An EMS favourite

They might want the increased safety of having a twin engined aircraft (and with a choice between Turbomeca’s Arrius and Pratt & Whitney Canada’s PW206 at that), although with the reliability of modern engines, this is not usually foremost in prospective buyers’ minds. Or, perhaps most importantly, they might like its IFR capability with full autopilot and glass cockpit technology, so you can fly where you like, when you like, just like all those EMS operators, like Surf Life Saving Queensland, whose Gold Coast based EC135 was the photo subject (but not the test aircraft) for this airtest, need.

Close up, the EC135 is an extremely imposing machine. Its graceful curved lines are not dissimilar to those of its smaller stablemate’s, the EC120, with which it also has in common Eurocopter’s fenestron in place of a conventional tail rotor, meaning increased safety for those on the ground – a big plus for EMS operators loading stretcher patients through the rear clamshell doors.

As in the EC120, asymmetrically spaced blades in the fenestron reduce noise, and this helicopter is surprisingly quiet for such a large and powerful machine. It has large windows – which promise fantastic visibility from the cockpit – and can sit on low or tall skids.

External preflight checks are straightforward, with large panels ensuring that everything is easily visible and accessible – no shining a torch into odd corners, as is thecase with some helicopters. Steps are provided so that the pilot can climb up the fuselage in order to reach the rotors, and these are well enough spaced even for those of us who aren’t that tall or agile. I sometimes feel that a course in acrobatics is needed for the ‘A’ check, but not in this case.

The doors open easily with assistance from a gas strut, and climbing aboard is not a problem. The pedals are adjustable, and the wide, comfortable seats move forward and back, so that any size of pilot can be accommodated. Moving the seat forward so that (even at only 1. 55m) I could reach the pedals, I instantly wondered if full aft cyclic would still be possible, but the cyclic has a large curve in it to allow for this. In fact, I found that all the controls were in a very comfortable position. And despite being short, I found I had excellent visibility over the large instrument panel, unlike in the EC120, where the instrument panel seemed a little high.

The instrument panel – ah, yes, the instrument panel! If I had been miraculously deposited in this machine, had no view of the outside, and was only able to see the instruments, I might have imagined myself seated in the pointy end of a modern airliner.

I had never before seen a layout like this in a helicopter, and certainly never used instruments like this for real.

The similarity to airliner cockpits is not surprising if one considers the EC135’s heritage. Eurocopter is a part of EADS, which also owns Airbus, and the EC135’s cockpit will look familiar to any Airbus pilot. The screen layouts are similar, and in both Airbuses and the EC135, if a screen goes blank for any reason, all necessary information is instantly transferred to another screen. You have considerable duplication, and you can lose a lot of aircraft systems before you start having real problems, as is the case in the Airbus.

Indeed, it was clear that a great deal of Airbus technology has been incorporated in the EC135 – though of course, it is not fly-by-wire.

While I waited for instructor Dick Ormshaw, I attempted to familiarise myself with the complex cockpit layout. In the centre, along the top, were the familiar basic instruments – clock, ASI, altimeter, AI, etc.

Out airtest machine also had a radio altimeter fitted. There were various switches for the engines, and radios and transponders, as one would expect. And the rest of the instrument panel seemed full of… screens.

There were two Garmin 430 GPS units, as well as a TCAS display. The two panels in the centre I recognised from the EC120 – the vehicle and engine multifunctional display (VEMD).

As in the EC120, the VEMD’s three modes give information about fuel content, OAT, and engine oil temperature and pressure. Load data can be entered, there is a maintenance page, and so on. The upper display has the first limitation indicator (FLI), about which I raved so enthusiastically when flying the EC120 (refer May 2009 Australian Aviation). Briefly, this does away with the need for turbine helicopter pilots to have about four eyes (or in the case of a twin engined helicopter, maybe eight!), to be able to monitor T4, Ng (engine rpm) and torque, while at the same time making sure the blades start to turn.

The FLI integrates these parameters into one clear dial, labelled from 1 to 10, and while the numbers are arbitrary, all you need to know during startup is not to allowthe needle to go over the limit – 9. 5 in this case (9. 6 in the EC120).

