Bay watch
The fleet transition is about more than just a question of converting the crews and operations to the new variant for the maintenance side of the operation.
There are a number of changes in process to accommodate the arrival of the D3s while taking care of the C2s.
At present, one of the six bays at Nimes is dedicated to the D3s, with four being reserved for the C2s of the Sécurité Civile and one for the C2s of the National Gendarmerie.
The plan is that by the end of this year an additional bay will be added, so there will be two D3 bays and five for C2s – something that will progressively change over time as the fleet renews.
There is a separation between the bays, as Head of Maintenance Pascal Kuhn explains.
He says: “The tooling is different, completely different. You need specific tooling for the blades, and they are different between the C2 and D3 – and of course the Fenestron is completely different from the tail rotor. So the training of the engineers is also different, but most have already been trained. We have about eight to 10 of our team of 74 to train on the D3.”
A deep maintenance visit takes 12 to 14 weeks.
At present, aircraft come to Nimes for deep maintenance once every 800 hours or, in calendar terms, once every 12 to 15 months. But that is like to change soon, as Airbus is looking to increase the interval to 1,000 hours for the H145 D3.
“When they come back, it’s a big job,” says Kuhn. “We completely dismantle them, renew the avionics and carry out any structural repairs. Corrosion is an issue, especially for the aircraft flying overseas in the salty tropical environment. You get corrosion in the fuselage, the floorboards. We also carry out a full inspection of the blades. We replace all the bushings, the bearings, and grease everything before we reinstall the components.”
All of which adds up to a deep maintenance visit consuming about 12 to 14 weeks and 1,500 to 1,600 man hours.
The fleet will be all H145 D3s by 2030.
How does work on the D3 compare with the C2s? Kuhn has the engineer’s directness, saying: “The aircraft is very efficient, but when they come in for maintenance we find more problems with them.”
The problem, says Kuhn, is to do with the power increase in the D3 compared with earlier versions.
“We are seeing problems related to the greater output. Remember, there is a 25% increase in power, with the swashplates, masts and linkages. We’ve had six D3s come through the heavy maintenance so far and all have needed the swashplates and masts replacing. It’s not a cost to us in terms of parts, because of the power-by-the-hour contract, but the time to complete the 800-hour inspections is higher.”
