mechanically
committed to memory each step
required for tying each knot, happy
under the vague assumption that
ancient geniuses had somehow magi-
cally acquired original knot tying
knowledge, perhaps from divine
sources, and then handed down strict
procedure. Now that I’m older, of
course, I see knots not as magical gifts
from unidentified supernatural bene-
factors, but as orderly management
of simple physical resource. I now see
how logically arranging various bends,
loops and chokes can achieve desired
function, and this insight reminds me
that knowing the rudiments of some-
thing can be adequate, but that truly
understanding a thing is, in distinct
contrast, profoundly and truly satisfy-
ing, and vastly more effective. I think
it all has to do with the nature of the
maturing human brain, but the knot
tying example of knowledge matura-
tion is duplicated in countless other
52 R OTO R & W I N G M AGA Z I N E | J U N E 2 0 1 3
human activities, certainly to include
flying.
I can vividly remember confidently
flying with my friends as passengers
when I boasted very little total flight
time. I was still in high school, but had
applied myself mightily to earning a
private pilot’s license, and had been
told throughout that process that my
performance was exceptional, so on
one particular occasion I was pridefully
enjoying the privilege of delivering a
friend to her grandparents for Christ-
mas dinner. Astonishingly, my uncle
allowed me to use his new Cherokee
Arrow, since we both felt that I was an
adequate master of that airplane, able
to verbalize all the correct numbers and
systems descriptions without hesita-
tion or error, and having demonstrated
a passable touch at flying it. At that time
I also—it should be pointed out—felt
an inappropriately exaggerated general
mastery of the flying environment at
large, certain that I could not be sur-
prised by anything.
With two additional friends in
back we enjoyed the short trip from
home base in the clear winter air
which was now in place behind a
recently passed cold front, and as
we overflew the small, uncontrolled
airport where grandparents waited, I
displayed my expertise by overflying
the field, noting the wind direction
as indicated by a venerable metal
wind cone, made all appropriate Uni-
com calls, and very precisely entered
the prescribed downwind leg for a
Runway 18 landing. I proudly flew
beautifully controlled airspeeds as I
executed the landing checklist, lower-
ing flaps and gear right on schedule,
and turning base and final as if we
were on rails. I didn’t suspect anything
amiss even as we flared and the tires
chirped, except that the chirps were
louder than I expected, and the run-
way seemed to be disappearing under
us too quickly, as I began to juggle the
wheel brakes. The end of the runway,
in fact, was coming up fast when I real-
ized that stopping in the overrun was
going to be a close thing, and beyond
the overrun was a sheer drop into a
heavily wooded ravine. I got the plane
stopped with absolutely no pavement
at all to spare, and couldn’t help but
notice that everyone was still having a
fine time except me.
I spent the time taxiing to the
transient ramp silently questioning
myself about how I could have allowed
a “close call” landing, and as we shut
down and deplaned I got my answer.
The old wind cone was showing steady
wind out of the south, but I could now
see that the outdated device had been
rusted in place for years, and the wind
was literally howling out of the north.
I, of course, should have known that a
south wind never follows a cold front
passage, and, moreover, I should have
checked trees, smoke, etc., for second-
ary indications of wind direction and
speed.
Now that many years spent flying
within the somewhat complex world
of EMS helicopters have imprinted
innumerable lessons mimicking the
one taught by the rusted wind cone,
but intensified by endlessly com-
pounding elements of aviation, medi-
cine, human interaction and common
sense, I appreciate that pilots must
begin their careers mastering at least a
few essential fundamentals, but even-
tually, if they persevere sufficiently,
they can learn to appreciate achieving
true understanding.
W W W. R O T O R A N D W I N G . C O M
SETTING THE STANDARD OF CUSTOMER SERVICE

24/7
READY TO SERVE AROUND THE WORLD

฀฀ ฀฀ ฀ ฀฀ ฀฀ ฀฀ ฀

MAINTENANCE
As a world wide leader in helicopter maintenance,
repair & overhaul (MRO) - Vector Aerospace
provides comprehensive support for Sikorsky, Bell,
REPAIR Eurocopter, AgustaWestland & Boeing helicopters.

