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Wishing you all a Very Happy New Year Quarter Ending 31 December 2014 for The Rotary Wing Society of India
<<EDITORIAL>>
Our Deep Gratitude to CORPORATE MEMBERS Aerotech Aviation India (P) Ltd. AgustaWestland India Alliance Insurance Brokers (P) Ltd. Aman Aviation & Aerospace Solutions Pvt Ltd Andhra Pradesh Aviation Corporation Air Works India Engg. (P) Ltd. Arki Aviation (P) Ltd. AON Global Insurance Brokers (P) Ltd. AVI-Oil India Ltd. Aviators (India) (P) Ltd. Bell Helicopter India Inc. BG Shirke Construction Technology (P) Ltd. Bharat Forge Limited Bharat Stars Services (Delhi) (P) Ltd Boeing International Corporation Cairn India Ltd Chipsan Aviation Cobham India (P) Ltd. Deccan Charters Ltd. DG Civil Aviation Govt of U.P. Dhillon Aviation (P) Ltd. Directorate of Civil Avn Govt of Maharashtra Directorate of Aviation Govt of Gujarat Directorate of Aviation Govt of Chhattisgarh Donaldson Filters India Dynamic Technologies Ltd. Elbit Systems EON Aviation (P) Ltd. Escorts Corporate Aviation Ltd. Essar Power Ltd. Eurocopter India Executive Airways (P) Ltd. Fishtail Air (P) Ltd. (Nepal) Global Vectra Helicorp Ltd. Garware-Wall Ropes Ltd. Ghodawat Industries (P) Ltd. Govt of Arunachal Pradesh Grandslam Developers (P) Ltd HATSOFF Heligo Charters (P) Ltd. Himalayan Heli Services (P) Ltd. Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. Hindustan Construction Co. Ltd. Hiranandani Aviation (P) Ltd. Honeywell International Inc. Indocopters (P) Ltd. India Metals & Ferro Alloys Ltd. India Flysafe Aviation Ltd. Indra Air (P) Ltd. ITC The Royal Gardenia, Bengaluru
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Hope for Growth of General Aviation in 2015 Civil Aviation Secretary V. Somasundaran has constituted a committee under G. Asok Kumar, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) to look into the requirements of the helicopter industry for its growth in India at a meeting held in New Delhi on 9 Dec 14 with stake holders of the Industry including RWSI representatives He said the Committee would discuss on various challenges faced by the helicopter industry and suggest immediate measures to remove the bottlenecks and encourage growth of the industry. The secretary has asked the committee to hold the first review meeting within a month. The members requested MoCA not to view the helicopter industry as a domain of the rich but on the other hand, as an effective economy multiplier if encouraged and permitted to operate and grow. The industry members also noted that there is a need for urgent requirement for regulations on utilization of helicopters for helicopter emergency medical evacuation and airborne law enforcement. Hopefully 2015 will start on a positive note for the Industry. During 2014, RWSI continuously expanded its activities in achieving the objects of the Society. Its efforts were focused on building awareness of its fraternity on latest concepts in rotary wing aviation, technology and matters of topical interest. It held two National workshops, one on Airborne Law Enforcement and the other on Low Cost HEMS at Bengaluru on 21 Jan 14. Both the events were well attended. On 25 Sept14, RWSI organized a National Seminar on Safety of Helicopter Operations (Onshore & Offshore) at Mumbai to highlight the safety issues faced by the helicopter service providers and find solutions to reduce the accident rate by improving the safety ambience for helicopter operations in the country. Shri Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Hon’ble Member of Parliament, who was the Chief Guest at the Seminar complimented RWSI and its members for taking many safety initiatives which had contributed to 2014 as Accident Free year. In pursuing with RWSI’s objective of achieving safer skies through education, its Training Faculty carried out 29 ground training courses for aviation professionals in the calendar year 2014. Since Sept 2004, a total of 3200 candidates that includes pilots, engineers and other aviation professionals have benefited from various courses conducted by RWSI at Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Pune, Lucknow, Jamshedpur and Ahmadabad. Some of the courses were attended by serving pilots from the three services. RWSI had also conducted SMS training at Kathmandu and Singapore. Civil & Military Helicopter operators of India were awarded Captain William J. Kossler Award of AHS (which is given for the greatest achievement in practical application or operation of rotary wing aircraft) on 21 May 14 at Montreal for their phenomenal contribution to Disaster Relief Operations in Uttarakhand, India during June 2013. RWSI played its part in nominating them for the Award. Since Jun 1998, the Rotary Wing Society has always retained its founders’ spirit, grit, innovation and perseverance. Throughout, the Society has retained its fundamental purpose: to serve the helicopter community and all its stakeholders at large. The Society has continually broken new grounds in advising governing bodies on strategic issues and in pioneering the expansion of helicopter industry in India. I earnestly hope that year 2015 brings in more professionals to join RWSI to strengthen its activities. Wishing you all a Happy New Year. Yours Sincerely,
ROTOR INDIA - QE 31 DECEMBER - 2014
AVM K Sridharan VM (G) President RWSI & Editor-in-Chief
<<Letters to the Editor>> Dear Sir PINS type approaches were mooted during the GAGAN Workshop at Rajiv Gandhi Bhavan after successful placement of the GAGAN Satellites with PRN 127 and 128. Salient points are as under: The GAGAN signals would permit both NPA and PA type of approaches. PA approaches would require an elaborate monitoring system to be put in place to provide cast iron safeties for shooting this approach. Ahmadabad airport is being taken up as the test bed for the same. In the inter alia NPA approaches could be executed using the GAGAN signals, akin to VOR / DME approaches. PINS approaches were mooted with a sample for MAHALAXMI RC helipad. My understanding of the issue is as under: PINS approach would be applicable to IFR enabled helicopters only. PINS approach enabled airports and heliports would help cover the gap in the IFR approved airports in the sub continent and thus enable flying flights under IFR with availability of adequate diversions. However for PINS approach, non availability of ALS, REL, ATC, MET, AERODROME BEACON, etc at airports would be a limiting factor for categorising an airport / heliport for IFR diversion especially by night. Another issue would be proper survey inadequacies for various obstacles for requisite obstacle clearance for non surveyed airports. The PINS approach will require to exploit the reduced visibility minimas of 1000 mtrs of SVFR (since visibility minimas for VOR/ DME approaches are more than 1500 mtrs) for which there would be requirement of revised regulations. At the moment transition directly from IFR to SVFR is not permitted. Night approaches from PINS may not be possible till required regulatory infrastructure has been created at the required airport / heliport. The Recommended Path Forward: Firstly, it requires all helicopters to comply with the TSO requirements to obtain GAGAN signals. Secondly, create regulation to permit use GAGAN as a PRIMARY STAND ALONE NAV AID provided the PRAIM integrity is being achieved. Also create regulation for compliance of regular updates of NAV and TERRAIN databases. Thirdly, revise regulations for permitting direct transition from IFR to SVFR.
Fourthly, Have a multi tiered execution for formulation of PINS approach. Ab initio enable it for all current airports (since required infrastructure and survey exists). Next follow it up to identify and create it for all other airstrips in the country, mainly state government ones for DAY OPS only. In case night landing facilities with attendant safety services as stated above exist extend the same for night too. Heliports as and when they meet the required regulatory requirements may also be included. This should be the major focus area to enable better IFR cover. Fifthly, review whether this provision can be extended to OFFSHORE DECKS. This will alleviate the current status of flying IFR but filing a VFR plan. Sixthly, examine the feasibility of permitting IFR flights to SE Helicopters when fitted with stabilisation devices like SAS / AUTOPILOT when flown in a two pilot configuration akin to SE fixed wing aeroplanes under the advantage of GAGAN being declared a standalone Nav aid with full global coverage. Seventhly, examine possibility of permitting NIGHT VFR flights for reasons stated above. I am sure this would enable a better utilisation of all helicopters and promote growth of this industry which is struggling to survive. Sanjeev Dear Member, The matter will be taken up with concerned authorities shortly. Editor ***
Clearances to Operate a Charter Flight Dear Sir, Bottleneck in obtaining various clearances to operate a charter flight is yet be resolved by AAI. One window, informative clearance system is required. There is no uniform policy and it varies from state to state. Procedural and administrative delays discourage the use of helicopters for charter. Dilip Dear Member, The matter has already been taken up with AAI & MOCA. Editor
Our Deep Gratitude to CORPORATE MEMBERS Jaiprakash Group JK Risk Managers and Insurance Brokers Ltd. JMD Consultant (P) Ltd. Jubilant Enpro India Ltd. Jupiter Aviations (P) Ltd. KAir-Travian Flight Services (P) Ltd. Kestrel Aviation (P) Ltd Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd Merlinhawk Associates (P) Ltd. Mesco Airlines. Navayuga Engineering Co Ltd. Navnit Aviation (P) Ltd Oil & Natural Gas Corporation Ltd. OSS Aviation (P) Ltd. OSS Air Management (P) Ltd. Orient Flight School Orbit Aviation (P) Ltd. Oxford Enterprises (P) Ltd. Pawan Hans Ltd. Prem Air (P) Ltd. Prabhatam Aviation (P) Ltd. Ramco Systems Ltd. Raymond Aviation Ltd. Reliance Commercial Dealers Ltd. Reliance Transport & Travels Ltd. Ligare Aviation Ltd. RITES Ltd. Rolls-Royce India Ltd. Russian Helicopters, Joint Stock Company SAR Aviation Services (P) Ltd. Shree Airlines (P) Ltd. (Nepal) Sikorsky-United Technologies Ltd. Simm Samm Airways (P) Ltd. Span Air (P) Ltd. SRK Aviacom (I) (P) Ltd. Survival Systems India (P) Ltd. Silver Jubilee Traveller Ltd. Skyone Airways (P) Ltd. Tata Power Company Ltd. Trans Bharat Aviation (P) Ltd. Turbomeca India Engines (P) Ltd. Thakur Institure of Aviation Technology United Helicharters (P) Ltd. UT Project Services (P) Ltd. UTC Aerospace Systems (P) Ltd. Varman Aviation (P) Ltd. VELTech Dr.RR & Dr.SR Technical University Woodstock Helicopters (P) Ltd.
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ROTOR INDIA - QE 31 DECEMBER - 2014
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<<Focus on Civil Issues>>
Wish list to Improve Safety of Helicopter Operations (Onshore & Offshore) On 25 Sept14, RWSI organized a National Seminar on Safety of Helicopter Operations (Onshore & Offshore) at ‘The Club’, Mumbai. The purpose of the seminar was to highlight the safety issues faced by the helicopter service providers and find solutions to reduce the accident rate by improving the safety ambience for helicopter operations in the country. Around 150 delegates including officials from DGCA, AAI, ONGC, Indian Air Force, Indian Coast Guard, agencies involved in Exploration & Production work (Offshore) and Helicopter Companies which provide logistic air support to Offshore Rigs attended the event. Shri. Rajiv Pratap Rudy MP(Lok Sabha) was the Chief Guest at the Pre-lunch Session of the seminar (pl see the Special Report at pages-21). There were some excellent presentations on Safety Management & Safety Devices (Offshore & Onshore) and Ops Bottlenecks & Infrastructure issues. It led to fruitful discussions and suggestions. What was amazing was that most of the recommendations that emerged from the deliberations, were no different from the ones received from similar seminars conducted by RWSI on 04 July 2009 and 23 May 2011 at Mumbai. Therefore, when the Chief Guest asked RWSI to hand over Industry’s wish list to improve safety, it was mentioned to him that RWSI had given it to Civil Aviation Authorities in the form of Spl Report in Sep’09 & Jun 11. Investigation reports for the benefit of stake holders, these have been once agian outlined in the succeeding paragraphs. Implement on highest priority the International Helicopter Safety Team’s (IHST) recommendations as given below; (a) DGCA to support/assist the helicopter operators to Implement Safety Management Systems to bring about a change in the Safety Culture in India, (b) Improve quality of training of pilots and AMEs, (c) Encourage use of advanced systems and equipment like Flight Data Monitoring System & Health Monitoring Systems and Equipment to avoid Controlled Flight into Terrain and (d) Strict compliance to manufacturers Maintenance programmes. (For DGCA). As recommended at Para 37 of the 169 th Report of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Transport, Tourism and culture on the “Helicopter Operations in India”, Technical personnel/pilots be provided adequate legal/administrative protection to decline to fly in the absence of mandatory technical, weather and other clearances. (For DGCA). Safety can only be ensured if the helicopter being used is provided with landing area which is adequate for landing the helicopter in the event of an engine failure. In many hilly regions, the operators are not able to comply with the Performance Classification mandated by ICAO and DGCA mostly owing to under-sized helipads. DGCA should therefore get a
(L to R) Capt JK Mishra, PHL; Wg Cdr BS Singh Deo VM (Retd.) , MD Bell Helicopter India and Vice President RWSI; Shri Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Hon’ble Member of Parliament; AVM K Sridharan VM (G) (Retd.) President, RWSI; Capt Uday Gelli, CEO Heligo Aircharters and President RWSI (WR) and Mr. Ravi Menon, Director, AirWorks India.
committee of experts to carry out Risk Assessment of these regularly used helipads and give its recommendations. (For DGCA). Maintenance oversight is a contributory factor in the past accidents. Audit Reports on maintenance of helicopters indicate that these accidents occurred because most of the maintenance work on helicopters is personally being handled by technicians without being effectively supervised. As the existing mandate of duplicate check to be carried out by Supervisors is not effective, DGCA may consider fresh instructions that may ensure work related to major assemblies/ controls are only done under personal supervision by AMEs. (For DGCA) Availability of Weather Information for Heli Ops. In many cases the pilots did not have the benefit of weather forecast as they tookoff from locations having no Weather Station or Weather Forecast Facilities. Since majority of helicopter operations take place at low levels, adequate weather information for flight levels below 10000 ft is not available which often pushes companies to put pressure on the pilots to give it a chance mostly due to commercial considerations. Priority may be given by IMD to start providing weather information for low altitude Heli Ops. (For DGCA& IMD) Ministry of Petroleum and DGCA may ensure that heli decks conform to guidelines given by the regulator. All E&P agencies get their heli-decks inspected by independent agency such as RWSI. DGCA is requested to publish updates on the helidecks. (For Ministry of Civil Aviation & Ministry of Petroleum) Adequate “down time” may be given by E&P agencies for undertaking maintenance of helicopters involved in offshore work. (For E&PAgencies)
Proposal to Ban Charter Operators with less than three aircraft withdrawn The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has withdrawn and amended its proposal that suggested re-designation of all Non-Scheduled Operator Permit (NSOP) holders with less than three aircraft as ‘private’ airlines. The revised rule that was notified on November 17 says that an applicant who seeks a non-scheduled operator’s permit should be “in possession of at least one aircraft, either by outright purchase or on lease (without crew)”. The civil aviation requirement to get a license has now been retained to one aircraft only, as against three proposed earlier to get license to fly the non-scheduled aircraft commercially. The DGCA proposal had also suggested de-licensing of such existing commercial nonscheduled flight operators. Earlier, in October, the aviation regulator had proposed a draft rule which would have permitted a non-scheduled air operator to start operations with one plane or a helicopter, but to raise the fleet size to at least three within a year of securing the flying license.
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ROTOR INDIA - QE 31 DECEMBER - 2014
<<Focus on Civil Issues>>
Secretary, Civil Aviation Gives Hope for Growth of General Aviation
Shri V. Somasundaran IAS Secretary Ministry of Civil Aviation
New Delhi, Dec 9: Civil Aviation Secretary V. Somasundaran has constituted a committee under G. Asok Kumar, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) to look into the requirements of the helicopter industry for its growth in India at a meeting held in New Delhi on Tuesday. He said the committee would discuss on various challenges faced by the helicopter industry and suggest immediate measures to remove the bottlenecks and encourage growth of the industry. The secretary has asked the committee to hold the first review meeting within a month. The Tuesday’s meeting was held mainly to discuss on issues related to helicopter operations and operations of small aero planes for inclusion in the national civil aviation policy that is expected to be released soon. The industry stakeholders stressed for an urgent need to create a separate helicopter division within the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) with representatives from the Airports Authority of India (AAI) and an individual with domain expertise to guide the division. Rotary Wing Society of India (RWSI) represented by RWSI (WR) Sec Wg Cdr Sanjay Mittal (R) made a presentation and highlighted challenges faced by the industryregulations and lack of infrastructure-and called for immediate attention. Wg Cdr Mittal said the helicopter industry faced negative growth in India over the last two years, as the entrepreneurs don’t consider investing in helicopters as a financially viable option. “Only operations in support of oil and gas sector and VIP communication are sustaining this industry,” he added.
He further stated that the ministry needed to take urgent steps to address the host of challenges faced by the helicopter industry to revive the corporate and charter helicopter sector and encourage induction of helicopters in new areas such as heli-tourism, emergency medical services, airborne law enforcement, disaster management, and aerial work. “He added that there was a huge scope in these sectors for utilization of helicopters in our growing economy once the cost of operations and over regulation were rationalized,”. Talking about fiscal challenges, Wg Cdr Mittal pointed out at the exorbitant costs and various charges levied by AAI and the private airport operators. Compulsory third party ground handling, land and hangar lease rentals at airports and the exponential increase in the same was discussed; extension of watch hours charges payable by all operators and charges for extension of watch hours at IFR airfields by VFR helicopters was brought out; rationalization of cost of ATF as declared goods and need for reduction of import duties and payment of excise duties and taxes at rates applicable to scheduled operators was debated at length. In unison, the industry stakeholders said that several delays including Type Rating oral test of AMEs and one time approval for pilot examiners were also affecting the growth of the industry. They also listed out other issues like limited parking bays at airports resulting in hindrance of sanction of import permits along with delays on the part of AAI in granting permission for construction office accommodation and Pota cabins. The industry members also voiced the urgent requirement for regulations on utilization of helicopters for helicopter emergency medical evacuation and airborne law enforcement. The members requested MoCA not to view the helicopter industry as a domain of the rich but on the other hand, as an effective economy multiplier if encouraged and permitted to operate and grow. This industry needs to be seen as providing the last mile connectivity in the “Make in India” initiative, they added.
