Northern light twins

A growing number of utility helicopter customers in Canada are now flying with a new companion — a second engine.

These helicopters can be found flying along power lines and pipeline right-of-ways, on heli-seismic jobs and movie sets, as well as fighting fires and supporting the development of major oil and gas fields in western and northern Canada.

Since the first light twin engine helicopter (light twin) appeared in Canada in the mid-1970s, the domestic market for light twins has been surprisingly small — until recently.

While the Canadian helicopter market is still dominated by light and medium engine single helicopters and medium twins (light twins account for just 79 of the 2,830 civil helicopters registered in Canada as of October 2013), the light twin sector is going through an undoubted boom; of the 44 light twins that are flown by commercial operators, 33 (75 percent) have been introduced in just the last four years.

New safety guidelines introduced by international oil and gas companies and BC Hydro are driving light twin demand, as well as entrepreneurial initiatives and Transport Canada’s increased insistence on twin engines for urban work.

The Athabasca oil sands of northern Alberta contain the world’s third largest reserve of oil (169 billion barrels) after Saudi Arabia and Venezuela — and international interest in the area has grown as oil prices have increased, providing steady work for helicopter operators in the area.

“We first started looking to light twin helicopters to meet customers requirements when foreign national oil companies increased their investment in the oil sands,” said Paul Spring, president of Phoenix Heli-Flight in Fort McMurray — the support hub for the oil sands.

In 2005, Total SA of France (the world’s fourth largest oil company) bought Calgary-based Deer Creek Energy for C$1.67 billion, and became the first European oil company to apply the International Association of Oil & Gas Producers’ (OGP’s) helicopter operating guidelines to bush flying in northern Canada — meaning they would no longer hire single engine helicopters.

“We decided to buy Canada’s first Eurocopter [AS]355N . . . that could meet Category A one engine inoperative (OEI) flight profiles for PC1 (Performance Class 1) and PC2 at weights above 2,250 kilograms,” said Spring.

Then, in 2008, Phoenix added the country’s first Eurocopter AS355NP, powered by a pair of 463 shafthorsepower (s.h.p.) Turbomeca Arrius 1A1s with a new high-pressure turbine that enabled a higher OEI , providing improved Category A performance under hotter, higher and heavier conditions.

Seven international oil companies now utilize twin engine helicopters in the Alberta oil sands.

Todd Johnson, vice president of marketing for Yellowknife’s Great Slave Helicopters, said his company started looking for a light twin aircraft in 2012, when some its OGP customers began chartering Bell 212s to fly four people. “We wanted a multi-role light twin we could market to the big oil companies such as Imperial Oil, Shell, Total and Statoil,” he told Canadian Skies.

Great Slave bought a BK117B-2 air ambulance in Germany, upgrading it with a pair of 850 s.h.p. Honeywell LTS 101 850B-2 engines using a STC kit from Airwork (NZ) to provide improvements in Category A, en route OEI and OEI hover performance.

“The BK117 was added to our operating certificate in March 2013, and its first job was flying nine crew in the Northwest Territories on a pipeline maintenance contract, where we could land in the same confined right-of-ways as an AStar,” said Johnson.

“Customer acceptance has been excellent and we’re going to add more BK117s,” said Johnson.

Oil-and-gas work has also fueled light twin work in northeastern B.C., where Qwest Helicopters is flying Eurocopter AS365N1 Dauphins in support of gas field exploration and development from a base at Fort Nelson on the Alaska Highway.

The first of three AS365N1s from Japan was introduced in 2010, and Qwest remains the only operator of the eightto 12-seat Dauphin in Canada.

On May 13, 2008, a Bell JetRanger hired by BC Hydro (British Columbia Hydro and Power Authority) was on a low-level visual inspection of high voltage power lines passing through suburban areas of Cranbrook, B.C., when the engine lost power and the helicopter crashed into the street below, killing the pilot, two BC Hydro employees, and a pedestrian.

In the Transportation Safety Board’s subsequent accident report, it said BC Hydro had immediately established a “company policy of requiring twin-engine helicopters for those at-risk operations where a single-engine helicopter would have been required to operate inside the avoid areas of the height velocity diagram.”

Even though BC Hydro’s risk assessment process now permits single engine helicopters for some power line work, the twin-engine policy was undoubtedly a watershed event in B.C. aviation history. The aircraft are now used for line patrols, construction, and maintenance work — including pulling work carts by helicopter along steep U-shaped power lines.

