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Airbus plans to deliver the three helicopters to Helicopter Services Inc. (HSI) later this year for completions and sales to operators.

Medical helicopter operations are challenging for both pilots and FAA safety inspectors alike. The FAA’s Aviation Safety Action Program (ASAP) encourages voluntary reporting of safety issues and events that come to the attention of employees of certain Part 121 air carrier and Part 145 repair station certificate holders. Any operator can establish an ASAP with the FAA. There are currently more than 1,300 participants, including many operating under Parts 91 and 135.

This FAA airworthiness directive (AD) requires revising the existing rotorcraft flight manual supplement and replacing the information placard with one that specifies instructions for locking the seat headrest. It takes effect Mar. 31.

The special conditions, which took effect Mar. 17, add safety standards for the EC175B’s search-and-rescue (SAR) automatic flight control system that existing regulations do not cover. The FAA is accepting comments about the proposal through May 1.

The FAA is accepting comments through Apr. 27 on this proposed airworthiness directive (AD), which would require repetitive visual inspections of the auxiliary servo assembly, a fluorescent penetrant inspection of the yaw-pedal damper housing, and corrective actions, if necessary.

This FAA airworthiness directive (AD), which becomes effective Apr. 17, requires reduced life-limit intervals for the bearing stacks and replacing degraded bearing stacks before exceeding these intervals. It also prohibits the installation of affected bearing stacks on any helicopter without first meeting certain requirements.

The Tulsa, Oklahoma–based chain of convenience stores will use the helicopter for corporate transportation. QuikTrip currently operates a Bell 429 and a Bell 407GXi.

This FAA airworthiness directive (AD), which takes effect Apr. 17, requires a one-time consistency check of the part number and serial number of the main rotor head (MRH), performing corrective actions, if applicable, determining if the MRH has been modified, and re-identifying the modified MRH. It also allows replacement of the MRH as an optional action. The AD prohibits the installation of an affected MRH on any helicopter.

This FAA airworthiness directive (AD), which takes effect Apr. 17, retains the requirements of AD 2020-09-15 while adding a requirement for certain helicopters to repetitively measure vibration levels in-flight and perform corrective actions, if necessary.

National Transmission Company South Africa (NTCSA) placed the order with Bell Textron for the helicopters, which will support power-line maintenance and utility operations, at last week’s VERTICON 2026.