January 5, 2012 – DART Helicopter Services is pleased to announce that Geneva Aviation has secured Supplemental Type Certificate (STC) approval from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for FAST Trac, which collects performance data from analog aircraft systems and legacy operations equipment. The FAST Trac kit, which includes both the Master Control Box (MCB) and the Remote Tap Units (RTU), is certified for installation in Eurocopter AS350 Ecureuil, AS355 Ecureuil 2 and Bell 206/407 helicopters. The system connects with Iridium 9505/A or 9555 satellite communication systems (not included) to provide near real time performance information from installed legacy (analog) equipment and after-market monitoring products. Additional FAA certifications for other helicopters will be available in the future
"DART and Geneva Aviation have established a relationship with the innovative team at Absolute Fire to provide state of the art performance monitoring and data display using near real time satellite communication capability," said Steve Joseph, DART Helicopter Services VP of US Operations. "Helicopter operators with legacy fleets can now collect and see in near real time, information that was previously only available where FADEC’s or other digital data systems were installed. This will help them both in reducing costs and in meeting increasingly higher standards for FOQA and MOQA capabilities for their clients.”
"Geneva Aviation is a great partner for Absolute Fire’s FAST Trac systems," according to Steve Matthews, President of Absolute Fire. "Their technical expertise has made the STC process successful in much less time that we could have imagined – putting us on track to have Bell medium STC’s completed early this year as well. And our experience with the DART Helicopter Services global distribution network with the FAST Bucket product has been fantastic.”
The system consists of an MCB which collects data from digital outputs, and discrete and continuous analog outputs using RTU’s. The MCB allows the operator to match operational system data with aircraft performance data, and to receive near real time notifications at key thresholds, as well as to perform near real time billing based on performance parameters such as loads or application rates. Operators can select which data will be transmitted in real time and which will be downloaded later. Cellular communication interface is also available. Near real time data is shown by performance category on an AFS Dashboard, and operators can view events on Google Earth maps, download to spreadsheets, send event messages via e-mail and SMS, forward data to agencies and allow clients access to the dashboard.
About Geneva:
Geneva Aviation, Inc., founded in 1985, is wholly owned by DART Helicopter Services. The company provides a unique combination of certified equipment, on-site technical support and innovative solutions. Exceptional engineering capabilities, integration and certification experience, as well as a thorough understanding of new technologies ensuring that operators have the most reliable, user-friendly, and advanced products available, including avionics/switch consoles, power converters, audio, and video systems, as well as antenna mounts, instrument panels and composite transmission cowlings, instrument panel visors and seats.
About Absolute:
Based in Calgary, Canada, Absolute Fire Solutions manufactures the patented FAST Bucket, the world’s first fire-fighting bucket to incorporate cockpit volume control and self-powered gated bucket operations as standard features. The FAST line also includes a full range of accessories including foam and gel injection, powered fill, and FAST Trac event logging and SATcom interface. In its fifth year of operation Absolute has clients in 20 countries operating the full range of fire suppression and data logging products. For more information about Absolute’s Fire Solutions, visit http://www.absolutefire.ca/, or our worldwide distributor DART Helicopter Services, http://www.darthelicopterservices.com/.
