Tips for Renovating Helicopters Inside & Out

Owners of single- or twin-turbine engine helicopters usually know exactly what they want from their rotorcraft. However, when they initially acquire their used helicopters and want to outfit them for corporate and/or VIP purposes, or to renew their helicopters’ looks, they may not know all the important factors which influence the cost and time involved.

Knowing what those factors are can help owners plan fruitfully for the modifications which will be involved in their helicopter reconfiguration or renovation projects and allow them to consider carefully how best to keep the costs under control.

In many cases careful consideration of compromises, together with informed helicopter- and equipment-purchase choices can reduce an owner’s overall outlay for renovation or reconfiguration. Three helicopter-modification experts share their insights here...

Be Prepared to Compromise on Your Helicopter Choice

There is a reasonable chance that anyone looking to buy a used helicopter for corporate or VIP use, whether the machine is already configured for such missions or would need to be reconfigured, might not find the perfect pre-owned example to meet the combination of their interior and exterior taste, their usage requirements and their planned price range.

Particularly in a heated market, prospective owners might have no choice at all among the helicopters available but must grab the first helicopter offering the general size, performance and cost combination they’re looking for.

In such cases (and even in less-heated, more usually prevailing markets such as today’s, where several helicopters may meet or approach a buyer’s general requirements), the buyer may still have to compromise on the preferred example in terms of its configuration, condition and cost.

This may require the buyer to reconfigure the helicopter, and perhaps repaint its exterior, to meet their individual mission requirements.

According to Scott Wagner, Vice President of Sales for Dallas/Fort Worth-based helicopter brokerage Helicopter Marketing Associates Inc. (HMA), one fairly common and more affordable compromise for buyers in normal or heated market conditions is to buy a helicopter which previously was used for utility missions.

Such missions encompass traffic surveillance, as well as other surveillance and equipment-monitoring roles (e.g. pipeline inspection and servicing TV and wind-power masts), medevac flights, search and rescue operations, news gathering, monitoring wildfires, offshore oil and gas platform support, and firefighting command and control.

Why Consider Buying Former Utility Helicopters?

In some cases, depending on an individual helicopter’s age, condition and operating history, a utility helicopter can be purchased cheaply and then converted for another role.

The cost to convert such a helicopter for corporate or VIP flying might be substantial (depending on how the customer wants to equip its interior and wants its exterior to look), but the buyer’s overall price calculation for the purchase will account for the helicopter’s low initial acquisition cost.

Wagner cites an example of such a deal created and handled by his company involving a Bell 430 it purchased at a “really low” price for its client. The helicopter was “fairly old” and had been sitting on the ground for quite a long time, so after the client completed the purchase the Bell 430 had to undergo major maintenance.

That involved stripping the old paint off the helicopter’s exterior and performing a full repaint to the client’s specification; putting the helicopter through a major maintenance inspection and performing all necessary repair and replacement of parts; and installing a VIP interior (possibly expensively) equipped as the client wanted it.

Wagner cites another example of a utility-to-corporate switch which involved a new Sikorsky S-76 configured for offshore oil and gas industry support operations that HMA marketed for sale. HMA couldn’t find a buyer for the rotorcraft in its original configuration but eventually “someone came in and purchased it and reconfigured it to corporate” configuration.

Caution May Be Needed

In general, says Wagner, when considering buying a helicopter which hasn’t been stored carefully, “You truly don’t know what’s involved with an aircraft which was sitting on the ground for many years and is fairly old”.

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