Writing as an ex-military and now and offshore pilot I have knocked up about 12000 hrs on 330Cs/
Js 332Ls/L1s. Lots of offshore Pumas have in excess of 15000hrs on the airframe, an unbelievable figure considering the comments about there structural strength when they were introduced at Odiham in 1970. The Makila is a fine engine, especially the version fitted to the L1. Pulling a Super Puma along at 8600kgs they will burn about 450kgs/hr. It will be less with a Puma Mk2 because the cruise torque will be lower, 14.5 pitch as opposed to 15.5/16. They are however, quite choosy about the sort of air that goes into the intake, compressor erosion can be quite rapid. Leads to lots of thumps and bangs especially if the bleed offsets are a bit dodgy.
Operating the Puma J at 7400kgs is about as much as a Puma can take as the rotor system starts to run out of ideas and it protests furiously if you start to crank it around. It would bulk out at that weight any way so there is little point in beefing up the gearbox to increase it.
A 500kg saving by rewiring it I would have thought was a bit optimistic. Admitted most of it resembles a Renault truck but with the Makila you collect lots of boxes for the ECUs, Anticipators, Overspeed protection, etc. I do not know whether you have HUMS but for our engineers it’s a godsend.
A drawback with the 330C is the fuel capacity. I would have thought that they would have the fifth tank fitted when the Decca was removed but the Puma
Js always had the sponson tanks fitted, an extra 200kgs a side. They don’t weigh much and don’t affect the handling. On the 332 they can add an extra 4 knots.
I never thought that when I strapped on XW204 all those years ago that I would be looking through the same windscreen thirty-six years later. Only this one is just eighteen months old. It is also Chinese registered and I have a Chinese crew and I'm paid in US$. If I had forcast that in 1971 they would have called out the blokes in the white coats. I was surprised at the comment that Bristow were flogging their Super Pumas. With the price of oil as it is the industry is snapping up every spare airframe and every spare pilot too, like me.