During the HAI Heli-Expo 1985 Convention in New Orleans, Air Logistics organized a media tour of some of its helicopter bases supporting offshore oil and gas exploration in the Gulf of Mexico using three S-76As and an AS355F. Passengers were picked up at the Downtown heliport next to the Superdome, visited helicopter bases in Patterson and New Iberia and flew over some offshore drilling rigs. S-76A N702AL was photographed from another S-76 over downtown New Orleans. Today, this S-76A flies for Island Express in Long Beach, CA as N71EX.

In 1985, Chevron operated the last Sikorsky S-58ET and Sikorsky S-62A helicopters supporting offshore oil and gas exploration and production in the Gulf of Mexico. This S-58ET, N1168U, was sold new to the French Armee de l Air. Sikorsky converted it to a P&WC PT6T twin turbine in the 1970s. It was photographed at Chevron's Bayou Boeuf Heliport and seaplane base with a Bell 206B and S-62A. The heliport was in Amelia, 8 km E of Morgan City and 1 km S of the PHI Lake Palourde Heliport next to the St. Andrews Cemetery. Sold to Aris Helicopters in California in 1985 and later flown by Heli-Flite.

This corporate Grumman G-73T Turbo Mallard was based in the New Orleans area from 1956 to 1994 with Freeport McMoran and it predecessors Freeport Sulphur and Freeport Minerals It was registered N300S from 1956 to 1990, and N685FM from 1990-1994 before it was sold to Precision Valve Corp. of Bronxville, NU as N777PV. It was converted to PT6A-34 turboprop engines by Frakes Aviation in April 1974. It was delivered new to General Mills Corp as N2979 was later flown by other companies in the New York City area. It's been owned by Centreline Holdings, Inc. of Camden, DE since 2013.

This Cessna U206F Stationair was used by Evergreen Helicopters in 1985 for logistics support and seen outside the company's offshore oil and gas support hangar at Galveston Airport. It was based in west Africa from 1987 until at least 1994 supporting Evergreen's contract with the World Health Program (WHO/OMS) which used 12 MD500 helicopters and three Turbo Thrushes to spray larvicide in rivers to kill the parasitic worm that caused the disease ONCHO (Onchocerciasis or river blindness). This Cessna is now preserved at the Evergreen Air Museum in McMinnville, OR in its WHO/ONCHO markings.

ERA Helicopters of Alaska established an offshore bases in Louisiana and Texas in the late 1970s to support offshore oil and gas exploration in the Gulf of Mexico. In the 1980s Era distinguished itself in the Gulf of Mexico by operating an all twin-engine helicopter fleet of MBB Bo 105s and Bell 412s, for which it was the launch customer, but single engine aircraft were added when it won contracts to fly Minerals Management Service (MMS) (now BSEE) inspectors monitoring offshore activity. Era merged its helicopter operations with the Bristow in June 2020. N125EH is ex-D-HDPK & N9376Y.

AirWest took delivery of three yellow-painted Turbo Beavers on wheels in late 1977 that had recently been retired by Province of Ontario, Ministry of Natural Resources (C-FOEM, C-FOEX and C-FOEY). The aircraft were outfitted with floats and repainted in AirWest colours in 1978 for use on charter and scheduled flights from Vancouver Airport and Harbour. C-FOEX was photographed at the AirWest seaplane dock in the Coal Harbour area of Vancouver Harbour in March 1979. C-FOEX was delivered new in 1967. In 2022, it was flying with Kabeelo Airways Ltd., Ear Falls, ON.

Bell 214ST N31853 was one of several helicopters based at New Orleans Lakefront Airport for flight demos during the HAI Heli-Expo 1985 which was held at the downtown convention center. It's painted in the new Air Logistics colours. Bell later took N31853 on an Europe sales tour in 1985 that included the Paris Air Show. It then joined Helikopter Service in Norway as LN-OML and became the SAR helicopter based on the Statfjord B platform. On 3 October 1990 it was searching for a missing seaweed trawler in a bad storm near Askvoll in the Sogn area when it hit a mountain on Alden Island. 5 killed.

