Chief Inspector, AgRotors, Inc.
August 13, 2003

Aircraft Services, Southern California Edison
January 01, 2003

Chief of Maintenance, Helicopter Division
January 29, 2002

Deputy Chief, Air Operations U.S. Border Patrol
May 28, 1997

Loren W. Nichols
Deputy Chief, Air Operations U.S. Border Patrol

May 28, 1997

I would like to provide you and your employees with a progress report on the filters which your company developed for the U.S. Border Patrol. As you are aware the Border Patrol operates approximately forty-five OH-6 helicopters along the Southern border between the United States and Mexico. The mission dictates that the helicopters are subject to extreme weather conditions in the desert Southwest, not the least of which is the fine sand that ultimately erodes engine parts.

During the past several years the original air filters that were utilized on the OH-6 helicopters have become very scarce and inefficient in capturing the fine particles of sand prevalent in those areas where we fly. Given this background, the U. S. Border Patrol approached your company with the possibility of developing an air filter which would replace the existing filter and enhance the operational life of the aircraft engines. Our experience had been that every three hundred hours of flight time required that we have the compressor halves re-lined due to sand erosion. Additionally, we were seldom able to utilize the engines to their designed time between overhaul due to the erosion on the compressor blades caused by the sand.

I am pleased to report that we now have some nine hundred hours on the aircraft engine in Yuma, Arizona which was the first aircraft to incorporate the filter designed by FDC/aerofilter. The results have been nothing short of amazing. We have examined the compressor at three hundred hour intervals and there is virtually no wear on either the lining or the blades. In the past we have been required to replace the compressor halves every three hundred hours. We now anticipate that the filtration system will pay for itself over the long haul to say nothing about the 'down time' associated with parts replacement and maintenance.

Your company is providing a valuable service to the U.S. Border Patrol and we appreciate your acceptance of the challenge associated with the harsh environment in which we operate.

Loren W. Nichols
Deputy Chief, Air Operations
U.S. Border Patrol