Bell #1...Yes Again
 

Boy, this is getting to be boring...Bell once again takes the top spot, for the 12th year in a row. They must be doing something right:ok:
Bell Named Number One in ProPilot Product Support Survey for 12th Straight Year
Fort Worth, TX – February 9, 2006 – Professional Pilot Magazine announced the results of their annual Pro Pilot Helicopter Product Support Survey, and for the 12th straight year, Bell Helicopter, a Textron Inc. (NYSE: TXT) company, has outshined the competition being named number one in the industry.
"We are tremendously proud of this recognition," said Bell Helicopter chief executive officer Michael Redenbaugh. "The fact that the ranking is the result of the customer's voice makes it that much more meaningful. Every single one of our existing and potential customers from corporate to EMS and law enforcement to the United States Army can rest assured that when they buy Bell Helicopters, not only are they getting proven and reliable aircraft, they are also getting the best customer support in the industry."
Bell's Customer Support and Service Center is located in Fort Worth, Texas in the Alliance Airport Corridor and includes a 228,000 square foot facility designed to provide efficient receiving, tracking and shipping of customer orders.
"We are very pleased with the result and 12 consecutive years of customer recognition for the tireless efforts of the entire customer support team," said Shane Eddy, vice president of Customer Support and Service for Bell Helicopter. "With the rapid growth in demand for both commercial and military parts, 2005 was a challenging year. However, we're investing for growth, and customers can count on continued improvement throughout 2006. We are privileged to work in the best industry in the world and to have great customers with a strong sense of loyalty to Bell."
The complete survey results can be found in the February issue of Professional Pilot Magazine.
"We are grateful to Professional Pilot Magazine for this recognition and for conducting this worthwhile survey," Redenbaugh said.
Bell Helicopter is an industry-leading producer of commercial and military, manned and unmanned vertical lift aircraft and the pioneer of the revolutionary tilt rotor aircraft. Globally recognized for world-class customer service, innovation and superior quality, Bell's global workforce serves customers flying Bell aircraft in more than 120 countries.
Textron Inc. is a $10 billion multi-industry company with 46,000 employees operating in 36 countries. The company leverages its global network of aircraft, industrial and finance businesses to provide customers with innovative solutions and services. Textron is known around the world for its powerful brands such as Bell Helicopter, Cessna Aircraft, Jacobsen, Kautex, Lycoming, E-Z-GO and Greenlee, among others. More information is available at

so a magazine from Ft Worth says so......they must be right.

So what about the others , did EC improve on last years performance . did MD even get a rating ? enquiring minds need to know.

1) Bell, 2) Sikorsky, 3) Agusta, 4) Eurocopter & 5) MD

Mr Selfish,

Im a bell man at heart but love the EC gear also. and to EC's credit we had a AOG in a squirrel on new years day during the fires and the part was replaced the same day and flying about 3 hours later.:ok: so to me that indicates that EC are trying to get back into the game with better product support, i know maybe still a bit behind bell but at least its getting better.

cheers

In previous surveys it was interesting to see regional differences between customer responses , US and Canada scored significantly higher than the rest of the world . Was that the same this year ?. Also to be fair to EC the diference between number 1 and 4 was not that huge overall . Does any one have the difference in total score this year between the the OEM's . EC also produced their own customer survey , not sure if the results were published though.

Winning is winning and those who don't win don't get mentioned in my book. Well done Bell. So the 427 will be the best built and the best supported, great.

If they only had something beside stretched 206As, UH-1s and 222's it would be even better.

Kudos to Bell once again, but maybe Eurocopter needs to learn how to better 'play' the ProPilot voting system... :E

I/C

Well deserved kudos to Bell!:ok:

However, where is Robinson in this list?:confused: Whenever I’ve had to deal with them they’ve been the epitome of professionalism, parts shipped the same day or next morning without fail and calls promptly returned by their customer reps. I have yet to hear the first Eurocopter-type “AOG for months waiting on parts” story about a Robbie.

And Robinson sell more helicopters than Bell and EC, and shedloads more than Sikorsky, Agusta or MD.:E

Or do the people at ProPilot feel that “if it ain’t a turbine it ain’t !!!!!”?

re: robinsons, they only included helicopters not egg-whisks in the listings!
lol

Bell - NOOOOOOOOOOH!!
 

:uhoh: Bell No 1 - Have quite a few safe hours in Bell Products - My back knows it! It can't be hard to support a product that has not changed in the last 50 years. Correction, they have changed a few numbers here and there. I really wish they would design and build an aircraft that was new, without the help of Boeing or Agusta. :sad:

50 years ???? Come now, lets not exaggerate!. Or do you want to actually compare a 1956 47G2 to my 2006 407 ? You say, Correction, they have changed a few numbers here and there. ????? :*

I guess they built them right the first time :ok:

One thing that is missing from the discussion is the operators perspective! It´s hard to beat the operating costs of a JetRanger, a straight AS-350 is around double in DOC and B2/B3 somewhat higher.

I would guess that the EC120 is somewhere in between at around $ 350.- pr/hr? However it seems that where Eurocopter gets you is in unscheduled maintenance, costs of some spare parts is just astronomical.

Robinson and the recip OEMs are covered in a different list in the same issue: Robinson = 1, Bell (presumably 47s) = 2, Schweizer = 3, Enstrom = 4. Robinson's overall score is actually higher than Bell's, albeit with only one-fifth as many responses.

I/C