Hi Hawk-O2
I have flown the EC-130 B4 for scenics and I would imagine it is hard to beat on that score. The seating with 4in the back and 2 up front works very well with excellent viewing from all seats; I had passengers who used to argue over who sits in front but once we got going they had no complaints - front seat pax are exposed to a lot of sun so on long flights the back seats are actually better. There is still plenty of room per person. In fact you can get high-density seating layout with 3 pax in the front; although performance is not so good.
Another bonus is that the variety of door arrangements open/removed allows a lot of flexibility for photographers and pax, with config changes made very quickly.
We also used it for pax transfer which was very good too, although the trim took a bit of a battering. It was so quiet the pax didn't always need headsets; and the fenestron gave a lot of confidence to ground crew during pax running change-overs; just one extra level of safety.
The B4 is also pretty robust and powerful since it is based on the AS350 B3, it can lift around 1000kg external. Reliability was good and Eurocopter support was up to their usual standards :-)
I don't know about the A119 but I would think it is also an excellent choice, maybe more capable but maybe more expensive? My two-cents worth..
Flug
