TheOtherSTLRep Senior Heliman Location: St. Louis MO
| yeah, I know what you mean about the height and length of the tailboom. I noticed that myself when I was there and saw the machine, it is fairly low to the ground. Im not sure what they are going to do about that. It may just wind up being a quark of the aircraft that EMS crews are going to have to deal with. Sure they will complain, but then no matter what the aircraft is, they will always find something to complain about.
It will be interesting to see how it does once it hits the market. My boss has one on order, but I doubt we will ever take delivery of it. (he makes a pretty penny buying production slots early on and then selling them close to the delivery dates) Its just not something we can utilize. We are strictly and ENG vendor and I cant think of a single station out there thats willing to pay for a medium twin. A light twin MAYBE, but doubtful. The NBC station in NY purchased an EC 135 and touted its safety and reliabilty due to having two engines... Within 6 months of having the ship, it made an unscheduled landing in a river when I believe it was the driveshaft came apart on it. So much for the twin engine safety argument. Anyhow, we actually have that contract now and they are flying a brand new (well, it was brand new when they got it) 206L4 and seem to be doing well with it. 206s, 407s and the Astars are the ships for our market. We havent been dealing with the Astars long, but I have a feeling thats the next round of schooling I will be attending, American Eurocopter AS350 field maintenance course. Oh joy. 
Eric Chandler |