Peter Thoma on the Bell 429

Hi, I'm Peter Thoma, I am a helicopter operator in the area of Munich, Germany. Right now we are operating a fleet of Bell helicopters -- the types are Bell 206, we have well over four to seven Bell 429s and Bell 407s. I started to fly on helicopters in 1975, rescue services for quite a while, and went into airline business later on, and I have accumulated so far 33,500 hours, and almost 8,000 hours I have flown on Bell helicopters. My passion started pretty early -- the 429 is a great helicopter for corporate transport because it's fast, it's reliable, the helicopter is very powerful, and as I said, the speed counts and the passenger comfort. Well, I started to fly helicopters on a Bell 47, and went later on to bigger helicopters like the 206, UH-1, 412 -- and I always felt very comfortable. My opinion is that the best passive safety is on Bell helicopters -- my experience is that we have developed over time a lot of personal contacts, and must say whenever I had a problem, it was fixed in no time.