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R66 European certification delayed by huge EASA charges

30 Jan, 14
EASA has recently issued full details of an appeal hearing between two organisations - EASA itself and Robinson Helicopter Co. The case concerns the amount of the invoices being raised by EASA on Robinson for the work that EASA is putting in to the type certificate for the R66.

Here are the numbers

Invoice 90009422 of 26-May-10 for €281,400.85 covering the period 14-May-10 to 13-May-11
Invoice 90026809 of 07-Dec-11 for €180,651.82 covering the period 14-May-11 to 31-Dec-11
Invoice 90037084 of 27-Nov-12 for €290,182.95 covering the period 01-Jan-12 to 31-Dec-12

The first two of these invoices were paid. The third invoice was the subject of the appeal after Robinson requested it be rescinded and that "an appropriate and fair flat type acceptance fee should be determined" for the certification costs. Further, they considered that "the fee should not exceed the sum of the two previous invoices" - effectively saying that they consider they had paid enough in the first two invoices totalling €462,052.67 and that the costs should be capped at that point.

A selection of the points put forward by Robinson include a comparison between other types certified by EASA and costs for the R66 across different countries. Robinson postulated that it would be reasonable to expect EASA charges for certification costs to be similar between helicopter types. Using the Robinson R44 II as the 1.00 bench mark, they cited the Bell 429 at 1.06 times, while the R66 costs were currently running at 6.63 times the R44 costs.

Robinson then looked at costs for the R66 across different countries - all converted to US Dollars for a fair comparison

- Argentina - $2,709
- Brazil - $18,759
- Canada - $80,650
- Chile - $7,253
- CIS - $178,000
- Japan - $6,048
- Malaysia - $5,875
- Mexico - $6,837
- South Africa - $170
- USA - no charge