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Microflite Helicopter Services’ fleet of Eurocopters, with their bright red and tasteful gold livery, is simultaneously obvious and distinctive, yet contradictingly subtle. As Rob Neil discovered, they have become Melbourne landmarks almost as familiar as Flinders Street Station, Federation Square or the Crown Casino, opposite which Microflite has an exclusive downtown river helipad.

Two and a half years ago, Microflite’s current owners bought the company when its entire fleet comprised a single helicopter and one fixed-wing aircraft. Today, Microflite’s all-rotary fleet consists of new and near-new Eurocopters. The company now owns one AS350 B3 Squirrel, three EC120s and an EC130, and has the use of another privately owned EC130, which is equipped to the same high standard as its own aircraft.

Brenton Ramsay, Microflite’s general manager, said the Eurocopter choice was a deliberate one for the company’s owners, who he described as being passionate about aviation and helicopters in particular. “They love ‘beautiful’ helicopters. Eurocopter’s helicopters are the only really modern (light) helicopters on the market. All the others are pretty much cosmetic upgrades of airframes that have been around for decades. It was important to the owners that our helicopters be new and modern to give the right impression for our customers.”

Eurocopter fleet

The helicopters have all been extremely reliable, according to Brenton, who was also full of praise for the level of service provided by Australian Aerospace, Eurocopter’s Australian subsidiary, which is conveniently located next door to Microflite at Moorabbin. “We love the Eurocopter product—full-stop.”

The Eurocopter choice was not just based on aesthetics, of course. As Brenton explained, the machines are the most practical helicopters available for the kind of charter work that Microflite specialises in. In addition to the high passenger appeal of the modern “new car-like” interiors, he cited the industry-leading quietness of the Fenestron tail rotor used in the EC120 and EC130, and said that the lowest possible noise footprint was essential in order for Microflite to maintain public acceptance.

“The company had to have helicopters to suit corporate customers, tourists and TV crews equally. We are very fortunate to have a facility in middle of the CBD, so low noise is very important to us. Our city helipad has the capacity for two machines at a time and we generally operate from it at least once a day—often with two machines—so we can’t afford to have noisy helicopters. Noise is also very much in the public mind and awareness at the various tourist areas and wineries we operate to.”

Although based at the large general aviation airport of Moorabbin in Melbourne’s southern suburbs, Microflite has exclusive use of a barge-top helipad located on the north bank of Melbourne’s beautiful Yarra River in downtown Melbourne City, ten minutes’ flying time from Moorabbin. The company prides itself on the “neighbourliness” of its Eurocopter machines in such a highly sensitive area.

When they took over the company and set about re-equipping with new helicopters, Microflite’s owners intended to “raise the bar” and set new benchmark standards in the helicopter corporate charter business. To this end, all of its machines have luxurious leather interiors and all are fitted with air conditioning. Sensibly, the deliberate inclusion of the AS350B3 Squirrel in the fleet means the company’s eggs are not all in a single basket and thus Microflite is well equipped to carry out the broadest possible range of work. This diversity of its operations means that when things are quiet in one area, others areas are invariably busy.

The Squirrel is equipped with a luxury “Bentley” interior like the EC130s—far more luxurious than many workhorse B3s—that also incorporates additional soundproofing. At the same time, it is also equipped with long-range tanks, a hook and a wire-strike kit, and has an 1,100-litre belly tank available for fire fighting when required.

So, while aerial work is not the company’s prime function or target market—which is the passenger (corporate, charter, tourism) and filming market—the multi-role B3 does its fair share of lifting and carrying. As Brenton explained, “A number of the company’s regular corporate clients also require aerial work jobs—like lifting—so we had to retain full helicopter capabilities in order to be a true ‘one-stop-shop’ for our customers.”

Film and Television

In addition to its up-market charter work, Microflite also conducts lot of television and film work in collaboration with a globally recognised film company called Aerial Camera Systems (ACS). Under this arrangement, ACS supplies camera equipment (usually Cineflex hi-definition gyro-stabilised camera pods and associated equipment) and film specialists, while Microflite provides helicopters and flight crew.

