The Bell 429 has received an airworthiness certificate from the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), following the first complete assembly and successful flight testing of a 429 at a CAAC 145 service facility.
We are very excited to see the first operational and serviceable Bell 429 in China, said Eric Cardinali, Bell Helicopters executive vice president of customer aupport and aervices. “This is an important milestone for the Bell 429 and for Bell Helicopter as we continue to expand our presence in the Asia Pacific region.
“We constantly strive to provide solutions to our operators’ growing training needs. Part of that solution is gaining regulatory approvals in order to provide our customers access to the breadth of training programs provided by the Bell Training Academy.”
Kingwing General Aviation Company, a CAAC 145 service facility, completed the first reassembly and flight testing of a Bell 429 in China. With the CAAC approval of two Kingwing pilots Bell Helicopter Training Academy (BTA) 429 flight training, Kingwing signed a Memorandum of Agreement to perform demonstrations of the aircraft at Airshow China in November.
Bell recently received CAAC approval to provide pilot training on the 429. The 429 pilot training program blends theoretical knowledge instruction with specific aircraft training tasks that are conducted in the advanced flight training device, as well as in the aircraft itself.
The 429 is an advanced light twin IFR (Instrument Flight Rules) helicopter capable of serving a wide variety of missions, delivering exceptional speed, range and hover performance. It is certified for single or dual pilot IFR, Cat. A / JAROPS Performance Class 1 at maximum gross weight; has a state-of-the-art fully-integrated glass cockpit; and is the first helicopter certified through the MSG-3 process.
In other good news for Bell in Asia, Thailand was announced yesterday as the 13th country to approve the increased maximum gross weight for the 429, based on Transport Canada’s certification.
