Helicopter Maintenance News

Wednesday, April 24, 2024 - 14:37
In anticipation of the FAA's announcement made April 22 that companies conducting air tours, air-ambulance operations, charters, and commuter flights must implement a safety management system (SMS) program within 36 months of the effective date of the rule, Vertical Aviation International (VAI) has developed programs to make it as easy as possible for operator members to implement SMS.

Helicopter Maintenance Blogs

Wednesday, March 27, 2024 - 12:16

For those of you that work on or support helicopters or have ever been to the Helicopter Association International’s (HAI) main event — Heli-Expo, you know that it is undoubtedly the largest helicopter tradeshow in the world. This year’s Heli-Expo 2024 was no exception.

Event Calendar

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April/May 2024 Helicopter Maintenance

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Bell 407GXi Gains Momentum in European Region with Multiple Purchase Agreements
Bell 407GXi Gains Momentum in European Region with Multiple Purchase Agreements

Bell Textron Inc., a Textron Inc. (NYSE:TXT) company, announces purchase agreements for five aircraft to customers in Ukraine. The signature ceremony was held at European Rotors with Heliclub Ukraine LLC, the official Bell representative in Ukraine. The signed purchase agreements include two Bell 505s, two Bell 429s, and one Bell 407GXi with the newly certified instrument flight rules (IFR) configuration.

Bell Training Academy Named Approved Training School for Veteran Pilots
Bell Training Academy Named Approved Training School for Veteran Pilots

Bell Textron Inc., a Textron Inc. (NYSE:TXT) company, announces the Bell Training Academy has expanded its flight school offerings that are approved by the Veterans Affairs office for reimbursement of pilot training. As a part of the VA’s Education and Training assistance, veterans who meet the GI Bill’s qualifications can apply for course reimbursement and potentially have all or a portion of their training costs covered at Bell’s global premier flight training facility.

Effective Communication in Maintenance

Wow! Great Human Factors term right? But “Effective Communication” is more than psychological hyperbole. Effective Communication is defined as the successful conveyance or exchange of information or news. Effective Communication is the single most important instrument in the symphony of aviation maintenance.  Because without it our maintenance activity becomes a cacophony of disorganized activity, with the creation of a safe product difficult at best, and impossible in most instances. Mike Broderick

Leonardo announces a further expansion of its presence in the U.S. emergency medical service (EMS) market with two new contracts announced at the Air Medical Transport Conference. Contracts include two instrument flight rules (IFR) AW119Kx single-engines and one AW169 light intermediate helicopter for Life Link III and one AW169 for Intermountain Life Flight.

Carpenter Avionics Announces Company Name Change to Forge Flightworks, Underscoring Expanded Mission Ahead
Carpenter Avionics Announces Company Name Change to Forge Flightworks, Underscoring Expanded Mission Ahead

Carpenter Avionics, the largest avionics service center in the MidSouth region of the U.S. and a multi-year national award-winning FAA Repair Station, announces that the company name has been changed. The company now is known as Forge Flightworks to better reflect the company’s expanded mission to offer a broader array of installation, repair, interiors and related services for general-aviation aircraft.

GPMS, a provider of helicopter health-monitoring systems, announces at the SHIFT Air Medical Transport Conference that it is pursuing a supplemental type certificate (STC) for its Foresight MX health and usage monitoring system (HUMS) on the Airbus H135 platform. To achieve the STC, GPMS will work with Metro Aviation, a provider in air-medical transportation services and helicopter completions in the United States.

DART Aerospace’s SkyCannon® Highrise Fire Attack System Receives UH-60/S-70 FAA Supplemental Type Certification
DART Aerospace’s SkyCannon® Highrise Fire Attack System Receives UH-60/S-70 FAA Supplemental Type Certification

DART Aerospace receives FAA supplemental type certification (STC) for its SkyCannon® Fire Attack System on the Sikorsky UH-60/S-70 helicopter. The UH-60/S-70 is the third helicopter type certified to operate the SkyCannon after the Airbus EC225 Puma and Avicopter AC313.

Human Factors or Human Failure

When we discuss Human Factors in comparison to CRM, we distinguish one from the other as follows: “Human Factors is theoretical knowledge of psychology and CRM is the practical application of that knowledge”.  Thus, the concept of Human Factors, which is correctly characterized as a concept, is incorrectly characterized as the causative label conveniently hung on an incident / accident.   Because Human Failure is a tangible action and not an abstract term, Human Failure is the actual culprit, placing the blame where it belongs, with the human.

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