Sandel Avionics has announced it has delivered its first production WireWatch wire alerting application to MSP Aero of Minneapolis, MN, for installation in a fleet of Agusta A109 helicopters operated by North Memorial Medical Center (NMMC) of Robbinsdale, MN. The industry’s first onboard wire-strike avoidance device, WireWatch, a proprietary feature of the Sandel HeliTAWS^™ system, incorporates an updatable database of transmission lines at or above 100’ AGL to provide visual display and aural warnings of the hazard location on its high-resolution 3-ATI display.

“We had previously determined that, as the only such system that operates at typical mission altitudes without nuisance alerts, the Sandel HeliTAWS was the best solution for terrain avoidance,” said Jon Ness, MSP Aero’s Director of Business Development. “The addition of the Sandel WireWatch technology gives us confidence that our client’s helicopters are also being protected from known wires, and that their pilots will be flying with even greater situational awareness,” he added.

“We’re pleased that MSP Aero and North Memorial Medical Center have recognized the added safety that Sandel HeliTAWS provides,” noted Gerry Block, Sandel’s president. “By enhancing helicopter safety, we believe our revolutionary HeliTAWS adds a real benefit — peace of mind — to the helicopter operator.”

Sandel’s HeliTAWS, the industry’s first multihazard avoidance system for helicopters, protects against terrain, wires and obstacles, and is the only terrain avoidance system certified for nuisance-free operation below en route altitudes. Incorporating Sandel’s proprietary TruAlert^™ technology, Sandel HeliTAWS enables pilots to safely take off, cruise, hover and land at off-airport locations without triggering nuisance alerts, while still receiving the established benefits of Class-A terrain and obstacle warnings during the entire flight. The HTAWS-compliant Sandel HeliTAWS system, which was designed for such demanding missions as HEMS, oil rig operations, tactical military support, airborne law enforcement, firefighting and search & rescue, is completely automatic and does not require pilot management of the phase of flight.

Sandel Avionics, located in Vista, California, is a privately held company that provides embedded software for OEM