Articles for category Human Interest
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Sep
27
2021
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Posted by Admin
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RPMN: What is your current position?
I am currently a pilot in command flying one of two Firewatch Cobra helicopters belonging to the U.S. Forest Service. The Firewatch Cobras provide aerial supervision and intelligence gathering for large wildland fire incidents throughout the western United States.
RPMN: Tell me about your first flight or experience with helicopters.
My first flying experience with helicopters was at Fort Rucker, Alabama, in 1986 as a warrant officer candidate in Army Flight School, operating the venerable TH-55A. By the time I departed Fort Rucker for my first active-duty assignment, I was qualified in TH-55, UH-1H, OH-58 series, and AH-1 series helicopters.
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Tags:
Army Flight School
Scott Beck
USFS Pilot Scott Beck
Categories:
Human Interest
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Sep
10
2021
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Posted by Admin
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Flightcell’s founding CEO, John Wyllie, calls from the northern tip of his native town of Nelson, New Zealand, at the northern tip of South Island, perhaps the most majestically picturesque place on Earth. The island has been the location for epic fantasy/adventure movies like The Lord of the Rings and The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. What Flightcell does seems magical too. They link and track aircraft around the globe, allowing pilots and their flying machines to communicate with a vast array of terrestrial and satellite systems. The Kiwi company of 21 employees punches far above its size and has built a global reputation as the go-to organization for avionic communication solutions. You may have heard of some of their approx. 4,000 customers: the U.S. Air Force, Army, Navy, and Marines, California Highway Patrol, Texas Department of Public Safety, Cal Fire, Royal Flying Doctors, Colombian Air Force, and U.S. Department of State. Yes, they have street—and air—cred.
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Tags:
Flight Tracking
Flightcell
Flightcell DZM satcom
Categories:
Company Profiles
Opinion-Editorial
Human Interest
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Jul
12
2021
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Posted by Admin
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“I have the best job in the world. If I have to start over again, I’d do this job exactly the same.” That’s a rarely heard bold statement in any industry, but Jean-Charles de Troy, managing director of Helisim LLC, proudly proclaims it from deep in the heart of Texas where he helped establish Helisim in North America. Helisim, with centers in both France and Texas was founded 21 years ago from a consortium of Airbus, Thales AVS, and Défense Conseil International. It is a pilot’s pilot training company—literally. For de Troy comes from a father who was a Bird Dog pilot for France in the Algerian War and who continued to fly as a private pilot for pleasure. He passed his love of aviation on to his son, who says, “Flying is in my DNA.” As a young child, de Troy always had a toy airplane in his hand, which he would put down to hold one of his very first books The Little Aviator. The story stuck. Even when de Troy was old enough to work alongside his two sisters in their parents’ restaurant, named Le Chanzy, in the northern French town of Arras, he dreamed of being a pilot.
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Categories:
Human Interest
Career Development
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May
31
2021
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Posted by Admin
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RPMN: What is your current position?
I am currently a Civilian Pilot II, or PIC, flying the AW139 for the Maryland State Police. We primarily provide Medevac services for the state of Maryland as well as search/rescue and law enforcement services. We operate with crews of two pilots and two state trooper/medics at seven 24/7 bases across the state.
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Eric Tadlock
Helicopter Jobs
Helicopter Pilot Careers
Maryland State Police
Meet A Rotorcraft Pro
Categories:
Career Development
Human Interest
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Apr
05
2021
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Posted by Admin
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RPMN: What is your current position? I’m co-founder and vice-president of Night Flight Concepts and FAA repair station accountable manager.
RPMN: Tell me about your first flight or experience with helicopters. I was an enlisted specialist, E-4, in the U.S. Army as a medium lift helicopter mechanic on CH-47Ds. It was 1994, while assigned to Bravo Company (Varsity) 7th Battalion, 101st Aviation Brigade out of Ft. Campbell, Kentucky, when I was selected above my peers to go to a flight crew-member board consisting of our unit flight standards and flight platoon sergeants. After being accepted, I was assigned to the 1st flight platoon and designated a crew chief and taken on my first flight around the military reservation on a routine training flight. It was the most electrifying experience I had in my life at the time. The combination of perilousness, adventure, excitement, riskiness all at once changed my life forever. I was hooked.