One of Microflite’s EC120s is assigned as its primary camera aircraft, but the B3 is also available for the role when its additional performance is required or when events like the Melbourne Formula-1 Grand Prix, V-8 Supercar races, MotoGP and horse races require more than a single camera platform (during Pacific Wings’ visit, the Squirrel was just returning from a filming job in Sydney). With their smooth three-bladed main rotors and wide, unobstructed cabins with good visibility, Eurocopter’s helicopters are much favoured by film crews around the world.

Microflite and ACS have developed a good working relationship, according to Brenton, with the result that ever-increasing numbers of customers have full confidence they will get first-class service from proven helicopter and film crews. The company regularly films night football matches and does quite a bit of work for Victorian Tourism.

The film and television work is important for Microflite at a time when money is tight around the world because the need for aerial filming is unlikely to abate with both industries still increasing their demand for quality images.

Still growing

Microflite’s dramatic growth during the past couple of years began with its new owners’ decision to inject a significant amount of capital to set the business up as they wanted it to continue. The decision appears to have proved a good one and, according to Brenton, the growth is now self-sustaining. For many smaller, budget-limited companies, it is a little like a Catch-22 “horse-before-cart” situation, where limited resources preclude the kind of upgrading necessary to attract enough additional business to permit expansion.

Each year so far, the company has doubled the amount of work it did the previous year. “Obviously, it helps having more aircraft,” says Brenton, “but if the work wasn’t there or we weren’t looking after our customers, it wouldn’t happen. We haven’t had to chase work; word of mouth has been a good advertiser for us.

“Every company wants to be the best it can, and that is definitely our intention. Our aim is to be the premier operator. However, while quality comes at a price, that doesn’t mean our prices are over the top—we still charge reasonable rates for the service we provide.”

He added that the company’s ethos is one of “under-promise, over-deliver” as opposed to the other way around. “Our aim is to always exceed our customers’ expectations,” he said. “The result of this has been a great deal of repeat business.”

Brenton believes that Microflite has a number of advantages in addition to the quality of equipment and facilities. While there are times when all of its machines are busy, the company generally has “spare” capacity available for unexpected large jobs. Many smaller companies operate on barest minimum numbers of aircraft and staff, based on average workloads, with the result that they cannot accept big jobs at short notice.

The owners’ ability to invest in re-equipping Microflite adequately has given the company other advantages over its “spare” capacity. While it is essential for every aviation operator to balance minimum maintenance downtime against maximum work, the flexibility in Microflite’s fleet means that it is never “stretched” in this regard. When one machine is down for maintenance (something that can be scheduled far more easily in a fleet with spare capacity), there are other aircraft available to take up the slack. Such a luxury is not available to some smaller companies with limited budgets.

“Having the fleet capacity is important in terms of maintaining our standards,” says Brenton. “If a customer comes in wanting 20 or 30 people moved, we have the capacity to do this without having to out-source. In saying this, we aren’t suggesting others are ‘inferior’ companies—indeed, there are other excellent helicopter operators about—but it is inevitable that there will be differences in the ways different companies operate, and we want there to be a completely consistent feel and appearance and level of service for all of our clients, no matter what the job. Our customers—and there are increasingly more regular ones—like to know they will always get the same kind of equally well-equipped aircraft, the same pilots wearing familiar uniforms and the same point of contact.”

Brenton is pleased that many of their corporate customers and passengers are not even aware of the differences between Microflite’s various helicopters. “From a passenger/corporate perspective, this is as it should be,” he says. “Everything has to be seamless for passengers—they should only ever have to contact us once with their requirements and know that we will take care of everything and that ‘the Microflite helicopter will show up’, and they can expect the same standards and service every time.”

Helicopters and people

Microflite currently employs five full-time pilots and has a number of regular casual pilots available to assist as required. While it is a young, dynamic company, pilot “experience” is an essential requirement and is a company selling point. Unlike a number of general aviation companies, Microflite is not an evolution of a training organisation and it only employs pilots who will fit its target niche of top-quality, up-market service. This means that—as important as flight experience is for its pilots—the need for its pilots to have outstanding people skills is equally important in a company with the laudable goal of leading the industry in terms of quality and customer service.

