While the French Sécurité Civile’s new Airbus H145 D3s look like its EC145 C2 helicopters, it is, in fact, a completely different helicopter.
“The only thing in common between the two helicopters are the wipers,” said Renaud Guillermet, head of the Sécurité Civile’s mountain rescue sector. “When I fly the D3s, I totally forget about the EC145 C2. It’s when I get off the machine, when I see the Sécurité Civile’s yellow and red paint scheme and the radar nose that it comes back to me. I was flying a descendant of our venerable BK117.”
In France, the Sécurité Civile is responsible for rescue and other public safety missions. Its air group operates a large fleet of aircraft, which includes about 20 Canadair CL-415 and Dash 8 water bomber planes and three liaison planes. Its helicopter fleet includes 40 EC145s and H145s spread across 27 bases in mainland France, as well as overseas departments during the busy season. Each year, Dragon crews carry out about 20,000 rescue missions and 23,000 winch operations. The Sécurité Civile’s range of missions is wide, but it is the mountain work where the crews particularly stand out.
The Sécurité Civile has been using the EC145 C2s since the early 2000s, with the twin-engine aircraft born in Donauwörth, Germany, having gradually replaced the famous red Aérospatiale Alouette IIIs. With a more powerful and faster twin-engine, bigger cabin space, and advanced avionics that allow for instrument flight, the EC145 C2s had certainly brought great progress compared to the venerable Alouette. But the helicopter still suffered from inadequacies, particularly in high mountain missions.
“The so-called economic recovery plan decided after the COVID crisis in 2020 translated into ordering four H145 D3s for the air group, two of which were optional,” Guillermet said. “The first helicopters were delivered at the end of November 2021 and their operational commissioning was announced in June of the following year.”
In 2018, Guillermet had the opportunity to evaluate the H145 D2 in flight, highlighting in a report the advantages of the aircraft for Sécurité Civile’s missions. The D2 kept the four-blade rotor of the EC145 C2, but it carried the Fenestron installed at the end of an extended fuselage tail boom. It also had full authority digital engine control (FADEC) for its two Safran Arriel 2E turbine engines.
“During my evaluation flight, there was as much difference at the time between the C2 and the D2 as between the Alouette III and the C2. It was exactly the helicopter we needed,” Guillermet said. “With it, it was possible to go on an IFR [instrument flight rules] flight, winch in the mountains, fly back under NVGs [night vision goggles], return to IFR and reach a hospital — all with a crew of only two people, a pilot and a mechanic.”
The Sécurité Civile is the only agency in France today to fly single pilot at night for complex operational missions. When the EC145 C2s began to show their age, the unit pleaded to renew to the H145 D2s rather than renovate its existing C2s. The decision to modernize the fleet with the D3s was an even better solution since its new five-bladed main rotor further improved the aircraft’s performance at altitude.
The Alouette III remained in service for half a century, and in doing so, instilled in the minds of high-ranking civil servants the idea that such longevity was normal. The replacement of the EC145s after 20 years was a surprise for the team. Sécurité Civile signed a contract in 2023 to completely renew its 40-helicopter fleet. Three aircraft will be delivered this year, with deliveries expected to continue at a rate of eight per year from 2025.
The first aircraft delivered were assigned as a priority to Annecy and Grenoble, two large cities in the French Alps in charge of high mountain operations. The first base covers Mont Blanc, the highest mountain in the Alps and Western Europe rising 15,770 feet (4,810 meters) above sea level. The base provides detachments to Chamonix every other week, alternating with a Gendarmerie helicopter, and Courchevel, depending on the season.
The second aircraft is turned toward the Ecrins alpine massif and arms a detachment at Alpes d’Huez. At the start of 2024, the possession of four H145s only guarantees the availability of three aircraft, with the fourth being under scheduled maintenance. Priority is given to Grenoble, which permanently has two H145s, while Annecy juggles with one H145 and one EC145.
“The transition from the EC145 to the H145 opened new horizons for us,” Guillermet said. “The former can be tricky to maneuver at high altitude due to its 17 knots crosswind limitation. You can easily reach the limit of maneuverability in yaws. Only a highly clever person would be able to predict the crosswind at a winching point in the high mountains.”
