Author: Admin
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Feb
16
2024
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Posted by Admin
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For my entire 30-year working life, I have referred to my work as a pilot, helicopter operator, and media company owner as being in the “helicopter industry.” It’s pretty much all I have known.
However back in 2020, we saw a significant shift in the industry’s perspective of what the future might look like. It involved terms like “eVTOL,” “unmanned,” and “AAM” (advanced air mobility.) This shift came not only in the form of conversations, but rapidly morphed into actions by investors, regulators, and OEMs.
I remember asking several industry colleagues of stature if they thought this movement towards new platforms was real, or was it pie-in-the-sky futurecasting. The responses I got were 50/50.
[Read More...]
Tags:
HeliExpo 2024
Rotor Pro Editor's Letter
Categories:
Opinion-Editorial
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Feb
12
2024
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Posted by Admin
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HALO Aviation is headquartered at the Ultimate Heliport in Gauteng, South Africa.
Their ICU air ambulance fleet consists of Helicopter Emergency Medical Service (HEMS) and fixed-wing aircraft, and are among the most technologically advanced on the continent and equipped with advanced lifesaving equipment.
HALO has a large footprint and serves Africa and South Africans from multiple operation centres around the country. It is composed of passionate professionals with a calling to serve and save lives; they are reliable rapid responders with a proven track record.
[Read More...]
Tags:
HALO Aviation Gauteng South Africa
Helicopter Operators Africa
HEMS Africa
Categories:
Company Profiles
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Feb
05
2024
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Posted by Admin
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In the last James Bond film starring Daniel Craig, No Time to Die, Chris Sharpe with Black Wolf Helicopters was tapped to body double as a secret agent while rappelling from a helicopter in a tuxedo. “I’m British, so it was natural,” Sharpe said. The global movie release had a premier in Guatemala. He was asked to rappel twice at a pre-showing and at the premiere to deliver a cake in a box to a VIP. Following the cake delivery, the party, dressed in tuxedos and formal gowns, went to the movie premiere.
Sharpe is a chief aircrewman and medic with Black Wolf Helicopters in Guatemala City, Guatemala. They provide services like search and rescue, helicopter emergency management, and training for other helicopter operators, but in their spare time, they dally in film crew support.
[Read More...]
Tags:
Black Wolf Helicopters
Helicopter Film Crew Support
Helicopteros de Guatemala
Categories:
Company Profiles
Helicopter Sectors
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Jan
29
2024
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Posted by Admin
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RPMN: What is your current position?
I am currently a standardization pilot for the factory training department, as well as a production test pilot with MD Helicopters LLC in Mesa Arizona. We specialize in initial and recurrent advanced emergency procedure training in all MD airframes as well as maintenance test pilot courses. It’s the absolute dream job, as I get to work with pilots in such a multifaceted industry. There aren't a great number of MD Pilots in the world, but every single one of them brings something significant to the table and are absolute powerhouse in their career field and I'm lucky to get to fly and learn from a great number of them.
[Read More...]
Tags:
CJ Schneider
MD Helicopters
Meet A Rotor Pro
Categories:
Career Development
Opinion-Editorial
Human Interest
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Jan
22
2024
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Posted by Admin
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The Guardia di Finanza, translated to English; “Guard of Finance,” is a law enforcement agency under the authority of the Italian Minister of Economy and Finance. The agency is a militarized police force and is essentially responsible for dealing with financial crime and smuggling; it has also evolved into Italy's primary agency for suppressing the illegal drug trade. The Guardia di Finanza maintains over 600 boats and ships and more than 100 aircraft to serve in its mission of patrolling Italy's territorial waters. The agency also has the role of border police and customs duties at Italian airports.
The Air Section of the Guardia di Finanza of Venice was founded at Padova airport in 1956, two years after the birth of the Guardia di Finanza air service in Italy. Over the course of its history the Section has had various locations including Rimini, the Island of Sant'Andrea and subsequently the Venice Tessera Airport, its current headquarters, thus becoming an autonomous department of a territorial nature, dependent on the 7th Legion of Venice.
