Grizzly Mountain Aviation, Superior Helicopter "Pick Up" More Kaman K-Max 'Aerial Trucks'

The Heli-World's heavylifter is logging some heavyweight sales action.

Kaman Aerospace Corp. has announced that Superior Helicopter LLC, of Grants Pass, Oregon, has purchased its third K-MAX "aerial truck" helicopter, (which was previously under lease), and is leasing a fourth bird.  Superior has expanded its traditional operation from U.S. logging to international firefighting and construction. The company currently has two K-MAXs in Australia fighting fires and one in Taiwan performing aerial logistics support at the Ho-Ping Dam construction project.

"We have flown over 25,000 hours in our K-MAXs in the last seven years, and we have found the aircraft to be very rugged and cost effective. We have begun to apply our expertise and aircraft to new and evolving markets and we expect to operate a K-MAX fleet of four to five on a continuous basis in the next several years," said Gary Jantzer, general manager, Superior Helicopter.

Roger Wassmuth, director K-MAX marketing and sales for Kaman Aerospace, said, "Superior Helicopter is a valued customer, and we are very pleased that they have taken the lead to provide professional K-MAX operations worldwide. We see a lot of opportunity for growth of the K-MAX around the world due to the aircraft's continued high reliability rate and cost-effective lifting capabilities."

Grizzly Mountain Aviation of Prineville, Oregon has taken delivery of a Kaman Aerospace Corp. K-MAX "aerial truck" helicopter for use in logging and firefighting. Grizzly had been a former K-MAX user, who purchased the used K-MAX in December and will start operating it this month.

The K-MAX fleet has accumulated more than 120,000 flight hours since the aircraft was certified in 1994. K-MAX helicopters are currently operating in 10 countries - the U.S., Canada, Japan, Austria, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, Germany, Australia, Taiwan and Colombia. K-MAX is specifically designed for vertical reference flight, an important feature for external load work. It has a 5,000-pound "on-the-hook" lift capacity at 8,000 feet of altitude and 6,000 pounds on-the-hook at lower altitudes.

FMI: www.kaman.com