May Now Begin To Operate Surplus Chinook Helicopters Acquired From The U.S. Government

The FAA has granted a Restricted Category Type Certificate for to Columbia Helicopters to begin flight operations of the eight Boeing CH-47D Chinook helicopters that it purchased surplus from the US government earlier this year.

The company has also received the Certificate of Airworthiness for the first of these aircraft.

“This completes a long process that involved the tough, focused efforts from a lot of our people who were working with the FAA,” said Kurt Koehnke, Vice President of Maintenance for Columbia Helicopters. “We have completed this first major step, and there are still several steps involved with adding this new platform to our fleet.”

"We are excited to reach this milestone so that we can begin regular flight operations soon," said Todd Petersen, Vice President of Marketing. “We expect these aircraft to find their way into firefighting operations, for some of our overseas petroleum exploration support work, and they will also be able to conduct some forestry and construction work.”

(Image from file)

FMI: www.colheli.com