Within the New Zealand aviation industry, Davin Mudford and his team at Heli A1 are fairly well known, especially to those who attend the annual AIA conference where you can expect to find the Heli A1 team front and centre, whether it be singing the national anthem at the Gala dinner or buying a round at the bar. All joking aside, when it comes to utility work the Heli A1 team are absolute professionals, so when Davin reached out to our Airborne Systems manager, Russell Goulden, about making a few customisations to our AS350 Spray System we were happy to oblige.

Davin and his team have been longtime clients of our Airborne Systems division and have used one of our original spray systems since 2008. But with our mandate for continuous improvement resulting in a better product and Heli A1s need to keep work efficient, Davin saw an opportunity to not only get the latest model but one with a few adjustments to make his life easier.

With the specifications outlined and order placed, our Airborne Systems team completed testing on the 15th of March and Davin flew away that afternoon with his shiny new spray system.

When asked for a quote about his new spray system Davin responded, “Love it, should have upgraded earlier. Many benefits including being able to carry more as the STC allows us to go to max external weight instead of max internal weight. Also when you take off the booms and honda pump the machine comes back to standard category instead of restricted category. Russell and his team are passionate about what they do and are great to work with, definitely in tune with our needs.”

HELI A1s CUSTOMISATION

Dual Brake Valves

The first change was having dual brake valves on both sides of the tank. This allowed for the tank to be filled from either side.

Dual Boom Shut Off Valves

Our 7-meter long carbon fibre booms have been customised with dual boom shut off valves, allowing the operator to use either the left or right boom individually or centre. The goal of these shut off valves is to allow the operator to be more efficient by adjusting spray volume to suit the area i.e. spray swath.

Flow Meter

We have installed a flow meter to record and report on the flow to the booms. This data is displayed in the cockpit for the pilot.