MoCA Addl Secy and Financial Advisor, Anil Srivastava Jt Secy and CMD PHHL, G. Asok Kumar Jt Secy and AAI Chairman Sudhir Raheja, AAI ED V. Somasundram, MoCA advisor R.P. Sahi, DGCA Jt DG Arvind Sardana, Capt Irshad Ahmed, Wg Cdr Amit Garg (Retd), Deccan Aviation’s Gopinath and representatives of BCAS, AAI and BAOA attended the meeting. Rotary Wing Society of India was represented by Wg Cdr B.S. Singh Deo, Wg Cdr Ramesh Mallik, Gp Capt M.K. Labroo, Wg Cdr V.P. Mathur and Wg Cdr Sanjay Mittal.•
RWSI Recommendations related to the Draft Civil Aviation Policy RWSI had on number of occasions raised serious issues affecting the industry along with its recommendations. Regrettably, the helicopter industry that has a considerable potential for growth has not received the attention it deserves. Earlier, on 15 Jun 10 RWSI had forwarded its recommendations to MOCA regarding the draft Civil Aviation Policy. Most of these recommendations have also been endorsed by 169th report of Parliamentary Standing Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture which was presented to the Rajya Sabha on 11 August 2011. The Recommendations forwarded earlier on 15 Jun 14 have been further updated recently and were presented at a stakeholders meeting chaired by Secy MOCA on 9 Dec 14. The news reported in the page above provides a coverage of the issues covered. However, detailed recommendations to be forwarded by RWSI to MOCA regarding the draft Civil Aviation Policy is placed in RWSI website (www.rwsi.org). We welcome stakeholders suggestions if any to be forwarded to RWSI Hqs at the earliest. These may be sent to Editor (office@rwsi.org)
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<<Focus on Civil Issues>>
Points received from Stakeholders for CA Policy Projections on Operation of Helicopters and General Aviation Inclusion of Non-Scheduled Operations Under Declared Goods – With a good intent to promote Remote Area Connectivity, aircraft with less than 80 seater capacity have been placed under ‘Declared Goods’ Category and thus are subject to lower taxes of only 4% vis a vis the prevailing higher tax structure on ATF (up to 29%) exemption from landing / parking charges etc. However this notification somehow left out the Non Scheduled Permit aircraft (as distinct from Private Category). Recommended that in this very Budget or earlier, this exemption be extended to the Non – Scheduled Permit aircrafts and helicopters also, since their contribution to Remote Area Connectivity is and will be far greater in the days to come. In addition waving off Custom Duty on import of aircraft / helicopter be also considered. 2. Functionability and Viability of General Aviation at Metros and Other Private Airports – The world over, General Aviation hubs are distinct from International Airports. Where co-located, these operations need to be facilitated / supported to enable connectivity to remote and difficult areas. Whereas Airport Authorities tend to focus on Scheduled Operations with large volume of passenger traffic due to commercial reasons, General Aviation with low passenger volumes are ignored, denied facilities and where essentials are provided, these are at exorbitant rates including even entry, ground handling, rentals, royalty / revenue sharing, etc. The following remedies are recommended:- (a). Non Scheduled Operations and thereby their staff and passengers be treated similar to Scheduled Category wherein entry to the Airport is allowed based on a common standard PSF and UDF (if applicable). Special VIP Lounges with extra charges be provided to those who seek to use them. Presently entry through Special Lounge is compulsory for all passengers on Non – Scheduled flights. Even Car parking rates for staff of Non – Scheduled Operators are levied at 400% more than Scheduled Operator staff eg it is Rs.400-00 PM vs Rs.1,650-00 PM. The disparity in landing charges at metros for Scheduled and Non- Scheduled Category is another example. The list on and on, (b). Ground Handling Rates are exorbitant at metros and even AAI Airports as is evident from a rate list of the monopoly Ground Handler / Lounge Provider at Delhi. For a small aircraft or even a helicopter say 8 passengers:- (i) Lounge Entry for 03 Passengers - Rs.4,000-00,(ii) Lounge Entry for 05 Passengers – Rs.10,00000 (@ Rs.2,000-00 per additional passenger, (iii) For Ferry Service to aircraft – Rs.6,000-00 (04 trips by car including Crew), (iv). Pushback – Rs.5,500-00 to Rs. 7,500-00, (v) Aircraft Towing – Rs.7,500-00,(vi) Landing Charges – Minimum Rs.11,000-00,{Plus Service Tax @ 12.36%}. In brief while an aircraft / helicopter flight from Delhi to Chandigarh costs barely Rs.65,000-00 or so but the Ground Handling at Delhi costs another Rs.35,000-00 or more. Even at Non-metro / AAI Airports, the Ground Handling charges where outsourced to monopoly holders are now averaging between Rs.15,000-00 to Rs.25,000-00. Self-Ground Handling must be permitted to bring down costs, (c). Hangar and Office
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Rentals – While the monthly rental per sq.ft. in Connaught Place and Vasant Kunj are approximately Rs. 120-00 to Rs.140-00 and Hauz Khas Rs. 100-00 to Rs.120-00. The rentals inside the Airport are as steep as Rs.400-00 per sq. Ft. and those outside the Airport are Rs. 220-00 per sq. ft. Given that these rentals are for old and existing hangars and that land has been leased @ only Rs. 1-00 per acre to Private Operators by AAI, the irrational burden on the Non Scheduled Operators is quite evident. Recommended that : “These rates be scaled down to realistic and manageable levels”, (d.) DIAL Tender for FBO and MRO – If the above was not enough, a new Tender floated by DIAL seeks to dislodge the existing Non Scheduled Operators by handing over not only the FBO but also MRO activities to another monopoly of one / two parties who will further hike up the rates, citing investment on infrastructure etc. Moreover, this Tender has an un-implementable time frame and requires that the Bidders should have experience of running an International FBO and / or MRO for minimum 5 years, thereby mandating JV with a Foreign Operator – an unacceptable pre-condition in today’s context and one which requires adequate time to from a JV. Recommended abrogation of this tender and ensuring that the existing MRO Operators are simultaneously allowed to continue their operations as hitherto fore or allotted separate area of say 25 acres at the same rental of Rs. 1-00 per acre rate and managed if required by AAI or even another operator from General Aviation. Simultaneously another FBO and MRO can be permitted to enable filling in any gaps in service. 3. Separate Helicopter Flight Paths and Landing Areas at Airport – A minor and simplistic issue which for long has escaped implementation. Current rules permit a parallel flight path 900 metres to the existing runways. Elsewhere, where land restrictions do not permit, a ‘Cross Over’ system can be followed with specific corridors and flying zones for helicopters.Recommended to be implemented at the earliest and where required additional parking / apron facilities be created rather than denying / delaying helicopter flights due to congestion / lack of parking slots which again hikes up the costs. The expenditure involved would be minimal. Simultaneously ATC staff needs to be trained on not to treat helicopters as fixed wing aircraft. 4. Use of Temporary, Unlicensed Aerodromes. A list of Temporary Aerodromes was published in AIC 18/1986. These numbered around 226. A glance at the geographical spread of these aerodromes will reveal that these can dramatically enhance the Remote Air Connectivity in the country, if small passenger aeroplanes (appropriate to the aerodrome characteristics) are flown to these, carrying passengers and stores. Not only will this enhance tourism, develop infrastructure and bring air connectivity to remote areas, but it will also give tremendous boost to the growth of General Aviation in the country. Such operations are the main transportation means in several African nations and have proved to be a great boon to develop of tourism and the economy. It is proposed that in India, all temporary/unlicensed aerodromes should be opened to NSOP
<<Focus on Civil Issues>> operators for regular/ charter operations so long as the Minimum Safety Requirements stipulated vide the CAR under reference are ensured. These stand presently restricted to NSOP Operators by a DGCA Circular on March 2012.This could be the joint responsibility of the operator and the owner and may be audited by the appropriate authorities to check on compliance. The existing regulations need to be amended accordingly. 5. Establishment of Regional Flight Operation / Crew Licensing Offices. Currently, no officers of FLIGHT OPERATION are posted at Regional offices. This results in all operators to camp at Delhi to get their Flight Operation related work complied such as approval of Operation manual, scrutiny of procedures i.e. CAP-3100 etc. This results in huge expenditure for all non-Delhi based operators and also results in avoidable delays to get the files moved. Bird’s eye view of various agents / consultants roaming around and inside the DGCA office is a good example that explains this system existing in DGCA. Note – All Non-Delhi based operators have to come to Delhi and camp for months to get their Operation Manual, Flight safety Manual, SMS Manual etc approved. Though Regional offices exist for Airworthiness & Air safety, no such offices exist for Flight Operation, Flight Crew Licensing (FATA procedures) at Regional level. 6. Procedure for issue of C of R / C of A and Endorsement in Air Operator Certificate (AOC) for Newly Imported Aircraft for Non-Scheduled Operations. Procedure for issue of C of R, C of A and endorsement in AOC takes at least about 2-3 months after the CAP-3100 has come into existence. This leads to huge capital goods bought out of our hard earned foreign exchange, lying idle and results in commercial projects going unviable in the first 3 months of operation due to the resultant costs of keeping the entire Air Operation infrastructure idle during the first 3 months. DGCA must improve their system to quicken the process. 7. Review of Public Notice on NSOP operators on minimum fleet strength. A lot of NSOP operators are part of a parent company, which might be a huge MNC, and hence they can charge any amount much lower than those of primarily NSOP based companies. Market Rates and Revenues have dropped from 10-25% even though cost of operation has gone up overall by about 300% since 2005. There is a need to reexamine the more stringent conditions for issue of NSOP say, a minimum holding of 3 - 5 aircrafts to get a NSOP with requirements like CAMO, SMS, and quality control integral to it. The recently reversed Public Notice should be debated once again for a level playing field in the market. Gradual building up to 3–5 aircrafts be considered as the overall advantages are high. 8. Unrealistic Training Requirements - The training requirements for aircrew is unrealistic and excessive and is not aligned with the best practices in the world. There is a need to review this in a very pragmatic manner, and not make it excessive. A suggested solution is to have a separate committee convened to review the existing training requirements and reduce the same in alignment with the best practices in the world, rather than making it excessive. Excessive training does not necessarily enhance safety beyond a certain limit. In case the Pilot does not meet the standards, for release, he can be given additional training on a case-to-case basis.;(a)The 100 hours of Supervised Line Flying (SLF) requirement for aeroplanes above 5700 Kg is peculiar to only DGCA (CAR Section 8, Series F, Part II). In addition, when a pilot moves from one operator to another, he has to undergo an Operator’s Training. This is a
repetition of the Annual Recurrent Training and the pilot has to undergo the same even if he is current in his Recurrent Training. This is superfluous and wasteful expenditure,(b) 100 PIC hours for Single Pilot Operations (SPO) in Helicopters are excessive, and is peculiar to DGCA alone. Moreover, in helicopters, there is a misinterpretation of the word “Type & Model” at para 5 of CAR Sec 8, Series A, Part I on Minimum Crew Requirements. Type and Model does not mean a “Variant”, and 100 hours requirement need not be applicable for each variant of a helicopter. The SPO clearance on one variant of a helicopter type and model should be extended to another so long as the differential training on the variant is completed and endorsement is done on the license. 9. Encouraging the Role of Single Engined and Small Twin Engined Aircraft / Helicopters – These aircraft are and will be playing a crucial role in connecting the remote areas of our Country. Since their passenger nos are limited, it needs to be ensured that they do not become a victim of over regulation and over equipping and thereby, enhancing their cost of operations such that only the very rich are able to fly in these machines. Only the minimum essential instruments, safety equipment etc need to suffice and not be like an auto rickshaw requiring Air Bags etc. 10. Comments on 5/20 Rule - Being included here, since specific comments have been sought by MOCA. Recommended that there should be no restriction from Day 1 to fly International since that would be discriminatory to Indian Operators. However a formula similar to the Route Dispersal Guidelines (RDG) needs to be implied eg for every International Flight, a domestic flight is mandatory and if taken between metros then RDG applies.•
DIAL’S FBO cum MRO Tender and Implications for General Aviation at IGI Airport, New Delhi RWSI has been receiving regular calls from MROs/FBOs/ NSOP holders alike ever since DIAL Tender Notice has appeared in the Economic Times of 18th November 2014 affecting IGI Airport. Conditions and contents of the subject Tender are worrisome and disturbing for Indian MROs/ FBOs/NSOP holders, which, if implemented would directly harm the stakeholders by way of closures of their units / rise in costs and expenses to the operators. We at RWSI support the concern and request MOCA to view this move pragmatically in favour of the Indian stakeholders, specially small rotory wing/fixed wing NSOP holders. Since the closure date of the Bid is 27th February 2015 speedy action is requested on the part of MOCA to ensure that the complainants get a fair deal and do not land up in closures of existing MROs/FBOs and increase in maintenance charges for NSOP holders.
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<<Focus on Civil Issues>>
Pawan Hans Conferred with Sustainable and Balanced Business Performance Award Pawan Hans bagged Prestigious Award for its Sustainable and Balanced Business Performance along with an Order-Of-Merit for Helicopter Transport Services qualifying in India’s Best Projects- 2014 and Achieving Market Leadership Position during 38th Skoch Summit. Hon’ble Union Minister for Urban Development, Sh. M. Venkaiah Naidu presented this prestigious award to Sh.Prabhat Kumar, Chief Vigilance Officer and Sh.Sanjiv Bahl, Executive Director, Pawan Hans on behalf of Sh. Anil Srivastava, CMD, Pawan Hans in the presence of Sh.Ashok Chawla, Chairman, Competition Commission of India and Sh. Hemant Contractor, Chairman, PFRDA. During the Award Ceremony CMD’s of other PSU’s, Policy Makers, Business Leaders, Senior Bureaucrats, Industrialist and Dignitaries were also present and recognised the strategic performance of Pawan Hans in whole range of operations in terms of profitability, contribution and safety standards. In last three years, the fleet serviceability of Pawan Hans has achieved the highest-ever level of above 83%, resulted in more deployment of Helicopters, Improved Credit Rating, Leveraging Information Technology for Boosting Efficiency, Performance under MOU parameters improved, Maintaining Highest Safety Standards by implementing SMS (Safety Management System) with the objective to achieve zero accidents, zero
Hon’ble Union Minister for Urban Development, Sh. M Venkaiah Naidu presented Skoch Renaissance Award-2014 to Pawan Hans for its Sustainable and Balanced Business Performance and Achieving Market Leadership Position in Helicopter Industry at a function held at India Habitat Centre in Delhi on 21st November, 2014
defects and zero breakdown, resulted huge reduction in insurance premium, Optimal Utilisation of its Human Resources, implemented effective Inventory Management Practices to ensure Quality Control, Interest cost control strategy, internal control system were adopted and contributing to the society under CSR obligations in North East Region endeavouring to give back to the society.•
What is Ailing Civil Helicopter Industry in India? While the civil helicopter fleet strength grew in double digits during 2004 to 2011 to a total of 297 helicopters, at the end of FY 2012-13, we saw a perceptible reduction in the civil helicopter fleet resulting in pilots and AMEs losing their jobs. Today, we have only a total fleet of about 267 civil registered helicopters of which 203 belongs to NSOP and 34 of Private category and 30 are with PSUs. It is unfortunate that since 2012 to 2014 calendar year, the fleet strength has reduced by 30 helicopters. The outlook for the Civil Helicopter Industry in India appears gloomy, especially for Helicopter Companies involved in Non Scheduled Operations. This opinion is based on discussions held with CEOs /COOs of Helicopter Companies during various events organized by RWSI in the recent months. Besides the reduced growth of Civil Helicopter fleet, commercial helicopter operators are getting frustrated over phenomenal delays in addressing Op, Fiscal and Security issues affecting the Operators. Most of these issues were raised by RWSI on numerous occasions with concerned civil aviation authorities. Some of the issues have been pending for number of years. Numbers of meetings were held to find solutions to the issues raised by RWSI by concerned civil aviation authorities and decisions were taken to resolve many of them, no action has been taken to implement them. Mounting cost of operation is the primary cause for the decline in growth of civil helicopter fleet. Besides, high cost of ATF, high customs duty for import of helicopter and spares and application of fixed-wing tariff to helicopters for the services not relevant to heli ops but were provided did add to the high cost of operation.
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What is disturbing is that fixed wing tariffs related to services such as Route Navigation Facility Charges(RNFC) and Terminal Navigation Landing Charges (TNLC) are being levied by AAI to helicopters even when such services are not provided to helicopters when they operate to remote areas. For example, when helicopters operate from Delhi to helipads in Himachal Pradesh besides AAI charging RNFC (Rs.278X2) and TNLC (Rs.330X2), Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL)levies the following charges at departure to a small helicopter with AUW of 2720 kgsL(1) Landing Charges-Rs.10,700,(2) Parking Charges-Rs.1000 per day,(3) Passenger Service fee-Rs.130 per pax (X6 pax),(4) Airport Development Fee-Rs.207 per pax (X6 pax) and (5) User Development Fee - Rs.208 per pax (X6 pax). There are many more issues related to AAI where they have levied exorbitant charges in an arbitrary manner. For instance, the Airport Director of Juhu airport has sent a letter dated 29/10/2014 to all operators based in this airport informing about increase in rates and charges with effect from 01/10/2014. This time it is for Porta Cabins. The land allotted for Porta cabin was being charges @ Rs. 2180 per sq mtr per annum. These charges are increased every year by 7.5%. However, this year the AAI has decided to increase these rates to Rs. 11,000 per sq mtr per annum - approximately 500% increase!! The basic rates for Porta cabin of the size of 30 sq mtrs is Rs. 5000 per month which is now increased to Rs. 10000 per month - 100% increase and that too retrospective ie from 01/04/2014. Is there anyone concerned about operators and maintenance agencies based at the airport?•
<<Focus on Civil Issues>>
The Perennial Debate Single or a Twin Engine The often debated question among the civil helicopter users in India is single or twin engine helicopter? There are no easy answers on this topic of single versus twin-engine helicopters. Our industry is largely driven by our customers’ desires, commercial constraints, regulatory directives and individual preferences. Commercial considerations take a back seat. Those who can afford commercially, survive. Though regulatory directives often overrule any considerations other than safety, unfortunately some of these safety considerations are not based on safety data, as relevant to the operating conditions in India. For example, average accident rate of ME helicopters in India during 2007 to 2009 was 3.693 per 1,00,000 flight hours as against 2.02 per 1,00,000 flight hours in single engine helicopters during the same period. Even the number of major accidents to ME helicopters was 7 compared to 4 related to single engine turbine helicopters. Please see the Table placed. Though various regulations are available on the subject, they actually do not specify/ insist on the use of twin engine helicopters. All of them are in the advisory form. It then rests on the user to select the type, keeping in view the impending role. Some of these are (1) CAR Sec 3 Series C Part X Para 4.2 does not insist on a twin engine helicopter, (2) Air Safety Circular 2/1981 Mentions use of twin engine aircraft for VIP (Helicopter is not intended). What the regulations do insist is use of two pilots for VIP travel. It is learnt from reliable sources that MHA has recently issued an advisory for use of twin engine helicopters for VIP travel. Issue of such a directive has numerous connotations. Are single engines unsafe as compared to twin engines? This directive seems to suggest this fact that a twin engine is safer than a single engine helicopter. It may be presumptuous to assume that accidents occur only due to engine failure. Failure of other major components like tail rotor, transmission system, hydraulics etc can also cause accidents. No doubt, you are safer with two engines because in case of one engine failure you can divert to a location where you may be able to put the helicopter safely. Unlike the piston engine helicopters of yester years, turbine helicopters of today are more reliable. Engine failure accidents in India are rare. In India, causative factors for 35 major civil helicopter accidents which have occurred during 2005-14 have been due to: (a) Loss of Control – 11, (b) Loss of Visual Reference - (07), (c) Maintenance failure(08), (d) Ground Accident (03), (e) Struck Object - (03) Misc (02) and Structural failure - (01). Out of the 8 Maintenance failure accidents, there were two accidents (one accident involving Schzweizer 300C Helicopter on 12 Apr 2012 and another involving EC 120 -Near Sarsawa UP on 31 March 2005) were attributed to engine failure. Compliance to Performance Classifications: Modern helicopters are now considered totally safe under all conditions of flight including in the
event of failure of one engine at a critical juncture like take-off and landing phases. However, the safety can only be ensured if the helicopter being used has the requisite performance capability and it is provided with landing area which is adequate for landing the helicopter in the event of an engine failure. In many hilly regions in our country, the operators are not able to comply with the performance classification mandated by ICAO and DGCA mostly owing to under-sized helipads. In such an eventuality as per ICAO Annex 6 – Part III, Section II, Chapter 3 in paragraph 3.1.4 states that for Air Transport operations “Where helicopters are operated to or from heliports in a congested hostile environment, the competent authority of the state in which the heliport is situated shall specify the requirements to enable these operations to be conducted in a manner that gives appropriate consideration for the risk associated with a power-unit failure. The risk assessment will need to consider factors such as: (a) the type of operation and the circumstances of the flight; (b) the area/terrain over which the flight is being conducted; (c) the probability of a critical power-unit failure and the consequence of such an event; (d) the procedures to maintain the reliability of the power-unit(s); (e) the training and operational procedures to mitigate the consequences of the critical power-unit failure; and (f) installation and utilization of a usage monitoring system. The authorities concerned should therefore get a Committee of experts to carry out risk assessment of these regularly used helipads to improve safety ambiance and not get into areas of issuing advisories in use of single or a twin engine for VIPs as it depends on whole range of factors mentioned in the earlier paragraph.•
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<<Indian Air Force>>
60 years of Rotary Wing operations in India and the Indian Air Force IAF has been the pioneer and has spearheaded helicopter operations in India ever since inception of helicopters in India in 1954. In last sixty years the helicopter fleet has made the country proud and has contributed effectively in varied roles from life saving missions to armed operations. To commemorate completion of sixty years, the IAF organized a seminar to showcase various facets of helicopter The Chief of Air Staff, Air Chief operations on the theme “60 Years of Rotary Marshal Arup Raha delivering Wing Operations in IAF and India”. The the opening address at a symposium to commemorate seminar was conducted on 21 October 2014 at the Air Force Auditorium, Subroto Park, 'Sixty Years of Rotary Wing Operation in India and the IAF' New Delhi. The seminar saw a capacity held at Air Force Auditorium, attendance of almost 600. Subroto Park in New Delhi The seminar was formally opened with an address by CAS followed by a keynote address by Air Chief Marshal Fali H Major (Retd) PVSM AVSM SC VM, the only CAS of the IAF who was a helicopter pilot, on Helicopter operations in IAF: Evolution through IAF History’. The occasion also coincident with Diamond Jubilee celebrations of 104 HU and Golden Jubilee celebrations of 114 HU. The Chief of the Air Staff (CAS) Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha PVSM, AVSM, VM, ADC released a First Day Cover for both the units during the seminar. The four technical sessions had topics covering IAF helicopter fleet’s contribution to Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief Operations and the overseas contribution in IPKF and UN. The history and milestones of the various operators including the two pioneering units of the IAF 104 (heart) Sqn and 114 HU, the Aviation arm of the Indian Army, the Civil helicopter story by Pawan Hans , and the HAL contribution to the helicopter industry was also covered. In a touching gesture, the entire helicopter fraternity rose in memory and observed two minutes of silence as a mark of respect to the Martyrs who had sacrificed their lives in helicopter operations over the past sixty years. The seminar was attended by the Commanding Officers of all helicopter units of the IAF. A large representation of serving and retired officers of 104 (heart) Sqn and 114 HU was present at the seminar. In addition, senior officials from the Rotary Wing Society of India and officials from Indian Army, Indian Navy, Indian Coast Guard, Pawan Hans, DGCA, HAL and civil helicopter operators also attended the seminar along with large media representation. The seminar was attended by stalwarts of helicopter operations of the yesteryears. Some of the prominent speakers at the seminar include Mr. Anil Srivastava, CMD Pawan Hans and Dr. RK Tyagi, Chairman of HAL. There were some excellent presentations during the event which included:IAF Helicopters in Op Pawan by Air Vice Marshal R Isser AVSM VM; Angels of Mercy by AVM M Singh AVSM VrC VSM; Challenges of High Altitude Helicopter Flying by Air Cmde AK Sharma; Army Aviation : Legacy & Milestones by Lt Gen P. R. Kumar AVSM VSM; Pioneering Helicopter Flying In India (1954-65) by Wg Cdr (Retd.) Unni Kartha.•
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The Chief of the Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha presenting memento to former Chief of the Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal (Retd) Fali Homi Major at a symposium to commemorate 'Sixty Years of Rotary Wing Operation in India and the IAF' held at Air Force Auditorium, Subroto Park in New Delhi
Helicopter Fleet Augmentation PAST & PRESENT
Past
Present
<<Heli News>>
Russian Helicopters Launch Flight Testing on Mi-171A2
Russian Helicopters (part of State Corporation Rostec) has launched flight tests on the first prototype of the multirole Mi-171A2 helicopter. The first prototype of the Mi-171A2 was designed for tests on its in-flight operability and safety when using the KBO-17 avionics suite, including its interoperability with the new VK-2500PS-03 engines, and to test the new powerplant. The first Mi-171A2 prototype has been subjected to ground runs, which passed off smoothly and led to the first successful tests in hover mode in October 2014. The new helicopter’s rotor system and engine were tested by the special ‘flying laboratory’-Mi-171LL. The KBO-17 avionics suite is built by Radioelectronic Technologies to a ‘glass cockpit’ design, and includes all-weather digital TV and thermal imaging cameras, delivering external visibility day or night, with the video output given on a high-resolution multifunction display. The high degree of automation has made it possible to cut crew numbers from three to two people. The on-board maintenance systems built in to the KBO-17 make it possible to monitor the condition of the helicopter’s main systems and components, storing this data in its memory. The first round of tests on the ‘flying laboratory’ delivered a 20% increase in cruising and maximum speeds, increased main rotor thrust (by more than 800 kilograms), reduced vibration from the standard vibration dampener. The maximum speed was confirmed as being 280 km/hour. A range of alterations in construction, including new main and tail rotors, smoother vertical and horizontal fins, will be incorporated into the second prototype of the Mi-171A2. The second test prototype will be equipped with an additional range of equipment options: an external sling for up to 5 tonnes and weight measurement system; air-conditioning system, energy absorbing passenger seats for 24 people, and anti-dust equipment that cleans air to 97%. This model is currently being assembled and equipped at the Mil Moscow Helicopter Plant. The Mi-171A2 was developed by Mil Moscow Helicopter Plant, part of Russian Helicopters. Many of the solutions developed during design work on the Mi-171A2 have been incorporated into other helicopters in the Mi-8/17 family, which has long helped ensure they meet the latest international standards. The Mi-171A2 is one of the most eagerly awaited developments in Russian helicopter building. The helicopter represents the future of the world-famous Mi-8/17 helicopter, with significant changes to its design
and on-board equipment that improve its flight capabilities and reduce operational costs. The main differences between the Mi-171A2 and previous models are: New, more powerful and more economic Klimov VK-2500PS03 engines, boasting BARK-6V-7C digital regulation and control systems; New main rotor boasting composite blades, improved aerodynamics and X-type antitorque; Fundamentally new radio-electronic systems integrating pilot and navigation suite with open-architecture KBO-17, developed at the Ulyanovsk Instrument Design Bureau, part of Radioelectronic Technologies. The Mi-171A2 can be operated at any time of day or night, including in difficult weather conditions, can work in hover mode and with automatic stabilisation, and can also fly on special trajectories.•
Turkish Company Develops Anti-Fog Software for Copters A Turkish company says its software can help helicopter pilots navigate even in foggy conditions. (STR/AFP via Getty Images). A Turkish software and information technologies company has said that it developed software that allows helicopters to fly in foggy weather conditions. PiriReis Informatics Technologies, based here, has said that it developed a software that enables helicopter pilots to detect geographical obstacles during flight on a 3D screen “even when visibility is close to zero.” Company officials said the software can warn against utility poles and wires that are not visible to the naked eye from the helicopter’s cockpit. They said that the standard helicopter software would exhibit only the horizontal and vertical data and the altitude of the chopper, whereas the new software presents all the geographical obstacles in 3D format in every weather condition. The Turkish software features a warning system that alerts the pilot 20 seconds prior to hitting an obstacle. The alarm’s audible and visual warnings become stronger once the chopper is 10 seconds away from the obstacle.
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NEW TOOLS FOR NEW RULES
HPS - The Helmet Mounted Display System (HMDS) Solution HPS (Helmet Pointing System) gives helicopter pilots invaluable advantages. It enables each pilot to monitor and follow the other pilotâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Line of Sight (LOS) and slave helicopter systems, such as EOP (Electro-Optical Payload) and weapon systems, thus reducing pilot intercommunication and workload. The HPS takes crew communication, coordination, situational awareness and flight safety to new levels. Operating worldwide on more than 7,500 helicopters of 25 different types.
