When Mal Smith, the founder of Pacific Helicopters, passed away in 2021 after providing aviation services in Papua New Guinea for almost fifty years, it heralded the beginning of four turbulent and challenging years for the company. Now, however, the company is back at the forefront of PNG helicopter services under the leadership of a robust management team.

Legacy

Malcolm Smith founded Pacific Helicopters after leaving the Australian Army, helming the company for five decades to become one of the most significant players in Papua New Guinea (PNG) aviation and a benefactor to the nation's people.

The company is now modernizing, growing and regaining significant traction in PNG rotary-wing services. Smith’s passing was tragic, but it coincided with the height of the challenges brought about by the Covid pandemic; in one way, the timing was fortuitous. Covid was tricky, and everyone was travelling a lot. It was hard for everyone, but the group that came out of dealing with all of that was phenomenally strong.

The entire leadership team worked towards the same goal, to achieve what they believed Smith would have wanted for the company. As one manager noted, “It was all the heads of departments with no one working autonomously. It wasn’t a case of ‘Are we doing this?’ It was a question of ‘How are we doing this and what do we do?” The management team met with their clients regularly to advise them of everything that was going on thanks to covid and other external issues - and the support from all of them was total. “They were super-supportive and helped Pacific out, assisting with the H145 leases and helping them get back on track,” commented one of the management team.

 

Replacements

Close to 20 aircraft had to be replaced due to the disruption and disputes, including six Bell 212s, five BK 177s, a LongRanger, three AS350B3s, and three H145s. A decision was made that the time was right to re-equip with brand-new, modern aircraft; setting themselves apart from the competition. They focused on getting as many helicopters back as they could and having enough work to keep all their employee, so they didn’t have to let anyone go. Those efforts enabled the company to maintain around the same staffing level of 160 personnel, about 100 of whom are PNG nationals.

To initially maintain support for existing commitments, Pacific had its recently Canadian rebuilt Bell 212, as well as three BK117s that were rebuilt and purchased from New Zealand. Apart from those stop-gap aircraft, it was decided that no more legacy aircraft were needed, with new, modern aircraft being acquired. A source was found for the acquisition of several H125s (AS350-B3), resulting in a total of five airframes to date that permitted the continuation of support for a K92 Mining and seismic operation and a pair of H145-D3s were acquired through LCI Aviation to service a contract with a global energy company. Having the backing of its major clients was critical in helping Pacific secure their leases as well, as the lessor knew they had solid contracts to service.

Future

Going forward, as earlier H145D2s become available at reasonable prices, it is foreseen that they will be viable replacements for the old BKs and enhance standardization of the fleet. All the B3 Squirrels are now identical and the D2 and D3 145s are very similar. They don’t want to have too many types in service as standardization simplifies pilot and engineer training, maintenance processes, and minimizes parts holdings and tooling. The B3s are fitted with the BLR fast-fin kit. Pilots report that it makes the aircraft more stable near the ground and adds around 100kg to the hook payload. The B3’s performance has proved significantly greater than that of the Bell 407s operated by most of their competitors and therefore provides the ability to take on work that most similar-sized single-engine types can’t do.

 

Around half of Pacific’s work is now in the exploration, seismic and mining sectors, with oil & gas support comprising the other half. Work significantly decreased during Covid but has picked up in the last twelve months. Increasing gold and other commodities’ prices have undoubtedly played a part in that. Lately a lot of their clients have been doing extensive exploration projects, drilling projects, MT (magnetotelluric) surveys and LIDAR surveys. Due to conflicts and wars in other regions around the globe where you might have otherwise been getting these resources, PNG proves to be probably a more attractive proposition now.

 

K92 Mining has been a Pacific Helicopters client for several years and has an AS350-B3 allocated for its exclusive use but has the rare benefit of good road access so not all its activities require aerial support. Great Pacific Gold Corp is a more recent customer however and offers the possibility of support operations through the entire mining cycle, from LIDAR, magnetic and seismic surveys, to mapping, exploration drilling and then production support. PNG really lends itself to aviation due to the lack of roading and infrastructure, and its high mountains, jungles and rivers. If there was a country where helicopters have been, and will continue to be, be a major game changer, then Papua New Guinea is on the top of that list.

