AS350 B3e course · Cockpit and equipment
Landing gear and mission equipment
Skids, floats, hooks and cutters — and their supplements
The essentials
The Astar stands on skid gear, standard or high. Most of its work depends on optional equipment: a cargo hook, emergency floats, wire-strike protection, snow pads, utility interiors and more.
Every one of them is approved with an RFM supplement that can add limitations, change procedures and move the centre of gravity. A piece of equipment you haven't read the supplement for is equipment you don't know how to fly with.
Skid gear
The skids are springs as well as legs: on a firm landing they flex and absorb energy. A hard landing can bend them permanently, which changes ground clearance and how the aircraft sits.
High skids give more clearance — for rough sites, snow and some equipment — at the cost of a higher centre of gravity on the ground, which narrows the margin against rollover on slopes.
Ground-handling wheels
Skids don't roll, so the aircraft is moved on the ground with wheels fitted to the skids, or on a dolly or platform.
Wheels left on, or a dolly not secured, can let the aircraft move during start-up or lift-off. Confirm they are removed or stowed as your operator requires, as part of the walkaround.
Cargo hook
The hook carries external loads — up to 1,400 kg, per Airbus. It has an electrical release on the controls and a manual release as a backup, and both are checked before flight.
Hook operations are flown under external-load rules with their own limitations. The External load chapter covers the flying.
Swing hooks and load cells
A swing hook kit lets the hook move with the load instead of loading the structure sideways. Kits often include a load cell and a cockpit indicator that show the load's weight as you lift — a direct check of what you planned.
One kit for the B3e and H125 can interface with the VEMD to raise rotor rpm automatically once the load cell reads more than about 150 kg (Onboard Systems data). If yours does, know when it switches and what you will see.
Emergency floats
Emergency floats are packed on the skids and inflate on command for a landing on water. They add weight and drag, and the supplement sets an airspeed and configuration envelope for inflation and for flight with floats inflated.
Arming, inflation and the limits that apply are in the float supplement — read it before flying over water.
Source 1
How floats inflate — and why symmetry matters
On a widely used AS350 kit, a handle pulls cables that release gas from two cylinders, which must fire together so every float fills. A float that fills late or partly leaves the aircraft listing — and a helicopter with a heavy rotor on top rolls over easily in water.
After the East River accident, the FAA issued an airworthiness directive on that kit's cable installation. Floats are a maintenance-critical system that is never tested in flight; the supplement's checks are what you have.
Wire-strike protection
A wire-strike protection system puts cutters above and below the cabin and deflectors on the windscreen, designed to guide a wire into a cutter instead of into the rotor or controls.
It improves the odds in some strikes — the maker claims a measure of protection against horizontal wires met in forward, level flight. It does not protect the tail rotor or the main-rotor blades, and it is not a reason to fly closer to wires.
How the cutters work
A basic system has three parts: an upper cutter on the cabin roof, a lower cutter under the nose, and a windscreen deflector between them. The shapes guide a wire meeting the front of the aircraft up or down into hardened steel blades.
Kits for the AS350 are aftermarket — Magellan lists one for the Astar. They change little in normal flight, but they come with their own approval and supplement, and items mounted on the roof or belly may need clearance from them.
Source 11
Snow pads and bear paws
Bear paws are plates clamped to the skids that spread the aircraft's weight over soft ground — snow, mud, sand — so it doesn't sink in. STC-approved kits for the AS350 are light; one is quoted at 15.5 lb (manufacturer figure).
They don't stop a skid freezing to the ground or catching on a buried obstacle. A stuck skid is a pivot for dynamic rollover: lift off gently and check both skids are free.
Hoist
A rescue hoist on an Astar is an STC installation: Goodrich's external hoist for the AS350 B3 is rated at 500 lb (manufacturer figure).
An external hoist is mounted to one side, so a load on the cable shifts the lateral CG. Hoisting is usually done in a hover out of ground effect, often inside the shaded part of the height-velocity diagram. The supplement sets the limits; the operator's approval and crew training decide whether it's done at all.
STCs and supplements
Most Astar equipment is approved by a supplemental type certificate. Each STC comes with an RFM supplement written by its holder and approved by the authority, and with an entry in the aircraft's weight and balance record.
Supplements stack, and they can interact: floats and a hook, a hoist and doors-off. Where two apply at once, read how they combine; if it isn't clear, fly to the more restrictive limit and ask. Check the aircraft's list of fitted equipment against the supplements in its manual.
What do high skids cost you?
A higher centre of gravity on the ground, which narrows the margin against rollover.
Where are the limitations for emergency floats?
In the supplement. Equipment supplements add their own limits and procedures.
What does wire-strike protection NOT protect?
The cutters protect the front of the fuselage. A wire meeting the rotors or tail rotor is outside what it can do.
Why does symmetrical float inflation matter?
Floats that fill unevenly leave the aircraft listing, and a helicopter capsizes easily.
You land on bear paws in snow and stay for an hour. What do you check on lift-off?
Bear paws spread the weight but can still freeze in. A stuck skid is a rollover pivot.
Sources
- Helicopter Flying Handbook (FAA-H-8083-21B) · FAA · Chapter 5, Rotorcraft Flight Manual
- H125 technical information · Airbus Helicopters
- Helicopter Flying Handbook (FAA-H-8083-21B) · FAA · Chapter 4, Helicopter Components, Sections, and Systems
- Helicopter Flying Handbook (FAA-H-8083-21B) · FAA · Chapter 11, Helicopter Emergencies and Hazards
- Helicopter Flying Handbook (FAA-H-8083-21B) · FAA · Chapter 8, Ground Procedures and Flight Preparations
- 14 CFR Part 133, Rotorcraft External-Load Operations · U.S. eCFR
- Cargo hook swing kit, AS350 B3e and H125 (200-470-02) · Onboard Systems
- AC 133-1B, Rotorcraft External-Load Operations · FAA
- Airworthiness Directive 2020-02-23 (emergency float kits, STC SR00470LA) · FAA (Federal Register) · 13 February 2020
- Aircraft Accident Report AAR-19/04, Airbus AS350 B2 N350LH, East River, New York · NTSB · 11 March 2018
- Wire Strike Protection System (WSPS) and WSPS kit listing · Magellan Aerospace
- Investigation AO-2019-015, AS350 VH-SZS, near Woomera · ATSB · Final report, 9 March 2021
- Alpine's new bear paws approved for AStars · AIN · 14 December 2022
- Goodrich hoist STC'd on 350 B3 · AIN · 16 June 2007
- Helicopter Flying Handbook (FAA-H-8083-21B) · FAA · Chapter 6, Weight and Balance
- Helicopter Flying Handbook (FAA-H-8083-21B) · FAA · Chapter 7, Helicopter Performance
Educational only. Not approved training material, and never a substitute for the Rotorcraft Flight Manual, an instructor, or your operator's procedures. Figures marked as manufacturer data or test results are not limitations. This content is a draft and has not yet been reviewed by an instructor.