Bowing to demands from an even more security-conscious aviation community, Bell Helicopter is offering the first FAA-approved night-vision-goggle (NVG) training program aimed specifically at commercial helicopter operators. While intended mainly for law-enforcement and aeromedical pilots, Bell has reported response from a wide variety of public-service pilots and private operators interested in becoming conversant in the fly-by-night technology.
The course will be offered through Bell’s in-house flight-training academy and has been certified under Part 141 by the FAA’s Southwest region office based at Alliance Airport in Fort Worth, Texas. The school will use a Bell 206BIII JetRanger for the in-flight portion of the training, a helicopter fitted with an STC’d low-light LED cockpit illumination system so that the standard levels of cabin lighting don’t interfere with the super-sensitive NVGs. This special lighting installation was developed and installed by Texas Aviation Services (TAS) of Fort Worth. TAS’ low-level lighting installation is currently STC’d only for the 206BIII, though the company said the installation can be fitted into any Model 206 with no need for additional approval. TAS hopes to have the STC’d interior available for sale late this year.
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