It’s my third day in Vegas, and Heli-Success is over now, but I don’t want to leave the meeting room.  I’m hanging out as people are packing up the banners and booths and I’m saying goodbye to friends I probably won’t see again until Heli-Expo. When a suggestion is made to go grab a beer, my suitcase and I are the first ones there!
 

By Eli Navon - The Helicopter is really a bunch of parts flying in relatively close formation. Things work well until one of the parts breaks formation. Vibrations are one of the biggest enemies to he...

We fly the Enstrom 480B Story by Steve Goldsworthy Photos by Michael Everhart Never one to turn down an opportunity to both fly and eat on the same trip, I  headed out with some friends in a f...

Often times I hear stories of how a helicopter company in Florida charters a Jet Ranger for $550.00 an hour or so, and another company in Texas charters his A Star for $600.00 per hour and this has caused me to think, do these people really know their cost of operations and do they have a realistic break even point?

In the 1930s, a German engineer by the name of Heinrich Focke designed and built a cutting edge helicopter more practical and capable than anything previously developed.  This helicopter, the Fw 61, would shatter the existing helicopter world records and help set the standards of performance and control by which future helicopters would be measured.

Water, scenic coastlines and adventure – for many people Majorca, Spain is the ideal destination for their vacation. For some people the island is a place of work. The members of the crew of Rotorflug International are living the dream of flying in paradise.

Upon my return from flying helicopters in Vietnam, I was assigned as a flight and ground instructor at the U.S. Army flight school at Fort Rucker, Alabama. As military separation neared, I focused on securing a civilian job. With 10 pilots for each job, I made it tougher by limiting my search to my hometown, New York City. It took a while but I finally got a job and spent the next 40-plus years on a hell of a helicopter ride, which I would not trade for anything.

“In the wake of the wars, the (Iraqi) capability to launch and field helicopters was reduced to ashes,” said U.S. Army Col. Thomas J. Trossen, the former Chief of Army Aviation Division for U.S. Forces – Iraqi, Advising and Training Mission from July 2010 to July 2011. “It seems only fitting that the headquarters of the emerging Iraqi Army aviation force should be located at a place called Pheonix Base in the International Zone.”

By Mike Biasatti - How do you build trust among your crew? I’m always impressed when I ask one of the med crew a question that they don’t know the answer to, and instead of trying to BS me with some verbal gymnastics, they answer,  “I don’t know.” Those who are truly interested in building a strong sense of team will go one further and follow with, “I’ll find out and get back to you.”

By Matt Zuccaro - Over the 40-plus years that I have been in the helicopter industry, I—like many of you—have experienced the expression of negative comments from the public, elected officials and press regarding helicopter operations. A good part of my day at HAI involves my response to such comments. These thoughts are not limited to any particular helicopter activity or geographic area. Operations such as air tours, corporate flights, photography, ENG, and training are all targets. Not even EMS, firefighting or law enforcement are spared.

By Bob Barbanes - As many of you know, on Wednesday, April 27th a huge tornado buzz-sawed its way through the state of Alabama, leaving hundreds of people dead and thousands of people homeless.  It was not your typical tornado, in as much as once it touched down in the city of Tuscaloosa (in the western part of the state), it stayed stuck to the ground all the way northeast to the Georgia line and beyond.  The amount of destruction in its wake is astonishing.

By Matt Zuccaro -I am sure most of you are familiar with the various accident reduction efforts within the industry—be they Helicopter Association International, FAA, the International Helicopter Safety Team, Tour Operators Program of Safety, Airborne Law Enforcement Association or the European Helicopter Safety Team. The basic premise of these efforts is to reduce the number of accidents that occur within the helicopter community—either the aggregate number or those that involve fatalities.

By Ed MacDonald - It was a morning like no other.  Key members of the management team sat around the conference table with bleary red eyes and a demeanor which reflected their shared loss and pain from the night before.  Self-doubt and a sense of their own human frailty permeated each team member down to the core.  What could have prevented this tragic event?  Why didn’t they see it coming?

By Barry Pomeroy - The answer to the shortage of qualified helicopter pilots and the ‘gray area’ for certified low time commercial helicopter pilots are; Interns - voluntary second pilots in VFR/SPIFR commercial and HEMS operations. I am Barry Pomeroy, I am a low time Commercial pilot with an existing career, and I am writing this as the result of a failure matrix analysis after observing and participating in the industry for approximately six years. I attend, listen, and read everything I can get my hands on from the helicopter world.

By Bill Winn - The sound of thunder on the near horizon can herald hope or fear, depending on whether you are a drought-stricken farmer or a Golden Retriever with a serious phobia of both the boom and flash of lightening. My dog Max literally climbs into bed between me and Joyce during every thunderstorm, and lies there shivering uncontrollably until the storm has passed. It's like having one of those vibrating beds you find in cheap motels.

By Ron Whitney - Madison County Executive (MDQ) airport is not an unfamiliar destination for me.  Located a little over 17 nm to the northeast of Huntsville International (HSV) Airport, this uncontrolled general aviation airport was a frequent refueling stop while I was in the EMS business.  The one thing I always loved about MDQ was that the line guys were always waiting on me, regardless of the time, or the weather. Even if I was only buying thirty gallons of Jet A, they treated us as if it were five thousand.  The service here is simply the best I’ve seen in thirty years of flying.

After analyzing data on accidents within commercial aviation over a 10-year period, the Federal Aviation Administration published a new rule in January of this year that requires all Part 135 operators employing more than one pilot to install Crew Resource Management training.  The final rule gives commercial operators until March 22, 2013 to establish CRM programs for both initial and recurrent training, and to have those programs approved.  After that period, certificate holders conducting Part 135 operations will be prohibited from using a crewmember unless that person has completed the certificate holder’s initial CRM training.

Night flight usage and technology have grown exponentially in the past few years and the dilemma from FAA mandate to have a minimum of 2 crewmembers for NVG flight operations below 300’ AGL has evolved as well. There are two general sides taken in this discussion. The first is the belief that NVG operations can be conducted safely with only the pilot using NVGs, while others believe that NVG flight operations below 300’ AGL is a multi-crew task. Each side of the discussion believes the alternative to be undesirable. In this article, we will take an objective look at this issue.

The sound of metal skid shoes scraping against runway asphalt is never pleasant. But today, there is nothing more fun than doing full down autos in Robinsons new R66.

Having been invited in to conduct a week’s worth of program evaluation and EVS training by Wojciech Wozniczka, the LPR Deputy Technical Director.  I had the sincere pleasure to work with this tremendously professional EMS group based out of Warsaw, Poland which had been founded in 2000.  The LPR was a result of the consolidation of several independent EMS units to form a single state (country) medical service with the ability to coordinate all care from one single location.