The newness of Pacific’s fleet is a point of difference for the company from others; it is doubtful that any other PNG operation can boast seven new airframes. As much of Pacific’s work is related to the resource industries, the company boasts a strong eight-person safety team and complies with all possible safety standards including the IOGP 690 requirements with only a few exclusions due to the age of the BKs and the AS350’s single-engine configuration. A recently integrated Aerotec Systems tracking system monitors all the company’s longlining gear for location, inspections and compliance, an important capability when around 200 nets can be spread around pads in the jungle all over the project area, as can hundreds of shackles and strops.

Variability

Although seismic work comprises a significant proportion of Pacific’s operation, there is not a consistent demand. There might be six-months of intense activity, and then nothing for twelve months. At times they will have customers lined up one behind the other for support but often it often it depends on how much money clients have available to spend on exploration as this varies along with the price of the natural resources. The end users of that data are the big global oil and gas companies like Exxon and Santos who they determine the feasibility of the area. A seismic project may happen then six months later the clients come back and re-survey that area after the lines have refined, dialing it in until they’ve narrowed down what they’re looking for. The big oil and gas companies will usually go to a company like Oilmin, a PNG enterprise, to carry out the work and they will then go to subcontractors like Pacific to obtain aviation support services. The next stage is bringing in a big drill by road or even by a large helicopter. Although such a rig would be too big to move with the H145, the company might get the job of supporting the operation including the transporting of people.

 

Seismic Work

Seismic work is usually a high airtime-utilization job. Recently one B3 flew 140 hours in a month on seismic survey. It takes a certain type of engineer and pilot to work out in the jungle camps. The lifestyle suits some people and not others. Not everyone wants to work out of a camp in the jungle for 28 days at a time in the heat and the bugs, even though the conditions now are a lot better than in the past. The pilots enjoy the flying though; it’s challenging and satisfying.

That’s what brings pilots to PNG from places like New Zealand. Although there’s plenty of tourism flying at home, there is not a lot of utility work and not many opportunities to fly a 100 hours in a month; all longlining in a brand new B3. Shifts usually commence early in the morning to take advantage of cooler temperatures and more settled weather, and with five or six hundred people out in the field, drills to shift and camps to move, the sheer volume of work requires making use of all available flying time. On the current seismic job, it is estimated that flying time will end up totaling around 1,000 hours and pilots have been timing out after three weeks.

 

200ft Kevlar longlines are normally used as the jungle canopy can be almost that tall and at times, the helicopters are working underneath the canopy if in a valley. The longer lines also mitigate downwash to prevent breaking off branches and foliage down onto the crews on the ground. Dead-hooks or remote hooks can be used and when multiple drops of geophones in seismic bags are necessary, a multiple-hook carousel system enables up to eight seismic bags to be delivered in a single sortie. Planning and coordinating aviation activity is the responsibility of the project’s dispatcher and it was pointed out that bigger seismic contracts have utilized up to seven or eight helicopters, each flying to many of maybe 200 pads throughout the project area. With the variety of machines, loads and passenger flights, a good dispatcher therefore makes a huge difference to efficiency, cost-effectiveness and productivity. He is likened to the conductor of an Orchestra, ensuring everything and everyone is running off the same sheet of music. Sometimes though, spanners are thrown into the works and he is the one who has to readjust everything to keep it flowing.

Before the operational commencement of any survey project, scouting trips and community affairs work is conducted. Helicopters fly community affairs personnel to liaise with every village in the project area and give village elders the time to establish who will be working on the project, as aside from the company foremen, all local labor content generally comes from the local villages. Community affairs is a big part of all the work Pacific does, because without that there’s no access to the land. Subsequent work commences with helipad crews building pads and forming ‘skyholes’ in the canopy as required along the survey lines, with bridging crews cutting tracks and establishing walkways between the pads. Then the drilling teams will come through and drill the holes for explosives. Teams will put all the geophones down, then the charges are set and fired, then the teams pickup the geophones for the next shot. Multiple seismic lines are simultaneous set, fired and  collected with multiple crews all working at once.

 

A large proportion of Pacific’s staff have been with the company for ten-plus years, and this is due to the quality and modernity of the fleet, along with high-quality training and the wide variety of work available that makes solid career progression possible within the company. With the exception of specialist operations requiring IFR and ATPL, all the company pilots should be able to do everything within the company; making for a better, well-rounded, versatile pilot. Pacific has IFR-rated ATPL pilots like Trent Garnham, but when that flying gets too mundane, those pilots like to get back into the B3 for the more challenging hands-on work, leaving opportunities open for less qualified pilots to step up and train in the twin-engine, IFR, multi-crew environment.