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<<Indian Air Force>>
82nd Air Force Day : Air Display The Indian Air Force celebrated its 82th anniversary on 08 Oct 2014. To mark the event, there was an Air Force Day Parade cum Investiture Ceremony at Air Force Station Hindan along with a thrilling air display by various aircraft. The air display commenced with flag bearing sky divers of AKASH GANGA Team, who jumped out of AN-32 aircraft. The commencement of the Air Force Day Parade was marked by fly past of “ENSIGN” formation comprising of three Mi-17 V5 helicopters in VIC formation trooping the Air Force Ensign followed by “CHAKRA” formation comprising three Mi-25/35 in VIC formation. This was followed by “HERCULES” formation comprising of Three C-130J Hercules aircraft. “INDUS” formation comprising of three AN-32s in VIC formation followed suit. The fighter flypast was led by three JAGUAR aircraft in VIC formation closely followed by BISON (MiG-21), BAAZ (MiG-29), VAJRA (Mirage 2000) aircraft and Su-30 MKI (Sukhoi) aircraft in VIC formation. It was followed by a Su-30 MKI aircraft and the TIGERMOTH. Latest inducted C17 Globemaster III flanked on either side by two SU-30 MKIs did a fly past presenting an aerial salute. The SARANG helicopter display marked the grand finale to the ceremony.•
Forest Fire Fighting Operations by IAF MI-17 V5 in Visakhapatnam Massive and widespread forest fire hit the pristine forests 30 Kms east of Visakhapatnam and caused widespread destruction to flora and fauna. On request from the State Administration, four of the newly acquired IAF MI17 V5 helicopters were pressed into action at Visakhapatnam using the Forest Fire Fighting Equipment, euphemistically called “The Bambi Bucket” having a capacity of 3500 litres of water each. The first sortie of the helicopter from Visakhapatnam was devoted in carrying out a detailed aerial assessment of the general area and the extent of the fire. Initially the fire seemed under control, however at 1330 hrs the wind speed increased and fire picked up. A total of 1,00,000 litres of water was used to douse the fire and a total of 42 shuttles were carried out by these helicopters. The forest fire was brought under control and a sortie was undertaken in the morning along with forest and district officials to assess the situation. It would be pertinent to note that the helicopters were utilised for fighting forest fires for the third time this year. In addition to being instrumental in containing a potentially catastrophic environmental disaster, presence of IAF helicopter is a veritable morale booster for the local populace. The Indian Air Force, after proving its mettle in bringing assistance to scores of people after the flash floods in Uttarakhand in April last year, and Jammu and Kashmir in September this year, has once again risen to the occasion and added a pioneering chapter in Disaster Relief Operations. The Indian Air Force reaffirms its commitment towards Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief Operations in support of the nation.•
Ka- 226 Helicopter to be assembled in India Russia on 11 Dec 14 agreed in principle to assemble around 400 advanced twin engine Kamov helicopters a year in India, in a major move to give a new push to their strategic partnership. The Kamov Ka-226T, which Russia offered to assemble in India, is a light multi-role helicopter which is used for search-and-rescue operations. According to Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, almost 400 Kamov helicopters a year will be assembled in India. He said Russia may consider producing Mi-17 transport helicopter in India as well. The issue was discussed during the summit talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
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<<Indian Air Force>>
President Awards Standards to 115 Helicopter Unit and 26 Squadron of Indian Air Force The Hon’ble President of India and Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, Shri Pranab Mukherjee, awarded the prestigious President’s Standard to 115 Helicopter Unit and 26 Squadron in a grand ceremonial parade held at Air Force Station Tezpur, on 21 Nov 14. The President’s Standard is awarded to Operational Units based on their past record of performances and achievements during peace and hostilities. The Commanding Officer of 115 Helicopter Unit, Wing Commander AP Deshpande and Commanding Officer of 26 Squadron, Wing Commander S Prabhu received the Standards. The Parade was commanded by Group Captain Vikram Gaur, Vishisht Seva Medal, Chief Operations Officer of Air Force Station Tezpur. 115 Helicopter Unit, raised on 01 Apr 1967, is endowed with a glorious history and a rich operational legacy. Its active participation in the Indo-Pak war of 1971 had won them many accolades. Due to its renowned and remarkable role in Disaster Relief Operations during natural calamities, the Unit was aptly christened as ‘The Hovering Angels’. The Unit’s history is replete with tales of courage, valour and sacrifices. 26 Squadron (Warriors) was formed on 01 Jan 1968 at Adampur. Since its inception, it has etched numerous tales of valour and fortitude as a frontline fighter Squadron of the Indian Air Force. The Warriors also played a very active role in the Indo-Pak war 1971 providing close air support to Indian Army. The Squadron actively participated in the Kargil conflict of 1999 and was responsible for guarding northern skies during Op Prakaram. The Hon’ble Governor of Assam and Chief Minister of Assam were present during the award ceremony. Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha Param Vishisht Seva Medal, Ati Vishist Seva Medal, Vayusena Medal, Aide-de-Camp, Chief of the Air Staff, Air Marshal RK Jolly, Vayusena Medal, Vishisht Seva Medal, Aide-de-Camp, Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief Eastern Air Command, Air Marshal SS Soman, Ati Vishisht Seva Medal, Vayusena Medal, Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief Western Air Command, Air Marshal HB Rajaram, Ati Vishisht Seva Medal, Vishisht Seva Medal, Air Officer-in-Charge Administration along with other senior Defence and Civilian Dignitaries also witnessed the ceremony. The Hon’ble President also released a First Day Cover for 115 Helicopter Unit and 26 Squadron during the ceremony. Speaking to the reporters on the sidelines of the Awards Ceremony, the Chief of the Air Staff welcomed the media fraternity on behalf of the Air Officers Commanding in Chief of the Western and the Eastern Air Commands. He also thanked them for their support in providing coverage to the event. The Chief of the Air Staff answered a range of queries varying from replacement of old weapon systems to the modernization programme and One Rank One Pension.•
Hon’ble President of India, Shri Pranab Mukherjee issues a commemorative postage stamp during President’s Standard Presentation given to 115 Helicopter Unit and 26 Squadron at Air Force Station, Tezpur.
Commanding Officer of 115 Helicopter Unit, Wing Commander Abhijit Prakash Deshpande with Chief of the Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha (Right) and Commodore Commandant of 115 HU, Air Vice Marshal Manvendra Singh (Left) receiving the President’s Standard on behalf of 115 HU, while 03 Chetak helicopters fly in Victory formation to mark the momentous occasion at Air Force Station, Tezpur.
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<<Indian Army>>
Army Aviation – Growth Challenges Recent Developments Impacting Operational Capability
Lt Gen BS Pawar PVSM AVSM Ex ADG, Army Avn Corps
Introduction Army Aviation enables the field force commanders to exploit the vertical dimension, thereby contributing to the control and influence over the 21st century battlefield. Army Aviation assets are force multipliers that provide the commanders the capability to conduct operations across the entire range of military conflict - this versatility is the very essence of army aviation. In the future battlefield, army aviation will be in the forefront shaping the battle space by projecting the force, sustaining the force and delivering decisive combat power at critical times anywhere on the battle field, the focus being to enhance ground mobility and exploit manoeuvre. To remain a decision arm and battle winner in future conflicts the Army Aviation needs to adapt to the rapidly evolving technologies and shape its future requirements in terms of force structure, modernisation and employment philosophy, especially its role in sub-conventional operations. The operational diversities of the Indian Army coupled with a variety of terrain, extensive deployment in mountains/ high altitude areas, active borders and involvement in sub-conventional operations require assets that are capable of operating across this environmental and operational spectrum. The present force structure of Indian Army Aviation Corps has wide gaps in its capabilities, which inhibit it from being able to perform the roles envisaged. The aviation arm of the Army today is nowhere near what has been projected in the Army’s perspective plans over the years and lacks some vital elements in its inventory, related to firepower, lift and logistics capability. It is indeed a far cry from the Aviation Corps of the other professional armies in the world like USA and UK and our neighbours China and Pakistan who operate and own all types of helicopters as well as certain number of fixed wing aircraft. More importantly the ownership issue has not been addressed in its entirety by the Government, with critical assets like the medium and heavy lift helicopters still remaining with the Air Force, thereby denying the army its legitimate tactical and logistical lift capability requirements. There is a need to bridge these gaps at the earliest to make Army Aviation a potent arm of the Indian Army, whereby its combat efficiency is enhanced to the maximum extent to make it the decisive arm of the future.
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Despite its pivotal role in future conflicts recognised, the Army Aviation received a major setback recently with the Government scrapping the long pending and operationally critical Cheetah/ Chetak replacement project, involving the acquisition of 197 light reconnaissance and observation helicopters. The Government has instead decided to go for a ‘Buy and Make in India’ project – which basically means the participation of the Indian defence industry in collaboration with foreign helicopter companies to manufacture this class of helicopters in India. Though a positive step towards Prime Minister’s Make in India policy and overall indigenization thrust, this decision has led to the cancellation of the Tender which has left the Army bereft of a suitable helicopter in this class and will no doubt affect the overall operational capability, especially in high altitude areas including the Siachen Glacier. This move is also likely to have a major impact on the flight safety of the Cheetah/ Chetak fleet operations, as these helicopters are now 40 years old and obsolete, with their maintenance itself becoming a nightmare and the spares situation critical. The recent fatal accident of a Cheetah helicopter at the Bareilly Army Aviation Base resulting in the deaths of three officers, has indeed confirmed these fears. In fact, a number of rotary wing aviation experts have expressed their concerns regarding the safe operations of these machines, with some even terming them as flying coffins – this certainly is a matter of grave concern and needs to be addressed on priority. Fielding of the ‘Cheetal’ (a Cheetah helicopter with a more powerful engine) by HAL in limited numbers to cater to the criticality for high altitude operations, is an interim measure and needs to be treated as such. Another important development with positive overtones is the Government’s approval for the Army to get its own fleet of 39 iconic Block III Apache attack helicopters for its Strike Corps. This decision will provide a major boost to the modernisation plans of the Army Aviation Corps and will go a long way in enhancing its combat potential. This is basically a follow up of the decision taken by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) in Nov 2012 on the long pending issue of ownership of attack helicopter assets in favour of the Army. While the Air Force was to retain the 22 Apaches currently being acquired, the Army was asked by the MoD to put across its own requirement of Apache attack helicopters for Government approval. The Army accordingly had worked out the requirement for three squadrons of Apache attack helicopters for its three Strike Corps and the same was put up to the Government for approval. The present Government has
<<Indian Army>> approved the Army’s requirement thereby setting into motion the acquisition process. Alongside this, the armed Dhruv helicopter christened Rudra (manufactured by HAL) has already commenced induction into the Army Aviation, with the first unit currently under raising. However there is a major drawback in these helicopters being inducted. They are without the crucial anti-tank missile which is the leading armament of an attack helicopter – this will degrade their combat potential as the air to air missile is only a defensive weapon system in case of attack helicopters. The worrisome part however is that the development of the indigenous project of ‘Helina’, the air version of the Nag anti tank missile is still nowhere in sight and efforts to import a suitable missile for the first few units of ‘Rudra’ have not made any headway, despite trials being completed two years back. The MoD and the Armed Forces need to address this issue on priority because the non availability of this missile will also impact on the operationalization of the ongoing Light Combat Helicopter project.
Present Status and Way Forward The Indian Army Aviation has completed 28 years of its existence, but today remains purely a reconnaissance and observation force holding helicopters in its inventory which are obsolete and need urgent replacement. The Army Aviation has a few helicopters to carry out a number of extremely specialized roles in the Tactical Battle Area (TBA).The present Army Aviation assets are inadequate for the size of the Indian Army and the tasks it is required to perform – its expansion therefore is imperative. While the induction of the light utility helicopter (ALH), is progressing satisfactorily, its low serviceability and high accident rate is a serious cause of concern and needs to be addressed by Hindustan Aeronautical Limited (HAL) on priority. This is an area requiring serious attention by the Army Aviation, as HAL is currently involved in the development of a number of helicopter projects for the future, like the Light Utility Helicopter (3 ton class) and the Light Combat Helicopter capable of operating at high altitudes - HAL must incorporate in them the developing future helicopter technologies. Along with its growth and modernisation, the Army Aviation also needs to address the important issues of cadre management, organisational changes and infrastructure development, which are presently in a state of flux. To make Army Aviation a potent force capable of supporting the Indian Army operations across the entire spectrum of conflict in the TBA, it must grow and transform, having a mix of both, helicopters and fixed wing aircraft with helicopters available in larger numbers. At the same time a concerted effort needs to be made to overcome the various bottlenecks. The helicopter fleet should consist of attack and armed helicopters, heavy, medium and light utility (lift) helicopters and light observation helicopters. There also would be a need for specialized helicopters suitably modified for special operations. The aim is to make the force a capability based organization rather than equipment and inventory based structure, implying commensurate induction of man, machine, organizational and infrastructural requirements. New dimensions in tactical night operations as a direct result of sensor and avionics capabilities, with the ability to operate at low levels at night will yield great dividends. Rapidly evolving technologies are already poised to offer new and improved capabilities to the aviation force - these must form part of future developments and acquisitions. There is therefore an urgent need to look at the broad structures and force levels that the Army Aviation should possess to make it a potent arm of the Indian Army whereby its
combat efficiency is enhanced to the maximum extent. There is also a need to evolve an appropriate employment philosophy for this future arm of decision and validate the same both in the plains and the mountains. Army Aviation needs to develop organizations that enhance aviation capabilities and are suitably tailored to meet the evolving operational requirements like the Aviation Brigade’s to provide proper command and control and ensure optimal utilization of all diverse aviation assets located within the Corps. There is also a requirement to build suitable infrastructure and have it in place to absorb the new equipment and organizations. Support services like air fields, air traffic control, Met equipment, maintenance equipment, would also need upgrading and refurbishing. Lastly the most important facet, the training facilities for the training of aircrew and ground crew need modernization. The importance of simulators for this purpose cannot be over emphasized. Keeping in mind the vast expansion plans of the Army Aviation in the coming years and induction of sophisticated state of art equipment, the simulators will be the way forward for future training methods as they are cost and time saving.
Conclusion The army aviation needs to play a vastly enhanced role in land operations in the coming years. This is only possible if the arm grows both quantitatively and qualitatively. The gap between desire and reality is presently very large and is likely to narrow down provided the acquisitions and developments proceed as planned – the urgent need to replace the 200 odd ageing and obsolete Cheetah/ Chetak fleet cannot be over emphasised. This delay is already impacting on operational capability in high altitude areas. For dominating the tactical battle space of the future, the Army must go beyond fielding light observation and light utility helicopters and the control of attack helicopters by proxy. Dramatic changes are required to make the arm more capable, lethal, sustainable and affordable with the aim to create a dedicated and operational Army Aviation Corps. The integration of all combat elements of the fighting force, including combat aviation resources, under the unified command of field force commander, trained, administered and employed in combat with common operational procedures and ethos, will lead to a greater degree of synergy at all levels. The army aviation is the arm of the future, a force multiplier which can tilt the balance in any future conflict.•
Army Aviation School gets Bell 47G helicopter The Combats Army Aviation Training School (CATS) has received a Bell 47G helicopter from the Punjab government recently as a museum piece. The helicopters were in Indian military service from 1957 to 1972 and utilized by other countries. The machine was recently returned to the Army, which has inducted it as a gratitude to aviators in the past. An official said Bell 47G is a two-bladed, single engine, light helicopter manufactured by Bell helicopter. The Bell 47G variants were powered by the Lycoming VO-435 engine and supercharged 168KW Franklin 6VS-335-A.
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<<Indian Navy>>
Indian Navy to get SEAHAWK S-70B Indian Navy, after operating Hawker’s SEAHAWK fighters, until the mid80s, is on the verge of seeing the nomenclature reincarnate in a helicopter avatar, with the short-listing of Sikorsky built multi-mission helicopter SEAHAWK S 70B. Short listing would now enable the commencement of a series of meetings at South Block, wherein all the issues regarding pricing, technical specification, aircrew / maintainers training, delivery schedules, testing and acceptance, offsets, weapon package/clearance, onboard suites, etc will be negotiated and finalized to meet the ‘wish list’ formulated by the Navy. SEAHAWK is the naval variant of BLACK HAWK with enhanced engine power and higher ceiling height. (The Chinese Navy has procured 70C for its Air Force and, 70C (M) for its Navy equipped with an under nose radar and a dunking sonar). Seahawk is powered by twin 1700 shaft HP 7700GE-401C turbo shaft engines and operates at a max gross weight of 23000 lbs and max ceiling height of 20000ft. It cruises at 150 knots with max speed of 180 knots and has four hours endurance, which can be increased to 5 hrs plus when fitted with external drop tanks. It incorporates automatic blade fold and tail pylon folding capabilities for ship borne compatibility. The helicopter will introduce our pilots to the ‘glass cockpit’ technology, where information on airspeed, altitude, heading, engine performance etc will be presented on a video display in lieu of analogue gauges. Indian Navy will initially receive 16 in number SEAHAWKS (with option for another eight numbers) to replace its ageing SEAKING helicopters. As and when the SEAHAWKs are inducted, they will provide state-of-art up gradation to operational capabilities, apart from raising
the bar to meet the new threats that have evolved at sea. Details of the weapons and other onboard supplementary equipment will be known only after the contract is finalized by the MoD. In the current maritime situation, the SEAHAWK, apart from its antiship/anti-submarine/EW/ESM role, can be equipped to take on various tasks eg. Deploying specialized sonobouys, which when dropped at sea will transmit information for onboard equipment to process data like electric fields, magnetic anomalies, bioluminescence (submarine presence) as well as measuring environmental parameters like water temperature vs depth, air temp, barometric pressure and wave height. Policy planners are now aware that advancing and sustaining naval helicopter missions at sea with an affordable budget is a significant part of national security/defence.•
‘OP Lehar’ Makes a Difference to People of Vizag The relief operations by the Armed Forces under ‘Op Lehar’ was focussed on Visakhapatnam, the worst affected district by cyclone storm ‘Hudhud’. The relief material (especially food packets and readymade food )was airlifted by IAF aircraft and helicopter from Vijayawada (41 tonnes) and Rajamundry (17 tonnes) for Visakhapatnam. In addition, 3 community kitchens werer un by naval authorities at Visakhapatnam and two each at Bhimunipatnam, Arakapalli, Visakhapatnam Airport and Seetamdhra. Food prepared in these kitchens were distributed to the affected people at various food supply distribution points in the affected area. In the far flung areas like Rambilli, food packets have been air dropped through helicopters. About 79 tonnes of relief material was flown in by various IAF aircraft viz. three AN 32s, one C 130J, two C-17 and four Mi 17 helicopters. The heavy lift aircraft of IAF like C-17 Globemaster, alongwith C-130 Hercules and AN-32 brought in the much needed food supplies directly to Visakhapatnam/Dega airfield, along with other heavy equipments, which were required for restoration of essential services. Naval helicopter Seaking of INS Dega airlifted reconstruction material and other spares required for restoration of 132 KV Transmission Tower belonging to AP TRANSCO on hill top of Simhachalam Hill, Visakhapatnam on 21 October 14. AP TRANSCO was able to restore electric supply to most of the city in an extremely short time in the aftermath of Hudhud but realized that one high tension tower of 132 KV has collapsed on Simhachalam hill. This tower had to be re-constructed immediately to enable uninterrupted power supply to the remaining part of the city and was also extremely critical for providing electric power to the industries 20
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Navy Helicopter Airlifts Spares for 132 KV Transmission Tower on Simhachalam Hill – Visakhapatnam.
located around Vizag. The remote location of the tower on the Simachalam hill made this task extremely difficult and laborious for AP TRANSCO and time consuming. The city administration sought assistance of Navy in positioning of the complete construction material weighing about 10 tons at the remote location on Simhachalam hill. Indian Navy undertook a feasibility study and a Seaking helicopter of the INS Dega was immediately pressed into service this morning and undertook multiple flights. The helo airlifted reconstruction material comprising of iron poles, angles, cement bags and other spares loaded in cargo nets to the remote location enabling early reconstruction of the high tension tower in a short span of time.•
ith a modern and technologically advanced fleet of helicopters, we provide a range of essential and innovative services to strategic sectors for various purposes, contributing to the growth of the Indian economy.
W
We are the largest company serving the Oil & Gas industry for all its exploration and operational requirements and the only company with the expertise to carry out geophysical surveys. Our stateof-the-art equipment, personnel of high calibre and the highest safety and security standards allow us to conduct complex tasks like under-slung operations, aerial photography and rescue operations with ease. Our spotless track record also makes us the preferred fliers for the top rung of the country for corporate, religious and leisure travel. We have world class maintenance facilities and highly skilled and experienced pilots to ensure safe, secure and uninterrupted services to the Nation. We thank our customers for their continued support and trust in us.
Oil and Gas
Geophysical Survey
Aerial Photography
Tourism
Corporate & VVIP Flights
Underslung Operations
National Seminar on
Safety of Helicopter Ops (Offshore & Onshore)
Organised by Rotary Wing Society of India 25 September 2014 The Club, 197, DN Nagar Rd, Andheri West, Mumbai
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National Seminar
National Seminar on Safety of Helicopter Ops (Offshore & Onshore) held on 25 September 2014, Mumbai
(L to R) AVM K Sridharan VM (G) (Retd.) President, RWSI; Shri NG Chikkathimaiah, ED, Air Safety, AAI; Shri CK Mishra, Executive Director (Air Logistics), ONGC; Capt Uday Gelli, President RWSI (WR) and Capt Sanjay Mittal, Secy, RWSI (WR)
A National Seminar on Safety of Helicopter Ops (Offshore & Onshore) was held on 25 September 2014 at The Club, 197, DN Nagar Rd, Andheri West, Mumbai. The purpose of the seminar was to highlight safety issues that are being faced by Helicopter service providers and find solutions to reduce the accident rate by improving the safety ambience for helicopter operations in the country. Capt Uday Gelli, President RWSI (WR) opened the inaugural session of the seminar Shri Rajiv Pratap Rudy Hon’ble Member of Parliament with a welcome address. Around 150 delegates including officials from DGCA, AAI, ONGC, Indian Air Force, Indian Coast Guard, agencies involved in exploration and production work (offshore) and helicopter companies that provide logistic air support to offshore rigs attended the event. Shri. Rajiv Pratap Rudy MP (Lok Sabha) was the chief guest at the pre-lunch session of the seminar. In his welcome address, Capt Uday Gelli highlighted the objective of the seminar and aspects of safety with regards to usage of helicopters. He also mentioned that there was Capt Uday Gelli, no civil helicopter accident this year despite President RWSI (WR) intensive flying in the wake of the 22
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Lighting the lamp at the Inaugural Session
Parliamentary elections in the quarter ending June ’14, where over 50 non-scheduled operators utilized 81 helicopters and flew a total of 6899 hours during the period 24 March to 11 May 2014, transporting more than 12,567 political leaders and officials. However a look at the major accidents during the last ten years revealed that many of these accidents were due to lack of situational awareness, wherein the helicopters had inadvertently flown into the terrain due to the lack of visual reference. He also complimented DGCA for its proactive role in amending regulations. In his keynote address, RWSI president AVM K Sridharan VM (G) said the focus of RWSI has been on safety issues right from the beginning. “The task is not easy, as we don’t have any agency to maintain data related to
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(L to R) Capt JK Mishra, PHL; Wg Cdr BS Singh Deo VM, MD Bell Helicopter; Shri Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Hon’ble Member of Parliament; AVM K Sridharan VM (G) (Retd.) President, RWSI; Capt Uday Gelli, President RWSI (WR) and Mr. Ravi Menon, Director, AirWorks India.
accidents that could aid in investigations and support a comprehensive analysis and future recommendations,” he added. “Earlier, accident investigation reports used to take 34 years to be made public. With efforts by RWSI, this had changed. Besides DGCA, RWSI had also started compiling data on safety and carrying out detailed analysis of major accidents to civil helicopters. However implementation of the recommendations AVM K Sridharan VM (G) made by the accident investigations and also (Retd.) President, RWSI; some useful suggestion made by participants in safety seminars did not get the attention they deserved.” He gave out details of the Indian Helicopter Accident scenario in which CFIT accidents had the maximum fatalities. The remedial measures were to improve pilot judgment and action along with improved situational awareness, maintenance, training, and infrastructure and so on. He also brought out details of the awareness courses conducted by RWSI for better safety. NG Chikkathimaiah, ED, Air Safety, AAI in Shri NG Chikkathimaiah, ED, Air Safety, AAI his address said that he was dealing with the safety of about 85-100 airfields in India that come under AAI. He described the safety measures taken by AAI in respect of air traffic flow management and also the helicopter movement in the future. The next speaker, Shri CK Mishra, Executive Director (Air Logistics), ONGC said that it was always a pleasure to attend seminars and conferences organised by RWSI, as he gets to know about some useful information with reference to safety of helicopter Shri CK Mishra, Executive Director (Air Logistics), ONGC operations. He added that ONGC was the single
largest helicopter user in the country and helicopter is the lifeline for offshore operations, particularly for drilling and production of oil and gas. Talking about the safety seminar, he wanted RWSI to consider conducting such seminars on half yearly basis. Besides thanking RWSI for organising the event, he hoped for useful deliberations in the seminar.
