West Coast Helicopters Maintenance & Contracting Ltd.

West Coast Helicopters has operated out of Port McNeill on the north coast of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, since 1994. Its website describes reliable helicopter services across the province, from forestry and wildfire support to heliskiing and medevac.

Flight operations

• Forestry operations: flying fallers, survey crews and equipment into remote logging camps, with precision long line work, camp resupply and crew rotation
• Wildfire support: helitack crews, bucketing operations and aerial observation, from a hangar built as a rapid deployment hub
• Windfirming: two in-house built tree topping machines
• Medevac for remote coastal communities
• HeliVenture trips, including work with Nimmo Bay
• Heliskiing in partnership with Bearpaw Lodge and Snowwater Heli Skiing

Maintenance

West Coast Helicopters is a Transport Canada Approved Maintenance Organization offering third party maintenance for commercial and private operators. It lists the Robinson R22 and R44, Bell 206 series, Eurocopter AS350 and MD 500. Maintenance is based at Port McNeill and Campbell River.

Fleet

The website lists thirteen aircraft: six AStars, four Bell JetRangers and three MD500s, all flown under Day VFR.

Bases

• Port McNeill, main base with an 8,900 square foot hangar
• Bella Coola (Hagensborg), summer adventure and fire base
• Campbell River, coastal forestry, charter and medevac
• Port Alberni, logging support, medevac and environmental survey

Safety

The company operates a Safety Management System meeting Transport Canada standards and states that it is SAFE Certified.

Contact

Main base: 1011 Airport Rd, Port McNeill, BC V0N 2R0