Conceived out of wedlock but almost perfect in execution; is the AS350FX2 [H125] a bastard child or the rightful heir to the throne?

Not long after we realised the Y2K bug was a scam and during a time when the French were particularly unreasonable with their Calendar Life and Overhaul costs of the Arriel 1 engines, a couple of clever Canadians decided to take on the AS350 and solve many of the problems that made operating one difficult.

This wasn’t a new concept since the AS350 had been designed and marketed during the 1970’s for the USA with a Honeywell LTS101 engine; a marketing plan to diluted the ‘all’ European design and help make America great again. It was branded the Astar which quickly became the Falling Star when early issues with the LTS101 manifested bad press in the 1980’s. Eurocopter took a knee for an 8 count and came back hard in the late 1980’s and 1990’s with the Turbomeca Arriel 1 engine series which massively increased performance and exposed the legendary bad support issues from Turbomeca.

Frustration exploded and Honeywell sorted itself out to support STC’s promoting the opportunity to revert back to the LTS101-600 and -700 engines. Coupled with an 2400 hour TBO (overhaul) and 1800 hour TBI (inspection) vastly improved reliability, class leading fuel burn and significantly cheaper repairs - the Soloy Corporation pushed out the SD1 and SD2 conversions. Installing the LTS101-600 made the AS350B/BA the SD1 and importing the LTS101-700 into the AS350B2 became the AS350SD2. Nothing else changed in your performance numbers, MAUW or Limitations but the Astar was back and ready to set the world on fire…. if you could get your electrics to work consistently and your engineer had one of those new fandangled Blackberry’s attached to his person.

Those clever Canadians I mentioned had been diligently beavering away in the light of the millennial winter and by Heli Expo 2002, Heli-lynk Helicopters AS350FX2 Supplemental Type Certificate [STC] kits for the AS350 and the AS355 were the next big thing. Electrical drama was one of the failures they solved all the while adding performance and reliability to legacy AS350BA’s. By re-wiring the air frame to shift the fuse box away from the moisture laden cockpit, binning the OEM ‘push’ button equipment console [which was a convenient but tragic place to position your coffee cup] installing the AS355 Tail Rotor and the AS350B2 strake, they increased any AS350BA airframe to the same gross weights as the AS350B2 (minus 300 lbs external on the FX1 model). They also investing in flight testing and revisited the Performance Section of the Flight Manual where the LTS101-700 was shown to outperform the Turbomeca Arriel 1D1 at altitude.

Last year I flew an FX2 during the British Columbia summer, moving a drill at 6000 – 6500ft AMSL. It was my first time operating the FX2 and I couldn’t tell the difference in performance. I do know that with no excess fuel and a little headwind, it readily lifted the 1300 lbs engine and 1500 lb mud tank on the hook as expected. Other pilots in Papua New Guinea report that sometimes at altitude the NR management isn’t as tidy as the Arriel 1D1 system but that isn’t surprising because the accessories on the Arriel engines keep that NR glued at 390 RRPM. In any event, I didn’t notice an issue and found starting and managing the engine no challenge.   

The AS350FX2 offers a sensible point of difference to the AS350 line-up. It was made with intent to solve problems and I’ve never heard an operator regretting the decision to invest in one. Give Dan Egan or myself a call and get some real world advice and experience around this aircraft to help make your purchasing decision.