Dick had now joined me, and he began to explain some of the other screens, switches and knobs, with which the cockpit seemed to be positively festooned. The top screen on the right, in front of the pilot, displayed attitude, airspeed and altitude.

The lower screen was basically a VOR/ DME, and also showed other heading and direction information. So far, so good, once you know. All the instruments and screens can be duplicated on the left-hand side, if required for two pilot use.

There were also a number of buttons on the cyclic and collective. Among others, the cyclic had both a course trim and an electric fine trim, as well as the SAS (stability augmentation system) release.

The collective has switches for the landing light controllers, wiper controllers and two manual throttles for the two engines.

All were within easy reach, and although somewhat confusing by their sheer number, Dick assured me that use of the buttons soon becomes second nature.

Despite all this complexity, startup turned out to be a piece of cake. After the necessary checks of circuit breakers, warning lights and FADECs, you basically switch on one engine. You then monitor the dial on the FLI. When everything has settled down, you switch on the second engine, and monitor the second dial. Opening the throttles is automatic, and unless one of the dials indicates that a limit is about to be exceeded, there is nothing else to do.

The rotors turn anti-clockwise as with most helicopters, but unlike the EC120, which has clockwise rotating rotors. As we lifted into the hover and transitioned away, I could already feel that this was an extremely responsive and powerful helicopter, especially with only two people on board. The climb rate of 1500ft/min means that you can practically levitate if you want to. Levelling off to the cruise, the nose attitude seemed markedly low, and I had a difficult time stopping a constant slow climb until I became used to it. Cruise speed is around 130kt, and the EC135 is extremely stable at this.

With time to look around, I found that visibility, as I had expected, is nothing short of fantastic – with the large windows in the back, you can almost see in all directions.

The cockpit seemed incredibly wide – in fact, I looked several times to make sure the door was actually still there! I even found that I could have a good stretch if I wanted to, something which would often be nice to do on long flights, but is impossible in most small helicopters.

Eurocopter EC135
Technical specifications
Powerplants
Two 609kW (816shp) Turboméca
Arrius 2B2 or Pratt & Whitney
Canada PW206B2 turboshafts
Performance
VNE 140kt
Cruise 138kt
Climb rate 1500ft/min
Service ceiling 10,000ft
Hover ceiling IGE 10,000ft
Hover ceiling OGE 7400ft
Maximum range with standard
tanks 342nm (635km)
Weights
Empty 1490kg
Max AUW 2835kg
Useful load 1375kg
Fuel capacity 700.5 lit
Baggage capacity 1.1m3
Dimensions
Length (rotor turning) 12.16m
Fuselage length 10.20m
Height 3.51m
Width (blades folded) 2.65m
Main rotor diameter 10.20m
Tail rotor diameter 1.00m
Manufacturer
Eurocopter
Website
www.eurocopter.com/site/docs_
wsw/RUB_1074/360-EC135.mov
Price
Approximately US$4 million

The Bose noise cancelling headsets meant that the ride was extremely quiet, but I uncovered one ear to check, and this is not a noisy helicopter in any case. There is also very little vibration, mainly due to the built-in anti-resonance isolation system (ARIS) which filters rotor induced vibration. All in all, the EC135 was very comfortable, but also seemed to be easy to fly, particularly considering that I had only been doing so for a very short time.

Up until now, I had been relying on Dick to deal with instrument and screen adjustments, while I accustomed myself to reading the glass cockpit displays. We had also been using the autopilot, which is in fact a fully integrated part of the whole system.

If you want, the autopilot will keep your heading and/or altitude, so that you can put your route into the GPS, engage the autopilot, and it will take over everything.

If you actually turn off the autopilot, you get visual and aural warnings. It is designed to be flown with the autopilot, and as Dick put it: “You’ve paid all this money for an autopilot, so why on earth would you want to turn it off?” However, we did switch it off, and at slower speeds, it does not make a great deal of difference, but flying without it at 130kt. . .

Dick said that would be a full time job in such a powerful yet responsive helicopter.

