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High technology: Airgreen

By Jon Duke

Published on: May 8, 2019
Estimated reading time 20 minutes, 46 seconds.

When it comes to moving the instruments of industry into high terrain, Airgreen proves that the helicopter is in a league of its own.

Buttressed against some of the most severe peaks that the Alps have to offer, Piedmont (literally meaning “at the foot of the mountains”) in northwestern Italy is home to flourishing agriculture, commerce, and tourism industries. Whether through ski-lifts or hydroelectrics, treating the mountains as an opportunity and not a barrier has been the key to the region’s success.

Among the earliest to foresee the opportunities for aviation here were Giuseppe and Mauro Airaudi, the owners of a forestry business whose crop extended across the alpine foothills. Recognizing the potential for aircraft to prevent losses incurred to wildfires, the brothers began to research aerial firefighting in 1986. Realizing that helicopters were well-suited to their particular environment and mission, they began exploring the additional utility of their newly-purchased Aérospatiale Alouette II.

“In the beginning, my father and my uncle used the helicopters in the mountains to move loads, or for hydroseeding fire-damaged areas,” Ivo Airaudi, Mauro’s son, told Vertical. “We started with the Alouette II, but even as a child I remember thinking that the [Aérospatiale AS315B] Lama was much more powerful. When we eventually bought our first Lama, we really started to increase our activity, not just for ourselves, but for other clients.”

An Airbus AS350 B3 returns to the Aosta Valley base following a day spent lifting sections of pylon. Lloyd Horgan Photo

Soon, other local companies were expressing an interest in contracted lifting work, and after the purchase of another Lama, the brothers established a separate entity to service the burgeoning requirement. Airgreen was born, and before long, the company was signing contracts to support domestic onshore oil-and-gas exploration.

“We are still operating in the onshore oil-and-gas sector,” said Ivo Airaudi, who serves as Airgreen’s crew training post-holder and chief pilot. “Only now it is overseas in places like the Balkans.”

In 1995, after nearly 10 years of operation, the leadership felt confident enough to take advantage of circumstance and opportunity, buying part of another organization that had been providing rescue services in the neighboring region of Valle d’Aosta.

A Leonardo AW139 from Airgreen’s Turin EMS base at Turin Aeritalia Airport takes part in a training flight. Lloyd Horgan Photo

Branching out

With the purchase came more aircraft (Alouette IIIs, Lamas and Agusta-Bell AB412s) and the responsibility to fulfil the rescue services contract in Italy’s most mountainous region, home to Mont Blanc — the highest peak in Europe — and the infamously lethal Matterhorn. Both stand among other nearby peaks at over 14,500 feet (4,400 meters), and the area is popular with hikers and climbers in the summer, and skiers in winter.

With its helicopter emergency medical services (HEMS) and rescue credentials established, Airgreen was awarded contracts in Piedmont and the island of Sardinia in the Mediterranean.

“Flying rescue operations in the alpine environment is very challenging,” Airaudi said. “In our company, we try to keep in mind all the experience that we gained flying aircraft like the Lama, and use that experience to really enhance the capability of the more modern aircraft that we operate now.”

Task specialist Edoardo Barberis attaches a long line for an underslung load. Lloyd Horgan Photo

The more modern aircraft arrived in the shape of the Leonardo AW139 in 2006, just in time to support the Winter Olympic Games in Turin. Since then, Airgreen has acquired a further five AW139s (including a long-nose variant), alongside an AW169 and two H145s, all for the rescue and HEMS role.

“We have a big problem in this company,” Airaudi said. “We are driven by passion. So, we would really like to have all the best helicopters on the market so that we can enjoy flying them!” There is a serious note though, as he explained: “While that costs more in training and spares, it enables us to cope with all [the] types of rescue that we perform here in Italy, which usually involve several casualties. . . . So we need helicopters that can carry all these people, at high altitude and in difficult weather conditions.”

Both the AW139 and AW169 are fitted with medical interiors by Aerolite, with the H145 interior provided by Macær Aviation Group (MAG). The aircraft are also all equipped with a single hoist, a backup unit being superfluous and likely not worth the additional weight for onshore rescue scenarios, particularly in the mountains where performance is at a premium.

The view out of the cockpit of an Aerospatiale SA-315B Lama approaching the Graian Alps. Lloyd Horgan Photo

Airaudi is obviously proud of the capability that the variety of aircraft bring to the company’s diverse operational environments.

“We are now using all the best aircraft available on the market for rescue operations across seven different bases,” he said. “And we have a new contract that started this year in Sardinia where we use an AW139 and two H145s.”

All of these aircraft are fully instrument flight rules (IFR) capable, with advanced levels of automation already integrated into their avionics. But, as with many technological advances in aviation, systems designed to improve safety can usually also provide plenty of opportunities for trouble — especially when combined with high terrain and inclement weather.