Finnair Helicopters, based in Naramata, B.C., supports a variety of these hydro missions across the province.

“We leased a twin-engine Bell 427 when BC Hydro changed its aviation policy, and used it to educate line crews about Category A performance and Part 27 helicopter certification safety standards,” said owner/pilot Wayne Finn.

In mid-2013, Finn went shopping for a new light twin when his two-year Bell 427 lease expired, and, on the strength of a multi-year contract from BC Hydro, ordered an EC 135P2e equipped with a dual hook for Class D external human cargo and a hoist.

Dam Helicopters of Castlegar, B.C., was flying a high performance Eurocopter SA315B Lama when the twin-engine requirement was introduced.

Company president Duncan Wassick said he was able to get a “super deal” on the last Eurocopter Bo.105LS built in Canada. The twin 550-s.h.p. aircraft later received a $300,000 upgrade to “Super Lifter” specifications, with new main rotor blades (which had a wider cord and swept tips), and a BK117 tail rotor and drive train. This increased the internal payload by 400 pounds and the external payload by 550 pounds. Wassick said the uprated Bo.105LS can lift a 60-foot power line pole, which weighs about 2,500 pounds.

Meanwhile, on Vancouver Island, Parksvillebased Ascent Helicopters’ search for an economical light twin for BC Hydro work resulted in the purchase of a Bell 206LT TwinRanger in Romania.

“The TwinRanger flies like a single engine helicopter with a spare engine,” said president Trent Lemke. “Its performance is really impressive.”

Then, in October 2012, Ascent introduced a hoistequipped MD Helicopters MD902 to BC Hydro, building on its experience with a hoist-equipped Bell 212 for BC Forestry’s elite Rapattack initial attack program.

“The MD902 is flying more than we expected, with the hoist now regularly used at remote work sites throughout Vancouver Island,” said Lemke.

Bighorn Helicopters, in Cranbrook, B.C., is now flying a Eurocopter BK-117 A4 which it upgraded to a BK117C-2 (with two 750-s.h.p. Honeywell LTS 101-750B-1 engines) on the 67-kilometer 500 kV Heartland Transmission Project north of Edmonton, Alberta. “Our BK117 flies like a big MD500D and has also lifted drills to 10,000 feet in the mountains,” said president Clay Wilson.

One of the largest concentrations of helicopters in Canada today is in Terrace, B.C., where a combination of power line contracts and five new oil and gas pipeline right-of-way surveys are employing 45 helicopters, including nine light twins.

Canadian Helicopters introduced its first Eurocopter AS355N to the region in 2008 for BC Hydro, and the operator now has five AS355N TwinStars in Terrace, supported by another AS355F east of the Rocky Mountains in Fort St. John, B.C.

Lakesle Air, headquartered in Terrace, is one of the main helicopter operators supporting construction of the 344-kilometer (214-mile) Northwest Transmission Line. The 1,000-tower line runs north from Terrace to a promising mining region near Bob Quinn Lake — at a cost of $700 million.

Lakelse introduced its first light twin — an AS355N — this past summer, to capture a share of the BC Hydro and pipeline work that has come to its doorstep.

The Northwest Territories’ Summit Helicopters recently added to the growing competition in the town, with the addition of its AS355F2.

In Vancouver, light twin operators Talon Helicopters and Blackcomb Aviation are among the many companies that compete for local utility, executive and motion picture work.

Blackcomb Aviation won BC Hydro’s first regional helicopter contract for the greater Vancouver area, and today flies four light twins (two AS355F2 and two AS355N).

Two TwinStars are supporting the construction of the Northwest Transmission Line, while others are working on the $657 million Lower Mainland (ILM) 500-kilovolt transmission line, which will see 600 43-meter high towers erected along a 247-kilometre (153-mile) right-of-way.

Talon introduced its AS355F2 MAX after spending two years rebuilding it with a new wiring package “to improve reliability,” according to president Peter Murray.

Talon holds a number of contracts with companies and agencies that require low level flying in the greater Vancouver area and has a MOU with North Shore Rescue (NSR ), a volunteer mountain search and rescue team based in Vancouver, to provide Class D human external cargo rescue flights with the TwinStar.

It has taken almost three decades for light twin-engine helicopters to find steady year round commercial utility work in Canada (with a few notable exceptions).

Now, the light twin market is opening up as major oil and gas and utility customers establish “twin engine only” policies for “low and slow” flying, providing an extra layer of safety for those performing this challenging work.