7 Things Oil & Gas Companies Check Before Buying a Helicopter

Oil and gas companies operating in Canada are among the most rigorous helicopter buyers in the world. Here is their complete acquisition checklist.

1. Transport Canada Registration & Ownership Chain

The first step is always verifying the complete TC registration history. Who has owned this helicopter? How many owners? Were there periods of deregistration? A clean, uninterrupted ownership chain is a positive signal. Multiple owners in a short period raises questions about why it kept selling.

2. Complete Lien & Mortgage Search

No oil and gas company ever closes a helicopter acquisition without a full lien search. This means TC mortgage registry AND all provincial PPSA registries. Aviation finance is complex and liens can hide in unexpected places.

3. TSB Accident Investigation Records

The Transportation Safety Board of Canada investigates serious aviation accidents. A helicopter with a TSB investigation in its history requires careful scrutiny. What was the cause? Were structural repairs required? Was it properly returned to service? These questions must be answered before purchase.

4. CADORS Incident Database Search

CADORS contains over 50,000 civil aviation occurrence reports. Searching a helicopter's registration against this database can reveal near-misses, technical malfunctions, emergency landings and other incidents that never became full TSB investigations but still indicate potential issues.

5. Open Airworthiness Directives

Transport Canada issues Airworthiness Directives (ADs) requiring mandatory inspections or modifications. Open ADs represent known safety issues that have not been addressed. Before purchasing, every open AD must be identified and the cost of compliance factored into the purchase price.

6. Service Difficulty Reports

SDRs are voluntarily filed reports of mechanical difficulties found during maintenance. Patterns in SDRs for a specific helicopter can indicate recurring problems — worn components, chronic systems failures, or deferred maintenance that could become major issues.

7. Independent Pre-Purchase Inspection

Finally, an independent AME (Aircraft Maintenance Engineer) inspection is commissioned. Armed with the history report data, the AME knows exactly where to look for problems. The history report and the physical inspection work together — one without the other is incomplete due diligence.

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