Articles for category Career Development
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Sep
26
2022
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Posted by Admin
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RPMN: What is your current position?
I recently retired as the Aviation Section captain for the Orange County Sheriff's Office in Orlando, Florida. The Section has four helicopters, one fixed-wing aircraft, and 24 full-time personnel consisting of pilots, flight observers and mechanics. There are additional part-time personnel available on an as-needed basis.
RPMN: Tell me about your first flight or experience with helicopters.
My first flight in a helicopter was when I was assigned as an A-4 plane captain with VMA-131 in the U.S. Marine Corps. We flew on a CH-53 from Willow Grove Naval Air Station in Pennsylvania to Lakehurst Naval Air Station in New Jersey. It was a fantastic experience. The pilots were Vietnam veterans who truly enjoyed their work and took time to explain what they were doing as well as how the systems operated on the aircraft. From that point on I was hooked on becoming a pilot.
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Tags:
Meet A Rotor Pro
Orange County Sheriffs Aviation Unit
Tony Minnis
Categories:
Career Development
Human Interest
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Sep
12
2022
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Posted by Admin
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“I never really thought I’d have the title “Vice President” in front of my name. Coming out of the Army as basically an A&P mechanic, I never really thought my career would reach this level; it’s a pretty daunting responsibility to be honest,” says Vice President Kip McDermott of night vision leader Aviation Specialties Unlimited (ASU) in Boise, Idaho. His current responsibilities seem daunting for sure: working with government regulators all over the world, writing test plans, certification plans, and wrangling designated engineering representatives (DERs) up for engineering reports, overseeing a Part 145 repair station along with ASU’s Part 135 and Part 141 flight operations groups, as well as being responsible for supplemental type certificate (STC) certification and ASU’s highly regarded night vision goggle (NVG) lab would “daunt” any executive, but McDermott is confident he can handle his lengthy list. If he loses his grip, he says there’s help, “The saving grace of it all is that I’ve got good guys I’m working with; I don’t have to micromanage them (I’ve never been a micromanager and will never be.) They make my job easier; if I drop something, they pick it up.”
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Tags:
Aviation Specialites Unlimited
Executive Watch
Kip McDermott ASU
RotorPro Executive Watch
Categories:
Company Profiles
Career Development
Opinion-Editorial
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Aug
16
2022
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Posted by Admin
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As helicopter owners, pilots, and mechanics we must consistently be advocates for safety and always meet or exceed the standards. Personal safety and prevention of equipment damage are of utmost importance. The number one concern in the aviation business today is the rising cost of insurance. The rapid rise in insurance is directly due to injuries and equipment damaged.
So, how do we mitigate the risk thereby decreasing premiums? Here are some simple and basic measures that will aid your flight and maintenance operations in keeping safety as the top priority.
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Tags:
Aviation Maintenance
Helicopter Maintenance
Maintenance Minute
Mark Tyler
Categories:
Career Development
Opinion-Editorial
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Aug
08
2022
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Posted by Admin
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We’ve all been there: an urgent mission to rescue wounded or dying personnel, or have undergone surge operations in a lengthy campaign against high value that taxes personnel and machines. These scenarios place military aircrews and maintenance personnel in potentially hazardous positions of increased risk and challenging conditions. In these cases, the risk is often assumed by our superiors; sometimes they waive the rules altogether. Teams vow to never leave a fallen comrade and fly until the job is finished, or they operate in hazardous conditions because lives are at stake. Maintainers work extended hours with little rest to keep the machines flying. The actual or perceived pressures to complete these missions are very real. In combat, it may be OK to risk an aircraft and crew to save one life. Organizations have mottos such as “So others may live” or use terms such as “no-fail mission.”
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Tags:
Military to Civilian Helicopters
Military to Civilian Transition
Categories:
Career Development
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Jun
14
2022
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Posted by Admin
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The Military to Civilian Transition Workshop at HAI’s Heli-Expo 2022 was a great success! The workshop was held on the first day of the world’s largest vertical aviation conference and trade show.
