Originally Posted by
Nubian
The company linked to up near the start of the thread, HBC, has been in operation since 2016, has a Canadian (though Japanese speaking) owner, flying a straight B model 350 from the 1980’s
Smart guy at HBC, no need to splurge on a fancy machine on those marginal markets, max altitude there is 1100 meters, old AS350B is perfect and fuel efficient (compared to a B3)
He can probably maintain it on the cheap using a surplus of spare part available from the old Astar pool. With a valid airworthiness cerificate and a nice paint job the customer base will not discriminate.