OVERHAUL
TOLL FREE: 1.888.729.2276
WWW.VECTORAEROSPACE.COM
 MILITARY | VIP/HEAD OF STATE
Military Insider
Looking for Evidence
of Lessons Learned
W
hen U.S. President Barack
Obama ordered the can-
cellation of the acquisi-
tion of a new presidential
helicopter – the VH-71 Kestrel – in the
summer of 2009, he may have been dem-
onstrating his intention to be tough on
wasteful defense spending, but in effect
he was merely delaying a problem that
would have to be addressed at a later date
– or do without his Marine One helicop-
ter squadron! With the issuance of a new
Request for Proposal (RFP), the challenge
now ahead of Naval Air Systems Com-
mand (NAVAIR) is how to avoid the
horrendous inflation that beset the initial
program winners – Lockheed Martin
Systems Integration, AgustaWestland
and Bell Helicopter – and the UH-71
Kestrel (an AW101 derivative). At the
time of the cancellation, those inside U.S.
Team 101 were complaining of require-
ments creep together with an aggressive
delivery schedule that continually meant
a readjustment of the program by indus-
try. The result was a price tag for a fleet of
23 helicopters that rose from $6.5 billion
to more than $13 billion with a six-year
delay in the program. The rotorcraft
industry, or those with a mind to com-
pete for this new VXX, will also recall the
nine aircraft that AgustaWestland deliv-
ered before the stop-production order
was given – that ended up being sent to
the Canadian defense forces for spares.
Industry has been asked to bid exist-
ing FAA-certified platforms with mature
technology. NAVAIR too is working
with the Naval Air Warfare Center to
produce a mission communications
system from existing “off-the-shelf ”
components, both analog and digital
IP based. However, warning bells must
54 R OTO R & W I N G M AGA Z I N E | J U N E 2 0 1 3
sound among industry when they read
that “other NAVAIR programs continue
to develop and filed other specialized
mission systems into a variety of plat-
forms, which will be leveraged for the
VXX.” While NAVAIR had planned an
industry day at the end of May to gather
their feedback on the initial RFP, the
warning of Secretary of Defense Robert
Gates in his April 2009 speech should be
heeded, particularly “guarding against
mission-creep.” Likely contenders for
the airframe are AgustaWestland (once
again) with the AW101, Sikorsky with
its S-92 Super Hawk, and Boeing with
specially prepared MV-22s.
So what are the lessons learned from
the previous attempt at buying a pres-
idential helicopter? Gates called for
acquisition reform, but has this really
been achieved and how will the VXX
acquisition be prosecuted differently this
time around? What has changed in the
process and perhaps importantly, how
will the NAVAIR customer control and
limit its own aspirations?
Fear of Failure
At times it is plain to see how indus-
try gets “fighting-mad” frustrated at
its relationship with those in charge of
military procurement. Take the case of
the epic saga now well developed over
the Armed Aerial Scout procurement
for the U.S. Army. Cutting to the chase,
last year Army requested industry to take
part in “technology demonstrations”
involving their offerings for the OH-58D
Kiowa Warrior replacement. Remember
this: First attempt – RAH-66 Comanche
(new development; mission creep; huge
cost overrun); cancelled 2004. Second
attempt – ARH-70 Arapaho (commer-
cial off-the-shelf (COTS) development,
spiraling cost overruns); cancelled 2008.
Third attempt – er....er....er....
Now recent comments (May 8) by Lt.
Gen. William Phillips to the U.S. Armed
Services Committee that none of the
helicopters that took part in the tech-
nology demonstrations carried out last
summer were suitable leaves everyone in
industry puzzled. “We didn’t find a single
aircraft that was out there that could
meet the Army’s requirements,” said
Phillips, adding: “If we were to go forward
with an Armed Aerial Scout, it would
essentially be a development program.”
But it was always supposed to be a tech-
nology demonstration, not a fly off (the
media were told time and again – “this is
not a fly off”). The messages that industry
have been getting from the Army have
been confusing for some time now as
the reality of sequestration and budget
cutbacks has hit home. There seemed
to be a suggestion, at least a year ago, that
the military was still looking for a COTS
solution. But then JMR went from a pipe
dream, to an aspiration, to a real require-
ment, and since then the attraction of
seeking a short-term COTS solution has
faded, even more now that the end of
operations in Afghanistan is coming into
view (or so we are led to believe).
It is interesting to review what John
Young, Pentagon chief weapon buyer,
said during the cancellation back in 2008:
“Rather than continue this program,
I have decided that the best course of
action is to provide the Army with an
opportunity to define a coherent, disci-
plined Kiowa replacement program, and
to obtain more rigorous contract terms
for its development.” It seems fear of fail-
ure is overriding necessity.
W W W. R O T O R A N D W I N G . C O M
 International Marketplace

W W W. R O T O R A N D W I N G . C O M O C TO B E R 2 0 1 1 | R OTO R & W I N G M AGA Z I N E 55

 ( THINK OIL & GAS )
The rugged and reliable Eurocopter range is put to the test transporting crews safely
to and from assignments. Enduring extreme heat and freezing weather conditions
to reach offshore rigs and wells in remote land-based locations.
Specify an EC175.

Thinking without limits