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Tags:
Military to Civilian Aviation
Military to Civilian Helicopters
Rotorcraft Pro
Categories:
Career Development
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May
02
2022
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Posted by Admin
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Foreword: Pilot shortages are real for several reasons
Before we dig into the salary and benefits survey numbers, we wanted to paint a picture, even if only anecdotal, of what we believe are the forces currently impacting the supply of working helicopter pilots.
It was around 2005 that articles and online communities began raising alarms about our aging Vietnam-era pilot population and a looming shortage. That era of helicopter pilots were considered the “baby-boomers” of helicopter pilots in that they represented nearly 50% of the working pilot force and most were in their late 50s and early 60s at the time. It was well known that the lion's share of that population would retire somewhere between 2010 and 2020. Questions began to arise about whether or not the traditional training institutions (civil schools and military) could produce the pilots as fast as they would be retiring when the time came. Now that most of those pilots have left the cockpit, and hindsight being 20/20, we now know the answer to that question is no. But it wasn’t only retiring pilots that contributed to the problem.
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Tags:
Helicopter Pilot Salaries
Pilot salary reports
pilot salary survey
US Helicopter Pilot Salary Report
Categories:
Career Development
Opinion-Editorial
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Apr
11
2022
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Posted by Admin
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Transitioning from the military can be daunting to say the least. If you’re still active duty and considering your transition, whether after 5 years or 25 years, you probably have a lot of questions swirling around in your head. I made the leap about 6 years ago, but my process started about 5 years prior to that. I hope that some of my experiences and observations can help you as you consider your future beyond the uniform.
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Tags:
Military to Civilian Aviation
Military to Civilian Transition Helicopters
Military to Civilian Transtion Pilots
Categories:
Career Development
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Feb
07
2022
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Posted by Admin
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I remember the day my S1 (personnel officer) came into the standardization office and handed me my retirement orders. She asked if I was excited. I had been excited when I submitted for retirement, but now that the orders were in my hand, I was wondering what the hell I did!
It doesn’t matter how prepared you are for your transition; you will feel stress at some point during the process and it isn’t quickly relieved by getting some exercise and sleep. Transition stress is an increased feeling of pressure, anxiety, and/or loss of purpose and direction triggered by a significant period of change or adjustment. Specifically when talking about veterans, transition stress refers to the difficulty of adapting to life after discharge. It is a longing for the way service members lived while on active duty. Other symptoms include depression, loss of identity, difficulty finding meaningful employment, difficulty navigating relationships, and difficulty relating to civilians. Transitional stress is an “identity crisis.” Basically, when you are transitioning, you are losing your identity, and being forced to develop a new one without the support network you had while in the military. If there is anything positive about your transition, it is that everyone goes through it, so you are not alone.
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Tags:
Military to Civilian Transition Helicopters
Military to Civililan Aviation
Categories:
Career Development
Opinion-Editorial
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Jan
24
2022
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Posted by Admin
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RPMN: What is your current position?
I am chief flight instructor at the University of North Dakota (UND) and a designated pilot examiner for the FAA. UND Aerospace has been training pilots since 1968 and currently has over one thousand active flight students in fixed-wing, helicopter, and UAS degree programs. As chief flight instructor, I have many responsibilities including the day-to-day operations of the helicopter department, hiring and standardizing instructors, conducting evaluations, and teaching academic classes. We flew a record 126,000 flight hours last year making our home airport of Grand Forks routinely one of the busiest in the country. We’ve operated a number of helicopters over the decades from MD500s to Bell 206s and have transitioned exclusively to the Robinson R44 Cadet this past year.
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Tags:
University of North Dakota Aviation
Wes Van Dell
Categories:
Career Development
Human Interest
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Dec
06
2021
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Posted by Admin
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This is your formal invitation to join us at HAI’s Heli-Expo 2022 Military to Civilian Transition Workshop!
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Tags:
Military to Civilian Aviation
Categories:
Career Development