Airbus : Scandair’s H125 helicopters help protect the environment from above

Another activity for Scandair is dropping clean wood ash on young trees as a forest soil amendment, contracting with private- and government-owned forest holders who have been charged with returning nutrients back to the forest that were removed through logging.

This work must be done in the growing season, so Scandair's forest work usually starts in May when the snow has melted and roads have hardened, continuing until August. 'You have to do it when temperatures are above zero to get the nutrients into the soil,' Johansen said.

To maximise the helicopter's time in the air for optimum efficiency, Scandair uses a customised truck with a silo that holds six tonnes of material, and two hoistable buckets are continuously in rotation: one being filled while the other is flown on a sling below the H125. 'Once you have sprayed, you can just fly back, make the exchange for a full bucket, and go,' Johansen added.

Scandair manufactures its own equipment, including a GPS-controlled bucket system. This allows the pilot at the H125's controls to simply focus on flying at a slow airspeed of 50 knots while the GPS automatically signals the bucket when to make a drop and how much, depending on speed.