By David Learmount in London
Large public transport helicopters operating in “hostile environments” around the UK will be required to have vibration health monitoring systems (VHM) if a proposal by the UK Civil Aviation Authority becomes law.
Existing large UK-registered helicopters are already fitted with VHM, says the CAA, but any foreign operator bidding for UK-based oil-support work would have to be VHM-equipped if the CAA proposal to amend the UK Air Navigation Order (ANO) is accepted. Former head of the CAA’s helicopter flight operations department Brian Hodge, who has guided this proposed legislation through its three consultation stages so far, says the main obstacle to a wider CAA mandate for VHM among all UK large transport helicopters – as originally intended – is that the European Aviation Safety Agency and Joint Aviation Authorities have made it clear they would not back it as a certification requirement.
They might consider it as an operations requirement, but only under special circumstances. The CAA has accepted the compromise, and is proposing that the requirement should apply to all helicopters with nine or more seats operating in the public transport role in a “hostile environment”. The CAA has defined the latter as any extended operations over the sea north of the 45°N latitude in UK-controlled sectors. No overland areas in the UK are currently designated hostile, says the flight operations department communication, and the rule would not apply to search and rescue operations.
Enacting the rule via the ANO, which is the Act of Parliament governing the CAA’s powers, would mean that any UK-based operation would have to comply even if it were registered in another European Union country in which no such rule exists at present.
Source: Flight International