The Lama performs an aerial lifting job in the Graian Alps. Lloyd Horgan Photo

For this reason, Airgreen has also fitted helicopter terrain avoidance and warning systems (HTAWS) to all its IFR-capable machines, as well as various combinations of synthetic vision, Leonardo Helicopters’ obstacle proximity LIDAR system (OPLS), and enhanced vision systems. These systems increase the crews’ situational awareness, particularly in the tricky conditions that exist on the boundary between visual and instrument meteorological conditions. Such conditions abound in the mountains, where a helicopter is capable of creating its own microclimate as it whips the snow up.

Even during transit flying, it is not possible to simply fall back on traditional IFR techniques, as the pilots are severely constrained by high terrain. Alpine transit routes typically rely on either very high-level IFR or very low-level visual flight rules (VFR) operation, with nothing available in between. The Alps force high-level routes, which make descents into hospital landing sites problematic. When your only options are separated by around 9,000 feet (2,740 meters), pilots are often forced to make an early decision between the two that they then find themselves stuck with.

“We are building our capability to work in bad weather,” Airaudi said. “Before, our only option was to maintain visual contact with the surface, which places you at high risk. We are hoping soon to validate 12 IFR low-level routes linking all the local hospitals, with LPV point-in-space approaches. This will allow us to fly at higher speed at lower altitudes.”

An AStar helps rebuild some pylons after they were damaged by a storm in the area. Lloyd Horgan Photo

This operation will mirror techniques used by crews in Norway, and is only possible due to the various redundant systems that equip modern helicopters like the AW139, AW169, and H145. It would be unthinkably dangerous in an older type with legacy avionics.

The mixed nature of its fleet no doubt adds to costs, but it also allows Airgreen to provide specific capabilities to suit the variety of environments it operates across. It also provides some mitigation against the risk of fleet-wide groundings.

Back to its roots

Airgreen’s expansion into rescue and HEMS missions has been so successful that these operations now account for up to 70 percent of its work. However, the length of these contracts carries increased exposure to the volatility of the variable costs of meeting them.

Airgreen helps keep refuge huts in the Italian Alps supplied to endure the winter. Lloyd Horgan Photo

“With very long contracts there are a lot of things that can affect the cost of delivery after the price has been agreed,” Airaudi explained. “So, you have to be careful how you manage it, because in the end you have to provide a quality service.”

This is perhaps one reason that Airgreen has been determined to maintain and expand its utility role. The shorter-term nature of these tasks provides some ability for the company to absorb cost variations elsewhere, but shrewd decision-making is still essential. One such decision was the acquisition of Airbus Helicopters AS350 B3 AStars. While a more modern design than the Lama, careful decisions still have to be taken about which aircraft suits which task.

New pilots are usually expected to cut their teeth utility flying before progressing to rescue and HEMS, with 1,000 hours the typical minimum experience, starting on firefighting duties that demand less precision than sling-loading in the mountains. The training system is fluid but progressive, said Airaudi.

New pilots are usually expected to cut their teeth flying utility operations before progressing to rescue and HEMS. Lloyd Horgan Photo

“Pilots usually will be experienced in sling-loads in less complex aircraft before they move on [to other types],” he said. “Doing this, they spend long periods of time flying in specific mountain areas, learning the weather systems in an aircraft that is close to its maximum all-up mass. They learn all the secrets of the mountains, and when they move on to rescue flying, they will go back to the same places, so they know what to expect.”

There are always exceptions, though, and Enrico Salvadori is one. Having been inspired to pursue a career in aviation watching Airgreen’s helicopters, he trained in Canada before returning to Italy with some utility experience. His passion no doubt helped him secure a job with Airgreen on his return.

“I grew up watching the Lamas and B3s in the valley, and I dreamed about maybe one day flying that helicopter,” he told Vertical. “I would go skiing and see the helicopters come and get injured people out, and that was what I wanted to do. I know I’m really lucky to do this.”

Both the AW139 and AW169 are fitted with medical interiors by Aerolite. Lloyd Horgan Photo

Offered a co-pilot position on the AW139 from the outset, he was enthusiastic about the opportunity to fulfil his ambition to fly in that role.

“I always thought that flying HEMS would be something for the other end of my career,” he said. “I’m really thankful to be able to do it now, and I’m flying with pilots with a lot of experience, so I have a long time still to learn and to become as good at it as I can.”

The heart of the company

Even before the arrival of more modern aircraft, the variety of types and the hard-working nature of Airgreen’s tasks made it sensible to conduct maintenance in-house. Providing a sustainable and engaged engineering workforce is critical to the ongoing success of the company, as Airaudi is keen to point out.