Technical Session-I Heli Ops (Offshore) Safety Management and Safety Devices
It was chaired by Mr. Joe Gross, of British Gas. Captain Sanjay Mittal, Secy, RWSI (WR) made a presentation on Case Studies of Offshore Accidents and Mitigation Strategies. In his presentation, he described in detail about two accidents and one incident. The helicopters involved were S-92, AS-332 Super Puma and EC-155 respectively. These accidents/ incident have been taken from the reports provided on the website by Transport Safety Board of Canada and AAIB, UK. He drew appropriate lessons and suggested mitigations strategies given in the reports relevant to helicopter operations in India. Mr. Joe Gross of British Gas gave some valuable anecdotes from his experience in operating helicopters across the world. Mr. Oliver Voinchet Airbus Helicopters, France. The next talk was on International Best Practices in Offshore Ops by Mr. Oliver Voinchet Airbus Helicopters, France. ROTOR INDIA - QE 31 December - 2014
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Wg. Cdr. BS Singh Deo VM; MD, Bell Helicopter, India and Vice President RWSI
Shri Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Hon’ble Member of Parliament;
Col Dilip Sharad Ranade, Chief Pilot, Bharat Forge & GC Member RWSI
National Seminar The next speaker was Air Cmde SA Kunte, Dy Chief Test Pilot (RW), HAL who gave a very lucid account of the procedures laid out in HAL with regards to developing and testing aircraft with particular reference to the safety enhancement initiatives incorporated in the procedures. During the extended session Wg. Cdr. BS Singh Deo VM; MD, Bell Helicopter, India and VP RWSI made a presentation on Safety Enhancement Initiatives. In this presentation Wg Cdr Singh Deo dwelt briefly on the history of safety in sea transport and the gradual development in thinking with regards to safety in aviation that led to safety being considered akin to investment and return. He then focused on the causes of CFIT accidents and studies done to identify the same. Shri. Rajiv Pratap Rudy MP (Lok Sabha) was the Chief Guest at the session. In the concluding remarks of the session, he said that because of his love for flying and love for all those who were associated with RWSI, he couldn’t deny himself the opportunity to participate in the event. He regretted that ATC controllers treat helicopters as fixed wing aircraft. There were many more issues faced by the helicopter operators. In his conclusion, he wanted the Rotary Wing Society of India to give him a wish list and have a representative who could keep in touch with him to monitor the progress of the issue at MOCA. The next speaker was Capt JK Mishra, Pawan Hans Ltd. He spoke on case studies of noteworthy onshore accidents, their causes and remedial measures. Col Dilip Sharad Ranade, Chief Pilot, Bharat Forge and GC Member RWSI spoke about Op Bottlenecks and Infrastructure issues impacting safety. In this talk, Col Ranade dwelt on the urgent issues facing the helicopter industry in India particularly those affecting the operational aspects. Shri Ravi Menon, Director, Airworks Engineering who chaired the session made his concluding remarks at the end of the session. The seminar concluded with a vote of thanks from Lt Gen BS Pawar, President RWSI (NR) and Wg Cdr Sanjay Mittal Secretary RWSI (WR). ** *
Shri Ravi Menon, Director, Airworks Engineering
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Participants at the National seminar
Inaugural Welcome Address by Captain Uday Gelli, President, RWSI (WR) It gives me great pleasure to extend a very warm welcome to all of you to the 36 th National Seminar being organised by the Rotary Wing Society of India. This event is the 8th National seminar on safety to be organised by the Rotary Wing Society of India. We Capt Uday Gelli, organise this seminar essentially to provide President RWSI (WR) the latest information on safety trends, statistics, safety management techniques related to safety of helicopter operations both onshore as well as off shore. These kinds of seminars are primarily organised for the benefit of the operators. It is indeed a privilege to welcome such distinguished gathering of stalwarts and stakeholders of Rotary Wing Society of India. We also welcome our guest speakers from India and abroad and thank them for agreeing to share with us valuable information, knowledge and expertise that they have. We are indeed honoured to have a number of distinguished delegates from the military and paramilitary forces. Rotary Wing Society of India has been collecting data and analysing the incidents and accidents for the last so many years. Reducing the rate of accidents to civil helicopter is an international issue and with this intention a team has been set up which is a voluntary organizations named International Helicopter Safety Team. India is very much part of HST and is represented through the Rotary Wing Society of India. This was set up in 2005 with the main objective of reducing the helicopter accidents to the civil helicopter industry. In 2005 the rate of accident was 9.4 accidents per 100,000 hours of flying and the objective was to reduce these accidents by 80% within one decade which means bring it to 1.9 accidents per 100,000 hours by 2016. In the last many years we have seen accident rate between 2006 to 2011 has indeed come down between 6.25 – 6.5 per 100,000 hours of flying. We are striving extremely hard to achieve the objective of International Helicopter Safety Team all over the world. While helicopters are employed somewhere in the world saving lives every day, we are equally bothered about accident to the helicopters every day somewhere across the world and that is a big concern. Since beginning
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Participants at the National seminar on Safety of Helicopters Ops (Offshore & Onshore) at Mumbai
of the year we are very happy to inform you that there has been no accident in the helicopter industry. This despite the fact that there has been very intensive flying in the quarter ending June when the helicopters were used very extensively for election flying for the general elections in the country. Despite operating under extreme and very harsh conditions and also operating from very remote areas, we are very happy that there have been no accidents and in this entire election period they just reported three minor incidents. DGCA has been proactive in reviewing all the safety aspects and covering the kind of checks and balances as required before the election started that really helped the industry in ensuring that there were no accidents. If you look at the causes of major accidents in the last 10 years, it is unfortunate that out of 36 major accidents 11 accidents were owing to the loss of control. Many fatal accidents were owing to the visual reference and due to poor maintenance. We have to look at ways and means as to how to prevent such accidents from occurring in future. In all cases, the pilots lost situational awareness and because of this helicopters had inadvertently flown into the terrain due to the lack of visual reference. This is one of the areas that Rotary Wing Society of India has identified. DGCA is also very seriously looking at this, what we call CFIT â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Control Flight into Terrain. For improving the safety culture and pilot judgment and actions, mandatory training courses are necessary for the pilots to help them avoid these kinds of events. We are glad that the latest state of the art simulator has been set up in Bangalore operating under the name of Hatsoff, which is a joint venture company of HAL and CAE of Canada. It has got all features and I can very confidently say that the simulator training will help in the longer run to handle such situations. We also notice that DGCA has been very proactive in looking at the regulations, amending or weeding out the old outdated rules which are not practical any longer and trying to come out with all the rules applicable to helicopters under one particular CAR which would go a long way in
making flying more safety oriented. We are also seeing a trend that when the DGCA does these kinds of changes, they do call stakeholders from the private sector to provide inputs. Todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s seminar will have presentations and discussions on topics such as case studies related to helicopter accidents - onshore and offshore, mitigation strategies, international best practices, safety enhancement initiative taken by IHST, safety devices for the helicopter and safety issues connected with Juhu airport and Pune based helicopter operators. We are gathered here to highlight the safety issues faced by helicopter operators as well as service providers. We need to sit together to find solutions to reduce the accident rate and also improve safety ambience for helicopter operations in the country. Similar seminars were conducted by the Rotary Wing Society of India earlier; the first one was in July 2009 and subsequently in May 2011. After these seminars and the discussions which took place therein, we forwarded a large number of recommendations to various stakeholders. Some of them have been resolved and some are being looked into. We sincerely hope that all the stakeholders would look into these issues. The operators providing helicopter services are present here. We have amongst us the user companies who are involved in exploration and production, who are by sector wise one of the largest users of helicopters in the country. They use more than 30 helicopters for E&P industry logging almost 50% of the flying that is flown by helicopters in the country, averaging about 30,000 hours a year. This segment definitely acts as the driving force for the growth of helicopter industry in the country. We do face some issues specially those operating for Oil and Gas companies. We have been discussing with number of operators for providing services to the oil industry and we found out that the helicopters are being grounded mainly due to strict impositions. One of the requests that have been put up earlier and also now is that we would request all companies to review this
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kind of condition that they have imposed on the operators. We have taken up over a period of time regarding creating better infrastructure at Juhu airport. We want more space for parking of helicopters and more hangars, so that helicopters can be operated and maintained under a protected environment. This request is already with AAI. We have noted that the Airports Authority has created good infrastructure like for example on the east coast, Rajahmundry airport has become a hub of operations for E&P companies. Rajahmundry controls a large number of operations. Airports authority Participants at the National seminar on Safety of Helicopters Ops (Offshore & Onshore) at Mumbai has extended the runway, increased the size of the terminal and created facilities for the Parliamentary Committee, it tackles helicopter operations primarily night flying. In spite of that night flying operations are yet to commence in the safety areas. It is very comprehensive, very detailed and useful, due to petite reasons. We will definitely request Airports Authority to look where for the first time ever the parliament has assured the pilots and into that issue because night operations are extremely important and engineers that they would provide protection to them in case they are urgent for life saving missions.â&#x20AC;˘ forced to operate under inclement weather or for some reason when the ***
Keynote Address by AVM K Sridharan VM (G) (Retd.) President, RWSI One of the main areas that Rotary Wing Society focused right from the beginning has been on safety. For a long period, you would be shocked and surprised to know, there has not been a single agency which kept data related to accidents. Earlier, it took about 3AVM K Sridharan VM (G) 4 years before the accident investigation (Retd.) President, RWSI; reports reached the public. But things have changed now and we have made a small contribution in bringing about the change. I would like to assure you that every time we conduct an event like this, there is a total application on our part to ensure that valuable suggestions that have come out from you are recorded, harmonised and put across to appropriate agencies in the country, especially the DGCA, Ministry of Civil Aviation and Airports Authority of India. The only thing that I regret to share with you is that the recommendations that are being made by us, very little has been done in meeting up with those recommendations. I hope that concerned authorities take note of it and do kindly consider the views of an august audience like this. This would definitely lead to an improvement in the safety culture. I would like to share that we do not keep quiet after running a seminar. Last time when we conducted a seminar, we had as chief guest the chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Aviation, Mr. Sitaram Yechuri. He made sure that after he heard all, he organised a session in the parliament. He invited his committee to be present and asked us to make a presentation on safety. If you visit the Rajya Sabha website 169th report of
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aircraft is not serviceable. They have even gone to the extent of saying that they will provide you the legal support. You can look at it in the 169th report. We at Rotary Wing Society of India are serious to take up these safety matters. As I said, not many agencies in the country hold data on safety. Since RWSI has been compiling data on safety from a long time, I would like to share the accident analysis which our team has done in the last 10 years accidents. We try to act as a watchdog. Irrespective of whether an accident has been considered as a major accident which is worthy of investigation or nor, we document those accidents. You will find in our data that there will be difference in number of accidents reported by us vis-a-vis that of DGCA. It is because we consider some actions are important and they canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t be brushed aside. In respect of the profile of Indian industry I can say that we are not young. The first civil helicopter was in 1953 that is a picture of Juhu airport where two prime ministers were in the aircraft. Since then there has been a very modest growth. The modest growth because right in the beginning we made a big error of only using helicopters for conventional role and never got into application of helicopters. This has been one of the drawbacks why industry has not grown in the earlier period. We at RWSI have also some useful information in relation to military helicopters. We do contribute to military helicoptersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; concept strategies etc in our Helipower seminars. In respect of indigenisation and indigenous capacity you have in India, you all know the kind of products that HAL produces and also in the recent years you have the TATAs producing the major components of S92 at Hyderabad. If you look at the growth rate of civil helicopters fleet in the country, it has been very modest. In 1993 it was a very modest amount and in the recent years from 2007 to 2011-12 we had a 12% growth. But unfortunately from 2011-12 there has been a negative growth. The health of helicopter industry depends on non schedule operators or when you use helicopters for commercial purposes. We have various categories of operators. Most importantly we need to focus on commercial operators as 73% of the total fleet is operated by them. Among the commercial operators there are
Special Report many who have a fleet of more than six. Most of them have a fleet of less than six. As a result they do not have the economy of numbers which make a big impact on the kind of utilisation of resources. If you look at the manufacturing situation or the type of products that are in use in India, you have the BELL and Eurocopter who are the major shareholders in the market. Apart from these there are other manufacturers. One aspect is that we have quite a few models in use which creates its own complexity in respect of training, products etc. Another aspect is in terms of vintage of helicopters. I must admit that we donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have details of all types of helicopters but 2nd and 3rd generation occupy a sizeable portion of the fleet. Usage of helicopters- one of the problems is that we restricted ourselves to use of conventional roles like air logistics. Support of offshore rigs plays a major role. We fly around 70,000 - 80,000 hrs of flying every year but the bulk of flying is done in offshore. Little flying is carried out on application of helicopters for HEMS, ALE, Under Slung Work, ENG, etc. When we look at heli charter where around 75% of helicopters are available, we find that rate of utilisation is rather poor. It is 25 hr per month per helicopter. Heli tourism in recent years as part of heli charter has done well. There is a high utilisation because these are short halt ops and generally helicopters are very popular in heli pilgrimage. Coming down to off shore usage, 16% of 200 helicopters are used in this role. Rate of utilization is 70-80 hrs per helicopter per month. The reason why there has been a negative growth in the recent years is because there has been a drop in dollar rupee value. There has been a sizeable change. As a result of this, cost of spares has gone up and maintenance cost has gone up by 1.5 times. The cost of ATF has shot up. In the area of ground handling Airports Authority could have given special consideration to helicopters as helicopters operate without any assistance. Yet for this each airport charges Rs. 25,000/- which is quite a heavy burden. In India, helicopters can be effectively used in the hinterland, where there is a shortage of communication. Helicopters could prove to be a very effective method of transportation. Unfortunately two things that weigh in this: One is that there are not many infrastructure proper helipads with safety services. Secondly when you go and opt to land and take a person across, then you go through a long procedure of getting the civil administration to give you approval that takes anything between 48 hrs to 72 hrs, which compels the operators to keep his aircraft down for this period. This is an area where some things have been changed. Col Sasi has made a contribution in bringing about a change in Kerala state. If others take up this issue in their own state, things might improve. There are no standard charges for safety services provided at heliports in the country. There are many areas where we need to work in. There are people who charge from Rs.25,000-30,000/- at helipads for providing safety services. This gives you the background of the profile of industry. Let us look at the safety performance. World accident rate on helicopters have been very high. 9.4 means every 100,000 hrs of flying, we lose nearly 10 helicopters which is very high compared to fixed wing civil aviation. Not that they achieved it overnight. There has been a very similar process like the safety team. Civil aviation safety team which was formed about 25 years back, made a major contribution in identifying areas which brought about the change in improving the accident rates. For a very long time in India especially in the civil side, we were not able to ascertain the accident rate because we did not have hours flown by
National Seminar civil helicopters. Only in recent times DGCA has been able to release the data and you can find that the average accident rate is 6.25 to 6.5. That means for every 100,000 hrs we lose 6.5 helicopters. We need to bring it down. Target given to us is 1.9 and the short fall is about 3- 3.5 aircraft per 100,000 hrs. In the world, there are helicopter accidents taking place every day. There is awareness and realisation across the world bodies that we must bring it down. India has only 250 helicopters. USA has 14,000 helicopters. They do maximum amount of flying in the world because they have taken the HSC recommendations seriously. We have a long way to go. Helicopter accidents in the last 10 years - We have a total 36 helicopter accidents out of which non fatal are 24 and fatal are 12. When you compare between twin engine and single engine, there have been marginally larger number of twin engine helicopter accidents. In respect of fatalities there have been positively more fatalities in twin engine primarily because in twin engine helicopters, most of the accidents were caused due to CFIT, control flight into terrain. In that mode of flying it has been a level flight where people knowingly went into the obstacle. When you look at the number of accidents that took place in the last 10 years, the tallest graphs are related to loss of control, loss of visual reference and maintenance errors. We need to consider CFIT accidents where we have maximum fatalities. This is a work done by IHST. Standard problem is that we need to improve the pilot judgment and action. We need to improve situation awareness. Maintenance action will have to be more rigid and most of all the safety culture has to be improved. If there is a weak link, you may tighten up everything but for some silly reason you could meet with an accident. Generally there were generic recommendations at one of the IHST meetings that I attended. Across the world, people from various countries made presentations of their accidents. What is amazing is that there was no new reason for which the accidents took place. It is all the same. What IHST came out with was that let us put one layer more than the regulator layer. Let us put safety management system in place which will allow operator and management to play a major role in ensuring that wherever there is a loop hole, it is plugged. Similarly training system and training will need to be based on data. You need information and data definitely for maintenance since most of our helicopters are from outside. We need to adhere to the original equipments manufacturersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; schedule. Then regulatory guidelines and infrastructure also play some role. Just to highlight 1-2 accidents. Mi-172 accident that took place in Aprilâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;11: 19 people were killed. It is a crime to land at a helipad at 80009000 feet. Basically you had 50m x 50m size helipad and then unfortunately there were 2 helicopters parked in the area. The pilot made an undershooting approach. During the process, one of the wheels hit the embankment and there was a dynamic roll resulting in the crash. Most amazingly there were no fire tenders or other safety services. For 45 minutes everybody witnessed people getting bombed in the helicopter. Has anything improved? I leave it to you. As I mentioned 13 accidents are owing to Loss of Control. This is one area which I explained to you. When we conducted a survey, many operators admitted that there was very little role training especially mountain flying. Similarly in loss of visual reference area which we touched upon, Uday also mentioned that awareness has to be improved. That is an area where we need to tighten up. We got help from DGCA because they issued a circular which says that if you find that weather is bad, divert to the next available helipads. Parliamentary committee report has also given a similar recommendation. ROTOR INDIA - QE 31 December - 2014
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Poor maintenance, lack of compliance to norms and quality control were also cited as reasons. They are all being told that SMS training, Quality Assurance (QA), and adherence to OEM’s maintenance schedule are very important. Last 5-6 years we are using civil helicopters for para military role. We have had 4-5 helicopters getting hit by naxalite bullets. Some of them had fatal causalities. RWSI has taken up this issue as it is an Participants at the National seminar on Safety of Helicopters Ops (Offshore & Onshore) at Mumbai aspect that needs to be reviewed and not force civil helicopters to be used in this role unless the helipad is sanitized. We are hopeful that this safety and licensing has to be there. Otherwise what would happen if this year there will be no accident. you don’t check anybody? If everybody followed rules correctly nothing Findings and recommendations: When you do human factor analysis will happen. So who will watch the watchman? Somebody also should across the board, there is evidence that there has been violation of SOP. I watch the watchman. represent you in the National Civil Aviation Safety Council. I request that When we go for audit in our 55 airports, even today there is confusion the recommendations the court of enquiries have brought out be in marking, aiming point and so on. Taxiway is not marked properly. implemented. Please, let us keep a time line. We have said that supervisory Signs are not marked properly. That is why we are conducting audit. For role of DGCA from operation and maintenance angle should be revamped the thresholds, marking have not been put up well. Runway lights are not with scientific inputs. Whatever decisions made so far, they were not based burning properly. After the licensing of airports, DGCA has become very on data. They were all based on assessment. You need data to convince strict. We have developed almost 90% of the airfield. We have made RSA them. This is where you need to improve. Some of these recommendations - Runway Safety Area that is after the runway and it requires minimum have been noted by them. They have assured us change for the better. 50x50 mtrs. Upto 240 we have made it. Then slowly we started improving In a nutshell, our grey areas are 3-4: Loss of control requires giving importance to safety. The SMS manual is made and approved by improvement in pilot judgement, requires constant training, lack of DGCA. We are conducting safety workshops. Next we are going to Chennai situational awareness that in turn causes CFIT accidents. RWSI has initiated and Bangalore. A lot improvement has taken place with respect to safety avoidance of control flight in to terrain courses. Do send your pilots for aspects. We conduct audit of private airports and recommend safety training. It will be useful. We have some safeguards. If you look at it, that measures. will give you protection. It is not that RWSI was not taking proactive Earlier, flow management was not there. Flow management means measures. From 2007 – 2010, RWSI is the single outfit that did ground who are all there, all the stakeholders have to follow the safety norms then training in the country for helicopters. Subsequently other operators came only things will move forward. I personally believe with all the safety and in but till date we have trained 3300 pilots on various courses. All our licensing there is tremendous scope to improvements especially the courses were conducted by professional volunteers, pilots on weekend. I helicopter movement in India, because in small tourist places you cannot welcome any of you wanting to be a part of the RWSI team in bringing go by big aircrafts. Expansion is very good and we hope all of us will do awareness and providing education to improve safety.• safety norms and we will progress as our country progresses.• ***
Address by Chief Guest Shri NG Chikkathimaiah, ED, Air Safety, AAI When we attended some of the international seminars first question asked was - what is safety? Everybody conduct safety. Why licensing is there? We attend one meeting after another. Through a lot of permutations and combinations, some agreeing and others disagreeing internationally, finally they have come to a conclusion that
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Address by Shri CK Mishra, Executive Director (Air Logistics), ONGC As most of you know, ONGC is the single largest helicopter user in the country, mostly for our operations. In fact, helicopters are the lifeline for offshore operations particularly for drilling and production of oil and gas. The safety aspect of helicopter flying for our operations is of paramount importance to us. We give maximum
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importance to safety of operations. In fact we have already introduced AS4 policy. It is based on the inputs received from RWSI and all the persons operating helicopters. We have tried to standardize our helipads as per the recommendations by RWSI. We have been doing safety audits every three years. We will again do it after some time. We have made a state of the art heli-base now with elevated tarmac to take care of the flying during heavy rain. We are very thankful to the Airports Authority of India for providing us the best of support at all times of need particularly in ATC operations. We have regular interactions with DGCA who guide us on the importance of the operations and all the norms for helicopters particularly with reference to pilots, who always face some problems here and there. Since our benchmarking and DGCA benchmarking are separate, I think we need to have a dialogue. Theme of the seminar today is very important for everybody in general and to us in particular. The agenda itself is quite interesting. It is very sad that such a helicopter safety seminar is being held after three years. We request AVM Sridharan to have it if not half yearly at least on a yearly basis since such things give us a lot of knowledge.• ***
