Helikopter - Skytrac testes i CHC - AW&ST

CHC Tests Automated Real-Time Helicopter HUMS Tony Osborne After years of gathering health and usage monitoring (HUMS) data on their helicopters, oil and gas operators are beginning to find ways of using it more proactively. In the past, HUMS data was usually collected at the end of the flying day and examined for potential exceedances in the vibration levels associated with the aircraft’s complex dynamic systems. But improvements in computing power are making this data more accessible in flight, potentially enabling speedier maintenance and turnarounds. Helicopter operator CHC has been experimenting with a new approach in collaboration with flight-tracking company Skytrac and Leonardo to trial its own vision of real-time HUMS. The company’s Leonardo AW139s twin-engine medium helicopters are being tested at Den Helder, the Netherlands, with an upgraded Skytrac-developed data-acquisition system that has been modified to make use of Leonardo’s Heliwise HUMS software. The system is being tested at CHC’s base in Den Helder, the Netherlands Development is a response to CHC’s West Franklin incident involving an unstable S-92 landing Normally, Heliwise would process the data on the ground and warn of any potential component issues, but this is now being done on CHC’s AW139s in flight, monitoring more than 500 different parameters. Any warning of exceedances is then sent via satellite communications to the company’s engineers, with e-mail and text messages detailing the issue. The CHC approach is slightly different to that developed jointly by Sikorsky, Petroleum Helicopters (PHi) and Metro Aviation for the S-92 platform revealed at the 2017 Heli-Expo, for which some warnings associated with exceedances are also presented to the crews so that pilots and engineers on the ground could work on problems together. “We wanted to leave the pilots out of it and take workload off them,” says Dave Balevic, senior vice president for engineering and operations at CHC. “Our people on the ground now know ahead of time that when this aircraft returns, they need to go and look at a particular parameter.” The installation also helps to automate the entire HUMS data-collection process. Once the aircraft lands and returns to its stand and is within range of a Wi-Fi signal, the HUMS data is collected automatically rather than being downloaded and uploaded from data cards according to the standard process.

CHC is testing its real-time HUMS solution on its Leonardo AW139s operating from Den Helder, the Netherlands. Other types in the fleet will follow. Credit: CHC

Automation also has potential safety benefits, Balevic says. In December 2016, one of CHC’s S-92s made an unstable landing on a North Sea oil rig, spinning 180 deg. on the deck and stopping close to the deck’s edge. In March this year, the UK Air Accident Investigation Branch (AAIB) published the results of its probe of the incident, stating that while the HUMS had picked up exceedances in the tail rotor pitch change shaft, these had not been identified by engineers because of the way they had been presented in the analysis tool. “Had HUMS exceedance data been available on the helicopter in near real-time, the flight crew would have had at least two predeparture opportunities to safely abort the flight,” the AAIB stated. “The system we have today would catch that so that engineering mishap would have been avoided,” Balevic says. The technology also adds new capabilities to CHC’s tablet computer-based electronic flight bag (EFB), such as the ability to send crews updated weather and maritime information and enabling crews to understand weather conditions at their destination rather than relying on forecasts produced sometimes several hours before their flights. CHC is currently installing the real-time HUMS and EFB capability as a supplemental-type-certificated kit on the AW139 fleet at Den Helder. In addition to the data acquisition unit, the kit fits two antennas onto the aircraft, including one above the windshield. Balevic says the kit can be installed during four nights of maintenance. The company is facing a minor hurdle installing the system: CHC is asking its oil and gas customers for what Balevic calls a minor increase in service charges to pay for the utility. “The customers absolutely love the idea . . . . But it is taking a little longer than I anticipated [to sign up] with some customers,” he notes. CHC is planning for the system to be installed across the wider fleet, including its AW189 super-medium helicopter in operation in Australia. Integration should be similar to that on the AW139, given the similarities between the two platforms. CHC also is eager to install the system on the S-92. The introduction of Skytrac onto the helicopters could open the way for more comfortable flights for oil and gas workers, who could access the internet on their personal devices during the long flights to the oil rigs.