AKV, Inc. has announced that McDermott Aviation, Inc. has selected the ETM1000 exceedance and trend monitoring system for its fleet of 15 Bell 214 helicopters.
“AKV’s proactive and realistic approach to providing new generation monitoring systems for our fleet of Bell 214s along with other ‘legacy airframes’ allows us to provide our customers with the technology being released with newer model helicopters within our tried and proven airframes, which are more compatible with the rugged utility/aerial work environment than the current generation of new model airframes,” said John McDermott. “It provides us as the operators to get real time trending providing yet another tier of ‘proactive maintenance.’ We applaud AKV for taking up the challenge to keep our machines with 21st century technology.”
The ETM1000 exceedance and trend monitor is an engine data acquisition unit that provides legacy operators with a highly effective and affordable means to monitor and record all drive train parameters for exceedances as well as trending purposes. The ETM1000 is programmed with the Rotorcraft Flight Manual operating limitations and includes panel mounted pushbutton annunciators that provide caution and warning indication to the pilot.
Configurable alert tones are provided to the pilot when operating in close proximity to takeoff and transient limits and in addition, configurable pre-caution parameters for each of the recordable signals that can provide earlier warnings if desired. The ETM1000 also has a dedicated power check pushbutton along with system health indication.
The ETM1000 is designed and priced as a turn-key kit, which includes the airframe wire harness, graphing software and programming cables with no yearly contract fees. It is also compatible with third party systems such as the Latitude Technologies IONode ION100 lightweight flight data recorder.
The ETM1000 received Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and European Aviation Safety Agency supplemental type certificate approval for the Bell 204, 205, 210 and UH-1s, and shortly thereafter AKV added the Bell 214 to the ETM1000 FAA approved model list. AKV had previously supplied the AKV engine cycle counters for the McDermott fleet of T55 powered B214s.
