Helicopters & age

[John R81]

I am interested in finding out the age profile of small helicopters (piston and turbine up to EC120 / B206 size). I am trying to look at the likely life, or life before & after major overhaul. This analysis is for use in UK for the purpose of depreciation allowance for tax - though data on helicopter based anywhere in the world would be welcome & useful.

Does anyone know if this kind of material is available somewhere, or would it be for me to ask for responses to this email?

Thanks

[kevin_mayes]

Hi, John.
This depends upon wether it is classed as a long life or short life asset, my Bell-47 is classed as a short life assest as it was under 100K (or so I was told by HMRC), so can be written off quickly (well, sort of)
Having said that I have spent around 35K on it with engine and gearbox O/H etc for the 50 or so hours I have flown it...
Kev.

[Hell Man]

I've heard that the F28 series are pretty economic so you may want to try and include that in your study.

Most of the agents/vendors will give you operating costs as well as the maintenance schedule and approx. cost for overhauls.

[John R81]

Thanks for the responses.

This is, as Kevin surmises, to do with UK tax allowances. We have a new rule which restricts the value of capital allowances if the asset has an economic life over a certain period. HMRC say they have agreed with the Aviation Industry" that aircraft have a life over this limit and therefore they get only very small tax allowances.

But this agreement was brokered with owners / operators of large tin tubes - not GA and light commercial helicopters.

HMRC try to apply this "Aviation Agreement" to everyone and I have helped one Robinson owner to resist and to get a more sensible deal. I want to see if there is a way to analyse by make / model what a sensible life expectency is in practice - i.e. not simply what the maker says.

For that reason, I don't need operator costs or the capital depreciation included in financial models (eg for leasing).

Could I go to (for example) the CAA for date of first registration of all Schweizer 300's? Is there a database available (free) online?

Thanks for any help

[Ian Corrigible]

Active civil fleet average ages:

JetRanger = 28.6 years worldwide (UK fleet av. = 28.7)
MD500 = 27.3 years worldwide (UK fleet av. = 25.8)
EC120 = 6.4 years worldwide (UK fleet av. = 6.6)

Average across all three types = 25.4 years worldwide (UK = 23.3)

I/C

[puntosaurus]

G-INFO (http://www.caa.co.uk/application.aspx?catid=60&pagetype=65&appid=1) has the built date and is searchable by type.

[bolkow]

yep and g-info also lists the airframe hours accumulated

[John R81]

I started playing with G-INFO last night. Began with R22 - over 600 on the database so it will take me a while to compile stats. Does G-INFO record details of aircraft that are destroyed or lost? So far (I reviewed 75 records last night) I could not see any that were taken out of service - one or two with slightly overdue CofA but that is all.

[md 600 driver]

john

i believe the hmrc accept robinsons as short term assets because of the 10/12 or 2200 hour lifespan
all 300 500 120 600 ect dont have such and are long life assets

i had lots of pain with my 600 and 480 it was 6 % then and when delivered new it lost a fortune so anyone seling in year 1 or 2 had to wait years to get back their allowances back as it was not final ballence on sale like cars you had the 6% write down allowance each year until you reached your figure

send pm if you want to talk