Archive for December, 2018

December 31, 2018

The provinces seem to have a lot of problems with the transfer of a number of heliport licenses for the operation of company – or hospital bound heliports, which before 2009, were issued under the regime of the Royal Decree on Structure and Use of Non-Designated Aerodromes (better known as BIGNAL), to a heliport license to be issued by ordinance by the province. According to a transitional law of 2008, which legally regulates the transfer of the BIGNAL licenses to a heliport permit or a heliport license, all eligible heliports should already have been provided with a provincial heliport permit or license in the year 2011.

Now, at the end of 2018, BIGNAL licenses for a number of existing heliports still need to be transformed into a provincial heliport license. Fortunately, the aforementioned transitional law stipulates that all existing BIGNAL licenses remain in full force until the province has issued a heliport permit or a heliport license.

In my opinion, the government should never have given up this task to the provinces, where aeronautical technical expertise is lacking in most cases.

June 2018

Since June 2018, Aviation-Support has been involved in the design and development of a new heliport near the newly to be built ‘New General Hospital’ on the Caribbean island of St. Maarten.
The new hospital will be built by the Italian construction company INSO on behalf of the management of the current St. Maarten Medical Center (SMMC). The 202.7 million guilders project is financed by a consortium of mainly institutional investors. 45 million are made available from the Dutch reconstruction fund. The delivery is planned for 2023.

In connection with the construction of building S, which is being built right next to the heliport on the rooftop of the Radboudumc, the flight paths to and from the heliport had to be changed from outbound 270° to 300° and inbound from 090° to 150°.
In addition to the ANWB MAA’s trauma helicopter, it was also decided, after an aerunautical study, to allow, larger helicopters from the coastguard, the ADAC and offshore-related helicopters, up to an overall length of 16 m.
Aviation Support has provided the expertise for both items that should lead to a new airportpermit issued by the province of Gelderland.