On 12 June 2013 Aerial Recon took delivery of the first Canadian-registered R66 Turbine helicopters at Robinson’s factory in Torrance, Calif., and then flew the four aircraft to Aerial Recon’s home base in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The four helicopters will be used for private and commercial operations.

After a lengthy process, Transport Canada Civil Aviation issued a type certificate for the R66 on 31 May 2013. Certification, which had reached a standstill, gained momentum when the FAA issued an ELOS (Equivalent Level of Safety) finding in February 2013 for the R66 hydraulic control system that effectively removed an exemption in the R66’s original type certificate.

“The five-place R66 Turbine is an efficient and reliable light helicopter with low annual operating costs and will give commercial operators a boost to their bottom line,” says Eric Gould, owner of Aerial Recon.

A Robinson dealer for over 28 years, Aerial Recon Ltd. has more than 80,000 hours experience operating Robinson helicopters.

HeliHub.com editor note – From our Canadian monthly register report for June here, you can see that no fewer than 13 R66s were imported to Canada in the month of June, of which 11 are completely new and two are older serial numbers which have been operated in-country on N registrations up to now.   Robinson expect a total of 26 to be operating in Canada by the end of 2013.