FEC Heliports emphasise customer focus, safety and flexibility at this year's Air Medical Transport Conference

FEC Heliports has been a leading designer, manufacturer and installer of rooftop and aluminium helipads for more than 20 years. It has maintained that position by keeping an emphasis on design, flexibility, safety and innovation but perhaps most importantly by focussing on its customer requirements.

A good example of this is the recent design and build of a helipad for the Norton Audbun Hospital in Cincinnati. The hospital had an immediate requirement for an operational helipad but the bed tower building where the rooftop helipad would ultimately be installed was not yet completed. The hospital realized the cost to build this Helipad and relocate it was much less expensive than building two different helipads. Therefore, working with the customer, the FEC team put together a design package that could be installed immediately and then relocated to the rooftop in 18 months' time, when the bed tower is complete.

The ground pad has perimeter lights that are NVG compatible as well as FEC Remote Lighting Controller, Snowmelt and Fuel Containment systems. Fire suppression will be added when it is relocated to the roof.

The ground pad was assembled by the FEC team and took less than two weeks. The hospital has discussed adding a weather station in the future.

Tom Schuman, President of FEC Heliports said "Here at FEC safety is always our top priority, so whether it's a hospital or an offshore oil platform, we build safety in by design."

On show at this year's Air Medical Transport Conference will be the FEC HP0790G low profile LED green / infrared perimeter light and the Remote Lighting Controller, but also for the first time FEC's latest innovation, the HEMS-Star® Helipad Light.

The HEMS-Star® Helipad Light is a battery powered, microprocessor controlled light especially designed for rapid deployment in temporary or emergency situations to provide safe and effective marking at designated or ad-hoc helicopter landing areas.

HEMS-Star® is capable of showing, at programmable intensities, red, blue, green, white visible LED's and infra-red or a combination of a visible colour and infra-red to support pilots wearing Night Vision Goggles (NVG's).

The HEMS-Star® can be easily programmed to flash warning, location beacon or Morse Code and has the ability to detect light levels for automatic sunset and sunrise switching.

Portable in cases of 8 lights and rechargeable in its case via mains at 100-240V AC, vehicles at 13.5-28VDC, solar or wind power.

HEMS-Star® is an IP65 rated light fitted with rubber soled stainless steel base to ensure stability under the toughest rotor-wash conditions and has been successfully tested at the Sikorsky Development Flight Center (DFC) in Florida for stability under the rotor wash of a CH-147 (Chinook).

In conjunction with the Remote Lighting Controller, HEMS-Star® is pilot control enabled and fitted with an 868 MHz (915 MHz in USA) UHF transceiver. This enables each individual light or set of lights to be programmed, interrogated and controlled by wireless commands. Using this function, HEMS-Star® can be switched on from an aircraft using a Remote Lighting Controller up to 10km away, line of sight.

The system has recently achieved both US FCC Certification and European CE certification.

Available at the booth for demonstrations of the equipment or to discuss your requirements will be Jeff Sterwerf from FEC Heliports Inc. and Justin Craig from FEC Heliports Worldwide Ltd. Booth number 1503, Air Medical Transport Conference, September 26-28, 2016, Charlotte Convention Center, Charlotte, North Carolina USA.