Charter Operator Contracted for Gear Testing by French Defense Procurement

France’s General Directorate of Armament (DGA-AT), awarded a 5-year contract to a local Héli-Béarn Kodiak 100 rental for the evaluation of aeronautical equipment and techniques, with the aircraft flown up to 200 flight hours annually. Héli-Béarn owns and operates two Kodiak 100s, both of which recently entered service in the southwest region of France as multifunction cargo aircraft. 

Based at Pau-Pyrenees airport, Héli-Béarn offers its services for a variety of transportation and aerial work, as well as maintenance, training, and consultation. One of their Kodiaks equipped for skydiving  has logged nearly 200 flight hours while performing over 600 rotations for civilian operations. Their clientele will be impressed, however, by their newest addition to their jump operations:  the French military's School of Airborne Troops. The school trains personnel for both the armed services and Gendarmerie police force, and its selection of Héli-Béarn should serve as a feather in their cap. 

“The contract acknowledges our Kodiak 100’s multi-mission efficiency and performance, as well as the quality of Héli-Béarn’s flight operations. It also represents another DGA recognition of Daher’s products and services. We have performed operational support maintenance for the DGA’s TBM 700 very fast aircraft during nearly 30 years, along with avionics modernization on its helicopters. More recently, the DGA ordered a fleet of four new TBM 940s for its support and training missions – with all of these aircraft now delivered,” said Nicolas Chabbert, the senior VP of daher’s aircraft division. 

The company was the first to adopt the Kodiak 100 in France, breaking from convention by selecting the Idaho-made, American aircraft. A year ago, Héli-Béarn Director Jean-Luc Dartiailh said they found the then-recent purchase of Kodiak by Daher notable, and their testing quickly convinced them that the spud-born airplane was a perfect fit. "We were able to test it in operational conditions, and we were quickly convinced that it was the ideal aircraft, especially for parachute drops. It is a modern, safe, easy to maintain and efficient device. With an operating cost 25% lower than other aircraft in service, it seems to us the ideal solution to take over from the aging fleet of parachute centers,” said Dartiailh. 

FMI: www.daher.com, www.helibearn.fr