Valley Helicopters: Adapting for success

Written by Lisa Gordon | Retrieved from Vertical Magazine  

For nearly four decades, Valley Helicopters has prospered by offering a broad range of services tailored to the varying needs of its customers.

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Brad Fandrich prefers to fly under the radar instead of being in the spotlight. In fact, as the president and owner of Valley Helicopters, he’s a low-key kind of guy who is more comfortable in plaid than a tie.

Fandrich mirrors his customers, who are blue collar types themselves.

“Our services are really broad, everything from hydro construction to pipeline patrol, to firefighting and government contracts for fisheries and oceans — all of it general charter,” he told Vertical. “Our customers typically wear high-vis gear with hard hats and steel-toed boots. Those are our people.”

Valley Helicopters was founded in 1985 in Hope, British Columbia, by Fandrich’s father, Fred. It was a small operation for many years, offering all kinds of helicopter charter services to keep the rotors turning — including search-and-rescue, construction, wildlife study support, and railway track inspection.

“We’ve always adapted to what the customers are looking for,” reflected Fandrich, a pilot and aircraft maintenance engineer who took over the family company in 2015. “We change with our customers.”

Careful growth

From one man and one Bell JetRanger in 1985, Valley Helicopters grew slowly to its present-day 18 staff members — nine pilots, five engineers and four office workers. While its headquarters is still in Hope, the company has additional satellite bases in the B.C. communities of Merritt and Kamloops.

Fandrich has always grown his fleet carefully, selecting each machine based on the work it can do. These days, Valley Helicopters logs about 3,000 flight hours per year with its eight Bell helicopters: four 206Bs, one 206 L4, two 407s, and one 429. The latter joined the fleet in spring 2023 — a helicopter Fandrich called his “passion project.”

“I didn’t have a guaranteed contract for that one, but I’ve always liked that type of aircraft and I think it has capabilities we weren’t able to offer to some customers,” he explained. “I felt like the 429 would be an improvement over the other aircraft in that market.”

Valley Helicopters sourced its 429 from Turkey, flying it to Germany before it was dismantled and transported to Canada on a Boeing 747. Painted and upgraded last winter, the twin-engine machine offers unique capabilities and is Canada’s first Bell 429 in a utility role.

“A couple of clients required a twin-engine helicopter,” said Fandrich. “BC Hydro has certain tasks where they require twins. They like the idea of a helicopter being multi-use, so this one can do twin work, carry a significant longline load, and it’s fast. We felt BC Hydro would appreciate the 429.”

The helicopter’s speed makes it a good fit for firefighting, too, along with its capacity for seven passengers and their gear, plus the pilot. In addition, Fandrich pointed out that due to changed regulations with hospital helipads, the twin-engine 429 is the only Valley helicopter that can deliver a patient directly to the doctor’s doorstep.

“In the past, we’ve always had to do a patient transfer [to a ground ambulance or another air ambulance] when on a medevac,” he said. “Now, we can go straight there.”

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Fandrich called the Bell 429 a “pilot’s helicopter,” noting that it is maneuverable, responsive, and quick to start, climb, descend and shut down. He said its glass cockpit reduces pilot workload and on-the-job fatigue: “A lot of times, if you fly eight hours in an older machine, you are worn out. But in a more comfortable aircraft, it’s more enjoyable.”

With an OEM dual hook installed, the 429 is capable of Class D longlining with human external cargo (HEC). Its twin engines offer Category A performance — meaning it could safely reject or continue a mission with one engine inoperative.

“There are rumblings at Transport Canada about taking away single-engine operations for rescue,” noted Fandrich. “We wanted to get in front of that.”

At the time of writing in mid-August, Valley’s 429 was busy fighting wildfires.

Never mundane

When reflecting on his company’s success, Fandrich is quick to point to his team.

“We’re focused on finding people who want to be in our towns and at home most nights,” he said. “Our guys are home a lot and that’s a bit of a rarity in the helicopter world. But we’re family oriented and understand that some people don’t want to live out of a suitcase for six months of the year. We still live in a pilot shortage world, so that’s a draw for some people, for sure.”

Another plus to the job is its never-ending variety. Valley Helicopters does a bit of everything, said Fandrich, and it’s never mundane.

