With representatives from the FAA and Bell Helicopters present, VHA conducted high altitude performance testing on a 206L4 in Leadville, Colorado in August 2011 to determine actual hover performance in high and hot conditions.

Van Horn Aviation recently posted new FAA-approved Flight Manual Supplements (FMS) for the Bell 206L1, 206L3 and 206L4 helicopters on its Documents page. The FMS’s provide new hover performance charts for each model that increase the allowable weight in ground effect (IGE) by 170 lbs and out of ground effect (OGE) by 75 lbs in Area A.  Area A is the region of the hover performance charts where FAA controllability requirements are met (17 kt winds in all azimuths). Note that these charts do NOT increase the aircraft’s maximum internal gross weight limits.

The advanced airfoil design used on the VHA 2062200-101/301 tail rotor blade results in increased stall margin, thereby improving high altitude performance. Satisfactory stability and control has been demonstrated in relative winds of 30 MPH (26 kts) sideward and rearward at all loading conditions within an expanded Area A of the Hover Ceiling Charts. Each FMS provides the expanded chart and examples on how to use the charts to determine allowable weight in Area A when flying VHA tail rotor blades.

The use of VHA tail rotor blades does NOT authorize loading over the aircraft’s maximum internal gross weight limits.

Van Horn Aviation's new facility at 1510 W. Drake Drive in Tempe, Arizona.

Van Horn Aviation recently moved into its new facility located at 1510 W. Drake Drive in Tempe, Arizona. Purchased by VHA in April 2011, the building underwent extensive renovations for several months before the company began moving its operations to the new facility in November.

The Drake Drive facility, with its square footage of approximately 23,000 sq. ft., is nearly four times as large as VHA’s former 6,400 sq. ft. facility. It’s located just off of Interstate 10 at the Elliot Road exit for convenient access from the metro Phoenix area, Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport and communities to the south.

With the increase in available manufacturing space, VHA also added new paint and prep booths, built separate kitting and clean rooms, and increased its shipping and receiving area. Other amenities in the new facility include lockers, showers and a break room for employees; an upgraded conference room with large screen media center; and an expanded phone system.

For updated contact information, see our Contact Us page.

Van Horn Aviation’s 206/OH-58 tail rotor blades were featured on page 44 of Rotor & Wing’s September 2011 issue. The article, titled “The Supplemental Type,” included blurbs and photos of STC’d aftermarket products available for various helicopters. Of the 11 STC’d products included in the article, only four blurbs included photos, including our rotor blades installed on a Papillon Grand Canyon Bell 206.

To read the full article, click this link and go to page 40.

Van Horn Aviation’s tail and main rotor blade programs were highlighted in the June/July 2011 issue of RotorHUB magazine. While the feature story, titled “Spooling Up With a New Generation,” focused mainly on improvements to various classes of engines used in rotorcraft, it also contained a sidebar devoted to aftermarket composite rotor blades. The sidebar highlighted Carson Helicopters’ S-61 blades, Northwest Helicopters’ Huey main rotor blades (still in development), and VHA’s production Huey and 206 tail rotor blades plus our MD 500 main rotor blade program.

To read the full story: VHA sidebar June-July 2011

Experimental test pilot Greg Ashe and VHA president James R. Van Horn conduct the first hover test of the VHA MD 500 composite main rotor bladesat the MD Helicopters Inc. facility in Mesa, Ariz., on April 7, 2011.

On Thursday, April 7, VHA successfully completed a series of ground and flight tests of its composite MD 500 main rotor blades during a four-hour test session at the MD Helicopters Inc. (MDHI) facility in Mesa, Arizona aboard a MD 530F^® test aircraft.

Greg Ashe, a retired Boeing experimental test pilot who served as the project test pilot on the Hughes 369F model and has more than 800 experimental flight test hours in the MD 500 series, performed all of the ground and flight tests with assistance from VHA and MDHI ground crew.  The test session had three distinct parts:  track and balance of the VHA blades, hover tests, and low-speed forward flight.

“We are thrilled that the composite blades performed well enough in initial ground and hover tests to take the aircraft into low-speed forward flight on the blade’s first flight test,” said Van Horn, a former U.S. Army instructor pilot who served as flight test engineer on the VHA MD 500 test session. “Our blades are very stable, even through transitional flight.”

Click here to see a video of this test flight.

from left to right: Kimie Lishman, Marketing Manager, Bell Helicopter Customer Support and Services; R. Danny Maldonado, Senior Vice President Customer Support and Chief Services Officer, Bell Helicopter; James R. Van Horn, President Van Horn Aviation, LLC; Dean Resenlof, General Manager, Van Horn Aviation, LLC; Warren Moseley, Program Manager, Bell Helicopter Customer Support and Services and; Jennifer Lunceford, Sales and Marketing Manager, Aeronautical Accessories.

In accordance with an agreement announced at Heli-Expo earlier this month, Bell Helicopter-owned subsidiary Aeronautical Accessories is now distributing the VHA 206 composite tail rotor blade for Bell 206B3 and 206L series helicopters.

“We recognize our customers’ need for improved, cost-competitive replacement parts and are committed to finding ways of increasing productivity and reducing direct maintenance costs of our aircraft,” said R. Danny Maldonado, Senior Vice President and Chief Services Officer, Bell Helicopter. “Bell Helicopter has and will continue to develop strategic relationships, such as the one with Van Horn Aviation, to help us accomplish this goal.”

The VHA 206 tail rotor blade will carry a part number 2062200-301 in the Aeronautical Accessories catalog and will bear a third stripe. Aeronautical Accessories will be the exclusive distributor of the three-stripe VHA 206 blade. The original two-stripe blade is still available through VHA distributors. Besides the paint stripe, there are no differences in design or manufacture between the two-stripe and three-stripe blades.

For more information:  Bell Helicopter Press Release, Aeronautical Accessories Fact Sheet

Van Horn Aviation delivered a full set of five prototype composite main rotor blades to MD Helicopters, Inc. (MDHI), in late February just in time for MDHI to debut the blades on the MD 530F displayed at its Heli-Booth booth March 6-8.

The new blades will begin initial flight testing in March 2011, and are expected to receive FAA Supplemental Type Certification (STC) by the end of 2011.  Once certified on the MD 530F, MDHI and VHA plan to certify the blade for the MD 520N® and a shorter version for the MD 500D® and MD 500E® models. Following those developments, VHA will begin designing composite tail rotor blades for the appropriate MD models.

For more information, read the press release issued by MDHI.

For the first time since placing its products on the market, Van Horn Aviation will be increasing the list prices of its composite tail rotor blades effective March 9, 2011. Current pricing of $9,000 per blade ($18,000 per set) for the 206/OH-58 blades and $11,000 each ($22,000 per set) for the UH-1 blades will remain in effect through the HAI Heli-Expo convention in Orlando, March 6-8.

After the convention ends, list price of the 206/OH-58 tail rotor blades will increase to $9,700 per blade or $19,400 per set. UH-1 tail rotor blades will increase to $11,800 each or $23,600 per set.

To order VHA tail rotor blades at current pricing, please call Trace Worldwide at 1-800-872-2310 before March 9.

Van Horn Aviation’s use of the NASA-developed RC(4)-10 laminar flow airfoil on the VHA 206B/L tail rotor blade was featured in Spinoff 2010, an annual publication highlighting NASA technologies adapted for consumer use. The article discusses the impact of using this airfoil on the performance of the Bell 206, including reduced noise and drag, and includes quotes by VHA President Jim Van Horn who served as an engineer at NASA’s Ames Research Center in the early 1980s.