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David Luke
Night Flight Concepts
Categories:
Company Profiles
Opinion-Editorial
Human Interest
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Mar
08
2021
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Posted by Admin
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You likely know Randy Rowles from his training commentary, “Checkride,” in every Rotorcraft Pro issue. However, you may not know that when Rowles takes off his ‘press’ hat, there are more distinguished hats in his closet: he is president and owner of Helicopter Institute Inc., the vice chairman of the Helicopter Association Board of Directors, an FAA designated pilot examiner, and a regular teacher at the annual HeliSuccess career conference. Yes, just as Forest Gump wore “lots of shoes” Rowles wears, and has worn, lots of hats. The difference between them is that Forest was mostly just a witness to history, whereas Rowles has actively participated in and contributed to the rotorcraft industry, especially in the helicopter training sector. “I love the training space,” he says.
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Tags:
Helicopter Institute
Randy Rowles
Categories:
Career Development
Opinion-Editorial
Human Interest
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Mar
01
2021
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Posted by Admin
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I find it curious that the first flight on the surface of another planet will be attempted via a helicopter.
As I write this article (February 2021), we are only days away from NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover landing on the surface of Mars. This new Mars rover is on the cusp of plunging into the Martian atmosphere to land on the Red Planet and is equipped with panoramic cameras, subsurface radar, laser micro imager, x-ray spectrometers, and a weather station. But there’s one more innovative piece of equipment that will be dropped from the belly of the Mars rover onto the planet’s surface: Ingenuity, the Mars helicopter!
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Tags:
Airbus Helicopters
H135
Ingenuity
Mars Helicopter
the Mars helicopter!
Categories:
Human Interest
Company Profiles
Helicopter Sectors
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Jan
18
2021
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Posted by Admin
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RPMN: What is your current position?
I am a fire pilot for Heliqwest. I fly a B205 on a local fire contract in Southern California (Heaps Peak) for the U.S. Forest Service.
RPMN: Tell me about your first flight.
My first flight was in an R22 out of Torrance, California. I remember walking up to the helicopter wondering, Wow, is this small helicopter going to fly? I had never seen one up close and only knew that helicopters were typically much larger. Once in the helicopter and in a hover I was certain now this was what I would do for living. I was astounded by how it felt to just float above the earth's surface like that. My flight took me over the coast and back to the airport. I was hooked.
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Tags:
Desiree Horton
Forestry Helicopter Pilot
Heliqwest Fire Pilot
Meet A Rotorcraft Pro
Categories:
Career Development
Human Interest
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Jan
11
2021
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Posted by Admin
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“To paint a picture of how remote some of the people are that we serve, it takes the inhabitants who live in areas of the Zambezi Delta three days to reach civilization by dugout canoe. The helicopter can reach those areas in 20 minutes.” - Matthias Reuter, Mercy Air helicopter program director
THE MISSION
From 1977 to 1992, the Mozambican Civil War was a bloody battle to control the African nation. The war was fought between Mozambique's ruling Marxist Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (FRELIMO), anti-communist insurgent forces of the Mozambican National Resistance (RENAMO), and a number of smaller factions.
The Mozambican Civil War destroyed much of Mozambique's critical rural infrastructure, including hospitals, rail lines, roads, and schools. Additionally, according to estimates, over one million Mozambicans were killed in the fighting or starved due to interrupted food supplies; an additional 5 million were displaced across the region.
In 1990, Mercy Air was born out of this conflict as a Christian initiative operating as a fixed-wing missionary program. The airplanes were initially used to provide relief and support to refugees fleeing Mozambique along the border of South Africa. Due to rebels and the poor security situation in the region, moving people and supplies via ground vehicles was too risky.
In 2004, Mercy Air decided to add helicopters to their operations. Rotorcraft not only enhanced the aviation operation’s capability, but significantly expanded the geographic locations it could serve.
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Tags:
Humanitarian Relief Helicopters
Mercy Air
Categories:
Human Interest
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Dec
28
2020
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Posted by Admin
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Matthew Zuccaro was a quintessential leader for the Helicopter Association International (HAI), serving first on the board of directors in 1987, then as board chair in 1991, then as president in 2005. He retired in January, only about a month before his passing on Feb. 25, 2020 at the age of 70.
“Matt was one of a kind in our industry,” current HAI President and CEO James Viola said. “Helicopters were part of his life, beginning with his U.S. Army service in Vietnam. Throughout his career, he made safe helicopter operations his priority, and we are a better, stronger, and safer industry today because of his efforts on behalf of rotorcraft.”
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Tags:
Helicopter Association International Matt Zuccaro
Matt Zuccaro
Categories:
Human Interest