DAP’s helicopter fleet, composed of ten Eurocopter helicopters, flies around 3,500 hours a year.

Cloudy skies, low visibility and average wind speeds of 25 knots hamper pilots on a daily basis. Then, winter brings with it serious snow storms. As Nicolas Pivcevic explains, however, with few exceptions the show must go on: “We only cancel EMS flights when the wind gets over 65 knots and offshore operations continue up to 50 knots.” In actual fact, this sums up normal conditions on the southern coasts of Chile and Argentina, and the Antarctic is another matter entirely! Despite the poor weather, the absence of roads on land and the extremely busy shipping routes mean – as it does in so many other parts of the world – that the helicopter is the only means of performing a wide range of missions. These include passenger transportation for the oil & gas industry, tourism (e.g. transporting amateur fishermen), Emergency Medical Services (EMS), pipeline surveillance and carrying ship pilots out to boats. Logically enough, these are the main activities of DAP Helicopteros. The Santiagobased outfit has approximately 30 customers and flies to 36 offshore oil platforms for the companies ENAP in Chile, and Sipetrol in Argentina. The difficulties of navigating in the Straits of Magellan – caused by dense shipping, the mountainous terrain and the harsh weather conditions – provide another opportunity for DAP Helicopteros. The Straits are, of course, preferred to Cape Horn as a means of transiting between the Pacific and the Atlantic, and insurers oblige shipping companies to engage the services of specialist pilots, who are taken to the boats by helicopter. DAP Helicopteros’ advanced base in Punta Arenas is ideally located halfway along the 300-nautical-mile channel.

Optimal Security Level
DAP Helicopteros is a specialist in flying missions in this region and has 20 years’ experience under its belt. The company currently notches up some 3,500 flight hours a year. DAP Helicopteros is especially proud of its safety record and rightly boasts that it has never had an accident – nor even a major incident. This level of performance led Eurocopter to cite the company as its “operator of reference in South America for the twin-engine Ecureuil/AStar range”. As a matter of fact, the DAP Helicopteros fleet consists exclusively of Eurocopter aircraft. And the Chilean operator rates these helicopters as fully satisfactory from an operational point of view. The fleet contains four AS355 F2 Ecureuil/AStars, five BO105s equipped for oil & gas operations, and a seven-seat EC135. The scheduled arrival of an EC135, two BO105 Super Lifters, and three more AS355 F2 Ecureuil/AStars should swell the company’s ranks very soon. Furthermore, it will open two new bases for EMS operations in the extreme north of the Chilean desert serving the mining industry.