When he’s hiring, he looks for “skills, hours and attitude” — although these days, he said you’re lucky to get two out of three.

“Attitude is most important on our team. We’re looking for someone who is adaptable and can learn on the fly. But, you know, pilots are by nature adventure seekers — so they do something for a period of time and then some want to move on. Living where we live, it’s not for everyone. Nowadays, people want to live where they live and commute to work. We don’t typically work that way.”

Keeping his experienced pilots is important to Fandrich. Paying above industry standard, offering flexible schedules with a minimum of travel, and providing well-maintained helicopters to fly are all part of his employee retention strategy. He himself flies in a backup role, filling in whenever needed.

However, Fandrich admitted that it’s sometimes a challenge to figure out the human resources equation.

“Most pilots and engineers are helicopter people, not HR people,” he said with a laugh.

No customer, no business

Looking down the road, Fandrich said Valley Helicopters will always be guided by the needs of its customers.

“I think one of the things that has made us successful is we try really hard for customer service, and that goes back to my dad and the early days. As a helicopter pilot, I have a curiosity for what the clients are doing. You want to understand what they are trying to accomplish and then find ways to help them succeed.”

Another big part of Valley’s nearly four decades of success is its responsiveness. When a customer calls, the team is ready to go.

“We get a lot of short notice calls for rockslides, search-and-rescue, firefighting, avalanches, and emergencies,” said Fandrich.

Reflecting upon the opportunities and challenges facing the company, he added that he’s always looking for new ways to put his helicopters to work.

“Once we prove that we can keep this 429 busy, I’d like to look at getting another one, as long as the customer base accepts it. You know, there are three types of helicopter operators out there: private/VIP operators, tax-based services like police and ambulance, and then there are the guys like us. We have to convince someone to pay us for that helicopter — so when we grow with another helicopter, we do it carefully. Without a customer, we don’t survive.”

So far, Fandrich is pleased with the 429 and its performance.

“This is the first time that a 429 has been operated in a high cycle utility environment in Canada,” he explained. “The Coast Guard has them, but they work for themselves, it’s not like a charter utility. Down in the U.S., I’m watching about six to 10 companies who are using them for powerline and construction work. They seem to be doing well.”

However, he said it will take a few years to evaluate the aircraft’s true success, factoring in overhaul and operational costs. There’s also the cost of pilot and engineer training on a new type, which he said is “no small, cheap feat.”

While he’d love to have a 10-year business plan set in stone, Fandrich told Vertical that’s impossible.

“If you had asked me 10 years ago what 2024 would look like, I wouldn’t have known,” he said. “We have always changed with the customer base. Ten years ago, there was a big powerline construction job we focused on for five years. Once done, we went into different avenues. We’ve had some bad fire seasons, and some highways have been washed out around here. There’s been mineral exploration — we’ve done everything from camp support to moving diamond drills.”

He observed that over the last decade, environmental effects have become more pronounced. Droughts have lasted longer, rainstorms are more intense, temperatures are higher. A “blue sky summer” is almost unheard of now in B.C., where wildfire smoke usually hangs thick and heavy.

“It’s all about extremes, although we haven’t seen extreme snow or cold in the last few years — so that’s reduced the work we do with the avalanche crews during high snows.”

As for wildfires, Fandrich subscribes to high level initial attack.

“When you get them early and small, they’re easier to fight and you don’t get big fires.”

In terms of other challenges, he said Valley has flown several drone operators out to remote locations, where they perform aerial surveying.

“We are now the taxicab for the survey company, instead of flying the surveys ourselves. As a helicopter operator, that kind of work is not expected to be part of our business anymore. I have to say, drones are the better mousetrap for certain things, like magnetic surveying. They can do it in weather where a helicopter would not fly, and their high-quality cameras can get in close. But we’ll adapt, and we’ll do what we’re asked to do in the meantime.”

Meanwhile, he said all helicopter operators are facing a common challenge, and that is finding crews and spare parts to keep their machines flying.

“Industry is adapting to other things, instead of a shortage of work. The threats aren’t what they once were.”

Reflecting upon his family business, Fandrich said the helicopter industry can be difficult, and those who are in it are driven by passion.

“You have to really want to do it, and we do.”