Maverick Helicopters: A Reflection On Their Journey With Insights

It’s been over a year since we announced Maverick Helicopters as our official launch customer for Insights. 

We spoke to John Mandernach, Regional Partner of Maverick Helicopters about some of the changes he’s seen since implementing Insights, and highlights some of the key benefits that have come from this. 

With four permanent operations across Las Vegas, Grand Canyon National Park, Grand Canyon West, and Maui, Hawaii, Maverick Helicopters’ fleet conducts over 85 flights a day. As their fleet is spread across multiple locations, there are many varying factors to take into consideration, including flight routes, maintaining connectivity when travelling through remote areas, and change in weather conditions.

They need critical oversight of how pilots are flying their aircraft along designated routes in each region, and the ability to obtain and use detailed flight information to see where they are being flown. 

To capture flight information at an incredible level of detail, Maverick Helicopters have been utilising Insights from Spidertracks over the past year, which allows the team to set specific flight parameters within a certain threshold, and activate triggers if these are exceeded during flight. These triggers are called Safety Events, and are viewable in a detailed report which Mandernach reviews each morning.

“It’s easy. I can run a report that captures all flights from the night before, and see exactly where these safety events happened during the flight, and which flight they happened on. We can see known spots where pilots trigger these, and can now tell them to not go so low in that area, for example.”

Mandernach tells us about the conversations he’s now able to have with pilots. They now have a visual tool that can show exactly how they’re flying, and collaboratively work together to not only better the pilot’s decision making and correct their behaviour, but also add to the team’s safety culture within Maverick Helicopters.

“Insights gives us a detailed report so we can see exactly where and when something happens, so when a pilot does trigger [it], then we can find out what he was doing, why he was doing it, and how they prevent it from happening again.”

Recently the team undertook a massive job with a music festival, called Electric Daisy Carnival (EDC), an annual event that happens in Las Vegas. Over three nights, 25 pilots flew 360 hours - and zero safety events were triggered.

“I had to call [Spidertracks] and find out if Insights was working!”

With greater awareness, thanks to the ability to see safety events occur, the team celebrated this big win - a great addition to the safety culture. 

When Mandernach originally implemented Insights, he wanted it to be part of the safety initiative and improve the team’s safety culture - he had no idea that he would also see an additional ROI. Mandernach was approached by Maverick Helicopter’s underwriter, to see if there was anything they could present to their insurance companies to reduce their forecasted 50% premium increase, to which he replied with yes - the implementation of Insights, and using it as an accident prevention and behaviour correction tool.

“Anything we can show that makes us safer in maintenance and in the flight department goes well with the insurance companies, and Insights allows us to do that,” states Mandernach. 

The result? A saving of 25% on their premium increase. 

Insights has proven more valuable than Mandernach’s original intent - it’s become more than an accident prevention and behaviour tool and more than a contributor to the team’s safety culture - he’s been able to have constructive conversations with pilots and team members alike, and - he’s also seen a great return on investment. 

Do you want to get a return on your investment?