Switzrland’s air rescue organization, Rega, has taken a step toward its goal of all-weather capability for mountain operations by 2025 by outfitting its fleet of 11 AgustaWestland AW109SPs with IFR equipment.

“Every year, poor visibility forces Rega to deny approximately 600 patients urgently needed medical assistance,” a spokesman said. Rega helicopters thus far have generally operated under visual flight rules, meaning that fog, snow or low clouds can cancel missions. This should start to change, with all helicopters now IFR-capable and all the crews expected to have completed training by year-end.

For the AW109SP, Rega has selected avionics from Genesys Aerosystems, enabling RNP 0.3 (meaning the aircraft navigation system must be able to calculate its position to within a circle with a radius of 0.3 nm), SBAS/LPV satellite-guided approaches. The modification work was performed in-house, drawing on a service bulletin devised by AgustaWestland, chief pilot Heinz Leibundgut told AIN. The improved performance is worth the additional 33 pounds or so, he pointed out.

For the six Airbus Helicopters EC145s, which were already equipped for IFR, the two CMC Electronics CMA-3000 flight management systems were modified with CMA 5024 SBAS-capable receivers. The upgrades on the two types will make it easier–but not always possible yet–to fly to hospitals in poor weather.

Rega operates the AW109SP on flights in the mountains and the EC145 on lowland flights.

Both are now certified for single-pilot IFR operations. The EC145 is also certified for dual-pilot IFR operations, for training purposes, Leibundgut said. EC145 pilots use a simulator owned by German operator ADAC, located at Cologne-Bonn Airport. At Zurich Airport, AW109SP crews use a Rega-owned Level B simulator that can recreate a mountain environment–such as white-out–and is compatible with night-vision goggles.

Looking to 2025

The next step for the organization, in Leibundgut’s view, is establishing a network of low-level routes covering Switzerland. It would be based on RNP 0.3 precision, avoid higher altitudes–where icing is more likely–and connect hospitals, all of which would have satellite-guided point-in-space procedures. It would involve flying IFR in non-controlled airspace. Progress, paced by air navigation providers and national authorities, is slow, Leibundgut noted.

Future technologies are eagerly awaited, too. In Rega’s view, these are RNP 0.1, anti-icing for light twins and a navigation database that meets Swisstopo’s high-precision height model of 0.5-meter accuracy. Synthetic vision of the terrain would be projected on the windshield. Leibundgut also seeks obstacle detection that would create a “safe sphere,” 1,600 feet in diameter, around the helicopter.