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Nov
14
2025
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Posted 13 hours ago ago by Admin
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RPMN: What is your current position?
B206 L3 pilot for JAARS in Papua New Guinea (South Pacific/Oceania)
RPMN: Tell me about your first experience with helicopters.
My first experience in helicopters was at Cairns Army Airfield in Daleville, Alabama. I remember it being a hot, humid, and sweaty day. I was an Army flight school student (Warrant Officer) going out for my first flight during the “contact” phase of initial training. My instructor easily picked the orange and white TH-67 Creek (Bell Jet Ranger) up to a hover and nudged through ETL. Next thing I knew he said “you have the flight controls”, and I had them!
I had to work hard to keep the airspeed, altitude and heading anywhere close to the minimum standard on our way to our assigned heliport, but overall I thought, “This isn’t so hard! I think I’ll get the hang of this pretty quickly.”
I was immediately brought back to reality when I attempted my first “execute approach and terminate to a hover” sequence. I could feel the joy radiating out of my IP as we watched the helicopter easily put me and my proud self back in our rightful place. Hovering became a reality a few flight hours later, and it was very sweet indeed!
RPMN: How did you get your start in the helicopter industry?
The U.S. Army asked me to go to flight school.
RPMN: When and how did you choose the helicopter industry? Or did it choose you?
I started flight training early in 2009. The industry chose me. I was going to ETS (get out of the Army) after completing a six-year commitment as a heavy construction equipment mechanic (62B), but I received a letter of invitation to apply to the Warrant Officer Candidate/Army Flight School program. I’d always dreamed of learning to fly and becoming a bush pilot someday. Was this my chance? I applied and was accepted.
RPMN: Where did you get your start flying or maintaining professionally?
At Fort Rucker, Alabama.
RPMN: If you were not in the helicopter industry, what else would you see yourself doing?
I think I’d be a farmer, or somewhere in the trades, probably overseas.
RPMN: What do you enjoy doing on your days off?
Until recently, I lived on a small homestead in Maine. I enjoyed maintaining the family fleet of vehicles, knocking out projects around the farm, and running the sawmill. We heated with firewood, so I also enjoyed twitching logs out of the woods and turning them into fuel for upcoming cold weather.
RPMN: What is your greatest career accomplishment to date?
Flying MEDEVAC and rescue missions for the U.S. Army in Kuwait, Jordan, Afghanistan, and in the States - in some very unsavory environments - without destroying any helicopters! I can’t take credit for not being shot down (because sometimes there was no time to react to avoid the projectiles the steely-eyed enemy sent our way). They just aimed poorly. I was able to get the machine to-and-from on many missions, in all kinds of dust, snow, poor weather, and darkness— Safely. That’s an accomplishment I’m proud of. Ultimately, I give all the credit for my success and survival to God above. He worked to preserve my life in many ways by providing: good training, skilled and brave crew members, excellent maintenance personnel, and top-notch equipment (Sikorsky UH-60 A/A+/L/M). I’m humbled to have been a part in the work helicopters allowed me to do.
RPMN: Have you ever had an “oh, crap” moment involving helicopters? Can you summarize what happened?
Yes, by almost flying sideways into trees in self-induced white-out conditions. My crew and I were practicing snow landings on a low illumination night under NVGs. We were on our first approach into a remote landing zone that was long enough to allow for some forward speed at touchdown. I was on the controls and was demonstrating a ‘minimum roll’ landing in a degraded visual environment (DVE) to a junior pilot. During the final phase of the touchdown, we flew over a fair sized depression in the LZ that I failed to detect in the low-contrast/monochromatic environment. Right after the snow cloud engulfed the aircraft and we lost all visual reference, there was a split second where I remember thinking, “The tail wheel should have touched down by now.”
A split second later, I decided to go around, but “oh, crap!” I noticed the velocity vector in my HUD pegged to the extreme left (indicating left drift at a good clip) and I heard my crew chief call “drifting left!” At the last possible moment, I decided to lower the collective and plant the aircraft in the deep snow. We were at zero forward airspeed, probably three feet off the ground, and I wasn’t sure how close to the edge of the LZ we were. When the aircraft slid to a stop and the snow cloud cleared, we were 20 feet (7 meters) left of the intended point of landing and the rotor tips were well under the branches of the bordering trees.
If I’d pulled collective and gone around (like I would’ve done nine times out of 10 in similar circumstances) I believe we would’ve flown up and sideways into those trees. The best case would’ve been extensive damage to the helicopter. The worst case: a deadly crash and an aircraft totally destroyed. That less conventional, split-second decision to lower the collective and terminate to the ground probably saved our lives.
RPMN: If you could give only one piece of advice to new pilots, mechanics, or support personnel, what would it be?
Don’t let the full flight schedule or the needs of the people you’re serving drive you to compromise on rules and standards. If the weather is borderline too poor or if the fuel plan is pushing the limits of what the SOP allows, take an extra few minutes to think about the big picture. Talk to another pilot about what you’re being asked to do and what your concerns are about it. A little extra reflection and another point of view just might help you refocus and stay “in the green.”
RPMN: In your view, what is the greatest challenge for the helicopter industry at this moment in time?
There’s a lot of innovation being used to increase situational awareness and offload some of the many tasks a helicopter pilot needs to juggle (especially in a single pilot, no-autopilot aircraft). As useful and beneficial as these tools are, I sometimes find myself being distracted by them.
My advice is: don’t forget to always pay attention to the basics first. Aviate first, then navigate and communicate. It’s easy to let your focus drift to the albeit important, but secondary, subtasks of managing a digital cockpit. Don’t forget to fly the machine first. Helicopter pilots, please keep your eyes outside! Things happen fast below 1,000 AGL. You can always make the radio call or send the position report via text after the aircraft has gained some altitude or is on the ground and safe.
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