Johannesburg-based supplier to the power electronics industry Saftronics is impressed with its refurbished Bell 230, which was delivered in South Africa by the National Airways Corporation in February this year.

The 17-year-old aircraft has completed around 50 flight hours since then and md Ryan Annandale believes the investment has lived up to expectations: “As our business grew over the past few years we thought we just needed a faster way to keep in touch with our distribution chain. Helicopters offer a good depreciation rate in South Africa, and also it's an investment that is dollar based and not rand based – when working in South Africa it's always good to have your investments in something other than the local currency.

“The reason we looked specifically at the 230 was that it had a lot of comfort and space. The price they were selling this particular chopper at in Germany represented good value for money according to my understanding.”

Annandale continues: “The aircraft actually has fairly low hours on it – about 2,300 – even though she is 17 years old. The last reason we bought her in Germany is, being in Africa, you don't always trust the logs and the data that you get. Buying a product based in Germany gave us an impeccable set of flight logs and service record, so we really knew what we were getting. Plus the series 'Airwolf' many years ago on television was a factor! The aircraft was a bit of an icon at the time and I always liked the 230 as a shape.”

As to the performance, Annandale has no complaints: “The performance has been great. We've already done about 50 flight hours on it and it's exactly what we expected. It handles really well and is very stable. It's a vip carrier - that's the moral of the story. We've just sent it in for a complete refurbish inside and out.

“In essence she has been set up for vvip travel as a five passenger carrier. We've spent some money on equipping her with a Garmin 795 in the cockpit, and we've added some USB ports so the guys can play with their laptops and iPads or whatever else they need to play with at the back. We've also upgraded the sound system at the back so it's bluetooth orientated. We have arranged with Henley Air which runs a fleet from Rand airport, to add it to their offering. Our intention is to rent it out for about 50 hours total a year. That comes down to maybe five or six, ten hours a month maximum. The idea is not to have her work too hard and we will use her for personal trips within the company.”

The twin engines of the 230 have allowed Saftronics to broaden its client base: “Certain insurance companies require that their vip clients only fly in aircraft that have two engines,” Annandale says.

“She's got landing gear, she doesn't have skids. The concept is that she should fly more to dedicated landing pads rather than bush flight, she does the cream of the transport, not just the ordinary run of the mill within the organisation.”

Annandale has seen the South African market spread beyond Johannesburg and this is something the operator will be looking to make the most of: “We are giving this aircraft as part of Henley's stable, but as far as air travel and particularly helicopter travel in southern Africa is concerned, we believe it's a really growing market at the moment. There has been a lot of investment. Initially it was, to a large extent, around Johannesburg. What's happened with Africa opening up is that in countries like Mozambique, Botswana, Namibia, there's a lot more development happening there but they are not in centralised cities so obviously getting to and from sites is very important for executives and management. There's obviously a need for helicopters in this kind of environment to get people to and from certain places. We're just feeding into that need that has been arising in the market in the last two or three years.”

Saftronics is making sure no stone is left unturned with safety: “We've allocated a pilot to this aircraft to make sure that the safety standards are kept up to spec. Whenever it gets chartered it can do so with two pilots, to make sure that these standards are kept high.”