Bell Helicopter expanded its customer-support capabilities with the acquisition of maintenance-tracking software company Skybooks in mid-January. Skybooks is an online system that tracks maintenance, flight operations, expenses and pilot currency and stores archived aircraft logbooks as well as maintains electronic logbook records.
HAI Convention News » February 26, 2008
February 25, 2008 - 4:50pm
Scott Kasprowicz (center), the AgustaWestland A109S Grand owner-pilot who broke the U.S. transcontinental record a week and a half ago, announced his next record attempt yesterday here at Heli-Expo–an around-the-world flight in his AgustaWestland helicopter, N1US.
February 25, 2008 - 4:48pm
PHI has already logged 23,000 hours on its fleet of nine Sikorsky S-92s, and on Monday at Heli-Expo it signed an options contract for six more of the model to be delivered in 2009 and 2010, as well as six copies of the S-76C++ to support deepwater oil industry missions in the Gulf of Mexico.
February 25, 2008 - 4:46pm
Visiting Honeywell’s new corporate AW139 medium-twin helicopter at the AgustaWestland booth (No. 3039) is a great way to see the clean and uncluttered instrument panel offered by Honeywell’s Primus Epic avionics suite.
February 25, 2008 - 4:44pm
Debi Irby always had a tough time finding new employees when she was chief pilot for various helicopter operators. The inquiries that did come to her attention were either random résumés from unqualified people or former military pilots asking how they could get into the civil market. It didn’t help that even within the aviation industry, helicopter people were thought of as a wild bunch, she said, “but we are professionals.”
February 25, 2008 - 4:42pm
Ranger Aerospace, the privately held investment and management holding company with offices adjacent to Dallas/Fort Worth Airport, attracted the notice of the helicopter community when it sold Keystone Helicopters to Sikorsky in 2005 after fortifying the West Chester, Pa. operation from less than $50 million in revenue to more than $125 million while tripling employment and profits.
February 25, 2008 - 4:34pm
In a ceremony yesterday at the Sikorsky booth (No. 1641), Sergei Sikorsky presented four senior members of the Los Angeles County Fire Department with Sikorsky’s Winged S service award to mark the 50th anniversary of the L.A. County’s aerial firefighting operations. He particularly praised the firefighters’ last year of service dealing with a series of catastrophic blazes in greater Los Angeles.
February 25, 2008 - 4:33pm
Norwegian operator Norsk Helikopter yesterday celebrated the 5,000th fleet hour of its Sikorsky S-92(R) (Serial No. 11) helicopter. The aircraft reached the milestone on February 5, a little more than two months after the Norsk S-92 fleet reached its 20,000th flight hour.
February 25, 2008 - 4:32pm
“People have been asking me, ‘Can you tell me where Acrohelipro is?’” Donald Jackson said Monday afternoon, right after making the official announcement that the Richmond, British Columbia-based helicopter MRO provider and modification specialist now lives under the Vector Aerospace umbrella.
February 25, 2008 - 4:31pm
American Eurocopter president and CEO Marc Paganini recognized aerial tour-operator Maverick Helicopters for logging 60,000 hours on its fleet of 27 EC 130s, the largest in the world.
During a ceremony yesterday afternoon at Heli-Expo Booth No. 631, Greg Rochna, CEO of Maverick Aviation Group, accepted Maverick’s 28th copy of the EC 130. Paganini said the EC 130 is an aircraft designed for and with the tour operators in mind.
