Articles for category Helicopter Sectors
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Aug
27
2018
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Posted by Admin
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Helicopter communications and flight tracking are becoming more reliable, consistent, and affordable; thanks to a multi-platform (cellular/radio/satellite) approach being taken by manufacturers and service providers alike. Here’s a sampling of what’s available today to keep helicopter pilots and their ground stations connected and constantly informed.
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Categories:
Company Profiles
Helicopter Sectors
Training
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Jul
16
2018
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Posted by Admin
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Two years ago I posted an article to LinkedIn entitled, “What We Get Wrong!” At the time I didn’t realize how that it would resonate with many people either transitioning out of the military or those that had. So after two years, I decided to write a follow up to it. Once again I asked a few chief pilots and helicopter industry human resource recruiters for their thoughts on what military pilots get right and what they enjoy about them. The following is an overview, in no specific order, of military veterans’ positive attributes.
When given a task they complete it. Former military members are very mission oriented. They understand what needs to be done to get the job done; when tasks are complete they offer assistance and jump in to help others with others tasks, even if it means sweeping the hangar.
When declining a position, they are very courteous and don’t burn bridges. Taking the extra minute to let someone know you have decided to take another job somewhere else in a gracious manner is well received an appreciated. For example, “Thank you for the opportunity to work for your company, but I have found a position with another company that I think I am a better fit for.” That is better received than “I’m not going to work here and found something else that pays better,” or just blowing them off.
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Categories:
Helicopter Sectors
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Jul
10
2018
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Posted by Admin
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The aviation industry is constantly changing. If you own a helicopter or fleet of helicopters, and have an interest in capitalizing on the tourism side of the industry, then Patric Douglas, CEO and founder of Big Mountain Heli Tours in Bend, Oregon, can help develop your company no matter your location or equipment.
When Douglas first entered the heli-tourism industry he confidently brought his 30 years’ experience as a tourism developer to the market. With his proven track record in tourism development Douglas is now lending his services to help those entering the heli-tourism industry find success. He is the owner of companies that have pioneered everything from white shark cage diving in Mexico (sharkdiver.com) to building underwater cities in Dubai (reefworlds.com).
In October 2016, Douglas turned his full attention to aviation and emerged with the successful launch of Big Mountain Heli Tours (flycascades.com). Upon securing a partnership with Leading Edge Aviation (flybend.com), one of the largest helicopter training schools in Oregon, Big Mountain Heli Tours exceeded its 2017 forecasts and is poised for continued growth and expansion in 2018. The addition of an instructor-level tour company helps Leading Edge Aviation build hours and offer real world training for those moving on to other careers.
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Categories:
Helicopter Sectors
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Jun
25
2018
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Posted by Admin
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Jim Hasburgh’s extensive helicopter pilot training at the U.S. Air and Marine Operations’ National Air Training Center coalesced on one cold and rainy winter day near McAllen, Texas five years ago.
AMO’s sister agency, the U.S. Border Patrol, had worked all night in the rain to apprehend a group of undocumented immigrants but couldn’t locate an 8-year-old Central American girl. A helicopter crew consisting of Hasburgh, Border Patrol agent Aron Quintanilla, and an EMT was assigned to look for her.
The crewmembers searched and searched but even with the help of a FLIR thermal camera, they couldn’t locate the child. With visibility conditions nearing AMO minimum requirements, the crew made the call to halt the mission. Then just as Hasburgh banked to the left, Quintanilla spotted the shaking little girl, all covered with mud and soaking wet.
“I remember the girl hugging us both,” Quintanilla recalled. “I just told her, ‘There’s an angel looking after you.’ Even now I get chills thinking about it. I have a lot of experience doing this, and our chances of finding her were maybe five percent…It was a miracle.”
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Categories:
Helicopter Sectors
Training
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May
21
2018
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Posted by Admin
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When people think of drones and natural disasters, they imagine search-and-rescue (SAR) drones directing rescue teams to victims in need of immediate assistance. However, the actual use of drones in natural disasters is quite different. Forget SAR: “In the last year and a half (in the U.S), the American Red Cross used drones to conduct overall assessment of damage as well as detailed damage assessment of residential homes,” said Brad Kieserman, the American Red Cross vice president of disaster operations and logistics. “We also make considerable use of drone video footage that we get from our partners—both in and out of government— to do broader scope damage assessment: what neighbors are inaccessible, what the overall level of damage is, how high the water is and where it’s impacting.”
