Articles for category Opinion-Editorial
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Dec
21
2020
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Posted by Admin
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The Airbus Helicopters Inc. president and head of the North America region for helicopters was once so shy he was afraid to phone anyone he didn’t know. Romain Trapp says, “I was really super shy. I had to write down in advance every word I planned to say in a call.” So, the college accounting and finance student got fed up with his handicap and devised a strategy to overcome it. “I came to the point where enough was enough and I began to force myself out of my shyness,” he says. “For example, I volunteered to organize a conference at my college; it forced me to interact with people. Eventually, I worked my way out of my shyness, so that I now have no problem speaking to an audience of 200 people.” That’s a good thing, because presiding over a global original equipment manufacturer (OEM) like Airbus Helicopters is not a cubicle-in-the-bowels-of-a-building position for the super shy. It requires someone who can get out into the rotorcraft world, see how it’s changing, and react. When pressed to talk about his personal strengths as a top corporate executive , the humble leader says, “My strength, I think, is my ability to grasp the big picture and develop strategy from that view. Also, I develop a sense of belonging to the team as soon as I start a new job. You’ll notice that when I talk, I use the word ‘we’ and never ‘them’ nor ‘I.’ Finally, I have developed an ability to adapt to changing circumstances because I’ve had different responsibilities in different countries.”
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Tags:
Airbus Helicopters president
Romain Trapp
Categories:
Opinion-Editorial
Human Interest
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Dec
14
2020
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Posted by Admin
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I think that most people would agree that our holiday card pretty much sums up how many of us feel about 2020.
Not really helicopter themed as our previous cards have been, but if it causes a bit of a chuckle and captures the lighter side of the human spirit, then we achieved our goal.
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Tags:
Editor Lyn Burks
Helicopter Magazines
Helicopter Publications
Rotorcraft Pro Editor
Categories:
Opinion-Editorial
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Nov
23
2020
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Posted by Admin
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What is your current position?
I’m the owner and operator of Helicopter Air Specialty Service, owner and operator of AMP/HASS LLC a Robinson Service Center, owner and operator of the Maple Grove Heliport (E66), and manager of the Maple Grove Airport (65G) at Fowlerville, Michigan.
Tell me about your first flight?
I had a chain of 126 retail stores and needed to get to one of them fast. I hired a pilot that turned out to be a CFI to get me there. He let me fly! Most expensive flight I ever took. It was a thrill. Five lessons later, I was buying my first helicopter: a Robinson R22. I had no license, but I owned a helicopter, which forced me to get my license. Failure was not an option.
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Tags:
Dennis Bowdoin
Helicopter Air Specialty Service
Meet A Rotorcraft Pro
Categories:
Career Development
Opinion-Editorial
Human Interest
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Nov
16
2020
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Posted by Admin
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I clearly remember that life-changing day in April 1990. It was my first day working as a helicopter mechanic at Carraway Methodist Medical Center in Birmingham, Alabama. The radio call dispatched the helicopter, the pilot brought the machine to life and the medical crew strapped in as the Bell LongRanger took to the air. It seemed like only minutes later the aircraft returned, and the patient was rolled past me to the Level I trauma center. From that moment on, life was different as the purpose for my work became clearer in that instant.
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Tags:
Helicopter Maintenance Tools
Maintenance Minute
Mark Tyler
Categories:
Opinion-Editorial
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Nov
09
2020
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Posted by Admin
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1943 was the first year that helicopters were used to perform emergency medical services (Helicopter EMS; aka HEMS). According to The Smithsonian Institution’s magazine Air & Space, it was a Sikorsky YR-4B flown by the U.S. Army in Asia that conducted the first HEMS mission in April 1944. The two-seater YR-4B flown by Carter Harman rescued three wounded U.K. Commandos and a downed pilot from the Burmese jungle, lofting one at a time to safety using four separate flights.
Since then, helicopters have become essential civilian/military ‘air ambulances.’ The road from that relatively fragile YR-4B to today’s formidable HEMS machines made by Airbus, Bell, Leonardo, MD Helicopters, and Sikorsky (now part of Lockheed Martin) has not been a smooth one. It took persuasion and performance to convince skeptics that helicopters belonged in the EMS realm.
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Tags:
Air Evac Lifeteam
Flight For Life in 1972
History of EMS Helicopters
Med-Trans
REACH
Sikorsky YR-4B
Categories:
Opinion-Editorial
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Oct
13
2020
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Posted by Admin
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“My only point is to remind those of us who receive the benefits of altruistic servants to be thankful for their desire to do some of the dirtiest work on the planet. Every day (not once or twice in a lifetime, but every day) these amazing people intentionally put themselves into the most dangerous situations and environments. They inject themselves into people’s lives at the lowest points, when people are most scared, most sick, and generally at their worst. They do this repeatedly to help someone in need, to make that person’s life better.”
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Tags:
EMS
Front line workers
HAA
HAA Medics
HAA Pilots
HEMS Pilots
Categories:
Helicopter Sectors
Opinion-Editorial
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Oct
05
2020
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Posted by Admin
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Looking back, I recall the time just after separating from active duty with the U.S. Air Force. I was attending Alabama Aviation Technical College to obtain my Airframe and Powerplant certificate. It was during this time that I was hired at Fort Rucker by the helicopter maintenance contractor that supported U.S. military helicopter pilot training. One of the first requirements of this contractor was to have a minimum tools list. As a young man just out of the military, I did not own many tools nor could I afford to buy a lot. Taking my tools list, I drove to Sears to comply with the minimum, never dreaming that in the ensuing 39 years I would collect so many thousands of dollars in hand tools, special tools, precision tools and high-end toolboxes.
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Tags:
Airframe and Powerplant certificate
Alabama Aviation Technical College
Helicopter Maintenance
Maintenance Minute
U.S. military helicopter pilot training
Categories:
Career Development
Opinion-Editorial
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Sep
28
2020
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Posted by Admin
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There are wildfires in the woods, and then there are crazy-strange wildfires such as a recent one in Florida that was fueled by hundreds of cars. When you battle that kind of conflagration, you’re bound to learn a few new lessons. We certainly did.
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Tags:
Car lot aerial fire
Charlotte County Aviation Unit
Categories:
Opinion-Editorial
Human Interest
Training
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Aug
17
2020
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Posted by Admin
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COVID-19 has proven to be tremendously challenging for the helicopter industry. The demands of social distancing, sourcing/wearing personal protective equipment (PPE), and working from home don’t exactly align with the lives of pilots, technicians, and air medical personnel. In fact, their jobs are all about being up-close-and-personal in small spaces!
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Tags:
Helicopter and COVID
Helicopter Industry Impacts from COVID
Categories:
Career Development
Opinion-Editorial
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Aug
10
2020
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Posted by Admin
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I was watching the news a couple weeks ago and the coverage was regarding Hurricane Douglas, a Category 4 hurricane which was bearing down on the Hawaiian Islands. The video footage was of business owners boarding up the windows of their shops. Spray-painted across one business front were the words “2020 Sucks!” I laughed out loud at the sight of it, and thought to myself: “Yep, that pretty much sums it up.”
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Tags:
Editor Lyn Burks
Rotorcraft Pro
Categories:
Opinion-Editorial