Articles for category Human Interest
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Nov
07
2022
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Posted by Admin
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“It’s not fake it until you make it , but keep working until you obtain it,” says the entrepreneur pilot who accelerated through the pilot ranks into management faster than a V-22 Osprey and decided that wasn’t enough. So, he bought four helicopter tour operations that fly from Montana to Mount Rushmore. That wasn’t enough. So, he’s starting up a fifth utility operation to balance his tourist-heavy holdings. Yet, if you’re expecting to meet some hard-charging, win-at-all-costs egomaniac, you’re in for a pleasant surprise and time.
Here, let’s introduce you to Mark Schlaefli president and owner of Dakota Rotors LLC, and (deep breath now): Black Hills Aerial Adventures, Rushmore Helicopters, Badger Helicopters (DBA Badlands Helicopters) and Yellowstone Helicopters. Coming this fall is the addition of a Part 133 and Part 137 certificate to Dakota Rotors to enhance their ability to deliver a full spectrum of services throughout the Midwest and Mountain West.
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Tags:
Black Hills Aerial Adventures
Dakota Rotors
Helicopter tour Operations
Categories:
Human Interest
Career Development
Company Profiles
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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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Aug
01
2022
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Posted by Admin
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What is your current position?
I am chief pilot at the Lee County Mosquito Control District (LCMCD). Our team of pilots operate a fleet of both fixed-wing and helicopters that currently consists of two DC-3TPs, two King Air 200s and six Airbus H-125 helicopters. LCMCD is the largest single-county mosquito control agency in the country and we fly a variety of missions from daytime liquid and granular treatments to nighttime ultra-low volume treatments with the use of NVGs.
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Tags:
Lee County Mosquito Control Aviation Unit
Thurbie Botterill
Categories:
Human Interest
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Jul
11
2022
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Posted by Admin
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“The helicopter industry is a comparatively small industry that almost has a family feel,” says Markus Schmitz. It’s a family that the managing director of Axnes Inc. has wanted to belong to much of his life. Upon graduating from the University of Applied Science at Aachen in his native Germany with an aerospace engineering degree , the 1998 graduate had to make a choice. One road led to his designing fixed-wing airframes. The other road led to Eurocopter in Donauwörth where Schmitz was offered his way to helicopters. Schmitz took the wanderlust path. “I chose Eurocopter because I wanted to work in the helicopter industry and with its customers and see the world,” he says.
Actually, that decision was pretty predetermined since Schmitz was a young boy growing up in the town of Vellmar, near the city of Kassel. His father sold fertilizer and salt internationally and his mother was a homemaker for her family. “My background was a stable one from a small town,” he says. “My interests growing up were in medicine and aviation. Helicopters always fascinated me from seeing them fly overhead as a small boy and I later understood their capabilities in medical emergencies.”
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Tags:
Markus Schmitz Axnes
Rotorcraft Pro
Rotorcraft Pro Executive Watch
Categories:
Human Interest
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May
09
2022
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Posted by Admin
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“Timing is everything,” says Marek Polcak, CEO and co-founder of the Czech Republic-based technology company that he hopes is timed to transform rotary- and fixed-wing aviation training. That company, Vrgineers Inc., has a unique spelling that reflects its unique combination of technology it is introducing to aviation. The first two letters are pronounced as individual letters: V-R-gineers. That captures what Polcak and his team do—they are virtual reality (VR) engineers creating realistic training scenarios in virtual- and mixed-reality systems that put civilian and military pilots into certain scenarios that allow the training of more tactics or missions than a normal simulator.
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Tags:
Marek Polcak
Rotorcraft Pro Executive Watch
Vrgineers Inc
Categories:
Company Profiles
Opinion-Editorial
Human Interest
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Mar
28
2022
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Posted by Admin
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The first impression is that Larry Alexandre seems not properly placed to lead United Rotorcraft, a well-known maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) leader that specializes in customizing helicopter medevac interiors one aircraft at a time. Alexandre is passionate about Lean, the practice of creating a more effective business by eliminating wasteful practices and focusing on value creation for customers. “Very few MROs in our industry believe that Lean principles apply in our world, often because they believe it is only for high volume manufacturing. I’m a big believer in and practitioner of Lean principles to rally an entire team around making your business better (through efficiency) and creating value for your customers.” Earlier in his career when he worked in Operations at Turbomeca, Alexandre says, “I enjoyed taking inefficient practices, often rampant in fragmented industries like the helicopter industry, and making them more efficient and process-oriented. I started each day with the belief that anyone in the team, with the right focus, could find waste in their processes, eliminate it, and improve efficiency.”
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Tags:
Larry Alexandre
Larry Alexandre President
United Rotorcraft
Categories:
Company Profiles
Human Interest
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Mar
14
2022
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Posted by Admin
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RPMN: What is your current position?
My wife, Alison and I own Jerry Trimble Helicopter Inc. We started the company in 2007 with one helicopter and one airplane. We provide primary and advanced flight training in both helicopters and airplanes. Our school is located in McMinnville, Oregon.
RPMN: Tell me about your first flight or experience with helicopters?
I flew with my dad, Robert Trimble, in one of his Bell 47s back in the ‘50s. He worked for Etna Helicopters along with his two partners – Bill Mathews and Erling Hertager.
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Tags:
Jerry Trimble Helicopters
Meet A Rotorcraft Pro
Categories:
Human Interest
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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Jan
17
2022
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Posted by Admin
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The American Helicopter Museum & Education Center (AHMEC) in West Chester, Pennsylvania, recently unveiled the crown jewel of its collection: the United States Coast Guard (USCG) HOS-1 that played a leading role in one of the most famous rescues in helicopter history. Also known as a Sikorsky R-6, AHMEC’s HOS-1 (#43-45531) and her crew received accolades for saving survivors of a downed Sabena Airlines DC-4 airliner near Gander, Newfoundland, in 1946, earning her the nickname, “The Gander Express.”
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Tags:
AHMEC’s HOS-1 (#43-45531)
Gander Express
Sikorsky R-6
United States Coast Guard (USCG) HOS-1
Categories:
Opinion-Editorial
Human Interest
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Jan
10
2022
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Posted by Admin
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Best of 2021 - Best of People Remembered
Brian Lacks
Harold Summers
Harry Robertson
Shawn Coyle
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Tags:
Brian Lacks
Harold Summers
Harry Robertson
Rotorcraft Pro Best of 2021 People Remembered
Shawn Coyle
Categories:
Human Interest
Opinion-Editorial