The next thing to try was simulated engine failure. Since the EC135 is a twin, autorotation is rarely needed, as both engines are highly unlikely to fail at the same time. But single engine failure is always a faint possibility. So Dick put the helicopter into its ‘training mode’, which meant that the screens would fudge the figures in some way, so that we would get all the indications of only flying on one engine. However, there would actually be two engines running, for safety’s sake – just in case something really did go wrong. Clever stuff! As Dick ‘failed’ one engine, the centre screen went back to the FLI, which indicated that we were running on one engine.

With only two of us, flying on one engine actually seemed to make little difference.

But had we been heavier, and had I pulled too much power and overtorqued theengine, the Nr (rotor RPM) would have appeared to reduce. This mode therefore makes it possible to safely carry out this sort of training at realistic weights.

Heading back to the airfield, I managed the approach and transition to the hover quite easily, and was surprised at how confident I was beginning to feel in the EC135 in such a short time. However, it is a surprisingly sensitive and responsive helicopter for such a big machine, requiring very gentle control inputs. We played around close to the ground, with Dick showing me that once you are in a stable hover, you can put the autopilot on to keep it there, and take your hands almost completely off the controls. You can also hover sideways, and once the autopilot ‘knows’ what you want to do, it will carry on doing it.

All very useful stuff, particularly in a police role – as Dick put it, “When you’re hovering downwind at 1200ft at night trying to catch the bad guys, instead of working like a one armed paper hanger, you can put the controls where you want them, and the autopilot does the rest. ” OK, most of us don’t do quite such challenging flying, but I can still think of times when I’d appreciate having some help in the hover – long waits in a gusty crosswind for takeoff or runway crossings at busy airports, for a start.

I was about to find out just how responsive and manoeuvrable the EC135 really is.

Dick did a couple of wingovers and some other fancy low level stuff. And I could now see that the EC135’s bearingless main rotor system gave it outstanding manoeuvrability, while also making it great fun to fly. I was itching to have a go at that sort of flying myself. But all good things come to an end, and the Eurocopter agent wasn’t going to let me fly its EC135 all day, however much I wanted to.

So the verdict? This is a lovely helicopter, in just about every way. It is responsive,manoeuvrable and great fun to fly, while being comfortable and stable, and having enough equipment to reduce the pilot’s workload when necessary on long trips.

Provided the pilot is suitably qualified, it can be used in virtually all weather and all conditions. Air conditioning increases comfort on hot days, and can be removed to reduce the weight in winter.

Passengers, or EMS patients, would definitely appreciate the quietness and lack of vibration. They would also welcome the large amount of space in the back, where you can have either four or five seats, and there is still plenty of legroom, or ample room for a stretcher patient and medical attendants. The 1. 1m3 luggage area at the back is completely separated from the cockpit, which means that wet coats or other items can be stored there, without the possibility of them misting up the cockpit. And there is room for several bags or suitcases, so no necessity to travel light. Of course, you cannot carry an infinite weight of people and luggage. But with full fuel it is still possible to take about 500kg altogether, and unless you want to carry seven people and several large suitcases, this should be enough for most.

Overall, it is easy to see why the EC135 has become so popular. Over 900 have been sold worldwide, and Eurocopter is trying to build 90 a year to satisfy what has become a huge market. Although still used primarily by the police, EMS, military and similar organisations, the corporate market is now making definite inroads – private and business users know a good thing when they see one, and this machine is extremely capable in a corporate type environment.

That said, this is probably not a helicopter for the average PPL(H) to buy immediately after learning to fly. While flying it is not all that difficult, there is a huge amount of information to absorb when learning all the systems and technology incorporated in the various screens. Assimilating it all would take quite a long time. Added to that is the complexity of two engines, plus a turbine conversion if the pilot has learned on a piston helicopter, as most of us do.

Most private owners would move up to an EC135 after owning another turbine helicopter, and transferring from an EC120 would be slightly easier than from a JetRanger, since some of the screens would be familiar. Some EC135 pilots fly a twin Squirrel first. Even so, a number of owners employ a pilot to sit with them for at least the first few hours, until they become accustomed to the complexity.

But aside from the above, it is hard to find anything to criticise about this helicopter. I can see why the EMS pilots I have talked to generally love their EC135s to bits, and I’m sure most other people who fly them do too.

In fact, I only have one huge, enormous complaint about the EC135. At around US$4 million, I don’t think I’m ever going to be able to afford one!