Restored Dauphin Is One Of Several To Come

by ANN Correspondent Chris Esposito

Rotor Leasing, a company that restores ex-military Gazelle and Dauphin helicopters, made its first public appearance at AirVenture this week. The company, which just purchased four Dauphins, plans to sell three of the four helicopters. Rotor Leasing's first completely restored Dauphin is at their display.

The AS365 Dauphin helicopters were purchased from the Irish Air Corps, who decided the helicopter was outdated for their needs. The Dauphin is a twin-turbine IFR-capable helicopter equipped with a four-axis autopilot, and was originally designed by Eurocopter to fit the needs of several militaries. The aircraft has served all over the world, from the US Coast Guard to South Africa. Today Eurocopter sells the AS565 Panther as the "bigger and better" version of the Dauphin.

Rotor Leasing began when Chris Bateman, the company's president, retired from a career in software and decided that he wanted to fly helicopters. Bateman bought a Gazelle, and after some urging from his wife, decided to start restoring them. He then met Keith Story, partner in Rotor Leasing, who thought they should restore a bigger helicopter. When the Irish Air Corp made an announcement that they would be auctioning off their Dauphins, Bateman took it "as a sign from God." After winning the bid for the aircraft, Bateman had to go through a long process with the Irish and French government (the Dauphin is a French aircraft) and he didn't see the helicopters for a year. Bateman had to be licensed due to the fact that the Dauphin could potentially carry weapons. "I'm basically an international arms dealer." he jokes.

Rotor Leasing not only purchased four airframes, but a huge amount of spare parts. Boxes of parts were packed into boxes in no specific order and made for huge headaches. "Tooling was a chore." Bateman says. Rotor Leasing's staff of three full-timers had to convert metric to English, as well as buy and machine their own tools. Two members of the Rotor Leasing team, Paul Anderson and Mark Martin, are obviously dedicated to the restorations. "The footwork to do the job reliably was astronomical." explains Anderson. For the gear struts, of which the poorly translated manuals left much to be desired, the team spent forty-five days figuring out how they worked. The team also computer-catalogued the many spare parts and sparse tools. All told, the restoration of the Dauphin on display took over 5,800 man hours. "It should take us about two-thirds as long on the second one." says Bateman.

The 1988 AS365Fi Dauphin on display is classified as experimental due to being ex-military, and the others will be as well. Essentially restored to stock configuration with the exception of the radio and transponder, its original Honeywell Bendix avionics package was certainly ahead of its time. The Honeywell system will be replaced with a more current Op Technologies EFIS on the next ship, though Bateman acknowledges that the Honeywell "is beautiful for IFR flight." The Dauphin can fly as fast as 150 knots, and has an interesting emergency feature, called super contingency power, or SPC. In an emergency such as an engine failure, you can press the SPC button to boost the remaining engine's power and avoid disaster. The catch is that the overhaul required when you land costs a quarter of a million dollars.

Rotor Leasing has put about 20 hours on the 1988 Dauphin so far, and the company is planning to sell it in the near future. The second aircraft will be Keith Storey's personal ship, and the remaining two will be sold as well. Bateman says the only limit on the amount of helicopters they will refurbish will be a supply of airframes. Rotor Leasing will probably stick to restoring Gazelles and Dauphins, as Bateman considers them the most fun. The currently completed Dauphin will sell for $1,200,000, a bargain when you consider a "from the factory" price would be ten to twelve million dollars. The helicopter is aimed at someone wanting an incredibly agile twin-turbine helicopter for personal transportation, and when it comes to agility the Dauphin has little competition.

"It's been upside down before," Bateman says with a smile.

FMI: www.rotorleasing.com