NVIS specialists ASU recently carried out the modification of two AW139s to NVIS compatibility. Lloyd Horgan Photo

“Maintenance is a core priority, because better planning of maintenance will result in better aircraft availability,” he said. “So, we have invested in certification so that we can take young people who aspire to be aviation engineers and train them from the very basic skills.”

Airgreen’s European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) part 147 certification enables it to provide training right from the basic principles. Once qualified, the engineering team integrates into the delivery of operations. A core part of their professional development involves working with pilots and aircraft on-task, particularly during sling-load operations in confined areas where they perform the “task specialist” role.

“This teaches all the necessary skills to provide safety-critical information to pilots, and familiarizes them with the requirements of the pilot when maneuvering the aircraft in tight confines,” said Airaudi. The ultimate end-point of this training is qualification as a HEMS technical crewmember and hoist operator.

The company’s maintenance hangar, which was built in 2017 to satisfy the increasing demand for maintenance services from third parties. Lloyd Horgan Photo

This provides a clear and well-defined career arc for those joining the company with aspirations to work with the aircraft on-task, as well as those wishing to take on the responsibility of keeping the fleet airworthy.

The head of Airgreen’s maintenance department is Massimo Marchino. Alongside supervising the regular maintenance schedule for the company’s diverse array of aircraft, Marchino has recently been coordinating with night vision imaging system (NVIS) specialists ASU Inc of Boise, Idaho, as it carried out the modification of two AW139s to NVIS compatibility. This adds greater capability to already well-equipped aircraft, but expanding their envelope into NVIS operation is something about which the company is rightfully cautious. While comfortable operating with night vision goggles, they are not yet conducting unsurveyed NVIS field landings.

Marchino’s domain is Airgreen’s maintenance hangar, built in 2017 to satisfy the increasing demand for maintenance services from third parties, including the Carabinieri (Italy’s militarized police force) and the Vigili del Fuoco (the national firefighting service). With several AB412s occupying hangar space, Marchino explained that the they are often leased to customers overseas as the AStar is preferred for domestic firefighting.

Engineers push out a Bell 412 for a ground run. The aircraft has recently been purchased from an operator in Japan. Lloyd Horgan Photo

“The 412s that we leased for firefighting duties in Spain are now back,” he said. “So we need to understand how the aircraft have been used, and there will also be a package of maintenance to prepare them for storage.”

The 412s are fitted with health and usage monitoring systems (HUMS), greatly reducing the man-hours required to conduct work-intensive activities.

“When we have to correct the main rotor track and balance, HUMS measures certain parameters in flight, and collects the data, which is downloaded the flight,” said Marchino, “and the computer gives the necessary correction to balance the drive system. I estimate that HUMS provides a time saving of at least 60- to 70-percent compared to doing it manually.”

A Leonardo AW139 in Airgreen’s maintenance facility at the company’s main base in Cafasse. Lloyd Horgan Photo

The man-hours saved are even more meaningful considering the additional roles that the maintenance personnel carry out as task specialists.

The secrets of the mountains

While the mountains guarantee demand for Airgreen’s expertise well into the future, this competitive marketplace will not reward complacency or overreach — and the company is particularly cautious about long, fixed-price agreements.

“We aim always to provide a high quality of service,” said Airaudi. “If you grow too quickly it becomes difficult to maintain the correct culture, so we desire to grow more slowly.”

A hoist-equipped Bell 412EP completes maintenance checks in the hangar. Lloyd Horgan Photo

Instilling the company ethos in new team members isn’t always easy. Airgreen’s approach of providing meaningful career opportunities will no doubt help to retain its skill-base, and the variety of work obviously appeals to both the technical staff and the aircrews. As a pilot who has taken up a HEMS role early in his career, Enrico Salvadori is enthusiastic about other possibilities.

“I would like to experience sling-load operations and firefighting,” he said. “With Airgreen, you can move around between jobs and become a more complete pilot, with a greater variety of skill and experience.”

The variety of the work is matched by its demands, whether sling-loading among the mountain peaks in the austere Lama, or using the latest avionics to find safe passage through foggy valleys with a casualty; a challenge about which Airaudi is enthusiastic but clear-headed.

The sun bursts through the cockpit window of the AS350 B3 from Airgreen’s Aosta Valley base. Lloyd Horgan Photo

“Since flying the more complex aircraft, I have really fallen in love with IFR flying, because the technology reduces the workload so much,” he said. “However, the hardest part of being a rescue pilot is being able to say ‘No’ when the risks are just too great.”

Northwestern Italy is a cultural, commercial and agricultural powerhouse, and helicopters have been instrumental in allowing these industries to exploit the mountains that might otherwise have constrained them. Among the first to see the potential of aviation to safeguard their business, Airgreen has laid down firm roots to grow beyond regional and national boundaries. It is hard to imagine a company that has been more central to providing the mountain access that is so vital to the success of the region.

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