Heliwest completes HQ upgrade

Heliwest has completed a broad $1 million upgrade of its headquarters at Jandakot Airport in Western Australia.

The centrepiece of the revamp is an Elite Twin Squirrel Flight Simulator that will allow Heliwest to provide state-of-the art training for new students and pilots seeking to upgrade their skills.

The new simulator replicates an IFR AS355 Twin Squirrel helicopter and has been certified by CASA, the JAA in Europe and the FAA in the US under visual and instrument flight conditions. It’s equipped with high level instrumentation and controls and a class specific flight model.

The simulator’s environment provides visual scenery with continuous time of day settings, airport lights, wind and cloud layers and an atmosphere model, while the instructor station has an intuitive user interface with malfunctions page, map page and weather page.

Heliwest chief pilot and head of training, Ashley Williams, said the new Squirrel sim allows the company to offer training for both both night and instrument flying as well as standard basic training.

“Another great benefit is that pilots can learn how to handle both emergency and non-emergency situations in the safety of a simulator,” Williams said.

“It has a comprehensive database showing all ports and towns in Western Australia as well as landing facilities on ships and oil rigs. It will be invaluable to Heliwest pilots as the company moves ahead with its intention to enter the offshore helicopter transportation market.”

Hourly rates on the new simulator are markedly cheaper than flight hours in an actual aircraft and Heliwest is considering making the sim available to other companies and marketing joy flights to the general public.

“We’ve had quite a few non-pilots take the controls of the simulator and without exception they’ve thoroughly enjoyed the experience,” Williams added.

As well as the completion of the upgrade to its facilities, Heliwest also achieved another milestone recently by obtaining accreditation under civil aviation regulations as a CAR 217 checking and training organisation. This approval from CASA allows Heliwest to conduct safety checks of its own pilots and offer the service to other fleet operators and pilots.

“The CAR 217 accreditation enhances Heliwest’s capabilities in long-term offshore transportation by offering our clients a seamless full service operation,” Williams said.
“We can effectively supervise our own assessments without having to call in an external check pilot from CASA. It gives us a lot more flexibility and will enable us to operate larger and more complex aircraft.”