Heli Ops (Offshore) - Safety Management & Safety Devices by Mr. Joe Gross, British Gas My whole background and my passion in aviation has been in the offshore business. Over the years we have seen a definite increase in the safety capabilities of offshore flying. Way back in early 70s, there were a fewer number of pilots and very little controls in the aircraft. Sophistication, electronics and the technology in those days was not what it is today. We have worked very hard in the oil and gas industry through an organization called the OGPOil and Gas Producer Forum. In that forum there is an aviation safety subcommittee in which we are very active in participation. As brought out today with regards to IHST, we try to attain the same level of goals and we do see a number of accidents. I can tell you that members of the OGP aviation safety committee, who actually put in place the guidelines that are produced by the committee, have an even lower accident rate than what is the norm within not only the industry but the offshore oil industry. We are very proud of that. What I hope is that what we are going to do today is to continue the discussion about safety and the pursuit to improve safety within the offshore business. It was said that there are a number of causes for accidents, one of which is loss of control. Within OGP aviation committee we focussed on that considerably. One of the causes for the loss of control is that the pilot is not following procedures. That is a definite issue that we must contend with. It is compounded and exacerbated a little with new generation automation that we have, which was also brought up by the panel. Sometimes too much information is information over load and it is hard to interpret in a short period of time. Unfortunately in our business, where we fly and how we fly, we don’t have time in a helicopter to recover from anything
that goes wrong such as you do in an airline flying at 30,000 ft. The action time has to be much quicker. Procedures are critical and understanding the information that we are looking at is even more vital. How do we do that? Training, Training and Training! I can’t emphasise that enough. We have tools today that allow us to do better training such as the quality of simulators that we have today, far better than we ever had certainly when I started flying in the commercial field. Another issue is that we are going to have a shortage of pilots, as we keep moving in this industry. We have to come to terms with that and learn how to train a pilot in quick time. One of the other issues that help us in looking at how we align procedures is a new technology that has been more recently introduced in the helicopter industry. It is flight data monitoring or FOQA or HAMP or whatever other acronym you choose to use, ‘big brother in the cockpit’. It has proven time and again to be clearly beneficial to help us understand what is going on inside the cockpit. We have HAMP to tell us what’s mechanically going on. Now we should have FOQA or flight data monitoring to tell us how the aircraft is actually being flown. At the end of the day there was mention of CAP 11 45. That is a big feature. UKCAA has taken accidents that have recently occurred in UK very seriously and has imposed a few instructions that at this point are meaningful only to the UK North Sea sector. However there are several items that will actually be enforced worldwide. We just saw the very first one implemented on September 1, which is the use of pressurised rebreathing systems in the North Sea. Come April of 2015, they are going to start dealing with Bahrisais. I am not happy about that one but it is of how I can get out of emergency exit. I have to prove that I can do that with everything that I have on me to get out. All I want to say is that we have a great industry here. We need to continue to move it forward and upward and produce the safest operation we possibly can. It requires support of everyone. It isn’t just the OEMs. It isn’t just the operators. It is not just the end users. It is everyone and the synergy that we have together that will make us a better industry.• ** *
Case Studies of Offshore Accidents & Mitigation Strategies by Captain Sanjay Mittal Secy, RWSI (WR) I have been asked specially to carry out case studies of offshore helicopter accidents, draw lessons from them and provide some mitigation strategies. On the face of it, the topic is very straightforward and simple. However when I went to the net to access what is of interest to us in our area of operation and draw some lessons from that, I felt that it will be more appropriate if I extend the topic to include incidents as well. Background information of the three occurrences that I have chosen involves S92, AS 332 Super Puma and EC155. All the helicopters are of different category. As is common in the helicopter sector, helicopters being used are medium or medium heavy helicopters. Sikorsky was involved in serious accident, super Puma in an accident which had four fatalities and EC155 is another serious incident. They have taken place between North Sea and Canada. I had taken
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Special Report accident and incidents only in the last three years. The report of the Sikorsky incident though took place in July 11, has come out only last year. And the other two occurrences have been last year itself. Most of these are relevant and very much applicable to our scenario. Two of these accidents occurred during night and one during day. Two of them have been during takeoff and one during approach. This is the time of the flight when the activity is heavy in the cockpit. Looking at the weather, here we probably have the first commonality. The visibility probably was good in all three cases 6000m, 2800m and 3000m but the cloud base in all the three cases had been quite low. In the first case 200 ft, second case scattered and broken cloud, layers at 200-300 ft and in third case 400 ft cloud base. Visibility was reasonably okay but cloud base has been quite low. All the three helicopters were modern helicopters, technologically advanced, all of them had glass cockpit with four axis autopilot and dual FD. We expect that these helicopters being modern day and advanced technologies and probably moving ahead but still there is a commonality and something that we need to learn from this. I will go in detail only in one accident which is S92 which occurred off the coast of Canada. The helicopter departed the Sea Rose floating vessel. Sea Rose floating vessel was 200 NM of the east coast of Canada that is New Foundland jutting into the sea. It has taken off from there and after taking off as per company procedures, they have engaged the go around button. After engaging the go-around the helicopter’s pitch increased to approximately 23° nose-up, while it entered in IMC. Visibility was 6000m but cloud base was 200 ft. There was a rapid loss of airspeed. After reaching a maximum altitude of 541 feet AMSL, the helicopter began descending towards the water in a nose-high attitude at low IAS. The descent was arrested 38 feet above the surface of the water. After a brief hover when the pilot stabilized, he went around and flew back to the coast of New Foundland without any further incident or problem. However during the recovery which was at 38 ft, the transmission limits were exceeded. There was no damage to the helicopter and there were no injuries. Throughout this particular incident we find that there has been no malfunctioning of any kind, no problem from the aircraft point of view, no degradation or procedures. However still they got into a position where they came to 38 ft over the water and had to exceed the transmission limits to recover the helicopter and fly back to Canada. This is a big heavy helicopter. This is graphical presentation of the flight path of the helicopter which took place. Starting off from the extreme left when the helicopter is on deck as Sea rose FPSO, from here he has taken off and finally recovered once again 38 ft above the sea level where he got just power transition once again and gradual rate of flying. From totally safe position where he was on the heli deck he has got himself into a position where he has come down to 38 ft over the water and then recovered and flown off. This whole event has taken a little more than 51 seconds. From the sea Rose FPSO it has been a normal CAT A class 1 take off. It was a heavy helicopter. As per company procedures after having done take off checks and having passed 55 knots, it has engaged the go around button but the nose continued to pitch up. It has pitched up to the extent that at some stage, speed washed off. We are all aware that all the auto pilots have speed below which they automatically disengage. So the speed has dropped below 15 knots and autopilot has disengaged. The helicopter continues to gain height but thereafter because it was
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National Seminar gaining height the speed washed off and helicopter began to sink. Being an advance helicopter with modern technology it has also toss on board which began giving warning for the sink that was taking place. It began sinking at a very fast rate to the extent that they had a rate of descent of over 1000 ft. The speed dropped to 28 knots and rate of descent went up to 1875 feet. It continued that way till he broke clouds at 200 ft. The co pilot was also pointing out to him that they have a very high rate of descent and on seeing the water rushing up they applied engine torque. Torque of 84%. It washed off to 52% and thereafter once he broke clouds at an altitude of 152 ft, they saw the approaching sea surface and increased the collective to maximum of 130%. That is when they exceeded the transmission limits. Low RPM has also come on, when the speed is dropped to below 90% rotor RPM. The low rotor RPM light came on initially, they lowered the collective, recovered the rotor RPM and thereafter continued with the take off after stabilising for five seconds of hover and recovered back to altitude. That was the sequence of events of the incident. The whole sequence took just about 51 seconds. I will go through the events as was viewed by the pilot sitting in the cockpit. They carried out CAT A heli-deck take off trans one profile as required by the procedures of the CA. while carrying out the manoeuvre the pilot has pressed FT release button. Most of us in helicopters use FT release button to carry out manoeuvres when you are carrying out more manoeuvres. You can use the trim. The Chinese had to trim small pressures or when the large pressures are involved most of us use the forced trim to release. For the takeoff he has used the FT to make the attitude changes by lowering the nose and thereafter even raising the nose. At 200 ft he had entered the clouds and as per company procedures they have engaged the Go Around button. But when he engaged the go around button the helicopter was not in a stabilized pitch attitude. While he released the FT button and press the go around himself, the captain of the aircraft did the flying while the co pilot was on pilot monitoring. He had pressed the Go Around button the pitch had continued to increase. The pitch was not stabilized. As the pitch kept on increasing the speed has to drop. There was a caution by the co-pilot and even he realized that the speed has dropped below 80 Knots B speed. When the speed dropped the captain once again tried to press the forced trim and raised the attitude. In these aircrafts when you press the forced trim again, the speed bug will reset to where it was when the forced trim was pressed. Speed bug is reset from 80 to 54. That was the time when he had to press the button. But still the attitude was high so speed dropped below 50 knots, which was the flight director minimum speed. Once the speed dropped below 50 the aircraft had to again sink. The helicopter began sinking nose up. The Taws warning came on. The copilot cautioned the captain of the high sink rate. The low speeds and the deviation from the expected profile. They broke cloud at 200 ft, which is when they realized how far they were sinking towards the ground. They came up on the collective TQ 130%, the low rotor RPM came on, the lower collective again to recover the RPM. The RPM was 205. They came to hover at 38’ and then they went round once again pressing the go around button but this time in a stabilized state. Climate was safe and recovering back to base. Here was an aircraft, which was totally serviceable, totally in fly worthy condition with no malfunction. Visibility was good, cloud base was low but still they got no position where they nearly had an accident and which
Special Report could have been a catastrophic accident. The single cause would have been the cockpit automation which was there and of course coupled with procedures. Automation - initially we started with T instruments, analogue instruments with no stabilisation, basic stabilisation. All the flying was done manually. Thereafter with the advancement of technology we got into three-axis analogue autopilot, which could be coupled to the flight director and finally these days you got four-axis digital autopilot. Most of the advanced helicopters have four-axis digital autopilot, which can be coupled to the FMS via VNAV or LNAV. We have glass cockpit where instead of conventional analogue displays you have glass display. Even the engines can be controlled by autopilot itself. So you have virtually hands free flying environment which is quite similar to what is being done in the fixed wing and trans-oceanic flights. The automation when it came into flying and introduced into the cockpit, was a boon and we considered it as a biggest and most importance advancement in aviation technology. The aim was to free up pilot from the rudimentary job of flying and taking on other advanced thought levels and processes. It was expected that he will be able to now get a better holistic situational environment because he is not busy in just flying the helicopter. That is right, but if it is not used correctly and not trained for, it is possible that the whole process turns against you. Instead of being a friend it could become a foe. A lot of companies are advocating in the procedures that they must use automation as early as possible in the flight during take-off. Like in this case we found Go Around button engagement very soon after take-off was a company policy. The basic aim is that it becomes safer to fly and also it becomes smoother for the passengers sitting in the back. Companies do advocate and say that you must use automation as early as possible. However if that does happen then you find that the pilot himself at times becomes complacent and he instead of becoming better in situational awareness, gets degraded situational awareness because he is now getting withdrawn from the cockpit. He has loss of perceived authority, control of the aircraft and his own manual proficiency of flying helicopter decreases because he is not flying hands on. He is using the automation. When the pilot is flying manually he is virtually looking at the instruments and taking all the inputs from there to be able to give back input into helicopter to fly the profile that he wants. But the moment he puts on to autopilot or four axis fully control autopilot then he is not taking an input at the rate which should be taken in because it is being done on his own. He is doing a cursory glance here and there. He is not gathering information normally required when manually flying a helicopter, pilots can easily find themselves out-of-the loop. In this situation if you have an emergency it is possible that the pilot is not totally in consonance of what is happening in the cockpit. In addition to this vis-a-vis earlier when we had analogue cockpit, now the glass cockpits have so much information on the display itself and the information which is there on the display also gets recorded. There are also various trim functions. Like in case if auto pilot was engaged the pilot presses forced trim button, his references will shift. The reference of the AIS shifted from the VY of 80 Knots down to 54 which was the actual IS when he pressed the button. Even the functions of the various buttons on his stick and rudder keep on changing and they have very high level of automation built in, which automatically shifts the parameters of the cockpit. The pilot may require extra time when emergency takes place to come back to cockpit and assess it. Looking at the requirement of
National Seminar automated cockpit, it is important that when the changes are being made from analogue to a digital cockpit we have to understand the requirement of the pilot. I have chosen this topic because our country itself has introduced aircraft which have full automation and I see in the auto sector at least more and more helicopters will move towards a point where we are going to have fully automated cockpit. Therefore it is important for our pilots to learn from mistakes that have taken place in the western world and be able to adapt our own pilots and own crew and our own procedures and our own model what is happening in the companies, keeping in mind what we have learnt from west. It is necessary that the piloting skills, when converting from flying with basic instruments and stabilisation, to managing the on-board systems, has to be fully recognised and implemented. There is a big difference in the old system and advanced one. When you actually use automated cockpit offshore there is a big difference and more so when you are going to use it in weather or emergency. There was ample evidence that the necessity for managed transition had not been understood. Managed transition from an analogue cockpit to digital cockpit has not been understood by regulators or operators or put in place in the changing scenario. This I am taking out from the reports given in the West. Also they found that similar things have happened earlier also, when fixed wing shifted from analogue to digital but even then the pilots over there did not adapt themselves and understand them. They have already made a mistake. We should learn from them. While talking about the occurrences, the second one was an accident, which took place last year in North Sea, where there was four fatalities. That accident to my understanding was a watershed accident because consequent to that UKC had ordered a study to be carried out towards safety of helicopter operations off shore. A very detailed study was carried out and the report was published in February and it has come out as a CAP 1145, which is a 300 page document that has recommended 32 action points and 29 recommendations towards safety procedures. There is a given time line to be implemented in the North Sea. This is the strategy that North Sea is following. I am sure the OGP and world over and even our environment is going to shift towards the recommendations given by this CAP 1145. We need to look at and adapt in our own environment. However this particular study did not take into consideration the cockpit automation. So subsequently the Royal Aeronautical Society held a landmark conference at London on 3-4 July 14 in which they talked about only Automation in Helicopter Operations. In the two-day conference they discussed automation in cockpit in helicopters in offshore operations. Most of what I have said has been taken out form this study. The key points mentioned were: - examine key technology. - discuss the modern cockpit and be very clear about the changes and implementation over there. - operational procedures are very important because automation is all about procedures. If we have automation you have to follow very strict procedures. - training and competency levels for automation requires attention to assure proper conversion. The experience of the airlines in adopting and adapting to automation is germane to the effective and safe use of automation in helicopters. This was once again emphasized in this conference. Why not we adapt and
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learn from what happened in the western world? Technology is good. It’s a big friend like we said technology in the cockpit to release pilot and make him more situational awareness. However because of technology we shouldn’t become less aware of what is happening around us, as we will lose the connection with the actual real world in which we are flying. It is important how we use it. Once again the emphasis is that automation is all about procedures. One must look at procedures, which are required while converting and also related to specific companies. It is very important that both the pilots in the cockpit have a fixed and standardize company procedures on how to use automation and how to do call outs, where to look and where to respond.• ***
Safety Enhancement Initiatives by Air Cmde SA Kunte, Dy Chief Test Pilot (RW), HAL Flight safety for normal operators is of the concern that day to day operations of the operator must go on safely. But as a manufacturer, flight safety connotations are slightly different. It is not only to ensure that our day to day test flying goes through safely but we also have an obligation towards the operator. The technical problems and other problems posed by operators are all potential flight safety situations and therefore we need to address them. In addition if we can address certain problems at the design stage itself, then those potential flight safety situations are not faced by the operators and that is an added bonus. Flight testing is risky. How do we mitigate the risk? It is a two pronged approach. First is every aspect of testing is done step by step, stage by stage manner. Second aspect is the methodology that is used to conduct flight testing. Different groups, different expertise, different experiences come together and join hands. Of course at every stage we discuss, we counter check and we proceed. First of all let’s talk about step by step approach. Every component in a helicopter is first subjected to a lot of theoretical tests. We theoretically analyse the load the component is likely to face. Stress analysis is then done. All the studies are done and predictions are made as to what other failure loads that the component can face. Thereafter every component is subjected to load tests. In this we have component tests in which the component is subjected to load until the component actually breaks. Different components are subjected to the tension loads or torsion loads or compressor loads. So depending upon what loads it will face we have to make sure whether the component is actually subjected to those loads for the number of cycles which are absolutely as per sine curve. Thereafter whole set of components are tested together, example - whirl tower in which blades, hinges and control linkages you test the entire rotor in the whirl tower test. After this is done, all components are put together in what is known as ground test vehicle where the actual helicopter with all systems in place except that it is grouted to the ground. It is grouted to the ground so that all components can be tested up to maximum possible load for prolonged duration and you check cumulative effect of fatigue on various components.
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Example is in the forthcoming light utility helicopter, we have planned approx 100 hrs of ground vehicle test before we go to actual flying. After you do all these tests then you come to first prototype. This prototype is extensively instrumented to measure all kind of parameters, primary emphasis being on various loads and various temperatures. All these parameters are recorded. They are also transmitted through telemetry to the flight test centre where they are monitored live by the designers. Also we at times have additional instruments for the crew, typically being the control position indicators and size of indicators so that crew at all times is aware as to whether they are reaching any of the control limits or not. Thereafter before we actually begin the first flight we have the same aircraft being tested to chaining the ground. The entire aircraft is chained to the ground and now you come up upon the power and other various systems are checked under load before we actually take on to the first flight. It is only after this that the first flight takes off and the expansion of the aircraft envelope begins. In the first few flights, loads and temperatures are most important parameters that are monitored and live monitoring is done and advices given to the crew if any of the parameters reaches its limits. The number of loads and parameters which are being monitored can go up to 100s. It is not possible to monitor by the air crew. So designers sitting in the flight test centre monitor and caution the crew. Example is the LCH bay temperature where in one of the areas it was going high beyond a certain speed and therefore whenever the temperature used to go beyond limits, designer needs to call crew on RT and the mission is to be abandoned. Solution was finally found. In such situations when certain parameters are critical and it needs to be monitored, you also ferry the aircraft for certain trials like LCH was ferried for sea level trials. How do you monitor parameters in case of a critical parameter when telemetry is not available? In this particular instance, a special gauge was installed in the cockpit to indicate this particular bay temperature to the crew so that crew could monitor it all times. Like I said entire envelope extension in terms of altitude, speed, weight or mid limits is gone about in a very gradual manner. Two other things which are now introduced in HLR for all flight tests that are conducted above an altitude of 3 kms is that we carry parachutes. It is very cumbersome along with the oxygen mask and all that. But it is a necessity. We always carry parachutes when you are flying above 3 kms. Also in the last 2 years, HAL has increased the intake of test pilots as well as test engineers because of which specific test crew are designated for specific projects. This ensures that those test crew are aware of all details, the entire history, the technical background and everything related to the projects so that they are able to tackle those situations in the best possible manner in case of unforeseen circumstances. We generate a master document for that phase of testing. Based on that, the test pilot and the test crew give out a detailed test order for different phases of flight. This test order contains details of the exact sequence of what is going to be conducted and in what time. It also lays down as to when you are going to exceed approach limits and emergency actions to be taken in different cases which can be quite different from the normal emergency actions. It is only after all this is done that you get the program case clearance. The aircraft serviceability in terms of minus snags and in terms of readiness for flying is done by the CRI/DGCA. After this is done we have detailed flight briefing which is attended by host of people that include designers, reps from DGCA/DGAQA, ground
Special Report coordinating staff if any and the flight test crew. After that we take off. The flight is monitored in real time by the designers in the flight test centre. This is followed by post flight debrief which is attended by the same set of people who attended the pre flight briefing. After this we write the post flight report by the pilot. The data which is recorded by the flight test engineer is correlated with that which has been recorded in the flight test centre and a detailed report is given by the designers. Despite this well laid down procedure, mistakes do happen and we have lessons to learn from that. Case in example is the LCH during 2010 Airshow. Now in the LCH, the gear box is attached to the airframe through four Torque plates. These torque plates are attached with two bolts on either side. Attaching the torque plates with two bolts on either side of the airframe is very cumbersome and the alignment procedure is very difficult. Designers say that why not change it to one bolt attachment. Theoretical study was done and ground tests were being undertaken. But at the same time the AeroIndia 2010 was coming closer. Designers based on their experience on the ALH were confident that the one bolt system would take the load. So flight clearance was obtained for fitment of one bolt on the top. In the first flight itself during the first pull up manoeuvre, the crew heard an unusual sound. All indicated parameters were absolutely normal. Telemetry parameters were normal but the crew followed the golden rule and that in case of any abnormality in test flying irrespective of all being normal, you come back and land. So they landed back. Sure enough the torque plates were not cracked which was also subsequently proved by the ground test. The point is never take a short cut in well laid out procedures. The test crew is the last hole in the whole alignment theory of accidents. They have to be on the ball and they have to put their foot down at the right time. Some of the measures that are in HAL to enhance flight safety: Here we have the System Safety Cell (SSC), which has been constituted at a complex level for catering to flight safety occurrences of HAL operated helicopters. This also functions as a standing committee for investigation of flying incidents of HAL operated helicopters and analyses significant flight and ground snags occurring in flight/ hangar. They also help in establishing cause of failure and recommend suitable remedial measures. For accidents, SSC supports the investigating agency, DGCA for civil and Cemilac for military in tandem with designers and manufacturers. Preservation of important evidence in case of accidents is done by them. In addition, we have a failure review board which is convened by Chief of Airworthiness to investigate reportable and non-reportable occurrences. Its recommendations are typically in terms of either immediate or combination of immediate, short term, long term measures and the outcome is in the form of manual amendments, modifications or additional inspections. We have an obligation to the operators. Every problem which is posed by the operator has a potential flight safety hazard. How do you address that? Investigation approach is as under: The operator’s report comes to the customer service department in the helicopter division. Thereafter it goes to the Chief of Airworthiness and RWRDC. The preliminary analysis is done by the design and Airworthiness department and is then sent as an initial report to the DGCA. If at this stage we have a solution available or there is a remedy available, the implementation is immediately done. Otherwise we go through the same failure review board, initial release of report and develop corrective actions. Finally these are released in the form of special bulletins, modifications or manual amendments.
