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Lee-on-Solent will be the first of the UK’s new search and rescue bases to receive AgustaWestland AW189 helicopters, following the recent certification of the full icing protection system (FIPS) on the super-medium twin.
Speaking at the Farnborough air show, Russell Torbet, director of UK SAR at Bristow Helicopters, said the AW189 would be introduced from 1 April at the south coast site.
Bristow’s original plans for the progressive work-up of the 10-year UK SAR deal had called for Lee-on-Solent to be the final site to use the AW189.
However, certification delays to the Leonardo-built helicopter forced it to increase the number of Sikorsky S-92s on the contract from 11 to 14, as well as bringing in interim AW139s. Aproval for FIPS, which includes electrically heated main- and tail-rotor blades, was finally obtained on 29 June.
Torbet says the next base to receive a pair of AW189s will be Prestwick in Scotland, followed by Lydd in Kent, St Athan in South Wales and Inverness in Scotland – almost an exact reversal of the original schedule.
Although Bristow has received three examples of the 8.6t helicopter – with two more to arrive next week - Bristow’s revised delivery schedule, contained in its most recent financial filing, indicates that new AW189s will continue arriving until March 2018.
“We couldn’t really do it any faster,” says Torbet. “We are reliant on the transition team moving from one base to the other.”
Operations from Lee-on-Solent are currently managed by CHC Helicopter, and Bristow will begin transition work at the site from 2 January, he says.
All its AW189 instructors are now ready, he says, and “we just need to start line training for the crews to go into Lee”.
Johnathan Baliff, Bristow Group chief executive, says it is "very pleased" by the FIPS certification, but adds: "There is a lot of work that needs to be done to bring [the AW189] into service."
Of the 11 helicopters to be delivered to Bristow, all bar one will have been built and fitted out at Leonardo’s facility in Yeovil in the southwest of England.
The company had previously said the facility would become a SAR centre of excellence on the back of the Bristow deal, but further orders have proved largely elusive.
Daniele Romiti, the head of Leonardo’s helicopter business, believes service entry is vital for future sales: “Once the product becomes more visible it could have good traction in the market,” he says.
“It is also the first in its class to have [full icing protection] – these two elements give a lot of credibility to the platform.”
Source: FlightGlobal.com