The department's barracks is named after the specialist Major Marshal Ferdinando Zorzutti, who died in service on 12 July 1991. At 05:40 a.m. on that tragic morning, Marshal Zorzutti took off aboard the NH500 M.M. helicopter for a reconnaissance mission aimed at intercepting motorboats suspected of perpetrating international smuggling of weapons and drugs, which had escaped a naval enforcement unit the previous night. Flying over the area east of Caorle, the poor visibility forced the crew to reverse course and at around 06:25 the helicopter crashed into the waters near Brussa Beach in the municipality of Caorle.
[Read More...]
Tags:
Guardia di Finanza Air Section
MH169A
NH500 M
Venice Air Section Helicopters
Venice Air-Naval Operations
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Jan
15
2024
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Posted by Admin
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Howard Hadley apologizes again—and yet again. During our interview, we’ve been repeatedly interrupted by others needing an answer from Hadley who co-founded Main Line Helicopter LLC with his late wife, Sherry. Main Line sounds mainstream, but you probably don’t associate the name with its mega-selling specialty product: Helicopter Handler, a sturdy steel-based platform specifically built to securely roll helicopters to, from, and around hangars. (Full disclosure: Helicopter Handler is one of the longest running regular advertisers in this publication, but that has no effect on this profile—except to put this writer on notice not to be too favorably biased.)
But what’s with all these interruptions? Does Hadley consider our interview an intrusion? Is he attempting to avoid personal details that might fill in the brushstrokes of his portrait?
As these questions begin to coalesce into a cloud of suspicion, the little cloud bursts with a thundering realization—Hadley isn’t hiding; these intrusions are showing who he really is: an open-door open book. He’s letting us see a not-so-secret active ingredient in his successful, varied career. “I’m very much a believer that the person at the top must have an open-door policy,” he resumes. “I believe in being extremely inclusive. I’ve always tried to manage businesses as if we’re a family. When you’re in a top executive position like CEO or COO, you still have tough decisions to make, but it’s very helpful when those decisions start at the bottom and rise up. I don’t like top-down management with no input from below. I didn’t even like it when I was in law enforcement, which is usually structured in a top-down way. A lot of small-business owners lose sight of the fact they wouldn’t be where they are if it weren’t for the people that work for them. People are a business’ greatest asset.”
[Read More...]
Tags:
Helicopter Dolly
Helicopter Handler
Helicopter Platform
Howard Hadley
Main Line Helicopter
Sherry Hadley
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Jan
08
2024
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Posted by Admin
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Nine companies made our ‘Best of Rotor Tech’ list this year. The accomplishments they racked up during 2023 are truly impressive.
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Tags:
Airbus Helicopters FlightLab
Helicopter Technology
Categories:
Opinion-Editorial
Helicopter Sectors
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Jan
01
2024
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Posted by Admin
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For the second time in as many days, I was demoing a product that involved complex helicopter operations with a set of virtual reality goggles on my face. Boy how times have changed!
[Read More...]
Tags:
European Rotors
Vertical Lift
Virtual Reality Googles
Categories:
Opinion-Editorial
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Dec
24
2023
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Posted by Admin
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As a pilot, you’re responsible for knowing your equipment inside and out. You go through countless hours of training. You run through checklists before every flight. And you rely on industry standards and best practices to maintain peak performance.
Despite doing all that, do you know if your equipment is vulnerable to a cyberattack?
[Read More...]
Tags:
AUVSI
Categories:
Helicopter Sectors
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Dec
18
2023
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Posted by Admin
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There’s a revolution underway in aviation, and it is being driven by artificial intelligence. AI is already affecting everything from helicopter/fixed-wing design and manufacturing to in-flight operations and maintenance, along with air traffic control and anything else that touches flying.
[Read More...]
Tags:
Aviation Artificial Intelligence
Categories:
Opinion-Editorial
Helicopter Sectors