BELL 412 JAR-OPS3 APPROVAL THROUGH SIMULATION AND LIMITED FLIGHT TESTING

The Joint Aviation Requirements-Operations (JAR-OPS) will be adopted by certain nations in Europe, Africa, and Asia in the next few years, and all commercial helicopters will need proper maintenance, training, equipment, and flight profiles in order to operate in these nations. Bell Helicopter Textron Inc. is currently working on a program that will allow the M412EP to be compliant with the requirements by the time they take effect. Part of this effort includes developing new flight profiles and the corresponding performance charts for offshore operations. Flight testing new profiles is time-consuming and expensive. A more efficient method is to use a math model that is correlated with limited flight testing. This paper describes the steps taken to ensure that the M412EP will have the appropriate flight profiles and performance charts so that an operator can fly the aircraft and comply with the JAR-OPS3 requirements.