Grumman G-21A Goose N88821 was imported to Canada in 1973 and sold by Viking Air at Victoria Airport (YYJ) after overhaul to Alert Bay Air Services in January 1974. The company served the mid-British Columbia coast from a waterfront base in Alert Bay on Cormorant Island located a few miles off the northeast coast of Vancouver Island. Acquired by Jim Pattison Industries in the early 1980s during the creation of AirBC and primarily operated by sister company Trans-Provincial Airlines until it ground looped on landing at Sandspit Airport in Feb. 1991. The wreck was acquired by the Tongass Historical Society in Ketchikan (AK) in 1992 as N88821 and was still under restoration for static display with them by 2022.

In September 1968, this former Qantas DHC-3 Otter, CF-XRI, was ferried across the Pacific from Australia to join the fleet of Airwest Airlines in Vancouver, BC. For most of the 1970s, this was the only DHC-3 Otter operating daily scheduled flights into Vancouver Harbour with its distinct engine sound distinguishing it from the more common Cessna 180/185s, DHC-2 Beaver and DHC-6 Twin Otters. AirWest was one of several coastal airlines acquired by the Jim Pattison Group to form AirBC in the early 1980s. C-FXRI now flies as a Vazar DHC-3 Turbo Otter powered by a PT6A turboprop with Osprey Wings.

Delivered new from Sikorsky to the French Armee de l'Air in 1956, this S-58 was purchased surplus by Sikorsky in the early 1970s and converted to a Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6T twin turbine S-58ET registered N1144U. It flew with Heli-Swiss between April 1972 and July 1983 (including on lease to Heli Union and Heliservice). It was imported to the US by Air Associates as N39790 and sold to Aris Helicopter's as N58AH still wearing the Heli-Swiss colour scheme in July 1984. It was registered to B&B Helos Llc in April 2009, but operates as Aris Helicopters, a Division of Heli Flite, Inc.

Petroleum Helicopters operated Aerospatiale SA330J Pumas between the late 1970s and 1988 servicing offshore drilling rigs in the USA. N3601U was photographed at PHI's Morgan City heliport on the shore of Lake Palourde, which was known as the world's largest heliport when PHI opened it in 1969. After flying in Ecuador as HC-BPD in the late 1980s, PHI sold it to Air Zermatt where it became HB-XUB in June 1989. It was written off on Sep. 11, 1989 when it crashed after both engines failed while lifting an external load near Blauherd. PHI lost four of its Pumas in fatal accidents in 1978-1988.

The first of six prototype Bell-Boeing YV-22A tilt rotors was photographed at the Bell Flight Test Center at Arlington Municipal Airport, Texas on February 6, 1990. This was the first V-22 to hover almost a year earlier at Arlington on March 19, 1989 and the first to fly in fixed-wing mode on Sept. 14, 1989. It's seen here being pushed back into the text flight hangar after ground testing.

The opening of the HAI Heli-Expo 1990 Convention included the spectacular landing of prototype Bell XV-15 Tilt Rotor, N702NA, in the parking lot of the Kay Bailey Hutchinson Convention Center in downtown Dallas. N702NA made its first fight (hover) on May 3, 1977 at the Bell Flight Test Centre at (KGKY) Arlington Municipal Airport, TX. Both XV-15s prototypes spent their early years at NASA Ames (KNUQ), then N702NA returned to Bell in Texas in Oct. 1981 for further test. On Aug. 22, 1992, it crashed at Arlington without serious pilot injuries. The cockpit was salvaged and became a simulator.

