Improved Hot, High, and Heavy Performance for Bell UH-1H

StandardAero—a highly-regarded and independent provider of aircraft engine and airframe maintenance, repair and overhaul, engine component repair, engineering services, interior completions, and paint applications—announced on 06 March 2023 that it is about the business of completing Phase-2 and 3 of a 3-phase program to upgrade a Bell UH-1H helicopter belonging to Arizona’s Pinal County Sheriff Office (PCSO).

The work will significantly improve the venerable Huey’s performance under the hot-weather, high-density-altitude, and heavy-gross-weight operating conditions a police helicopter in South-Central Arizona is apt to encounter.

The program, appositely dubbed UH-1H3 Hot, High and Heavy, is underway at StandardAero’s British Columbia, Canada helicopter airframe facility, and is expected to be completed in March 2023. The extensive undertaking includes modifications to the Huey’s lift-beam, main-beams, tail-boom attachment points, engine-mounts and main-transmission-mount. The machine’s main-transmission, driveshaft assemblies and engine will also be upgraded. The increases to engine horsepower and torque facilitated by the Phase-2 modifications will see the UH-1H’s external load capacity increased to five-thousand-pounds and its external gross-weight-limitation increased to 10,500-pounds.  

Phase-3 of the helicopter’s upgrade includes Bell’s 212 main-rotor hub and blades, which up the Huey’s internal and external gross-weight capacities to 10,500 and 11,200-pounds respectively. Subject modifications complement Phase-1 alterations, which provided for improved hover-hold, yaw-control, reduced-torque tail-rotor power requirements, and diminished fuel consumption. Completed in 2021, the Phase-1 modifications also furnished the PSCO Huey with an upgraded T53-L-703 engine and transmission cooling system.

StandardAero initiated its UH-1H airframe upgrade program in 1992, and has since performed more than 150 upgrades for military and restricted-category operators.

Following the completion of Phase-1 modifications, PCSO Chief Pilot Corbiere Pecora remarked: “PCSO has been flying our Huey with the standard Dash-13 engine and legacy tail since around 2016. After StandardAero upgraded our tail and engine as the first step in a three-stage upgrade process … pilots saw a dramatic increase in operational capability.  We immediately were able to conduct rescue and border missions in terrain and mission configurations not afforded to us prior to the upgrades.  The increase in power and tail-rotor authority is a game-changer for those coming from a straight UH-1. PCSO is eager to take delivery of the final product this March with the completion of Stage-2 and 3 of the upgrade. Once back in Arizona, we will re-implement our hoist rescue program with our new expanded capabilities.”

FMI: www.standardaero.com