“At Microflite, pilots need to understand people as well as they do helicopters,” says Brenton. “It is a major task to find such widely skilled individuals and the company takes pride in having the best of both worlds. We have a great bunch of unique individuals with strong technical flying skills who can converse intelligently with any group, and can ‘read’ their emotions and desires around helicopters and act accordingly.”

Microflite’s pilots also must have—or quickly develop—a familiarity with Melbourne, as they need to be effective “taxi drivers” as well—able to recognise place names and drop different customers off in a multitude of different places when required.

The flight experience of the company’s pilots varies from 1,000–9,000 hours, with experience in all aspects of helicopter operations. The lowest-timed pilot is actually Brenton, who has just over 1,000 hours, although he shines in his management and marketing abilities and is an ideal “ambassador” for the company. He originally learnt to fly in Queensland and has been flying helicopters for about five years, including a lengthy period flying tourists around Australia’s “Red Centre”.

The chief pilot, Allardes Hoiting (“Al”), learnt to fly in Australia but returned to Europe where he flew as a corporate pilot for the private owner of an EC120 for several years before returning to Australia in 2003. Al’s European job as a corporate helicopter pilot-cum-chauffeur-cum personal assistant prepared him perfectly for the “think-on-your-feet” role of Microflite’s chief pilot.

According to Brenton, jobs at Microflite are retained jealously. He says that the combination of truly modern helicopters, good facilities and the great variety of work in Melbourne’s good climate has resulted in a very low turnover of pilots, and the only changes have been due to expansion.

Any Opportunity

While Microflite targets the upper end of the corporate charter market, it doesn’t ignore any potential income source, and its centrally located riverside helipad offers an ideal launch-pad for local scenic flights for tourists and visitors to Melbourne. A fancy modern helicopter parked in the middle of Melbourne is certainly an inviting “eye-catcher’ to passers-by and accordingly, an EC120 is based there at weekends to make the most of the opportunity.

Local roading authorities have made much use of Microflite during the course of Melbourne’s major freeway construction project—mainly to undertake filming and survey work relating to the project.

Microflite’s helicopters have also been doing increasing amounts of work for real estate developers. As Melbourne continues growing—it is Australia’s second-largest city after Sydney—its developments are becoming much further separated and developers often need to travel significant distances between projects. For people under strict constraints where time is money, helicopters are often the most cost-effective way for them to travel, as anyone who has driven on Melbourne’s diabolically busy roads will attest.

The company also makes regular trips to Tullamarine Airport to pick up visitors—either businessmen who can’t afford the time to wait and commute through the city, or the guests and customers of various wineries or lodges, which Microflite services as a preferred corporate (helicopter) travel provider. It does not operate an airport “shuttle” service, as the cost and logistical difficulties of operating in and out of Tullamarine would not make this worthwhile.

Most of Microflite’s business is in Melbourne and Victoria, but it travels throughout Australia if necessary and its machines will commonly make the five–six hour ferry flight to Sydney for big filming jobs. One of its helicopters was chartered recently by one of the company’s regular clients to take part in an Australian “Helicopter Safari”.

Microflite does not have a regular fire-fighting contract but is one of numerous “call when needed” operators and has two machines able to be configured quickly for fire-fighting work.

Brenton says that the company is always looking out for additional possibilities—as most aviation operators undoubtedly are—but in Microflite’s case, it is also open to acquiring new (bigger) machines if demand should require it. However, in keeping with its “under-promise, over-deliver” ethos, Microflite never accepts jobs unless it has enough of the right aircraft to carry them out. It won’t take a job and then look for the aircraft to do it with. “We only take jobs when we know we can deliver.”

Since Pacific Wings visited Melbourne in May, Microflite has made plans to expand its Moorabbin facility further. The new base will be able to hangar up to 11 helicopters, and have a two-storey office and crew rest area with a boardroom. The facility will also accommodate a number of private machines for which Microflite will provide aircraft management and crewing services. Brenton believes that the combination of this benchmark helicopter facility together with the right choice of equipment and people will ensure Microflite continues to thrive in the years ahead.