National Seminar Intervention at design stage: How intervention at the design stage helps ensure that operators don’t face problems? First is the example of the inlet guide vane control. Only inlet guide vane control was with the help of engine oil pressure. In one of the tests there was a negative manoeuvre and the engine oil pressure dropped. This restricted the movement of the inlet guide vanes leading to a surge of the engine and the engine was switched off. We changed the control mechanism of the inlet guidelines from the oil pressure base system to the fuel pressure base system, because fuel pressure is always positive. So now we don’t have this particular problem. Second example is the engine failure indication. If the indication was TGT based only, during test it was observed that in some cases there was a slight delay in the indication which could be critical to the operators in certain conditions of flight. So the indication was changed from TGT based to complex rule based on NG as well as NF based. Next is change in training – IFR flying. We realised that initial training of 10 hrs on LCH is too less specially for pilots of ALH since they were from the military background and they have very little experience on IFR. Now we have enhanced the training to 15 hrs with more emphasis on the simulator and more emphasis on training the pilots to exploit the auto pilot to its fullest. Cross feed problem – In one of the instances, switching off cross feed resulted in switching off the engine. Reason was that the connectors for the cross feed and LP cock were very similar. Length of the cross feed cable was sufficient to reach the LP cock lever. It could be incorrectly fitted. So at design stage itself they blocked the connectors so that you cannot connect one connector to the other and the length of the cable is also short. This cable does not reach the LP cock connector. Thus we avoid incorrect connection. Cockpit changes - from ALH to LCH. LCH is a tandem seat helicopter. In side by side seating each crew can monitor the position which is selected by the other pilots. In tandem seat you cannot do that. It increases the workload on pilots to ensure that switch positions are correct. To reduce the workload, the electric panel switches in the LCH have been simplified as compared to the ALH. If you see the flow control panel, all switches in the aisle for the fuel system are similar. This has been changed in LCH. Now similar group switches look alike with similar visual references. It is easy for the pilot in one glance to see which switch is on and which is off. Switch for disengaging autopilot. It was found that the autopilot disengage switch is on the cyclic. It was very easy to operate it inadvertently. We put a guard in red colour. Despite this we find that there is still a tendency to disengage the autopilot inadvertently. Further design changes are being made to change the length of the switch so that it requires a positive effort to disengage the auto pilot. To conclude, as a manufacturer of aircraft, our responsibilities are much more than just day to day safe test flying. As test flying is prone to high risks, well established procedures are made to make it safe. Lessons to be learnt are that there should be no shortcuts or compromises in well laid out procedures. We have set procedures at HAL to address flight safety/ other issues brought out by users. We must make attempts to intervene at the design stage itself so that potential flight safety problems are not faced by the operators.• ** *
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Special Report Safety Enhancement Initiatives by Wg Cdr. BS Singh Deo VM (Retd.) MD, Bell Helicopter India and Vice President RWSI Nearly 100 years ago a sea going captain made a statement in a seminar, “I have always sailed very safely. I never faced a storm. I am always okay. No incidents, nothing to talk about”. This was considered as safety those days. That you go out on an expedition whether it is by ship or whatever and you come back happy that you returned. Then what happened? This person happened to take over the command of the Titanic. It was then that he understood that is not what safety was. In fact Titanic didn’t have sufficient number of life boats because the owners thought that if you put too many life boats, people will think oh my God, the ship is going to sink or what. Commercial considerations were more important. Incidentally they had 20 life boats when the rule required only 16. Rules always take time to change. Therefore with technology coming up you can’t always say that I have met the minimum required regulations and therefore that is enough. No, that is not enough. These were learnt over a period of time. Then the question came that for safety how to spend. Why are we spending? As of now, a lot of people have done research on it. Since 2005, in fact health and safety issues are compared with investment and return issues. It has been found that actually the financial management system is very similar to the safety management system. While we launched this initiative in 2006, we wanted to monitor our accident rates and whether they are coming down. The Flight Safety Foundation, a professional organization, commented in one of their magazines that IHST has been bringing down accidents. But that was about half way through. What happened after that? If you look at the world wide scenario, accident rate came down a bit but thereafter they have remained a little constant. The Indian scenario, unfortunately, has been fluctuating. No particular pattern is being seen. But worldwide efforts are going on. The Indian scenario is that we analysed 55 civil helicopter accidents. We found 10 out of that because of CFIT. We realised that a lot of them were because of loss of situational awareness and I want to focus more on CFIT. What is CFIT- Control Flight into Terrain? CFIT occurs when an airworthy aircraft in the control of the pilot is inadvertently flown into a terrain, water or an obstacle with inadequate awareness on the part of the pilot of the impending disaster. It is where a pilot requires navigational system help. Much has been talked about pilot error. We talk about the human factor that leads to pilot error. As aircraft became more reliable and less prone to mechanical failures, the percentage of accidents related to human factors increased. Humans account for 74% of all rotary wing accidents. CFIT accident necessarily implies that the crew busted the altitude. That means they came to a height where they are not supposed to be and that either they did so intentionally or they lost situational awareness. We had to focus our attention to make the pilot avoid flying at an altitude where he is not supposed to. Why would highly experienced pilots forget to perform routine tasks? It has happened to all of us whether it is the pilot 34
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National Seminar or maintenance crew. Is it carelessness? It is that he is overwhelmed by the workload, lack of skill or proficiency or are there any other issues. National Aeronautics and Space Administration Study laid out rules as to what are the limits of expertise. There are task demands and equipment features. There are events that are happening. There are organizational factors. They all affect the human cognitive process. How can personality affect mechanics and pilots? Here is a picture of the Space shuttle Challenger in January 1986. If you remember on the lift off, something went wrong. The entire space shuttle had exploded and it was lost. Several lives were lost. Again refer to space shuttle Columbia. 17 years later, during re-entry into the earth’s atmosphere, it was lost. In Columbia space shuttle accident, there was a small heat shield panel near the nose of the space shuttle. During lift off, this little panel separated and hit the leading edge of the wing. This was captured in the camera. That little damage, small nick on the leading edge of the wing is what caused the accident. In the re-entry at a very high temperature the heat actually entered the space craft and it failed completely. A study of the first Challenger investigation brought out that well intentioned people and high risk organizations can become desensitized to levitations from the norm. So a new term was also understood ‘Normalisation of deviance’. That means the unexpected thing becomes expected and then it becomes accepted. You jump a red light one day. You jump it again some other day and then you think it is okay. That is how habits creep in. Then you stop thinking that there is something wrong in it. There is a lot to do in the way you think and in your work culture that dictates such activities. Deliberate action is required to improve our work culture and that is how safety will improve. Most common factors that determine a pilot situational awareness are that there in informational influences, environment organization, personal influences and they affect our crew actions. How do we prevent them these influences which lead to CFIT? One is equipment. The other is training and education. It is very important. About equipments, we leave it to the manufacturers to come up with improvements. A lot of new gadgets are coming up for giving you situational awareness like GPS, having ground proximity warning system and terrain awareness and warning system TAWSS. For helicopters, we will call it H-TAWSS. Earlier GPWS gave you full 60 seconds warning before you came close to hazardous terrain. In poor visibility it is very helpful. Operators think that up gradation to a modern fleet will probably reduce accidents. I do agree with it because modern fleets have more design features which are based on safety. Operators expect manufacturers to design safer helicopters. Safety related equipments are being marketed more than ever before. In IHST we realised that we need innovation at all levels. Our sister affiliate society in Brazil, they used to fly offshore from Sao Paulo to the east on to the oil rigs and return after several hours. Before returning, the weather pattern would have changed on the coast line and they would very much like to know the current status of weather. One pilot got a great idea. He said let’s go and put a web cam wherever we can. They bought some webcams and they went from door to door in the people’s flats. They said that would you mind if your computer is on 24 hrs. We will fix this web cam on your window and just connect it. So there were 89 people who said ok. So, 89 web cams were put up. The pilots would fly off shore. When they have break in the oilrigs for 2-3 hours, they would go to the internet, hook on to that web cam and see the weather. This idea has caught on all over. It is just an innovation at the grass root level. There is a website cams collection where you can go and see. As of now, there are
Special Report 3400 web cams in Switzerland and neighbouring countries. You can hook on and see the weather because we helicopters pilots fly low and slow. And we are going to see the weather. Just fax or print out is not adequate. To sum up, modern helicopter design must make helicopter safer. Training is very important. Finally focus on the cultural shift towards safety. It is everything. We must aim for zero tolerance to any deviation. In Bell Helicopter we are designing a futuristic helicopter which has not flown yet. May be in 3-4 months it will be on the first flight. We have incorporated a lot of things about safety in it. We called people from all over the world. We had lots of interaction. We got ideas from grass roots and incorporated many safety things in it. One of them is MSG 3Maintenance Service Group -3. This group made maintenance procedures which are now accepted by the regulatory authorities. Airlines follow it but in general aviation nobody follows it. In Bell we do everything as per MSG 3. Amongst many things one of the features is error proofing. Maintenance activities are so planned that an engineer who is doing maintenance will not commit an error. The Bell 525 is the one that is the futuristic helicopter. It has got seating in such a way that it will meet the OGP requirement of the future that is no passenger is more than one seat away from the emergency doors. Passenger step is there because oilrig passengers would like to rush in and rush out. So there is a step for them and angle of the step is such that their boots won’t slip. The cockpit is flyby-wire. It is the first helicopter which is on fly-by-wire technology. All the lessons learnt from the past have been incorporated. Each side joystick is not independent. They are interlinked. There is no question of one pilot not knowing what the other pilot is doing. It has got intuitive pilot vehicle interface. That means if you are flying in a straight and level flight, the computer knows what you are doing. If you want to reduce speed, pull the cyclic back. The aircraft won’t climb. Just the speed will come down. When you come to limits of power, you will feel resistance on the collective. This is all computed and set so that you don’t have to look out at your gauges when you are doing critical manoeuvres. When you are on approach, at about 10 knots, leave the controls. The helicopter will automatically come to hover. There are a lots and lots of safety features. This is a table showing NBASA report and first International Helicopter Safety Team meeting in 2005, where the causes of various accidents causing human factors were actually defined. This aircraft is designed to meet those requirements. Once again in case of a single engine we have talked a lot. This aircraft will have a single vertical profile. If you are taking off and an engine fails, leave the controls. The aircraft knows where it took off from and it will just go back and land on its own. Maintenance steps are there. All these things have been taken into account. I will tell you about two initiatives of HAI. This is what Wilber Wright said in 1901. HAI is our affiliate society. Two years ago they started the initiative called ‘Land and Live.’ If you have a bad weather somewhere, don’t wait. Frank Robinson, the famous aircraft manufacturer chided his son one day because his son said “I got lost and then I had just 10 minutes to go and land when my fuel warning came on. But that is okay I had ample fuel.” He said why did you do that? That low fuel warning light is not telling you that fuel is low, it is commanding you to land and live. This year HAI started a new initiative ‘Shut up and Listen’. In the cockpit we are trying to be very decent with each other. So if somebody is talking something, will you please do this for me? The other pilot will not wait for you to complete the command. He wants to oblige you. So he starts acting immediately. So let one person talk, listen to him,
National Seminar whether it is in maintenance or in piloting. Let the message be complete and then only react. These are the two main cultural issues which we must imbibe to change our culture towards safety. • ** *
Shri Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Hon’ble Member of Parliament (Lok Sahba) Ten days ago, I flew in a helicopter which under IFR rules climbed to 8000 ft. It was going to Pune. When we entered the cloud, I was sitting behind. The captains did not know that I knew flying. I just picked up the headsets. I was very happy that both were very senior captains. Later I learned that one of them happened to fly with my brother as well in the Air Force. The helicopter was flying in IFR. Unlike a fixed wing where you are going straight, at least you know you are stable at 29,000 ft or 30,000 ft and above. Here I was at 8000 ft. I could hear Mumbai Radar speaking out everything. We were in an envelope of clouds for good 10 minutes. It was just like a ball floating on a cushion of clouds. It was a scary feeling though here the GPS and radars were on. The pilot was in touch with Mumbai the radar controller. I had never seen a helicopter fly in IFR. When the helicopter came in for landing in Pune, it was a private property of someone and he was talking about the glide slope. He said that we had locked on the glide slope. I was wondering where is the ILS? Actually it was GPS, GNSS RN procedures. This opened my eyes to this kind of aviation with helicopter pilots. I have an experience of knowing almost all the politicians who are not with us, who died in a helicopter crash. I believe something very extraordinary happened there. Naturally after that it was decided that you have to remove the controls on the side of the front passenger. I was hearing about helicopter operations. How they take place and how ATC controllers treat them as fixed wings. I hear them over the RT when they have to cross the runway 27 or 28. When they ask to come and land near the hanger, they are told to hold back some 20-30 miles away. Still there is no one who has done enough homework on how helicopter operations are different. In aviation, I can tell you a few things. I know how it works. Whatever a politician may say there is much more to learn in aviation. It cannot happen simply through files. I look back at 2003 when I was the minister. I really couldn’t touch the subject of helicopters. I did take up the issues as far as general aviation was concerned and scheduled airlines were concerned. I know that it made a lot of difference working at the policy level. I will just list down a few things which gave a flip to aviation in this country. Many people may not remember but I was the architect of a couple of decisions which completely changed the face of Indian aviation. Today the whole aviation scenario has changed because in 2003 we were the first to give license to low cost airlines. Secondly we were the first to ensure that people may see the greenfield projects and brownfield projects in Mumbai and Delhi. We were signatory to the brownfield projects in Mumbai and Delhi when we amended the Airports Authority Act to have private people build and operate the two greenfield projects in Shamshabad, Hyderabad and Devanhalli, Bengaluru. I still recall that the first time aviation fuel prices were brought down, it was through an executive
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order. We brought down the excise duty on ATF from 16% to 8%. That was done in 2003. Jaswant Singh was the Finance Minister. I revised the charter policy. The number of charters coming into this country in 2002-03 was 70. Now we are touching more than 2,500 charters. There are many more things which gave complete change to the civil aviation sector. I even worked at flexi air space. Of course as it happens, no one wants to give away their domain. Today I feel that you have to follow a zig zag flight plan if you have to go from here to Ranchi or Patna. This is because you have to cross the Air Force air space though they may not be using (L to R) Capt JK Mishra, PHL; Col. DS Ranade, Chief Pilot Bharat Forge Ltd & GC Member RWSI; it. There are many more issues which could Mr. Ravi Menon, Director, AirWorks India and Captain Sanjay Mittal, Secy RWSI (WR) have been taken up. I am sure in times to come someone will understand all that. One thing I know very well is that it doesn’t work out unless and until there is political intervention. When Technical Session-III Praful Patel was the Minster I emphasised to him and now you hear the Op Bottlenecks & Infrastructure Issues announcement that once you move out from the taxi track you can use your mobile phone. It took me seven years. Thus it takes years for people Case Studies of Onshore in government to understand what actually needs to be done in the interest Accidents by Capt J K Mishra, of helicopters and fixed wing aircraft. This is the actual practice and that Pawan Hans Ltd. is what upsets me. But we still have a mechanism. I think that the RWSI should give me a wish list and there should be a Helicopter accidents in India - I have taken person who can keep in touch with me because I would have a much a slot of about 11 years straight from a DGCA stronger voice than your interaction with some joint DG or additional DG site wherein I have tried to combine the CFITs, who is repository of wisdom and knows everything. If I have a wish list and weather and loss of situational awareness if they have to say ‘no’ to me, they have to have very cogent reasons to say accidents into one which comprise 30%. Most so. That privilege I have, having been associated with aviation with whatever of them are of multi engine and fatal. The understanding of aviation, experience and whatever I may have read. I second largest component is the 24% that is may not be qualified to understand everything about aviation but I am the landing accidents. This is the case study of VT- PHF Mi172 helicopter capable of understanding many issues which possibly would be difficult which was detailed to undertake operations at Tawang on 19th April 19 for any other politician. If I have an opportunity and I have a wish list then 2011. The details of the crew and weather and injury are given. Coming to or what has to be done, we can take it up. the accident - the helicopter took off as per routine at 1258h. The max When you put up a standing committee report, a standing committee AUW for landing at Tawang was 10,020 kg while the actual landing weight report is a recommendatory report. But if an issue is brought to the planned was 11,000kg. The flight was uneventful till they reached consultative committee which is chaired by the Minister and if I flag issues downwind. The pilot did not apply the QNH/OAT reported by Tawang ABCD, they have to come back with a categorical response. They have to helipad and instead considered the Guwahati QNH and OAT from the come back to say that this can be done or this cannot be done. These are aircraft. They applied it and which resulted into they are being shallow the reasons. If I have that answer with me, I would be able to persuade when they rolled out on finals. Control response – aircraft was absolutely them that their reasoning is incoherent or incorrect and I would be able fly worthy. There was no wind shear. Made a shallow approach and to push them. So we have a mechanism, though it is a slow mechanism. If undershot. you have waited for 60 years, you might as well wait for a year or two and They experienced a sink operating at that altitude of 8250 ft. Pilot get things done. We should not give it up. I am sure there are many people raised the collective to move to the deck correction of helipad. Because of who have their associations with officials and the government and they two seconds delay that Mi 172 has in response to the collective, the also come around. I can tell you 100 small examples which actually aircraft could not utilise the collective power that was available. He further happened through persuasion. If I can take up the cause of helicopter raised it. In the meanwhile the front portion came on the helipad. The left operations and of helicopter pilots, I would love to do it.• wheel impacted with the ground. Oleo sheared off and the aircraft rolled. The power which was earlier applied just before out of ground effect had now taken effect and actually helped the dynamic roll over. The factor that ** * led to the accident was that they exceeded max AUW. They did not apply the local QNH. Incorrect approach and landing techniques wherein the
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Special Report pilot came slow, dragging because they knew they were heavily loaded and to avoid last minute pitch up, they ended up little short of the helipad. The helicopter rolled and caused the accident. Further to that, once the helicopter rolled and toppled, the time was not adequate for the crew to switch off the helicopter where in fuel, oil etc was overflowing with the helicopter inverted and that caused the fire. There were not enough fire services available to douse the fire and even the escape door was not opened. That resulted in about 16 people losing their lives. Second case study is about ALH helicopter. Flight worthy helicopter, in marginal weather, took off from Ranchi and crashed 10 miles out of Ranchi within 6 minutes of flying. This aircraft took off as per the original plan. The visibility reported was special VFR condition. The cloud base at the airport was 1500ft. Pilots continued to climb through the clouds to 4600ft and they gave the last report at 3700ft. This was the last communication that was heard. The helicopter was found crashed. This was confirmed by the SP of the district. All occupants died. Sequence of events - The crew experienced master warning coming on for TGB but the light just flickered and went off. They could not determine as to what the light was but they persisted with the sortie and continued to climb through the clouds. The crew experience was very less on the helicopter. The captain had about 294 hrs on ALH with the background of Chetak and Cheetah. The co pilot had only 37 hrs after the initial conversion done by the HAL. So the co pilot was not so familiar with the auto pilot as well as GPS. When they encountered the TGB hot warning light on, they decided to turn back. The co pilot was not too familiar with the GPS. So when the captain told him to feed Ranchi coordinates in order to go there, he fed Kalaikunda VDX by mistake because he was not familiar. Captain got involved with him in order to try and correct the mistake. In the meanwhile, the captain began a manual turn in IMC environment. The pilot eventually put on 30 degree bank in 09 sec. TGB had exceeded to 91% on one/both engines and AWS alarmed for high NR. Due to large bank the aircraft developed roll to left. Pilot tried to reduce the roll rate and bank angle by giving right cyclic along with forward cyclic movement initiating high ROD. To counter the ROD he further came up on power and pulled back on the stick. It was a classic case of lack of situational awareness. The pilot was constantly fighting with controls to stabilize. As per statistics and studies available, a pilot who is not cleared or qualified on instrument flying or is not instrument rated, is likely to lose situational awareness within a span of 30 seconds. Where as a pilot who is instrument rated and IFR environment familiar, would take 45 seconds to change from the visual cues to instruments cues. Eventually the aircraft crashed with high speed of 172 kts and 110 degrees of bank. The helicopter eventually crashed within 32 seconds of initiating a left turn. During this entire process, the situation was that pilots were jostling with controls trying to level out but they could not. The cloud base was 1500. They were around 3700. The CRM was not active between the two. They were still struggling. The viewer was available to them to turn to Ranchi. The force then released was used instead of beeped in which was advisable in the IFR environment but the crew not being proficient in IFR environment and not IR trained, perhaps could not make best use of the auto pilot that existed. The upper modes were not engaged. Once you lose situational awareness with the horns going, the alarms going one after the other. It does clog your mind further. This is what happened with them. They pressed the PDT couple of times to transmit but somehow could not. The PIC resorted to manual flying in IMC, did not use the upper
National Seminar modes. The co pilot was unfamiliar with GPS. Both pilots of old generation single engine and lacked the exposure to modern generation avionics. If you look at the analysis, per 100,000 hrs of flying in helicopters the international rate of accidents is 7.5 where is in airline/fixed wing it is 0.175. Helicopter per se by virtue of its manoeuvrability does pose a problem of utilisation. Each accident is not just due to pilot error, it is regulator, operator, engineer, pilot customers, and perhaps everybody in the chain who has a role to play, did not play up. When we talk of categorising accidents we know with three parts, the regulator, technical failure and operational error. Operation error aspect need to be covered, it could be anything- fuel planning, flight planning or human error, not referring to the manuals, not referring to the guides. The audit team which has worked before did not give the right audit. It may be an eye wash audit. All these factors eventually result into an operational error. When pilot commits an error it is also one of the factor of aeronautical decision making process where in he makes an error for not being able to take the right decision based on the inputs that were available. Whenever accidents are investigated we talk about what happened and not as to why it happened. So a lot of chain links are missing. I went through couple of accidents before I chose these two. There are pages and pages as to why pilot went wrong, what did he do etc. It is wonderful to find out that pilot did go wrong and was not able to handle the situation, but the organization behind that launched the aircraft for commercial operations etc., have a bigger role to play. It has to make sure that the pilot does not make such errors and he is able to take the right decision to prevent such a catastrophe. With every passing day the avionics in the aircraft being upgraded at every possible level we are talking about four axis today when there are three axis helicopters. You need to be a good manager in the cockpit than just being a skilled pilot. When you manage resources in the given time, when you understand the avionics, when you utilise its full potential, perhaps that is where you can use it correctly and safely. Technical failure â&#x20AC;&#x201C; we all know it could be faulty design, inadequate testing, faulty manufacturing, improper use, poor maintenance, inadequate lubrication, improper installations. Various rules and regulations are taken from the fixed wings and given to the helicopters. They have their own limitations. The cost of helicopter operations in India is so high that since 2011 people are selling helicopters out of India than buying helicopters in India. They are unable to sustain. DGCA has come in by trying to protect the pilots when it comes to landing in bad weather etc but still there is enough pressure on the pilot to undertake a mission because of the minister involved, commercial operation etc whereas he is under pressure and he is feeling threatened for the job and he is not willing to take the risk which would keep him out of job which is detrimental to safety. We need to draw lessons from the airlines. The airlines too had accidents in the last 30 years. They have overcome the accident rate in the world, wherein a lot of aspects have been incorporated. These are lessons from airlines to reduce our accidents in helicopters. We get a machine, which can be operated in all possible roles in all possible terrains, in all possible environments. Disciplined take off and landing â&#x20AC;&#x201C; this is my personal observation. As helicopter pilot if you give runway he doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t want to land on runway like our runway. He would like to do same approach like he does on helipad irrespective of the altitude because he is thinking that way to land. It is good to be stabilised approach whether on runway or helipads. There is a concept which is coming of EGPWS installation. There is already an order for ROTOR INDIA - QE 31 December - 2014
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Special Report
National Seminar
utilisation and TAWS or for helicopter H TAWS. We need to have high safety goals when we talk of the risk mitigation strategies wherein the exposure on helicopter would be no more than what a global airline has. We need cooperation from everybody. We need to have cooperation from the regulatory and the best safety records come from those operations where either the regulatory oversight or cooperate care as highest. Cooperate care is extensive but less effective and when the operators serve its customers with different standards which actually happens depending upon the bidding, depending upon the commercial operation and the contract that you go through. You start reducing your factors. The cost is reduced only by reducing people employed, reducing audits etc where in you save the money but at the end of the day the manufacturer, operator, regulator and customers work together to make these risk mitigations effective. To prevent accidents all stake holders must support. The regulators must have a human face. Regulators have a human face but they are not visible during audit or immediately after incident or accident. They have more roles to play like having more interactions, seminars, interactions with various operators on various issues that will help iron out small issues. Cost of helicopter operations must be reduced by removing unwanted over heads. Small operators have bigger problems to deal with because entire marketing and everything is done by just 2-3 people. There are no supervisors involved to prevent any situation that could be avoided before an accident. Operational supervisors are needed to wedge between crew and commercial/management. It s a tough task but it has to be undertaken keeping safety in mind. We must avoid conspiracy of silence, must pick even a pilot who goes through a situation in an environment and comes back does not talk about what happened with him and eventually somebody else buys it up. I was undertaking Kedarnath operations last year wherein helicopters were there. At a time 70 helicopters operating for rescue missions. Here there was no regulation from DGCA to say that the operations of disaster management must be taken like this. We lost an Air force helicopter there. We lost two helicopters- one got washed away and one during the rescue operations. Stress on training of crew technicians and management. Once they are in the management, it is presumed that they know everything and thereafter they guide you, correct you tell you what to do. As pilot you lose that communications with your management when you are unable to put across situation that is at hand. They must be trained. There are no schools that teach management in aviation but I believe there is some course starting up with Amity on aviation. The various operation audits that we do, they should be more realistic in nature and covering aspect so as to plug holes, so as to prevent any incident that is holding to be happened. SOP, Operation manual everything is verbose. Perhaps you cannot undertake operations like that. There have to be more flexibility and realistic manuals. They are not only worth reading but very easy to implement as well. Utilisation of simulators for IFR, emergencies, CRM and ADM, is a very important aspect.â&#x20AC;˘ ***
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Op Bottlenecks & Infrastructure issues impacting Safety by Col Dilip Sharad Ranade (R) Secy RWSI, Pune Chapter First civil helicopter flew in 1953. The number increased to 290 plus helicopters in 2011, and slid back to 260 helicopters as of today. The slide is very steep. We have to do something. How do we do it? How do we make this helicopter fly freely? It is not flying freely. What I feel, it is because of lack of direction in policy framework, infrastructure and sufficient initiatives. Instead of giving out any points, since most of them have been brought out already, I will just give a few examples to highlight my point and in doing so, the aim is not to belittle any person, individual, company, appointment, government or anybody in particular, but just to highlight the point. These examples, I have taken from my own experience or what the other pilots have shared with me. What exactly is the problem with the helicopter industry? I think it is the perspective. There is an urgent need to change the perspective or the way we see it. We see helicopters in a different way. The state of todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s helicopter industry is perceived similar to the story of five blind men. We are seeing the industry in piecemeal. What we need to see is, as whole. Unless and until we see this industry as a whole, we will not be able to solve any of these bottlenecks. The regulator has made policies right from 1937 on all flying machines. However helicopters and helicopter pilots are different. They require different treatment and different rules. What is being said throughout the day that we are following these rules on the fixed wing format? The template is different. As far as the Airports Authority or ATC controllers are concerned, air controllers are doing a good job. But when it comes to a helicopter, to them it is a slow moving irritating traffic and the best way to deal with it, is either to keep it on the ground or keep it 25 miles away. When the sky is clear then call him. This is generally the attitude. You go to an airfield. If your arrival is within 5-7 minutes of the fixed wing, the first thing he will tell you is ok start orbiting, not realising that by the time fixed wing starts its approach, you would have probably landed and cleared the runway. But his perception is that it is a slow moving traffic and best is to keep it away. Most of us still think in this way. This has also been brought out by our member of parliament in his talk, earlier in the day. It is considered more of a luxury transport meant for people in power, authority and business people. This method of transport is not available freely, as the cost of operation of a helicopter is very high. It is unaffordable to most of us. Lack of perception in this regard is the main culprit for the stagnant growth. A number of meetings have taken place for this particular thing. Seminars and conferences have taken place in order to address the issue and find a proper solution. What is the outcome? We have been having meetings after meetings, seminars after seminars including this one. We have made progress but it is actually negligible. However my aim here is not to have any other meeting, generate discussion or debate. I will highlight a few operational and infrastructure issues which have been affecting us. Rules/policy document â&#x20AC;&#x201C; As I have brought out, they are primarily fixed wing based. To give you an example, draft Civil Aviation policy is available on line, signed by joint secretary of Ministry of Civil Aviation in Feb 2011.
