19-Mar-2010 Source: Ahlers Aerospace
Ahlers Aerospace has recently been awarded a contract by Omniflight Corporation to install night vision cabin conversions to an additional six of their Bell 206 air medical helicopters. The installations will be accomplished at their facility in Newnan, Georgia, during March of this year. To date, Ahlers has performed more than thirty additional conversions on Omniflight air medical ships, covering Bell 206’s, 407’s, MBB BK 117’s, Eurocopter AS350’s, and EC 135’s.
These installations use variations of the Ahlers ‘white’ conversion DO-275. This durable, highly functional approach is designed to be minimally intrusive, keeping the NVIS filtering and lighting modifications external to the instrumentation whenever possible. Keeping the customer’s equipment unaltered is of great benefit to the operator when service is needed on the equipment. Time and money is saved by not having to return the equipment to Ahlers for de-modification before being returned to the equipment vendor for warranty or service. Our externally applied NVIS filters are normally attached in such a way that they can be removed and re installed easily by field personnel. In the event that the equipment must be modified internally (internally installed filtering or lamp changes), Ahlers can usually de-modify the equipment (and forward it directly to the manufacturer, if requested), within twenty four hours, minimizing the operator’s down time. We usually also supply most replacement parts within twenty four hours. We pride ourselves in support after the sale.
An additional benefit of the Ahlers conversion is that each light source in the cabin is addressed individually, so that if equipment is added or removed from the aircraft after completion of the installation, all that is required to bring the installation back to conformity is revision of the installation drawings and associated data, and the conversion of the additional equipment, if needed. Some one- piece conversions require fabrication of new panels or other procedures involving considerable expense to the operator whenever the aircraft configuration is changed subsequent to the NVIS installation.
Ahlers Aerospace currently has been awarded NVIS conversion STC’s covering the Bell 206B, L, L1, L3, L4; 407, and 430; MBB BK-117B1, B2, and C1; BO-105S; Eurocopter EC 130 B4; EC 135 T2, P2; AS350B2, B3.
We are currently in the process of obtaining STC’s for Bell 212, 412, and 222; Agusta A109 and A119; Eurocopter AS365 and EC145; Sikorsky S-76, and the MD 500.
For more information, visit our website at www.ahlersaerospace.com, contact info@ahlersaerospace.com, or call 817-553-2155