Midlands Air Ambulance Charity remain operational after nightfall

Midlands Air Ambulance Charity (MAAC) responds to an average of 2,000 emergency incidents each year, making it one of the busiest air ambulance organisations in the UK.

Until the introduction of FEC Heliports portable helipad lighting, night flying operations were restricted to licensed night aerodrome locations and trauma centres with night landing facilities.

SolarBox

We chose Leading Edge as the best in class provider of off-grid power solutions. Leading Edge offered us a bespoke solution that not only reliably powers our product's core components but also delivers a seamless mounting arrangement that includes battery housing and fitted neatly into our design
Fraser MacKay, Commercial Director, FEC Heliports Worldwide

The development of HEMS-Station® Solar Plus now provides a complete helipad lighting solution for the Air Ambulances helicopters to use in the hours of darkness. A network of these secondary landing sites has now been created using this technology and includes Birmingham, Tamworth, Cheadle and Hereford.

The solution is a solar powered LED helipad lighting system that is securely stored and charged ready for deployment. Autonomous power is provided by the Leading Edge SolarBox, a pole-mounted enclosure topped by a 100W DC Solar professional grade panel into which neatly fits the 20Ah AGM battery and a MPPT solar controller. The DC Solar panel utilises best in class monocrystalline “SunPower” cells, world renowned for quality, robustness and high outputs under challenging conditions.

Critical to the application of this product is a secure autonomous power supply. Leading Edge offered us a bespoke solution that not only reliably powers our product’s core components but also delivers a seamless mounting arrangement that includes battery housing and fitted neatly into our design.”

As well as charging the LED helipad lights, the SolarBox powers a wind sock and communications equipment that facilitates pilot control of the lighting and allows for remote monitoring of the installation. The helipad becomes operational thanks to community volunteers who retrieve the LED helipad lights from a secure enclosure and rapidly mark out a safe landing area for the helicopter. The LED lights can then be quickly illuminated on demand (manually or remotely from the cockpit). The benefits to MAAC is the system requires pretty much zero maintenance (monthly checks only) and extremely low running costs.

Products Featured in This Case Study

Tell us about your project

Our Off-grid experts will come back with recommendations

Please leave your details and our experienced team will be in touch soon to assist you.
Please complete all required fields.
x
Can we help?
Leading Edge
Off-Grid Power Requirements
Please complete this form with your specific requirements and we would be happy to put together a bespoke off-grid power system. We will recommend a solution using our own British made wind turbines, best-in-class solar panels and deep-cycle batteries.

Contact Information

Once we have assessed your requirements, our experts will call you to discuss the equipment you'll need to achieve your goals.

What Is The Application?

Please tell us as much as you can about your use case. We understand that you may not be able to answer all questions. We will call you to discuss your requirements in any case.

Device Name
Voltage
Power Draw (W)
Peak Power Draw on Startup (W)
Standby Power (W)
Hours Active Per Day (W)
Days Per Week In Use (W)

Voltage Preference

Do you have a preference for the system voltage?

Outputs Required

Do you have a preference for the systems output?

Site Location

Please tell us a little bit about the site location

Other Details

No. of days autonomy required

Is there anything else we should know?

Leading Edge
Sign Up To Receive Our Newsletter

Stay up to date with Leading Edge innovations and offers by joining our mailing list. Occassionally we send informative newsletters, offers and promotions that we think you'll find useful or interesting.

Your Details

Please provide your contact details so that you can receive our newsletter. We will send this occassionally with information about our latest innovations and offers.