That's a report from an Alouette seminar in 2010.
(found
here)
A number of issues leading to the retirement of the fleet, with one of the main reasons being loss of technical knowledge (EC & vendors), high effort to maintain erratic spares production & R&O capacities, obsolescence affecting majority of low rotation items. Another aspect is that the reindustrialization or redesign is getting more &and more complex:
Old technologies
Lack of equipment / parts specifications to reallocate
Development / industrialization processes and Certifications basis far more demanding today
EC and Major suppliers tendency to allocate in priority design resources to new developments increased by lack of forecasts on Alouette needs
This is leading to
Increase of sustaining costs & lead-time
Focus on high rotation parts / equipments
EC price / availability parts database not kept permanently updated (erratic parts, unforeseen obsolescence), which leads to a reduced spare part catalogue.
Eurocopter says that the type certificate will be supported until the end of the decade, with the EC support scope reduced step by step. Degradation in the following order: Blades/Equipments, MRO, New Spares and untimately TC revocation. Alouette II will be retired prior to Lama/Alouette III (2018 vs. 2020).
You have four more years with less and less parts becoming more and more expensive.
Unless you get a good deal on an ship with about a half a shipping container full of BRAND NEW parts I would look into something else. It would have been a great ship to start with about ten years ago, but not anymore.
If you want something similar with wheels it will be expensive. Otherwise how about an older A-Star/Ecureuil? That one fits the needs of many.
Do you have any minimum requirements? Number of patients? Range? Speed?