Articles for category Company Profiles
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Nov
07
2017
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Posted by Admin
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As with everything else in the Sunshine State, Hurricane Irma temporarily benched west-central Florida’s Bayflite air ambulance service. It wasn’t just the unflyable hurricane-force winds that grounded Bayflite’s three H135s. Irma’s unpredictable storm path also kept this air medical service (AMS) and its parent company Air Methods guessing as they tried to prepare for the storm.
“Well in advance of Irma’s landfall, Air Methods set up an emergency operations/control flight center in Fort Myers (also in west-central Florida) at its LeeFlight base,” said Matt Turner, Air Methods’ area manager for Central Florida. Air Methods used the LeeFlight AMS base to stage resources brought in from outside of Florida, for deployment in the state pre-storm and post-storm. A fixed-wing Pilatus aircraft was also brought in to help transport patients before Irma hit.
“Irma then turned west and was headed directly at us, so our regional leadership quickly decided to change direction even as we were in the middle of implementing our plan,” said Turner. “So we evacuated all our local assets, because no-one knew whether Irma was going to go up the east coast, west coast, or right up the middle of the state.”
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Categories:
Company Profiles
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Oct
30
2017
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Posted by Admin
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Upon graduation, the young man came very close to working in banking and finance. “The guy that ran NationsBank in Dallas said something to me that really changed my career path. I was very outspoken back then, and he told me that in the corporate world, 50 percent of the job is political. He told me that if I wasn’t prepared to play that game, then banking and finance wasn’t the place for me. That struck me and I realized my heart was in aviation.” After Mast realized his plainspoken, direct nature wasn’t tailored for bankers in Brooks Brothers suits uttering politically correct bromides, he returned to his first love and to the company that had helped him pay his college bills. AvGroup’s Ed Tomberlin had a job for the returning graduate that required neither political maneuvering nor silk over-the-calf banking hosiery. Nevertheless, Mast was expected to wear clothes. “He offered me $2,000 a year more than my banking job and $500 so I could buy some clothes,” Mast chuckles. “Ed was truly a brilliant man and entrepreneur. I was fortunate to learn the ins and outs of the industry under his tutelage.” Yes, Mast found employment in an industry that he loved and that fit him better than banking. Parts and components don’t care what you say or wear. Aviation is all about “mission accomplished.”
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Categories:
Career Development
Helicopter Sectors
Company Profiles
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Oct
23
2017
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Posted by Admin
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Colombia historically has been a country full of security challenges. For more than five decades, its military and police forces were engaged in a bloody fight against armed terrorist groups and drug trafficking organizations that claimed more than 220,000 lives. These armed organizations such as FARC (in English, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Columbia) unfortunately brought Colombia an international reputation for high levels of violence and cocaine production.
The extended internal conflict in this South American country has led to improvements in military and police capacity and equipment. Colombian armed forces once lagging behind in technology and operational readiness are now strong, trained, and global benchmark institutions in the fight against terrorist organizations and illegal drug trafficking.
The National Police of Colombia’s Police Air Service is an integral part of this transformation. Since its founding in 1958 with a few Cessna 206 aircraft to control crime, this unit attached to the Anti-Narcotics Directorate has boosted its capabilities and exponentially increased its aircraft fleet. Thanks to the help of the United States, the Police Air Service currently has in its inventory 80 helicopters and 60 airplanes that record a total of about 42,000 flight hours annually to support police operations in both rural and urban missions.
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Categories:
Helicopter Sectors
Company Profiles
Training
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Oct
16
2017
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Posted by Admin
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Facing a mind-boggling 122,000 victims who needed to be rescued across 182,000 acres of flooded neighborhoods, air rescues were especially critical to the massive effort to save lives when Hurricane Harvey struck the Gulf Coast Aug. 25 then stalled and dumped a record 51 inches of torrential rain in three days.