“On an international level, the Red Cross is using drones to collect imagery and data for our disaster preparedness and recovery work,” Kieserman said. “In the Philippines, where we are still helping people recover from Typhoon Haiyan, we’re using drones to gather aerial imagery. The imagery is a valuable resource for response, planning, monitoring, and resilience-building activities in these disaster-prone areas.”
Why Drones?
Helicopters are better suited for SAR: They have the personnel and the lifting power to get victims out of harm’s way as soon as they are spotted. Drones do not.
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Categories:
Helicopter Sectors
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May
08
2018
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Posted by Admin
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If I were to describe the state of the aerial firefighting industry today, it would come down to two words: preparation and uncertainty. Preparation is for fire seasons that are only getting worse and much more destructive. Uncertainty is because nobody yet knows just how federal budgetary issues and funding for wildland firefighting are going to play out.
At least the good news is that as fire seasons get longer and merge, the industry is well prepared. There is no better evidence of that than the industry’s performance throughout the 2017 fire season. Starting in Florida in early February, and spreading nationwide with almost no letup, wildland fires raged out of control, often for weeks at a time. In California, the state experienced the most destructive fires in its history, as more than 9,130 fires burned over 1,381,400 acres, consuming in excess of 10,800 structures and taking 43 lives, including two firefighters. Particularly hard hit were the densely populated, wildland/urban interface areas of southern California, as well as the San Francisco Bay region’s northern counties.
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Categories:
Helicopter Sectors
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Mar
12
2018
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Posted by Admin
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Ever wonder where, or how, some of the parts on your helicopter were made? When I say “made,” I’m talking about made from scratch...like turning a raw block of steel, aluminum, or titanium into an impeller or a transmission housing. In aerospace, it’s the highest level of engineering and manufacturing, where margins of error are so small that they are measured by laser beams.
I recently had the opportunity to learn more about a helicopter parts manufacturing powerhouse by visiting Aerometals in El Dorado Hills, California. Founded in 1984, Aerometals has spent the past 33 years transforming itself into a full-service manufacturing business that serves not only the helicopter world, but also the aerospace industry as a whole.
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Categories:
Helicopter Sectors
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Feb
19
2018
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Posted by Admin
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The economic downturn that has been affecting the global helicopter industry has been very hard on original equipment manufacturers (OEMs); the companies who design and build the world’s rotorcraft. But these OEMs have been through tough times before, and survived. Here’s what they are doing to cope, as they wait for the next inevitable market upswing.
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Categories:
Helicopter Sectors
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Jan
22
2018
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Posted by Admin
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At the tender age of five Patric Wells was moving milk and pop bottles from his father’s Stratford, Ontario retail food store to a nearby storage building for 5 cents an hour. That’s quite a young age to join the business world, but it provided the foundation for his success today. “I guess it gives a kid a good work ethic, because I still work hard every day,” Wells relates.
Wells doesn’t have to prove his continuing work ethic; knowing that he operates four businesses simultaneously is enough. Combined, they offer a full range of services to customers seeking to buy or lease a helicopter and mold it to fit their precise needs.
East West Helicopter Inc. (EWH) based in Harrison, Ohio has supported the helicopter industry for more than four decades, providing maintenance, parts sales, helicopter sales and leasing. Panterra Heli Support Ltd (PHSL) based in Beamsville, Ontario, provides MRO, heavy maintenance, avionics integration, engineering, custom paint and other customizations, completions, one-off configurations, and field support for existing leases. NS Air Leasing and Borderline Air expand upon the sales and leasing aspect of the group, especially the Airbus product line.
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Categories:
Company Profiles
Helicopter Sectors
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Jan
08
2018
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Posted by Admin
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While the Southeastern U.S. was being inundated with record hurricane floodwaters during the fall of 2017, record-breaking wildfires were torching California’s Wine Country.
More than one million acres burned this year in California. The “October Fire Siege” fanned by Diablo Winds in Northern California constituted the deadliest series of wildfires in the state’s history, killing 43 people. The infernos torched at least 8,900 structures and 245,000 acres, forcing the evacuation of more than 100,000 people. As many as 11,000 firefighters were battling 21 major blazes in an area nearly one-third the size of Rhode Island. Insured property damage totaled more than $3 billion, making them the costliest complex of wildfires in U.S. history.
“I’ve never seen the utter devastation and destruction I saw around Santa Rosa and Napa,” said Barry Lloyd, helicopter program manager for Cal Fire (California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection). “It was absolutely stunning.” This is coming from someone who has been a helicopter pilot for 52 years and fighting fire for 44 years. He flies one of Cal Fire’s 12 Type II Hueys.
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Categories:
Helicopter Sectors