Helitune’s Vehicle Health Monitoring System (HT-VHM) recently completed three very successful 45 minute flight trials on an AgustaWestland AW109 with Castle Air in the UK.  HT-VHM was used to continuously collect and store vibration inputs, speed references, RT-TipTrak blade tracking data, GPS and Inertial data.  All 3 flights were a total success and without any issue.  Leonardo Helicopters (Leonardo-Finmeccanica) are supporting the project by providing technical advice to Helitune and Castle Air with the intention of achieving an STC on the AW109 in Q4 2016.

HT-VHM has been designed and developed for suitability with a wide range of platforms sizes and requirements.  Configurable from as few as 8 channels plus speed references, it provides parallel and simultaneous data acquisition across all measurement channels and rotors and RAW data storage.  The modular and expandable architecture provides the ability to meet the needs of larger platforms interfacing with flight displays and data recorders via the aircraft data bus.  HT-VHM integrates with Helitune on-board sensors OPU, MPU and RT-TipTrak.  Data extraction is possible via USB, WiFi, or Ethernet to the VHM-Vision ground support station for data analysis, trending, Condition Indicator analysis and prognostics.  Engineering interaction with the HT-VHM is simple, using Helitune’s ruggedized and flight qualified Flitepad tablet.

Mr Peter Morrish, Technology Manager at Helitune commented.  “HT-VHM is the next generation of on-board systems and continues the relationship started with Finmeccanica in 2007 for the on-board RTB PCB for Merlin. HT-VHM was designed to be small enough and cost effective for lighter platforms in its basic configuration, and yet offering excellent value for money in its enhanced configurations for the larger platforms.”