German operator Motorflug has commenced operations this week on the military training contract at the Buckeburg base.  Motorflug were awarded the contract in December 2016 after successfully bidding with six Bell 206 JetRangers.

After the German military made the decision to discontinue using Bo105s, they needed a basic training helicopter, and most basic level aircraft in the fleet – the EC135 / EC635 – is understood to have been too complex for ab initio pilots.  The Bo105 completed 1,387,913 flight hours over 43 years from a fleet of 212 helicopters, but was based largely on 1970s technology.  The tender required particular training procedures, including autorotations to the ground.

The new contract is for four years, and there is an expectation of a total of 15,400 flight hours for the fleet across that period – this equates to approximately 650 hours per aircraft per year.  Motorflug will be maintaining the fleet at their base at Achum.  The first of the six was delivered to Buckeburg last week and the others are going through some avionics work so they are all at the same standard.

Motorflug have been allocated the six registrations D-HMFA to D-HMFF as follows

The full German name of this unit is Internationales Hubschrauberausbildungszentrum, which gets abbreviated to either IntHubschrAusbZ, or IHAZ.  This translates as International Helicopter Training Centre.

Jeremy Parkin – HeliHub.com

Photo – Bundeswehr / IHAZ (Alexander Bozic)