Argentinian SAR services receive a boost
Two new five-bladed H145 helicopters, which have arrived in South America, will perform offshore SAR and Oil & Gas operations in Tierra del Fuego
Helicópteros Marinos has been based in Tierra del Fuego in southern Argentina for more than 34 years, operating from the city of Río Grande and the TOTAL AUSTRAL operations base in Río Cullen to provide support for the production and exploration platforms of its customer, Total Energies.
Since 2010, Helicópteros Marinos has been providing passenger and cargo transport to the platforms using two four-bladed EC145 helicopters, which have clocked more than 13,000 flight hours. However, customer demand for greater safety, comfort, load capacity and range has prompted the company to renew its fleet.
Five blades better than four
“One of the reasons for renewing the fleet was that we needed a greater available payload. The new helicopter achieves this due to its lightweight design, offering a greater maximum take-off weight than the earlier version,” explains Marcelo Florio, CEO of Helicópteros Marinos. “Secondly, the five-bladed version provides increased power, ensuring we can keep flying safely in all flight conditions, including situations of engine failure and when operating from offshore platforms or ships.”
“In addition, the Helionix avionics suite – with its four-axis autopilot – considerably reduces crew workloads, especially in instrumental flight conditions, which are very frequent in these latitudes.
The autopilot offers the possibility of hover flight with pinpoint accuracy, allowing our second helicopter, which provides SAR support, to perform rescue winch operations in very low visibility conditions over water,” he adds.
There are no SAR services with immediate response capacity in the region where Helicópteros Marinos operates. Coupled with low water temperatures and strong winds, survival time in the event of a forced water landing is minimal. Due to these hostile conditions, TOTAL has established strict safety protocols, with one of the two aircraft devoted exclusively to SAR support while the main helicopter performs passenger and cargo transport missions to the platforms.
“Other advantages of the five-bladed H145 are its reduced rotor diameter and blade folding capabilities. The Health & Usage Monitoring System (HUMS) also sends real-time data on each landing and take-off on the different platforms to our maintenance base. These records are monitored daily by both our technicians and Airbus specialists, allowing us to perform predictive analysis to anticipate maintenance tasks and thereby enhance safety levels,” adds the company’s CEO.