South Georgia Heritage Trust move Bo105 fleet maintenance to new supplier

South Georgia Heritage Trust move Bo105 fleet maintenance to new supplier

20-Jan-2014 Source: HeliHub.com

British based charity South Georgia Heritage Trust have moved the maintenance of their three Eurocopter Bo105 helicopters from Specialist Aviation Services to A2B Heli at Oxford. The charity operates the helicopters for one month a year on an unusual operation – dropping poison pellets on the South Atlantic island of South Georgia in an effort to remove its population of rats. The harsh weather in that region, both in terms of wind levels and temperature, limit flying to around four weeks a year only – so it is necessarily an intense operation during that period. The sheer logistics of maintaining the helicopters mean that there is an engineer on site at that time, but the aircraft are then shipped back to the UK each time for work – the ease of spares and engineers knowledgeable on the Bo105

So far they operated two Bo105s for a month in early 2012, and three in early 2013. The charity is taking a break this year to ensure they are fully funded for a final blast in early 2015. If they succeed in removing all of the rats from South Georgia, it’s a big conservation win with 100 million more seabirds expected to nest on South Georgia in the absence of rats.

Up to now, the aircraft have been maintained by Specialist Aviation Services at Gloucestershire Airport. South Georgia Heritage Trust has made a decision to move that responsibility to A2B Heli at Oxford, and the aircraft were moved there by road late in 2013 for storage and any work required to make them ready for shipping south again around September of this year.

Jeremy Parkin – HeliHub.com

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