Special Report You will be surprised to know that the draft Civil Aviation policy has recommendations that there should be separate policy or part for general aviation. How do we expect that the helicopter industry will be adequately addressed in policy making structure? The fundamentals are not clear. We will again go back to meetings and discussions. One fresh example is the Civil Aviation Requirement for load interim sheets. We are all aware and are supposed to make them. If you go through this particular CAR, it is very evident that it is primarily meant for fixed wing aircraft. It states that 40 hours of initial training are required for all people connected with loading of aircraft plus 10 hrs of recurrent training. Helicopter doesn‘t require so many people for loading. In applicability clause it mentions that it is applicable for all scheduled and non-scheduled operators. One helicopter owner in a non-scheduled category, this particular CAR is applicable to him also. Imagine he has to do 40 hrs of training and 10 hrs of recurrent training then will he be able to fly or he will continue to do training itself. There are few other rules, circulars, letters which have been issued in a generic manner addressed to all operators. The contents of these are, of- course not helicopter oriented. A very few of them have now started emanating wherein it is specifically mentioned for helicopters. There is an urgent requirement to have a helicopter division/ cell in DGCA and Airports Authority of India. A helicopter cell has been made in DGCA but it is combined with general aviation and does not fall directly under JDG. Hence it is still working under a FOI. Here again the template remains connected to fixed wing aircraft. Though some of the orders and regulations are being changed and are becoming helicopter centric and are being issued now, we still require more of them. Familiarisation capsule for controllers – The controllers do require separate familiarisation as said earlier in the day, one of the speaker has brought out the requirement of helicopter traffic, as it is entirely different. Hence familiarisation of the controller is necessary. Another operational aspect affecting the industry is that there is a need to encourage growth. You encourage growth by fiscal benefits, giving some tax breaks/ tax holidays and concessions in some form. Presently there are no concessions and no tax breaks. In the absence of these, the helicopter industry will not grow at all. The biggest stumbling block is the cost of operation. The cost of operation is very high. This has to be reduced. Unless we reduce it, owning a helicopter and flying it, is becoming commercially non-viable. We need to regulate parking charges. Landing charges at private airports like Amby Valley etc are of the order of Rs. 25,000 per landing. Even Baramati charges Rs 5,000 per landing. If these are the charges a helicopter operator is going to pay, how is he going to fly? There needs to be a regulation wherein at least non-government or non-Airports Authority landing places need to be regularised at one reasonable figure. Multiple usage - we are restricting helicopters to carry VIPs and other people from A to B and that’s all. Other uses like ALE, Medevac needs to be encouraged. One speaker had mentioned airborne law enforcement. Rules have not yet been framed for that. In respect of medical evacuation, the cost of transportation of the casualty is much more than the cost of surgery involved. Then who would like to get medically evacuated by helicopter or for that matter by any aeroplane. No civil helicopters are detailed as standby for SAR or for any electronic news gathering. As also in LTC travel, all modes of transport are admissible by the accounts department then why not by helicopter. Feeder service to tourist places – Low cost airlines come up and get their licenses to operate in the interiors
National Seminar of the country. Helicopter is the only machine which can go into deep interior. Therefore why can’t we have a combination of scheduled and non scheduled or private combination, where in a feeder service can be utilised from the airport to the interior parts of the country, wherever there is a tourist destination. Let’s see some of the infrastructure aspects. The infrastructure requirement for helicopter is quite minimal. It does not require a lot of infrastructure to carry out helicopter operations. Still even that small infrastructure requirement does not exist. Development of heliports and helipads: There are very few heliports and helipads in the country. Whatever is made during election time is of temporary nature. It is utilised 7-8 times in a month as per the Civil Aviation Requirement and discarded or not used thereafter. There is an urgent requirement of heliports /helipads at busy airports. Mumbai has stopped helicopter operation. Somebody wanting to transfer from a helicopter to an airline, imagine travelling from Juhu to Mumbai, he will spend more time on the ground rather than in air travelling. There is a requirement of one heliport per district at the Taluk level. Recently the Prime Minister has announced that industrial parks will have heliports giving all the facilities such as safety services, refuelling and everything. The connectivity of the MNCs will suddenly increase from there to the nearest airport. Make roof top operations feasible. Have the safety aspects in place but less of cumbersome procedures for clearance of roof top helipads. There are certain operators who want to have roof top helipads but for want of clearance, they are not able to operate. Use of helicopters for tourism has already been talked about earlier. Simultaneous operations by fixed wing and helicopters at an airport are discouraged presently. Mumbai and Delhi have come up with separate VFR routes for helicopters. However these routes have turned out to be very uneconomical at certain places. Revise routing has been submitted. Over a period of time, in order to obtain landing approval in a particular district, one has to start working 3-4 days in advance. If somebody wants to operate a flight within 24 hrs, it was impossible. The number of agencies involved right from police, electricity department, water department, come what may, he will ask you to go to each and every department to make sure that you do not get permission. There needs to be single window clearance, more of informative input rather than permissive input. We have now online facility. E-governance is in place and things have started moving now. All we have to do now is to inform the state government aviation department which is a nodal point. It in turn informs all the agencies involved to obtain the clearance. In case the clearance is not to be given there is a time frame in which either the agencies intervene or deny permission. For weather forecast you go to the Met department. Yes he will give you briefing and everything. If you tell him you are flying at 1000 ft he will give you a big grin because he doesn’t have weather at 1000 or 2000 ft. In helicopters we require low level weather. We want en-route weather. I don’t want terminal weather. Terminal weather is available in the Metar. These are the recommendations given by the Parliamentary Standing Committee’s 169th report on helicopter operations. The Committee recommends drastic changes in the present regulatory setup. The recommendations and suggestions have not yet been implemented.• ** *
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<<Focus on Safety Issues>>
How to Perform a Risk Analysis and Mitigation for a Service Provider without Risk Classification Schemes or Target Levels of Safety Col (Retd.) DK Chand SM (G)
ICAO standards (Annex 19 and Doc 9859) include a probability classifications scheme (frequent, occasional, etc.) and a Safety Risk Categorisation Table which are mere examples and not applicable Risk Classification Schemes. In order to become applicable, each aviation Authority needs to establish the overall Target Levels of Safety (TLS) and agree with the service providers - Air Navigation Service Provider (ANSP) the ALoSP (Agreed Levels of Safety performance). Furthermore, the ANSP must then do the apportionment of the ALoSP within its organization and derive specific Risk Classification Scheme (RCS) or even Safety Objective Classification Schemes (SOCS) for its different types and categories of ATS units (TWR’s, APP’s, ACC’s, etc.) In order to apply ICAO’s matrix, those specific RCS and/or SOCS need to be defined. Each scenario requires the definition of what is frequent, occasional, etc., and what the probability limit would be according to its complexity, traffic volume and other parameters. All these RCS have to be established consistently according to these parameters and KNOWN methodologies/standards. In the absence of RCS and TLS from Aviation Authority an organisation needs to identify and consider the risks in the first place to make it As Low As Reasonably Practical (ALARP). This will require understanding and defining of Impact, Condition, Legislation, Severity, Frequency of Occurrence, Detection and Controls keeping in mind “Practical Drift”, “Safety Space” and “Risk Management”. Impact •People - Occupational Health (OH) and Occupational Safety (OS)- “An employer shall ensure that each crew member employed by him is at all times during the course of that employment provided with adequate health and safety protection and prevention services or facilities appropriate to the nature of his employment”. A good reference and guideline can be taken from “Canada Gazette on Aviation Occupational Health and Safety Regulations”. • Equipment - Equipment Damage (ED), Property Damage (PD) • Material - Resource Depletion (RD), Resource Wastage (RW) • Environment - Air Pollution, Land Contamination, Noise Pollution Condition - • activities carried out in respective areas of operation; • activities carried out by sub-contracted personnel; • other activities over which organization have no direct control; • a single activity may have multiple aspects. Legislation- • Meeting Legislation • Not Meeting Legislation • Legislation not applicable Severity- • People • Equipment • Material • Environment • Cost Frequency of Occurrence • 24 hrs or more, 8 - 24 hrs a day, less than 8 hrs a day. •8 hrs or more
exposure in a day, 4-8 hrs exposure in a day, less than 4 hrs. • M o r e than ten times a day or continuous, 5-10 times a day, less than 5 times a day. • Repetitive event (once or twice per day), infrequent event (once in week), once in month or less frequent. • Once in 3 months or more frequent, once in 3 - 12 months, once in a year or above. •Once or more per year, once or twice in 10 years, never happen in 10 years or less frequent. Detection- • Above 1 hour. • Within 1 hour. • Immediately. Control- • Absence of effective control. • Mechanism in place but not reliable. • Available and effective. Type of Control • Organization has direct control on all the activities carried out within the premises including transportation within the organization. •Organization has indirect control on all the activities carried outside the premises and subcontracted activities within the organization. Practical Drift Scott A. Snook’s theory of practical drift is used as the basis to understand how, in aviation the baseline performance of any system “drifts away” from its original design when the organisation’s processes and procedures cannot anticipate all situations that may arise in daily operations. The initial system design is based on three fundamentals: 1. Technology needed to achieve the system goals. 2. Training of people to properly operate the Technology. 3. Regulations and procedures to dictate and guide the system, resources and human behaviour. These assumptions underlie the baseline (or ideal) system performance, which can be graphically presented as a straight line from the date of operational deployment until the system is decommissioned. Once operationally deployed, the system performs and is designed, following baseline performance most of the time. However practically, the operational performance is different from baseline performance due to the real life changes and other influences in the technology, training and regulatory requirements. This causes the practical line to drift from the baseline. This drift is known as “Practical drift”. A practical drift from the baseline performance to operational performance is foreseeable in any system, no matter how careful and well thought out its design planning may have been. Some of the reasons for the practical drift may include: technology that does not always operate as predicted; procedure that cannot be executed as planned in the under certain operational conditions; regulations that are not applicable within certain contextual limitations; introduction of changes to the system, including personal and organisation strategies, adaptations to make the system work. All these have to be done on daily basis to capture the risk for ROTOR INDIA - QE 31 DECEMBER - 2014
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<<Focus on Safety Issues>> their control and mitigation. Better the SMS tools for predictive and proactive, lesser will be the chances of operational performance departing too far from the baseline performance and keeping practical drift ALARP.
Safety Space In any organisation engaged in the delivery of services, production and safety risk are linked. As production increases, the safety risks may also increase if the necessary resources or process enhancements are not available. An organisation must define its production objectives; the organization needs to define defences in order to keep safety risks under control. For a product or service provider, the basic safety defences are technology, training and internal processes and procedures. The safety space is the zone where an organisation balances desired production while maintaining required safety protection through safety risk control. The allocation of excessive resources to protection or risk controls may result in long the product or service becoming unprofitable, thus jeopardising the viability of the organization. On the other hand, excess allocation of resources for production at the expense of protection can have an impact on the safety performance of the product or service and can ultimately lead to an accident. Therefore the safety space boundaries should be defined by the management of the organization and reviewed continually to ensure that they accurately reflect the current situation. Explanation: As shown in Figure below the protection has been increased comparatively more vis-à-vis production leading to coming close to Safety Space’s Bankruptcy “A”. At this stage production needs to be increased to remain within the Safety Space. Now as you reach “B” due to reduction in protection against increase in production, resulting in coming close to Safety Space’s Catastrophe, there is a need to increase protection to remain within the Safety Space. To sum up, there is a need to maintain a balance between increase in production and protection to remain within the Safety Space.
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Risk Management Analysis used in risk assessment to come onto risk management whether Acceptable, Tolerable (ALARP) and Intolerable will be based on:1. Number of deaths, injury, loss of revenue, or loss of market share. 2. Loss rates (e.g. number of fatalities/accidents/incidents per on a laid down flying hours/ man hours). 3. Probability of accidents and incidents. 4. Severity of outcomes (for example, injury, environment, reputation). Risk Assessment Matrix
A suggested Matrix is shown in the figure below. The values are variable, which can be laid down based on resources, financial condition, technology and training available. • Calculating Risk: •Rating {People (P), Environment (E), Assets (A), Reputation (R)}: 0=0, 1=1, 2=2, 3=3,4=4, 5=5 • Probability: A=1, B=2, C=3, D=4, E=5 • Risk for each will be Rating x Probability • Total RISK= (P)+(E)+(A)+(R ) • Risk Values Action • 0 - 10 Low Risk. Proceed after considering all elements of risk. • 11 - 30 Medium Risk. Continue after taking action to manage overall level of risk. • 30 High Risk. STOP: Do not proceed until sufficient control measures have been implemented to reduce risk to an acceptable level. Therefore whenever Risk Assessment is done as per the Matrix, aim should be to keep the value 10 and below – Low Risk. Example: • People: Minor injury - 2, Probability: C - 3. Total: 2x3=6. • Environment: Zero effect - 0, Probability: B - 2. Total: 0x2=0. • Assets: Minor damage - 2, Probability: C - 3. Total: 2x3=6. • Reputation: Slight impact - 1, Probability: D - 4. Total: 1x4=4. Grand Total: 6+0+6+4=16 Value is between 11 - 30: Medium Risk. Therefore continue after taking action to manage overall level of risk. The only way to proceed is to assess severity and probability of occurrence and assign risk levels just to establish priorities between hazards. There is no probability limit against which to set Safety Objectives, so all you can do is propose mitigations which the experts judge appropriate,
<<Focus on Safety Issues>>
5 Attitudes that every Helicopter Pilot needs to reject-good advice from IHST Many helicopter accidents involve pilots who allow themselves to be influenced by hazardous attitudes that cause them to take unnecessary chances. As a pilot, the less often you allow yourself to act upon a hazardous attitude, the safer your flying will become. It should be remembered that every pilot probably has had or will have hazardous thoughts to some degree at some time. Problems arise when these types of thoughts occur regularly and in the extreme. If pilots learn to recognize them for what they are, they can deal with them accordingly and operate safely. “No one can tell me what to do.” – This attitude is found in people who do not like anyone giving him or her orders or advice. They may either be resentful of having someone tell him or her what to do or may just regard rules, regulations, and procedures as silly or unnecessary. However, it is always your prerogative to question authority if you feel it is in error. “Do something – anything – quickly!” – This is the attitude of people who frequently feel the need to do something immediately. They do not stop to think about what they are about to do; they do not select the best alternative. They do the first thing that comes to mind. and use the assessed risk levels just to establish priorities on which hazards are more critical to mitigate. Given a level of understanding and knowledge of probability and statistics safety data can be appropriately interpreted, or on the other hand, errors can be made. Applying good statistics will help in understanding complex systems, system accidents, and system risks. Working with safety data of past accidents can be considered proactive if learning from others mistakes. A question will always arise how to get data for above Risk Assessment Matrix for a new organisation or when changes occur. Well the answer is get a working data based on data available with others till you manage to generate your own data. In the end, without specific RCS’s (Risk Classification Scheme) and SOCS (Safety Objective Classification Schemes), the typical risk matrix shown in Doc 9859 with red, yellow and green zones is useless for a safety assessment in certain scenario due to varying resources in terms of PEME (People, Equipment, Material, Environment), technology, training and regulations to dictate and guide the system, resources and human behaviour. Therefore each organisation needs to work its own RCS and SOCS. Of course one will need to consider Safety Space as financial management will take the front seat to manage between Production (Revenue) and Protection (Safety).•
“It won’t happen to me.” – Many people feel that accidents happen to others, but never to them. They know accidents can happen, and they know that anyone can be affected, but they never really feel or believe that they will be involved. Pilots who think this way are more likely to take chances and run unwise risks. “Of course I can do it.” – People who are always trying to prove that they are better than anyone else tend to think, “I can do it!” They “prove” themselves by taking risks and by trying to impress others. While this pattern is thought to be a male characteristic, women are equally susceptible. “Whatever happens, happens.” – People who think, “What’s the use?” do not see him or her as making a great deal of difference in what happens to them. When things go well, they think, “That’s good luck.” When things go badly, they attribute it to bad luck or feel that someone is “out to get them.” They leave the action to others–for better or worse. Sometimes, such individuals will even go along with unreasonable requests just to be a “nice person.”
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<<RWSI Activities>>
RWSI holds its 46th GC Meeting at Juhu Airport on 24 Sept 14
AVM K Sridharan VM (G), President RWSI, who chaired the meeting, informed the members about the subsequent events including National Seminar on Safety of Helicopter Op (Offshore & Onshore) that was to take place in Mumbai the following day and the AGM of RWSI at the same venue. He also informed the council that action had been completed in respect of the approval provided by the Council for new appointees namely Wg Cdr VP Mathur, Chief Ground Instructor and Mr. Vinayak, Accounts Officer. Thus RWSI now has an active, functional training faculty conducting regular courses prescribed by DGCA for the benefit of helicopter industry. The agenda points for the 12th AGM, RWSI Annual Report for FY 2013-2014, Audit Report FY 2013-2014 and appointment of Sri Raj & Co as auditors of the Society were discussed by the Members and were approved. As Air Cmde BS Siwach and Wg Cdr RS Dangi had expressed their desire to resign from RWSI Governing Council and Life Membership, their resignation from the Governing Council was discussed in detail and unanimously accepted by the Members. The vacancies created due to resignation of Air Cmde Siwach and Wg Cdr RS Dangi from GC was immediately filled by nominating Wg Cdr VP Mathur CGI and Col Ranade respectively. It was also decided to employ a full time CEO and Accounts Officer before RWSI shifts to its new accommodation.•
RWSI holds 12th AGM at Mumbai on 25 Sept 14 At the outset, AVM K Sridharan (Retd) President RWSI, who chaired the meeting welcomed the members to the event and thanked them for their unstinted support to RWSI activities over the years. He mentioned that the Governing Council had been sharing the progress of RWSI activities with its members through ROTOR INDIA quarterly and E-MONTHLY and through periodical reports published by it. Recalling the genesis of the society, he recalled how a group of dedicated helicopter professional formed the society 16 years back to promote helicopter as a safe and effective mode of commerce and development of civil helicopter industry. Since then, RWSI has been able to make significant contribution to remove many ops and fiscal bottlenecks faced by the operators by playing a supportive role to DGCA, AAI and MOCA in finding solutions to outstanding issues. He then highlighted the salient portions from the Annual Report 2013-14. He outlined RWSI’s objective of achieving safer skies through 46
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education. He mentioned that RWSI was the first organization in the country to start ground training courses for civil helicopter pilots in September 2004. Since then, a total of 3200 candidates that includes pilots, engineers and other aviation professionals have benefited from various courses conducted by RWSI at Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Pune, Lucknow, Jamshedpur and Ahmadabad. Some of the courses were attended by serving pilots from the three services. RWSI had also conducted SMS training at Kathmandu and Singapore. Mr. Vinayak J Pai, Accounts Officer RWSI made a presentation on the financial status of RWSI. The members approved the appointment of fully paid CEO and Accounts Officer at RWSI and also appointment of Wg Cdr VP Mathur (Retd) and Col Dilip Ranade (Retd) as GC Members to fill the two vacancies in its 15 Member Governing Council.•
Capt Uday Gelli Meets HAI Chairman & President
Capt Uday Gelli President RWSI (WR) recently attended the Helitech exhibition and seminar held at Amsterdam from 14th October till 16th October. Though he had gone there related to his company’s work, he managed to take some time off his busy schedule to meet with HAI officials at their booth in the exhibition. Capt Uday met the new Chairman of HAI, Mr. Gale Wilson and the President of HAI, Mr. Matthew Zucarro. They spent some time together discussing about the progress of IHST safety initiatives and the probability of achieving the targeted reduction in accident rate. Both Gale Wilson and Matthew Zucarro were very pleased when he told them that so far Indian civil helicopters have maintained a “zero” accident rate this year despite high intensity flying due to general elections and two state elections. He invited them both for the next RWSI seminar as well as for the opening ceremony of RWSI new office complex at NOIDA.•
Recommendations Pending Implementation for Safer Heli Ops (Offshore)
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<<AgustaWestland>>
AW189 Completes Successful North Sea Demo Tour More than 60 attendees from oil & gas companies, operators and helicopter associations took the opportunity to assess this new generation helicopter • Static and in-flight demonstrations carried out in Den Helder (The Netherlands) and Stavanger (Norway) • AW189, already in service in the North Sea, is a perfect long range, high capacity complement to the successful and proven AW139, thanks to the AW Family advantage. Finmeccanica–AgustaWestland announced on 28 Nov 14 that the new generation AW189 super medium twin engine helicopter has completed a demonstration tour in the North Sea. The tour was deemed a success with more than 60 attendees from leading oil and gas companies, operators and helicopter associations, taking the opportunity to assess the AW189’s outstanding capabilities. The tour, which started in Den Helder in the Netherlands and ended in Stavanger, Norway, included dedicated AW189 presentations, static and in-flight demonstrations to give the attendees a comprehensive insight of its modern design, new technologies, safety features, performance capabilities and the support and training services available. The AW189, the first new generation aircraft in its category in decades in service today, is already flying in Europe, Middle East and Asia providing offshore transport services. Operators based in Europe such as Bristow and Bel Air have already introduced the type into service in the North Sea supporting the oil and gas industry. This operationally demanding region has seen an increasing presence of the best-selling AW139 intermediate
twin helicopter in recent years, used by many operators for offshore transport duties. The spacious cabin is configured with 16 seats as standard with the option for a high density 19-seat layout or a long range 12-seat configuration. The cockpit design, incorporating the latest in advanced situational awareness technologies, reduces crew workload and enhances safety. The AW189 meets the very latest international regulatory safety requirements (EASA / FAA Part 29, JAR OPS 3 / EU-OPS). The AW189 is unique in having a 50 minute ‘run-dry’ capable main gear box, exceeding current certification standards and offering unmatched safety and reliability for long range offshore operations. A wide spectrum of advanced support and training solutions, also including latest generation HUMS (Health Usage and Monitoring System) and Level D Full Flight Simulator, is available to the AW189 operators to maximize operational effectiveness and safety.•
AW609 Test Pilots receive Iven C. Kincheloe Award Finmeccanica–AgustaWestland is pleased to announce that three of its AW609 test pilots have received from the Society of Experimental Test Pilots the prestigious Iven C. Kincheloe award and were recognized at the Society’s annual gala. The Kincheloe Award recognizes outstanding professional accomplishment in the conduct of flight-testing by a test pilot member of the Society of Experimental Test Pilots and is the most visible recognition of the Society's contribution to the aviation community. The award was given to recognize the achievements of experimental test pilots Dan Wells, Paul Edwards and Pietro Venanzi, for the successful power-off conversions and autorotation trials that were completed between March and April of 2014. The tests were conducted as part of FAA civil certification activities and covered the full wind-milling and autorotation envelopes, which earlier in 2014 marked another major achievement for the development of the world’s first civil tiltrotor. The AW609 flight testing aircraft have so far logged over 1,000 hours, and a third aircraft now in final assembly will soon join the program as development continues towards FAA civil certification.•
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<<Bell Helicopter>>
Bell Helicopter, Textron Systems Sign Agreement with India’s Dynamatic Technologies Limited On 19 Nov 14, Bell Helicopter and Textron Systems, both businesses of Textron Inc. (NYSE: TXT), announced an agreement with Dynamatic Technologies Limited of Bangalore, India establishing Dynamatic as a single source supplier of major airframe assemblies for the Bell 407GX and 407GT.
407GT
The agreement is for a seven year period with options to extend through the life of the product and follows a Memorandum of Understanding signed in 2012 to mutually explore business opportunities for the production of Bell’s model 407 airframe assemblies. Textron Systems will work cooperatively with Dynamatic and Bell Helicopter to support incountry procurement operations. Both companies remain engaged in identifying additional business opportunities to further build on Dynamatic’s Premier supplier capabilities as Bell Helicopter looks to invest and expand operations in the region. Dynamatic has been engaged in the development and production of airframe components and details for the Bell 407 at its Aeronautic manufacturing facilities at Dynamatic Park Peenya since December 2013. Dynamatic has already successfully completed the First Article Acceptance of Aft Fuselage detail parts and recently commenced production for shipment to Bell’s aircraft assembly site in Mirabel, Canada. Bell Helicopter has had a presence in India for nearly 20 years and has an office in New Delhi for business development and program operations. At the Textron India technology center in Bangalore, Bell Helicopter employs a cross-functional team of engineers to support its global operations. Additionally there are two Bell Helicopter Customer Service Facilities in the region; Deccan Charters Private Limited in Bangalore and Air Works India Engg Pvt Ltd in Mumbai. Bell Helicopter also has a dedicated full-time Customer Service Engineer located in Mumbai. Textron Systems, in conjunction with Bell Helicopter, is cultivating Indian offset relationships in support of current and future international programs. Textron Systems is currently procuring a range of commodities in India via several prime sourcing partnerships, and continues to seek new opportunities to expand its supply base in country. Dynamatic is headquartered in Bangalore, India, and designs and builds highly engineered products for automotive, aeronautic, hydraulic and security applications. The company has facilities in Europe and India, including Bangalore, Chennai, Coimbatore, and Nasik in India; Swindon, Bristol in the United Kingdom; and Schwarzenberg, Germany.•
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ROTOR INDIA - QE 31 DECEMBER - 2014
Michael Loeffler, Vice President of Supply Chain, Bell Helicopter and Udayant Malhoutra, CEO and Managing Director of Dynamatic Technology Limited, at contract signing.
