This article will guide you on how to add a Helicopter (Heli) to your case. There are two steps needed to add a Heli:

Adding a helicopter

1. Open your case and go to  Build → Logistics → +Add 

2. You will then have a selection of vessels that you can add. Click on Helicopter

3. You will now be directed to the selection of that logistic in your input library. Find the Heli you want to add and click on it.

4. Complete the necessary information on how the helicopter should be used. In this case, the number of helicopters you will need, shift, home, port etc.

  • Name: The name of the Heli
  • Number of units to add: How many Heli you will add
  • Onshore heliport: It is mandatory to add the onshore heliport. If you have not added a port to your case yet, you will not be able to add the vessel.
  • Spot chartered: enable lead time for helicopter
  • Availability: The daily availably of the heli or always available (24h)
  • Alter vessels settings: Here you can define if the shift time is constant or if it alters. 
    • by date and the settings will repeat annually: This option lets you assign the helicopter to only be available within the period you have selected. In the example below, the helicopter will be available from January 1st to April 5th each year.
    • periodically and specify durations by number of days: This option lets you assign the number of the days the helicopter will be available, at which point, it will be unavailable in the same number of days. In the example below, the helicopter will work for 14 days, then have 14 days off, before it starts it's rotation again for 14 days. 
    • by date and year (ConDesign only): This option lets you assign the helicopters availability by both date and year. In the example below, the helicopter will be available in 2021 from the 1st of August to the 11th of November, and in 2023 from the 5th of March to the 28th of July. 
  • Offshore location: If you have an offshore base or an SOV, you can assign the Heli to either in this section. 

  5. Click on Next

  6. Click on Add' after adding all relevant information

Editing a Helicopter

1. Go to your Heli and hover your mouse over it. Click on it. 

2. Add or edit all necessary information. Sections available are:

3. See more detail on each section: 

Members

If you click on 'Helicopter 1' you will be able to make adjustments to the information you added when inserting the vessel. This is a shift, mother port, etc. 

Parameters

  • Technician capacity: number of people in heli to carry the work 
  • Econ. cruise sped: heli speed in transit
  • Set flight hour limit interval: Determine the interval for the Flight hour limit field.
  • Flight hour limit:total hours flying a month or year
    • The flight hour limit only applies to the flying time + hoisting time. Hoisting is in addition not based on the number of technicians.
Performance

A selection of inputs to set the weight limits at which the helicopter can operate under different conditions.


Weather Criteria

  • Wind speed access limit: Maximum wind speed allowed for accessing a turbine or substation 
  • Wind speed limitation reference height (O&M only): Reference height for the helicopters wind speed access limit. You can add the reference height the weather restriction corresponds to in order to extrapolate the wind speed to the same reference height as the weather limitation.
  • Visibility access limit: Minimum visibility allowed for accessing a turbine or substation 
  • Significant wave height access limit: Maximum wave height allowed for accessing a turbine or substation
Fuel Consumption (O&M only)

  • Fuel unit: Unit of the fuel can be changed to either litre or ton per hour
  • Fuel consumption per flight hour: Sets the amount of fuel used by litre/ton per hour
Cost

In this section, you can define the cost involved with the helicopter.

Step 1: is define the currency 

Step 2: Add any cost you want to report on. Some examples of the cost you can manage are: 

  • Cost per flight hour
  • Heli Port fee: It is calculated every time the vessel moves from the port to another destination
  • Standby fee

Data Time Series

You can also add a cost time series, so your cost differentiates by year. This is done by clicking on the Open Time Data Series button.

Set your year range starting with 1 and how many years you want to simulate and click Update - the actual year is derived from the operational start year on the assets (if your operational start year is set to 2021-xx-xx, year 1 is 2021, year 2 is 2022 etc.), to which you can add the cost per year.

Activity Durations

Note: Define the unit (d/h/m/s). The example below shows that 'Technician preparation time' is 2 hours (2h)

  • Lead time: waiting time for the helicopter to be available before taking any action on a failure. To activate it, go to the members tab and click on 'Sport chartered' or enable it when you are adding the vessel. The logic is explained below.
    • 1. A failure occurs and it is scheduled
    • 2. When scheduling the helicopter, it will start a lead time of x days
    • 3. When on-site it mobilises and goes out to do work
    • 4. When back in heliport after the task/tasks is/are finished it becomes unavailable and we have to wait x days (lead time) for a helicopter again when a new failure occurs. Failures that happen before work on the first failure is finished, will also be fixed.
      • Note: there will only be a lead time when there was no task already. So if a task is created on 1st January and three days lead time then it will first start on the 4th of January, but if another task is then created on the 4th of January then that one will not have a lead time, as the vessel is already called and on the site.
  • Technician preparation time: Time needed for the personnel to get ready - this is only happening once per day, so if the helicopter is going back to port to pick up more personnel, it is not counted twice in the simulation.
  • Startup time: Time needed for the Heli to start flying
  • Hoisting time: Time needed for the personnel/equipment the get on/off the asset from the Heli 
  • Shutdown time: Time needed for the heli to turn off the engine 
  • Refuelling time: The time needed for the heli to refuel

4. Click on Save when done