The Board of Supervisors in Riverside County (California) has approved the purchase of two AS350B3 helicopters, according to local press.  The total cost was quoted in the agenda to the meeting as $11.5 Million, net of which they have an insurance receipt of $1.96M providing a net figure of $9.54M.

The insurance receipt relates to another AS350B3 which was lost in a crash while training on 28th August 2014.  The remaining Riverside fleet consists of three AS350B3, one Bell OH-58 and a Cessna 182P fixed wing.  The purchase replaces the writen-off aircraft and the Bell, which was previously scheduled to be taken out of service in 2009.

The proposal put to the Board indicates that the single-source contract was favourable on the basis that they had a significant investment in maintenance tooling, training etc and by sticking with the AS350B3 provided ongoing savings.  Riverside is expecting to contract with Hangar One Avionics (based in Carlsbad, California) to manage the program from start to delivery.

Riverside County needs to contract with Airbus Helicopters Inc for these aircraft before 1st January 2015 – at that point the unit price rises by $90K.  The actual purchase price is $11,064,288 but the $11.5M figure was put forward to cover contingencies.

Jeremy Parkin – HeliHub.com