The FAA has granted STCs to GPMS International for its Foresight MX HUMS on the Airbus EC135 and AS332 Super Puma platforms.

“We appreciate Blackcomb Helicopters and Precision's dedicated support in achieving these STCs, and we're excited to see them monitoring their fleets with Foresight MX,” says VP of marketing Ronnie Ries. “We also want to thank Metro Aviation for its contribution in helping us with these certification efforts. Since our initial STC on the Bell 407 in 2019, GPMS has pursued STCs on more than 14 models across multiple OEMs. With these latest STCs, EC135 and AS332 operators now benefit from Foresight's predictive HUMS.”

Western Canada-based operator Blackcomb chose to equip its Airbus EC135 T2 with Foresight MX back in July 2023, and in February of this year its four Airbus EC135s and four Bell 212HPs as well. Precision began monitoring its AS332 fleet with the HUMS in February 2024.

According to Ries, demand for new Foresight MX certifications has been driven primarily by three types of operators: current GPMS customers wanting to monitor their entire fleet; operators needing to meet contractual requirements; and operators looking at ways to mitigate significant business challenges.

He continues: “We're thrilled when our customers want to monitor additional aircraft, but we're finding external demand for HUMS has increased substantially because of new and evolving contracts requiring HUMS (like the US Forest MATOC), BARS compliance requirements and, especially, because of the impacts of supply chain and manpower challenges. They need HUMS to win contracts in this super competitive era.

“The reality is operators are recognising that the impact of unscheduled maintenance goes beyond the price of an AOG part. The stress to their already shorthanded maintenance team and the lost revenue from an easily detectable bearing that's going to make metal is having sceptics take a closer look at why their peers are adopting Foresight MX HUMS.”