Skywork Helicopters
Skywork Helicopters is a family-owned business which has been running since 1996, running operations in remote areas across Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, New Zealand and Australia.
Over the years, the company has been built around providing specialised helicopter support for remote operations. In the beginning they were able to land some large forestry contracts which then enabled the company to grow and secure bigger remote operation contracts.
Today, Skywork operates with a fleet of 4 aircraft: a twin-engine AS355N Eurocopter and three single-engine AS350B3 Eurocopters. These aircraft do diverse work such as precision lifting, infrastructure surveying, construction, maintenance, and heli-support for all types of industries in both populated and remote areas. On top of this, they also support search and rescue and aerial firefighting missions.
Skywork started using TracPlus in 2006, when an off-shore remote operation required complete visibility of their aircraft due to the high-risk involved. They tested the TracPlus system and were satisfied with the data it was providing, and used it on their operation.
Recently we talked to the General Manager of Skywork Helicopters, Paul Carkeek, to get his insights on TracPlus and how his company uses the platform on a day-to-day basis to improve safety and operational efficiency.
How does TracPlus help your operations run on a daily basis?
“Firstly, our accounts team actually use TracPlus for truth-checking our worksheets, and confirming all of the flying for the day is being invoiced. Sometimes they might discover a one hour flight that may have gone unnoticed, which they can then update to the invoice and the company will be sufficiently covered.
In terms of operations, the great thing about TracPlus is that we’ve got historical data going back to 2006, and we use that data to this day in flight planning. We’re able to go back over 10 years to see things like accurate flight paths, fuel planning, sequence of events, and the actual time an operation took. To be able to look at these things on a desktop 10 years after they occur is a pretty cool thing. So the historical information TracPlus gives us is very valuable.
All of our ICE personnel have got the TracPlus app on their phone so we can see what's going on 24/7 and can respond in case of an emergency.
TracPlus also provides us with the information to see how long before our pilots get to location X, Y, or Z. So if a client asks us ‘where are they?’ we can quickly look and tell them with accuracy."
What TracPlus features and functionalities are the most important for you, and why?
“The ability to quickly share tracking information. For example, we often work with search and rescue authorities and we are able to show them where our aircraft are in real-time. This means the rescue coordination centre can have our data up on their screen alongside their own information, and this helps them with complete oversight of what’s going on."
What would you say are the biggest strengths of the TracPlus system?
“It seems to be bulletproof. It’s reliable data that we can use to confirm where we’ve been. For example, if we ever get complaints, we can use the export function to prove our location in real-time and send the info to whoever might request it.
It’s also fairly intuitive. We get one or two new staff members coming on per year and they can pick it up really quickly."
What are the key issues TracPlus helps you with?
"Going back to before we first got TracPlus, there wasn’t a whole lot of tracking available. So for us, having the assurance of knowing where our aircraft and people are at all times is key."
Has there ever been any specific occasion you can think of where TracPlus has saved time, money, or a life?
"There’s been many times when TracPlus has provided us with assurance and peace of mind. An example would be when we were moving aircraft up to Indonesia, we were able to watch our aircrafts flight path as well as the local weather maps in real-time. Then we had the ability to watch our pilot as they changed heading and altitude and turned around. At these times we can call the pilot on the satellite phone and let them know we see them and we know where they are."
What would you say to someone thinking about implementing a tracking system?
"I would say in this day and age, if you don't have a tracking system, you don’t really care about your people. For us it's about our people, not anything else. It’s about making sure we know where they are the whole time."
Interested in learning more about how TracPlus can help your business or organisation? Get in touch with us at sales@tracplus.com.