One Pacific pilot commented that he loved the longlining work he did on earlier seismic contracts and that he found the skyholes easier to work in than an open helipad area, because the confined boundaries of the canopy gave a better visual reference with more immediate recognition of spatial positioning errors or drift. “It’s changed a lot now though I understand. I think that the two-crew, twin-engine way with all the paperwork and requirements that goes with it has taken away a lot of the fun of the job,” he opined. However, the advances in technology have the potential to automate much of the monitoring and record-keeping that currently takes a significant amount of pilots’ time.

 

Requirements

Aircraft and crewing requirements are generally specified by the big oil companies so the mix of machines on a job can vary. For example, no passengers are permitted in a single-engine machine, and a two-person flight crew is mandatory for some Oil and Gas companies. The benefit of this requirement is that it provides substantial training opportunities for pilots wanting to build up experience, who can gain significant time as ICUS (in command, under supervision) pilots in a short period, under the supervision of one of Pacific’s training captains. Other companies have different requirements, with some requiring only a single pilot or tolerating passenger flights in single-engine aircraft provided every effort is made to utilize twin-engine machines wherever possible. The oil companies essentially dictate the mix of aircraft on a contract, and it is usually more twin-engine people-moving machines than B3s, because when a BK has finished its passenger transfers in the morning, it can put on a longline and go out longlining in the afternoon.

All heavy maintenance is carried out in Goroka but small jobs and minor maintenance needs such as 50 and 100hr checks can be conducted in the field. The processes and procedures put in place during the rebuilding of the company have provided good data on what is likely to be required on any extended field job and the increased reliability of modern aircraft means that necessary parts and equipment can usually be on-site when needed. The BKs are fitted with Airworks’ nine-place passenger seating and a Dart basket on the side. The way they usually have then configured is for seven passengers in the back, with a big boot with a net for gear, plus the basket for more gear with a loadmaster and pilot up front. That configuration works well. Loading and unloading can be conducted quickly on the ground and then conversion to longlining straight away without changing anything. The BK is an excellent bush machine and with its high tail rotor, you don’t need to worry about tail-rotor clearance. Rather than fitting bubble-windows to the aircraft for longlining, slung loads are conducted with the doors off. The frequent rain and high temperatures make this a preferable option with a better sight picture and a cooler cockpit environment.

 

Challenging Environment

PNG’s operating environment includes heat, high humidity and torrential rain; all of which are extremely hard on aircraft, equipment and personnel. The machines Pacific utilizes are good utility bush machines. The B3s, BKs and 212s stand up to that environment and they’re looked after with good engineering and maintenance. They have dehumidifiers in the aircraft at night and protect them as much as they can. Engineers look after the aircraft in the field instead of waiting until they go back to base.

The logistics of conducting a first-tier standard of operation in PNG are more than challenging and the associated costs much higher. Jet-fuel has not been imported for about a year, due to government foreign currency restrictions and the lack of transport infrastructure makes almost every job involve complex and extensive pre-planning. Even with day-to-day operations, things that would take five minutes in Australia or New Zealand become a major battle in PNG.

 

Undeniably, the success of Pacific Helicopter’s resurgence is due largely to the current leadership team, but they are quick to stress that it would have been impossible to get the company to where it is now without the backing of a solid, cohesive team that supported them completely in what they are striving to achieve, often to the detriment of family and home life.

Legacy

If Mal Smith could see the challenges that have been surmounted and what has been achieved since his death, there is little doubt that he would be immensely proud of the entire team that has carried Pacific Helicopters forward.

Smith was always striving to improve the circumstances of PNG’s people and even served as governor of the province many years ago. The company is now pushing to train PNG nationals in aircraft engineering and has already got four or five successfully licensed, while plans are evolving for a similar pilot training scholarship. It’s a journey of continuous improvement and always looking for ways to make things better. The relationships and partnerships developed with resourcing companies, other operators and aviation personalities over the company’s fifty-year history have been a key factor in successfully negotiating the challenges brought about by the demise of Smith.

“We weren’t ready for him to go and we miss Mal a lot but more than anything, we just wish that he could see that we toughed it out.”