Shopping for Helicopters? 5 Key Tips

Given the very different nature of how helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft fly, and in most cases the missions the two categories of aircraft perform, it shouldn’t surprise observers to learn that the considerations involved in buying a rotorcraft aren’t the same as those that apply to buying a fixed-wing business aircraft.

For one thing, says Brad Shaen, Director and Founder of International Aviation Marketing, there are many more critical rotating parts in a helicopter than in a fixed-wing aircraft.

While the two categories of aircraft are both powered by turbine or piston engines which have their own rotating parts, helicopters rely on a variety of other rotating parts to provide the physical processes they use to fly, allowing them to take off and land vertically, and hover.

Each category of helicopter rotating parts – main and tail rotors, gearboxes, and up to three transmissions per aircraft – have defined life limits and hourly and calendar inspection intervals, and the lives and intervals are by no means the same for every category of rotating part, says Ed Sale, Director of Sales for Aero Asset.

For instance, he says, while a helicopter’s engines, airframe and gearboxes might all be subject to an annual inspection, each might have different calendar and flight-hour inspection intervals.

Where the airframe might have a 15-year or 3,500hr major inspection interval, each gearbox would have something like an 1,800hr scheduled inspection interval – and the helicopter’s engines may well have interim inspection intervals which are much shorter than that.

Their considerable experience in sourcing, buying and selling helicopters of many types throughout the world make it possible for Shaen and Sale to offer five essential tips to anyone seeking to buy a helicopter for any kind of mission.

1. Learn About Helicopters Before Looking to Buy

“First and foremost, you have got to be educated” when looking to purchase a helicopter, says Shaen. Helicopters “are not straightforward, like fixed-wing aircraft – there are a lot of variables you need to understand".

According to Sale, that process of education includes knowing which range of helicopter types will best suit the buyer’s planned missions for their helicopter, as well as their initial budget for purchasing the rotorcraft and their continuing budget for keeping the helicopter properly maintained and in a condition in which its resale price can be maximized.

The buyer’s education about helicopters should extend to understanding two important factors which could affect the selection process, Shaen says. One is that for more modern, current helicopter types, OEMs are “controlling more and more data” regarding the airframe and parts.

This means the buyer may have significantly less ability to modify a given helicopter to meet their mission requirements than with older helicopters, because the OEM will not provide the buyer with the engineering data needed to make the modifications required.

The second thing a buyer should understand about the helicopter’s type is “where the aircraft is in its life cycle”, says Shaen. That’s the overall life cycle of the type’s production history and the current production and parts support arrangements the OEM is providing.

For instance, for the much-manufactured Sikorsky S-76 widely used for corporate and VIP transport, “it's important to know that Sikorsky was bought by Lockheed and the support for it is different from 10 years ago,” Shaen says.

2. Make Sure You Have One (or More) Qualified Advisors

Unless the potential buyer of a helicopter is very experienced in helicopter operations or helicopter brokering, it’s vital for the buyer to make sure they have professional advisory resources they can call to select, purchase and deliver the helicopter to them.

That includes the expertise needed to deregister the helicopter from one jurisdiction and re-register it in another if the purchase is an international transaction.

It also includes knowing if the helicopter ‘as purchased’ meets all the airworthiness regulatory requirements of the jurisdiction in which the new owner will register it. If it doesn’t, what modification work and STCs will be required to make the helicopter fully airworthy in its new home?

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