Blue Hawaiian Helicopters Selects G500H, Upgrades Their Fleet

One of Garmin's most popular products for helicopters is being used by one of the world’s largest tour operators. Blue Hawaiian, the largest Hawaiian helicopter operator and Hollywood’s first-call helicopter company, is in the process of installing the Garmin G500H in their fleet of 21 Eurocopter EC130 and AS350 helicopters.

“The greatest risk factor faced by helicopter operations in Hawaii is inadvertent flight into IMC and subsequent CFIT (controlled flight into terrain). Garmin’s synthetic vision technology is a god-send. The G500H is a revolutionary tool to improve situational awareness and significantly reduce our greatest risk. The cost/benefit of this system makes this choice a ‘no-brainer,’” said David Chevalier, CEO, Blue Hawaiian Helicopters. “Having a customer like Blue Hawaiian – who goes the extra mile to have the most advanced 21st century helicopter technology – select the G500H speaks volumes about the impression this product is making on the helicopter industry,” said Gary Kelley, Garmin’s vice president of marketing. “With the availability of an advanced avionics system like the G500H, helicopter pilots will have unparalleled safety of flight and situational awareness, and will be able to provide their customers with the best experience in the air.”

Dual 6.5-inch LCD screens, mounted side-by-side in a single bezel, put primary flight display (PFD) and multi-function display (MFD) capabilities right in front of the pilot. The PFD screen shows attitude, airspeed, altitude, climb rate and course/heading information — while the MFD provides detailed moving-map graphics depicting the helicopter’s current position in relation to ground features, chart data, navaids and flight plan routings.

The G500H is available in two versions – one with the PFD on the right, the other version with the PFD on the left – allowing maximum installation versatility. The G500H has numerous advanced technologies that are optimized for rotorcraft. The G500H supports Garmin’s helicopter-specific synthetic vision technology (HSVT) that lets  pilots see an “out-the-window” view of the surroundings and traffic, regardless of the weather conditions. HSVT seamlessly blends information about the rotorcraft’s position with topographic databases to create and display real-time 3D images.

To help monitor the aircraft’s location on unfamiliar airports, the G500H comes with preloaded geo-referenced SafeTaxi diagrams for nearly 1,000 U.S. airports, as well as a helicopter-specific databases with over 7,000 heliports and nearly 30,000 additional low-altitude obstacles. In addition, it supports optional equipment that enables XM WX Satellite Weather with NEXRAD, GSR 56 Iridium transceiver for aircraft tracking, and the ability to display video from a forward looking infrared (FLIR) camera or other video sources. Blue Hawaiian completed its first two G500H installation in late 2010, and has already put hundreds of hours on the aircraft with the new avionics. The company plans to upgrade the entire fleet to G500H by mid- 2011.

FMI: www.garmin.com