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than the AS 350 B2."
It may be surprising to some that the life span of helicopters is
often much older than people would expect. Regulations require
that helicopters undergo regular maintenance. McMillan said, "It
is for this reason that we have some aircraft in our fleet that are up
to 50 years old. The company's younger craft, include a Bell 412
built in 2000.
McMillan said that a helicopter company's fortunes are tied to
the resource sector and they are sometimes not as busy as they
would like but "Great Slave Helicopters manages the seasonality
of the business, by looking outside of the Canadian market dur-
ing the winter months performing the same work types we do in
Canada including seismic, mining and firefighting."
As for how drones have affected business, McMillan says they
are keeping a close eye on the drone market and are preparing for
the change in policy allowing the drones to be operated out of
line of site. When that happens Great Slave Helicopters plans to
amalgamate drones into their business model.
The imminent adoption of helium airships and the likelihood
that drones will be further integrated as a tool for resource explo-
ration and project surveying illustrates how the resource industry
not only depends on aircraft to get the job done but drives inno-
vation and adopts cutting edge technology. Air services remain
an integral and significant component of resource exploration and
development.
n
precision GeoSurveys aS350 survey helicopter at work near anahim
Lake, British Columbia. the helicopter is equipped with a high
resolution magnetometer in a stinger configuration and internal
gamma crystals for radiometric mapping. this system has proven very
useful for mapping structure, lithology, and alteration. photo by erik
Keyser.
