The anticipated escalation in civil aviation night-vision-goggle (NVG) use might still be several years away as end-users await financing, according to industry experts, as opposed to waiting for continuing refinement of the Federal Aviation Regulations regarding standards for their use. “The move is still toward operators going with NVGs,” said Mike Atwood, president of Boise-based Aviation Specialties Unlimited (ASU), a firm that supplies NVGs, NVG cockpit conversions and NVG training.
“The majority of [civil] operators made up their minds long ago [to go with NVGs] and now it is more a matter of funding than anything else.” Indeed, large operators such as Air Methods and PHI publicly committed to NVGs years ago and now fly with them on the bulk of their fleets, and OEMs such as Bell and Eurocopter are offering NVG courses as part of their factory training packages.