Meanwhile, the D3’s high-performance Fenestron and extended tail provides a better yaw authority, raising the limit to 30 knots of crosswind. Another essential point is the comfort of the five-bladed rotor. Guillermet said the new helicopter “provides greater comfort, less vibration and better stability when hovering.”
The performance gain is just as spectacular. From the Chamonix base, the Sécurité Civile crew may be required to intervene on Mont Blanc.
“With the C2, we were able to carry out the missions but with a very reduced payload. We could, for example, extract a single person with 10 minutes of fuel remaining,” Guillermet said. “With the H145, you can pick up five people at once with 45 minutes of fuel remaining. This is an increase of 400 kilograms [880 pounds] in payload. For a helicopter that weighs 3.3 ton when taking off from the base, this is a 15-percent gain.”
While the crew is still carrying out the same mission scope with the D3s, for certain altitude ranges, the new helicopters allow them to work in much better conditions, increasing their safety margins. This is important for a base that’s essentially focused on high mountain operations.
The ergonomics of the new aircraft are also considered to be much superior than the EC145, and the Helionix avionics, as intuitive as it is pleasant to use, win all the votes of the crews.
“Autopilot offers us extremely useful modes that work perfectly,” Guillermet said. “When I was a pilot in the Navy, it was impossible to hover at night on the sea in the absence of ground reference without a good autopilot. Hovering at night on dry land is also good with an automatic pilot. Meanwhile, I can concentrate more on winching safety.”
He said the Helionix also offers new modes, such as a ground trajectory control mode (GTC), which adjusts its reference to match what the pilot is doing, as well as an integrated mission mapping system.
While the H145 D3 may be an improvement for pilots, it nonetheless remains a BK117, according to the terms of the certification authorities. It therefore does not require additional type qualifications for pilots already qualified on the EC145 C2, but simply a three-week training course to understand all of its particularities.
This included completing a module of around 20 flight hours, which was initially carried out at Airbus in Donauwörth, Germany, but is now provided internally by the Sécurité Civile. Added to this is an operational adaptation course, which takes place in the mountains and represents around 10 additional flight hours. Before being able to take the controls of the new aircraft, the training ends with three to five flights with the usual partners of the Sécurité Civile: gendarmes, high mountain specialists, and firefighters. For these flights, the transition from the EC145 C2 to the H145 D3 brings no change. The cabin is the same and nothing changes in support work or winching.
The pattern is quite similar for the mechanics, who participate in the line maintenance of aircraft but also play an essential role in the mission by assisting the pilot, particularly during IFR or NVG flights. They also take care of the cabin and are responsible for operating the winch. Their training on the D3 takes place during a three-week technical internship at Airbus, followed by a two-week onboard operator internship in Nimes, France, the Sécurité Civile’s main base. They then participate in an eight-hour mountain adaptation flight the same way as the pilots.
Maintenance of the H145 is simpler than that of the EC145, according to the crew. This is because of the H145 D3’s more modern design compared to the EC145 C2’s labor intensive design.
At the moment, all Sécurité Civile pilots are trained on the C2s before moving on to the D3s, but this will quickly change with the renewal of the fleet.
“I think that the C2 was a demanding device which was ultimately very educational for new pilots,” Guillermet said. “As head of the mountain training sector, my wish would have been to have a C2 to carry out training and evaluations. With the H145, things are almost too easy, but you have to move with the times. And the H145 is an exceptional helicopter, so I’m not going to complain.”
With around a hundred pilots and as many flight mechanics, the helicopter group is a small organization that covers the entire French territory with its 27 permanent bases and 40 helicopters. The Sécurité Civile does not recruit aircrews fresh out of flying school. All pilots and mechanics already have a first career — most of the time, in the military — before joining the ranks of the Dragons.
“I joined the Sécurité Civile in 2004 after a first career in the Navy spent mainly at the controls of [the Aérospatiale SA 321] Super Frelon,” Guillermet said.
At the beginning of the 2000s, recruitment was high with around 15 pilots coming in per year, but today, it has been reduced significantly with only four new pilots expected this year.
“For all these people who have prior experience on the Tiger, EC725 or NH90, training for a type rating on the BK117 C2 is a very educational experience, which is also very revealing for us. Afterward, the transition to the H145 is done as needed,” Guillermet said.