Employees from Bell Helicopter, Textron India Private Limited, and Dynamatic Technologies Limited perform installation of lower frame into the first assembly of the Bell model 407 aft fuselage at Dynamatic’s facility in Bengaluru.
BellV22
- Illustration : Marie Morency
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<<Boeing Aircraft>>
Boeing Delivers 300th CH-47F Chinook to U.S. Army Boeing delivered to the U.S. Army, 75 days ahead of schedule, the 300th CH-47F Chinook helicopter. “This marks another benchmark for the CH-47F program,” said Lt. Col. Michael Hauenstein, the Army’s CH-47F product manager, Office of the Project Manager, Cargo Helicopters. “More importantly, we have met this benchmark ahead of schedule, within cost, and produced an aircraft that performs as required worldwide. We wouldn’t have been able to achieve this if it wasn’t for the partnership of the entire Chinook community.” The CH47F has a modernized airframe, Common Avionics Architecture System (CAAS) cockpit that improves crew situational awareness and the Digital Automatic Flight Control System (DAFCS), which offers enhanced flight-control capabilities for the multitude of conditions in which the helicopter is used.”The Chinook provides a lifeline to soldiers,” said Steve Parker, Boeing vice president, Cargo Helicopters and H-47 program manager. “There are soldiers alive today because of the dedication of this team.” Since the completion of the first CH-47F Chinook in 2006, 18 U.S. Army and National Guard units have been trained and equipped with the aircraft. ”The efficiency we have demonstrated is keeping the Chinook a highly relevant U.S. Army asset today and into the future,” said Parker.•
Boeing to Train Australian Army and Navy Helicopter Pilots for Next 25 Years NOWRA, Australia, Nov. 16, 2014-Boeing will train Royal Australian Navy and Australian Army helicopter pilots for the next 25 years through a $A600 million contract that broadens the company’s partnership with Australia’s armed forces. For the JP 9000 Phase 7-Helicopter Aircrew Training System (HATS) effort, Boeing Defence Australia (BDA) teamed with Thales to develop a low-risk solution around the Airbus EC135, one of the world’s most proven helicopters. Airbus and Turbomeca are also part of the BDA-led team. Boeing has provided the Australian Army with helicopter pilot, aircrew and technician training since 2007, meeting or exceeding all the training and maintenance requirements. Thales is a global leader in the Aerospace, Transportation and Defence and Security Markets. In 2013, the company generated revenues of €14.2 billion with 65,000 employees in 56 countries. With 25,000 engineers and researchers, Thales has a unique capability to design, develop and deploy equipment, systems and services that meet the most complex security requirements. Thales has an exceptional international footprint, with operations around the world working with customers and local partners.•
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Boeing Likely to Supply of 22 Apache attack helicopters and 15 Chinook heavy-lift transport aircraft to IAF Boeing Co (BA) is considering investing in India as Prime Minister Narendra Modi eases rules for foreign investment in the defence sector and expedites arms contracts. The Chicago-based aerospace company is in the process of identifying partners “for a strategic and meaningful relationship,” Dennis D Swanson, the New Delhi-based vice-president at Boeing Defence Space and Security, said in an interview in New Delhi on 24 Nov 14. Modi’s decision in July to allow foreign investors to buy as much as 49 per cent of Indian defence companies is a “welcome change” that Boeing wants to study further, he said. “That has made a difference because it provides an opportunity to not only invest in India, but also to explore the export market out of here,” Swanson said. “We want to have more than a purchase-order based relationship. In the 2015 time frame, you’ll see Boeing in strategic partnerships in India.” Boeing is among companies stepping up engagement with India as the US surpassed Russia as the top supplier of defence equipment to the South Asian country in the last three years till March. Boeing, which is close to winning a $2.5-billion deal to supply 22 Apache attack helicopters and 15 Chinook heavy-lift transport aircraft to the Indian Air Force, is counting on more as Modi modernises the nation’s defenses to deter neighboring China and Pakistan.•
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<<Eurocopter>>
Airbus Helicopters’ Focus on Continuous Improvement Airbus Helicopters’ commitment to the enhancement of its product line, the improvement of its services portfolio and the continuous increase of customer satisfaction will be highlighted during this month‘s Helitech International exposition and conference. In addition to the presence of its evolved EC130 T2 and EC145 T2 rotorcraft at Amsterdam‘s RAI exhibit center (Stand #J60, Hall 8), Airbus Helicopters will emphasize the company’s solutions that enhance customer satisfaction, in particular by providing the highest level of Support and Services performance and quality. In its pledge to be a reliable partner throughout the lifetime of every rotorcraft delivered, Airbus Helicopters is pursuing a competitive and diversified service solutions portfolio tailored to customers’ needs. As part of this effort, the company has revamped its strategy for the management of spare parts. Changes include a significant increase in spare parts stocks, the optimization of forecasts, a
closer integration of the supply chain, and a new worldwide stocking policy; along with the establishment of Secured Turn-around Times (TAT) and Standard Exchanges for Component Repair and Overhaul. On display at Helitech International, the EC145 T2 is an evolved version of Airbus Helicopters’ popular twin-engine EC145, incorporating Arriel 2E powerplants with double FADEC (full authority digital engine controls). It features upgraded main and tail rotor gear boxes, the innovative new Helionix digital avionics suite with 4-axis autopilot, as well as the most evident evolution to its design - the company’s Fenestron® shrouded tail rotor. The Fenestron has a new-design tail gear box with lower maintenance costs, and incorporates a duplex tail rotor actuator and dual hydraulic circuits. It is installed in a new damage-tolerant, all-composite tail boom. In applying Fenestron technology to the EC145 T2, Airbus Helicopters brings this tail rotor’s benefits for improved flight and ground safety,
enhanced anti-torque control efficiency, reduced power demand in forward flight and lower sound and vibration levels. Especially renowned for EMS and airborne law enforcement (ALE) missions, the EC145 T2 is the undisputed reference in its class. The EC130 T2, which also is exhibited at Helitech International, has become a new reference in lightweight single-engine rotorcraft – with this latest member of Airbus Helicopters‘ EC130 family logging more than 120 orders since its unveiling in 2012. Benefitting from improved operational performance, increased versatility and enhanced comfort, the EC130 T2 is fitted with a more powerful Arriel 2D turboshaft engine and upgraded main gearbox. In addition to the active vibration control system for a smoother ride, the helicopter’s redesigned cabin interior structure is equipped with a full flat floor. The EC130 T2 has become a staple in the helicopter tourism industry, thanks to its large windows, comfortable cabin and enjoyable flight experience.•
Successful First Flight of Airbus Helicopters’ EC645 T2 Recent press reports say that Airbus Helicopters’ newest lightweight military multirole helicopter, the EC645 T2 (LUH SOF), has successfully completed its first flight. In the presence of representatives of the German Armed Forces (Bundeswehr), which has ordered the first of this new helicopter type, the EC645 T2 demonstrated its capacities at the company’s Donauwörth location in Bavaria. The EC645 T2 is the military version of the civil EC145 T2 that entered into service this past summer. With a maximum takeoff weight of 3.7 tons, the EC645 T2 can be used for a wide range of military operations including transportation, reconnaissance, search and rescue, fire support, and evacuations of wounded personnel. 15 of these helicopters have been ordered for the German Air Force. The EC645 T2 offers a host of features that make it particularly well suited to missions carried out by the Special Forces Command (KSK). Building on the robustness, low operating costs and the especially high operational availability of the EC145 family,
54
the new EC645 T2 is equipped with the Helionix® digital avionics suite, including the 4-axis autopilot developed by Airbus Helicopters. This aircraft has been optimized for day and night missions as well as for those carried out in treacherous weather conditions. Its mission equipment range also includes a fast roping system for troops, cargo hooks, hoists, various weapons and electro-optical
ROTOR INDIA - QE 31 DECEMBER - 2014
sensors. Ballistic protective equipment and an electronic countermeasures system that detects threats help protect the helicopter and crew. Powered by two Turbomeca Arriel 2E engines, the EC645 T2 is equipped with full authority digital engine control (FADEC). What’s more, noise emissions significantly below international limits make the EC645 T2 the quietest helicopter in its class.•
Election of RWSI
Office Bearers : June 2015 1. The Elections for the Governing Council of the Rotary wing Society of India are scheduled in May 2015. On the day of election, all the activities shall stand suspended till the completion of the poll and announcement of the results. The elections will be held as per the schedule process and will be conducted as per RWSI rules. 2. The election notice will be issued in terms of RWSI Rules and will be sent to the last registered address of the Life Members available as per the record held. RWSI will however not be responsible for non receipt of the notification by the member due to postal delays or otherwise. The notification will also be displayed on the RWSI notice board. The election schedule will be intimated as soon as it is approved by RWSI Governing Council.
RWSI to Conduct Procedures Training for Pilots With the revision of the Old CAR OPS 3, DGCA had called off the Special VFR Training and redesigned it as Procedures Training for all pilots vide the new/ revised CAR, SECTION 8 – OPERATIONS, SERIES 'H' PART I, ISSUE 1, 28th July 2014. The new Procedures Training stipulates training for:-
3. Life Members are to elect 10 members from the existing Governing Council members (Para 50 of the RWSI Rule Book) and five members from the list of nominations recommended by the members in accordance of Rule 51(a). The 15 elected Governing Council members will then choose the office bearers including President, Vice President, Secy Gen, Secy Admin & Treasurer, President and Secretaries of Northern, Western and Southern Chapters.
• 2 Days
4. Life Members who are desirous of joining the Governing Council of RWSI through elections may forward their nomination papers to RWSI in the prescribed form available in RWSI website:www.rwsi.org. For details contact Sr. Admin Officer RWSI at Tele 0120-4352010, 4352040
This will enhance the training and knowledge base of all the pilots. It is an excellent step in the very direction that RWSI has been propagating that, "BETTER TRAINED PILOTS ARE SAFER PILOTS"
Please download nomination papers for standing for election to Governing Council may please be down loaded from RWSI website (www.rwsi.org)
Present RWSI Governing Council & Office Bearers
• All Helicopter Pilots Currently Flying • 12 Subjects to be covered - 6 subjects per day.
We are pleased to inform that RWSI has been approved to conduct procedure trainng courses for all helicopter pilots. Further details of the training programme will be intimated shortly. Initially we propose to conduct this training every week during Jan & Feb 2015 at Delhi. Please note that the current extension of Special VFR Training expires as on 31 Jan'15 vide DGCA Public Notice No. AV22036/36/Heli/ 2014-FSD Dated 30th October 2014 (Subject: Renewal of Special VFR Training). All pilots falling due for the Spl VFR Training (now Procedures Training) must avail this opportunity in the month of January 2015.
ROTOR INDIA - QE 31 DECEMBER - 2014
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<<Hindustan Aeronutics Ltd.>>
PM Hands Over HAL Dhruv to Nepal The Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi handed over an indigenous Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH)-Dhruv-built by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited to the Prime Minister of Nepal Mr. Sushil Koirala on 25 Nov’14 at Kathmandu. The copter will be used by Nepalese Army. HAL team lead by Mr. T. Suvarna Raju, Managing Director, HAL (Helicopter Complex) was present on the occasion. “This is in line with PM’s thrust on `Make in India’ and the Government’s policy of helping neighbourhood”, said Dr. R.K. Tyagi Chairman, HAL. The Company’s technical support team is positioned at Kathmandu to provide maintenance and logistics support. Earlier, India had provided two Dhruv helicopters to Nepalese Army in November last year, added Dr. Tyagi. Dhruv helicopter in Mark-III version with Shakti engines and advanced glass cockpit and avionics would immensely benefit Nepal, known for its mountainous terrain and adverse environmental conditions.
arduous tasks in difficult terrains.
The helicopter has a proven track record in both military and civil operations. It is designed to meet the requirement of both military and civil operators. Dhruv has also been exported to Ecuador, Mauritius and Maldives. The Ecuador Air Force (FAE) operates five Dhruv helicopters with their president choosing to fly in one of them. Dhruv is particularly useful in meeting the
Dhruv helicopters played a key role in search and rescue operations during the 2004 tsunami, the 2010 flash floods at Leh, the 2011 earthquake in Sikkim, the biggest ever rescue operation by helicopters undertaken by IAF in flood and rain-hit areas of Uttarakhand in June-2013 and Jammu & Kashmir flood relief operation in September-2014. Dhruv is being operated by Indian Air Force, Indian Army, Indian Navy, Coast Guard, BSF and State governments since 2002. More than 140 Dhruv helicopters are in operation logging more than 1, 20,900 flight hours. Dhruv is a multi-role, multi-mission new generation helicopter in 5.5 tonne weight class and meets Federal Aviation Regulations (FAR) specifications. It has demonstrated its capability in long distance flights, vertical climb and manoeuvring. Dhruv is an allweather helicopter which can carry 10-16 people at heights of 10,000 feet.•
LCH TD3 Makes a Maiden Flight, IOC Expected by September 2015
The Light Combat Helicopter (LCH) Technology Demonstrator TD-3 made the successful maiden flight on 12 Nov 14. “Escorted by a Dhruv helicopter, the entire flight was flawless. It will be an effective weapon platform to deliver precision strikes at high altitude and we are confident it will meet the requirements of the IAF”, says Dr. R.K. Tyagi, Chairman HAL. “We are making all efforts to achieve IOC by September next year”, he added. In all HAL is expected to produce/ manufacture 179 LCH for Indian Defence forces. Today’s flight was piloted by Wg Cdr Unni Pillai and co-piloted by Gp Capt SHK Nair. It took off at 15.20 hrs. and flew for 20 minutes. The scope of this project covers design and development of two technology demonstrators, one full scale mock-up, one break away fuselage (BAF) and Initial Operational Clearance (IOC). During development of LCH, HAL Board sanctioned LCH related projects, namely, Modified Rotor System, Manufacturing of TD56
3 & TD-4 for acceleration of development flight testing, indigenous development of Integrated Avionics and Display System (lADS) & Automatic Flight Control System (AFCS) in order to reduce the dependency on foreign vendors and develop indigenous technology. Breakaway fuselage of LCH was built and limit load testing was completed successfully in October 2012. LCH-TD-1 was first flown on March 29, 2010 and LCH-TD-2 was flown on June 28, 2011. Together TD-1 & TD-2, LCH has flown for 388 flights (285:10 hrs.). For better planning, execution and monitoring of the project leading to enhancement of number of flights to achieve milestones of Cold Weather Trials, Hot Weather trails and weapon firing trials, HAL Board had sanctioned manufacturing of TD-3 and TD-4.•
ROTOR INDIA - QE 31 DECEMBER - 2014
HINDUSTAN AERONAUTICS LIMITED
Any Mission. Any Place. Any Time
<<Sikorsky Aircraft>>
Sikorsky rolls-out high-speed Raider Rotorcraft It is reliably learnt that Sikorsky has completed the prototype for a revolutionary rotorcraft design that could dramatically improve the speed and hover capabilities of the traditional helicopter. After four years of internal research and development and also the company's experiences with the X2 concept demonstrator, the company revealed the S-97 Raider on 2 October 2014. S-97 Raider combines dual coaxial rotor blades and a tail propeller to combine the hover capability of a helicopter with the speed of a fixed-wing aircraft.The Raider has dual coaxial rotors for vertical lift and a tail propeller for forward thrust. The combination allows for flight characteristics that are physically impossible for existing rotorcraft designs. It has been designed to carry more than 4,990kg (11,000lb), or six troops plus crew. With external weapons mounted, it is expected to fly at least 220kt (407km/h). Unarmed it will fly at up to perhaps 270kt. It will also be able to refuel at 200kt which is much faster than current helicopters that require aerial tankers to reduce altitude and slow dramatically to transfer fuel. All in all, the aircraft can achieve 50100% improvements in six flight characteristic measurements including speed, agility and manoeuvrability.
Sikorsky has invested $150 million for the development effort – around 70% of the total cost to produce the prototype S-92. Its 54 suppliers provided the remaining capital. The company hopes to complete ground runs in time for first flight by the end of the year. To meet this target,the aircraft's software and avionics suite have been finalised and are in verification testing. Bird-strike testing at 229kt has also been successfully completed.A transmission test bed with rotors, engine and rotorshaft has been built.The Raider is now in component testing in anticipation of ground testing that must be completed before first flight. In addition to flying at nearly twice the speed of a conventional helicopter, the S-97 RAIDER helicopter will incorporate other key performance parameters critical to combat operations — increased maneuverability, greater endurance, and the ability to operate at high altitudes. Compared with other light military helicopters, the S-97 RAIDER helicopter is expected to significantly reduce turning radius and acoustic noise signature, while significantly increasing the aircraft’s payload, flight endurance and hot and high hover capability.•
Short listed SeaHawk for Indian Navy has great Potentials for Usage In the current maritime situation, the SEAHAWK, apart from its anti-ship/anti-submarine/EW/ESM role, can be equipped to take on various tasks eg. deploying specialized sonobouys, which when dropped at sea will transmit information for onboard equipment to process data like electric fields, magnetic anamolies, bioluminescence (submarine presence) as well as measuring environmental parameters like water temperature vs depth, air temp, barometric pressure and wave height . Processing of this voluminous data enables programming of smart mines in our inventory and helps mine countermeasures, with hovering helo remotely controlling submerged vehicles (via cable) for detection, localization and neutralization of anti-access (enemy) sea mines, thereby enabling friendly ships to maneuver in littoral waters. In addition, missions like monitoring mercantile shipping/fishing vessels movement outside EEZ, anti-smuggling (drugs & weapons), anti-piracy ops, disaster response at sea, MEDEVAC, VERTREP, search and rescue, combat support and fleet logistics operations.
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<<New Products & Services>>
The information provided is supplied through the Corporate Production Management System
ITP ISS GATE : Web Solutions Aimed at Strengthening Client-supplier Relationships The world is changing, as are the paths of communication between companies and their clients. New information technology systems are imposing new ways of communication that are more immediate, interactive, transparent and versatile. This challenge implies a profound change in the way of thinking and acting, as well asa new horizon between client and supplier relationships. ITP ISS GATE is ITPâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Service Support solution to that challenge. The ITP ISS GATE application offers In Service Support clientsan interactive tool that provides real-time information of thework being performed at ITPâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s maintenance centers on theirequipment (engines, modules, accessories and spare elements). This information comes from the Production Management corporate system, therefore guaranteeing reliability, accuracy and full transparency. The application allows the information that is shared between theclient and the different ITP ISS areas to be filed in an organizedway. Keeping historical lists of equipment that were previously processed at the various ITP ISS facilities makes it possible to haveall documentation exchanged at each given time properly indexed, enabling better access thereto. ITP ISS GATE provides the client with a vehicle for satisfying one of its most pressing demands: being able to solve the different technical problems that arise during engine operation. The application allows for direct communication with ITP ISS engineering teams to solve incidences, therefore enabling the free exchange of information between the client and the Technical Support Engineer until final resolution. This communication serves as a database for interactive queries, which facilitates quick resolution of recurring incidences. In addition, ITP ISS GATE is a pathway that allows the people that make up ITP ISS to come even closer to clients. The individuals responsible for the activities with clients and their equipment undergoing maintenance at ITP ISS facilities are presented in person. The client is then provided with the means to contact each of them directly, therefore establishing a bond of trust between the two parties. All of these functionalities are provided in a confidential and personalized manner. Only enabled users have access tothe
information that is shown and shared, safeguarding the confidentiality and safety of the information at all times through the use of safe internet protocols that are guaranteed based on their industrial use and widespread on-line presence. ITP ISS GATE is part of the innovation projects that are taking place at the core of ITP, which focus on the client and his satisfaction in order to create new innovative channels that improve the flow and sharingof information while maintaining its reliability and transparency. All of these characteristics are aligned with the corporate values of the ITP Group. Furthermore, the platform represents a starting point for new and innovative services for ITP ISS clients.
Range of Flagship Services ITP ISS GATE brings clients closer to the broad range ofavailable services in a simple and visual way, includingengine rentals and Mobile Repair Services, the latter beingsupplied by ITP ISS On Site. These are the servicesthat clients from the civil sector demand and value themost. The platform also provides information on otherfeature ITP ISS applications such as Revien (Virtual Reality applied to Maintenance), Sprint (Spare Resources InnovativeCalculation Tool) and FMS (Fleet ManagementSystem). The client can not only become familiar with the tools or services that are available, but also contact theindividuals responsible for them should they wish to hire. Lastly, ITP ISS GATE offers clients useful information suchas an event calendar, OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) certifications, maintenance capabilities and the locations and capabilities of the service centers that makeup ITP ISS.
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<<New Products & Services>>
Russian Helicopters start final Certification Tests on Mi-38 Helicopter It is gathered that Russian Helicopters (part of State Corporation Rostec) has launched the final stage of certification testing on the Mi-38 multirole helicopter. Testing is being carried out on two prototype models of the helicopter fitted with Russian TV7-117V engines. On 3 November 2014, Russian Helicopters’ Mil Moscow Helicopter Plant received the fourth prototype of the Mi-38 in order to continue certification flight testing. The helicopter is built at Kazan Helicopters. On 20 October 2014, it successfully completed a series of hover tests and lowspeed ground runs, after which it was transported overland to the Mil Moscow Helicopter Plant. For further flight tests, the fourth Mi-38 prototype will be fitted with the full suite of on-board data acquisition systems. Starting flight tests on the forth prototype boosts progress towards the Mi-38’s certification – which is scheduled for 2015. The fourth Mi-38 prototype is a preseries model, comprising all the systems and components that would be installed on the series-produced helicopters of this type. It differs from the third prototype in its shockresistant fuel system, which meets the latest emergency landing fire safety requirements. It
also boasts larger windows that serve as additional emergency exits. On 31 October, Mil Moscow Helicopter Plant launched the second phase of flight tests on the third Mi-38 prototype. On conclusion of the first phase of flight-development testing, the third Mi-38 prototype was re-equipped with TV7-117 engines at the Mil Moscow Helicopter Plant assembly shop. The second phase of plant certification tests will run until the end of the year, and will see work
completed under the state contract with the Russian Federation’s Ministry of Industry and Trade for 2014. The Mi-38 is a medium-lift multirole helicopter, designed at the Mil Moscow Helicopter Plant in accordance with AP-29 aircraft certification requirements. It is equipped with highly efficient Russian-made TV7-117 engines and an integrated digital flight navigation system with five LCD displays.•
Turbomeca Obtains EASA approval for Arrius 2B2 Plus It is recently learnt that Turbomeca has achieved EASA certification for the Arrius 2B2plus turboshaft engine. Specifically developed to power light single and twin helicopters, the 2B2plus powers the Airbus Helicopters EC135 T3. The first delivery to a customer from Airbus Helicopters is expected in the coming weeks. The 2B2plus is the latest member of the Arrius family, which recording 7 million flight hours makes it the most used engine family of its class on the market. In addition to its unmatched reliability, it offers a number of advantages over existing models: the engine delivers a 6 percent power increase in hot and high conditions compared to the previous 2B2 version, strongly contributing to the T3
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ability to carry more than 200 kg extra payload at the same altitude. A 4,000-hour TBO (time between overhaul) coupled with low fuel consumption makes the 2B2plus one of the most competitive engine in its class. Its flight profile increases the safety margin of particular missions, such as EMS missions, flown over congested areas, where a strong single-engine performance is required. The 2B2plus has a simple and modern design that is facilitating maintenance tasks. Customers also benefit from a computerized maintenance aid that makes use of the data
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recorded from the Engine Electronic Control Unit. All these benefits are granted at the same direct maintenance cost (DMC) to the previous 2B2 version. Furthermore, all current tools and parts are still good for the 2B2plus. No additional training is required.•
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Virtual Office Available We are a not-for-profit Society catering to the aviation industry with a fantastic office, we’d love to share with like-minded people. The environment is bright and spacious with lots of natural light, great frontage and great views. The accommodation is likely to be available with effect from 01 April 2015. Please contact Sr. Admin Officer RWSI B-61, Sector-22, NOIDA-201301 (Tele: 01204352010 /4352040, E-mail : office@rwsi.org)
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
24 hrs power backup and security Spacious office; total 3000 sq feet Breakout areas for relaxing Professional mailing address Common Cafeteria Secure car parking available (at tenant’s own cost) adjacent to building.
I THUM, Sector 62, Noida www.ithumnoida.org.in • Sector- 62, Noida (Surrounded by big companies and corporate and residential • 2 min. from Ghaziabad • 30 min. from Nehru place • 45 min. from IGI airport
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ROTOR INDIA - QE 31 DECEMBER - 2014