The first of six prototype Bell-Boeing YV-22A tilt rotors seen at the Bell Flight Test Center at Arlington Municipal Airport, TX on February 6, 1990. This was the first V-22 to hover on March 19, 1989 and the first to fly in fixed-wing mode on Sept. 14, 1989. Note the tuffs on the nacelle to track air flow. Behind the aircraft to the left and right are elevated test stands where the V-22 ground ran with the nacelles and rotors in vertical or horizontal flight mode. The fuselage of 163911 was reported at MCAS New River and later the Hickory Aviation Museum in Hickory NC in 2016. Current status?

The opening of the HAI Heli-Expo 1990 Convention also included a landing by the prototype McDonnell-Douglas MD530N, N530NT, in the front parking lot of the Dallas Convention center. The NOTAR ("no tail rotor") system was first flown on a Hughes OH-6A (65-12917) on Dec. 17, 1981. After modifications, a second version flew on March 12, 1986. N530NT was the third NOTAR to fly (msn 160003D, ex-N8324F) on Dec. 29, 1989 - two months before Heli-Expo 1990 - but the hot-and-high 530N version never entered production. This 530N was later broken up.

The opening of the HAI Heli-Expo 1990 Convention included the spectacular landing of prototype Bell XV-15 Tilt Rotor, N702NA, in the parking lot of the Kay Bailey Hutchinson Convention Center in downtown Dallas. N702NA made its first fight (hover) on May 3, 1977 at the Bell Flight Test Centre at (KGKY) Arlington Municipal Airport, TX. Both XV-15s prototypes spent their early years at NASA Ames (KNUQ), then N702NA returned to Bell in Texas in Oct. 1981 for further test. On Aug. 22, 1992, it crashed at Arlington without serious pilot injuries. The cockpit was salvaged and became a simulator.

NASA gave Bell the "go ahead" to develop two VX-15 tilt rotor research aircraft in Sep. 1973. On May 3, 1977, the prototype, N702NA, made its first fight (hover) at the Bell Flight Test Centre at Arlington Municipal Airport (KGKY) after extensive ground tests. Both XV-15s prototypes spent their early years at NASA Ames (KNUQ), but after the 1981 Paris Air Show, N702NA returned to Bell in Texas for further testing. It is seen in Feb. 1990 at at Arlington with the prototype V-22 Osprey. On Aug. 22, 1992, N702NA crashed at Arlington. The cockpit of the wreck was salvaged and became a simulator.

Cessna 172M, C-GAMB, was imported to Canada in 1974 and operated by Yukon Airways Ltd. from about May 1977 to March 1992. In 1984, Yukon Airways was primarily a helicopter charter company flying a Hughes 500D, C-GKNP, from its Dease Lake Airport base, with this Cessna 172 used for maintenance support. Since 1992, C-GAMB been registered to seven different entities and was registered to Great River Aviation Ltd. in Whitehorse, Yukon in November 2022 when this image was posted to AirHistory.

This Piper PA-23, C-GHJT of Pacific Pilot Upgrading "landed wheels up on a sand area when the engine lost power" at the southeast end of Vancouver International Airport on August 31, 1975. The aircraft was imported to Canada in 1974 and cancelled from the Canadian registered Sep. 1987 after the company went out of business. The registration C-GHJT has been subsequently allocated to five different Sikorsky S-76s and one Bell 206L-1 LongRanger operated by Helijet International. Today, Helijet's main base at YVR is just north of where this PA-23 crash occurred in August 1975.

Tyee Airways Ltd. acquired this Cessna 180 seaplane CF-UFD, new from Vancouver Cessna dealer Staron Flights Ltd. on March 17, 1966 and operated it through November 1977 when it was sold to K.D. Brodacki in Edmonton, Alberta. It was photographed at the Tyee dock at the Bayshore Inn at the foot of Cardero Street in Vancouver. Tyee Airways was owned by Al Campbell and based in Porpoise Bay in Sechelt, BC, which is about 50 km northwest of Vancouver on the Sunshine Coast. Tyee utilized the public seaplane dock in Sechelt and had a maintenance base on East Sechelt Road. Exported to USA, April 1982.