JC, there are no obvious visual differences between the old and new type booms. The only real way to tell is by the additional itsy bitsy data plate attached to the top of the Tailboom near where the two of the side panels are joined and usually directly under the tail rotor driveshaft.
Having said that the side panels for my part actually look at lot smoother. That is to say they don't appear to have the dips and hollows where the longerons are fitted or the tell tail perpendicular bulge of the internal doubler strip just aft of the longerons. I have also been reassured that the manufacturing process and Q.C. of the new side panels has been improved, but then again, no actual details of this has been issued by Agusta at this stage and more than likely never will.
I'm also optimistic that we can persuade Agusta to either sell, loan, lease or give us a tailboom jig in order to carry out BT 139-159 not only for ourselves but for other operators as well. This would alleviate a heck of a lot of downtime for everyone waiting on booms to come from Agusta.
In my humble opinion it is only a matter of time before a mandatory BT or AD comes out giving all Tailbooms currently in service a finite time before the side panels are to be changed to the new type. God willing.
As a footnote, another of our Tailbooms went U/S yesterday bringing the total now to a nice even dozen. Trust me they are not cheaper by the dozen.
I probably have very little to add to this thread now and would just like to finish off by saying that working collectively as an industry where safety is foremost we will solve this problem. In the meantime keep vigilant in our preflights.