The federal government deployed more than 21,000 staff to the hurricane area in late August, but that wasn’t enough. Alongside volunteers, private industry was essential to search & rescue as well as recovery efforts – especially air operations that could spot and rescue people in areas that were inaccessible from the ground. Everyone worked together under the same incident command system.
Hundreds of helicopters performed a variety of simultaneous missions in the worst of conditions and somehow avoided accidents. Crews cut through roofs to hoist people stranded in attics, flew patients in critical condition out of flooded hospitals, and repaired major transmission lines.
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Categories:
Human Interest
Helicopter Sectors
Company Profiles
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Aug
21
2017
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Posted by Admin
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For a man who sports a flamboyant Burl Ives beard and moustache that gives the impression that he sings Silver and Gold every Christmas, and for a man who focused on sales and marketing promotions as he worked his way up to vice president of sales and marketing at Dallas Avionics, and for the co-owner of up-and-coming record label, State Fair Records, Scott Davis has a surprising flair for understatement: “I have a one-line resume. I got out of high school and went directly to work here at Dallas Avionics.” When asked where he grew up, Davis, as if to emphasize a limited background, doesn’t answer Texas (That would be too big!), but instead he says, “I was born and raised at Dallas Avionics.” If this multitalented aviator, musician, and businessman only wrote his resume with one line, then Harper Lee only wrote one book: To Kill a Mockingbird. Of course, we discovered that the Monroeville, Alabama, author quietly penned Go Set a Watchman, and maybe a few more surprises that will surface posthumously.
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Categories:
Company Profiles
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Jul
17
2017
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Posted by Admin
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What do you do when a friend asks you to build a helicopter tug for his aircraft? Well, the answer seemed quite simple for Steve Hill: he started Tiger Tugs.
Hill had a company that specialized in airplane tugs, so when he received the request for the helicopter tug he felt it was a natural expansion. Hill asked his friend about existing tugs on the market and why he didn’t purchase one already available. His friend listed all the faults of existing tugs. Hill went on a road trip to visit helicopter companies and mechanics to find out what worked and what did not. He returned with a plethora of information. So, his tug design began with the recommendations of the rotorcraft pros he surveyed on the road. Once Hill and his team felt they had a product ready to debut in 2010, Hill started going to industry trade shows to promote his new Tiger Tug. At the first show, he walked away with two new orders.
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Categories:
Company Profiles
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Jul
04
2017
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Posted by Admin
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Sometimes a small airborne law enforcement unit can make a larger impact than its size suggests. The Imperial Valley Airborne Narcotics Enforcement (IVAN) Air Support Unit makes such an impact. IVAN operates within Imperial County, which covers the lower east corner of Southern California and is bordered by Mexico to the south and Arizona to the east. Most of the area is low desert with a few small cities and many thousands of acres of farmland growing many types of produce. The area is warm all year, but during the summer months it is always hot; temperatures can reach well over 100 degrees for consecutive weeks.
IVAN Air Support is a part of The Imperial County Narcotics Task Force (ICNTF),which originated in 1973 to combat local and regional drug trafficking and gangs. Federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies take part in the task force by sharing information and intelligence from many sources. The task force is governed by a board of directors chosen from participating agencies that include the Imperial County District Attorney’s Office, the Imperial police department, Imperial County Probation, U.S. Border Patrol, California Highway Patrol, Federal Drug Enforcement Administration, and Homeland Security Investigations. ICNTF’s chairman of the board is District Attorney Gilbert Otero, and its commander is Mike Loyd. The IVAN Air Support Unit formed in 2011, with the purchase of a Robinson R44 LE helicopter. Since the program’s establishment, its chief pilot has been Donald Wharton.
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Categories:
Company Profiles
Training
Helicopter Sectors
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Jun
26
2017
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Posted by Admin
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Nearly two and a half decades ago, as a fledgling commercial pilot, I had the opportunity to fly with HelicopterHelmet.com founder Ron Abbott while he was working as a flight instructor in South Florida. Even then, his can-do, entrepreneurial spirit was noticeable. As the decades have gone by, that same spirit assists him in growing several businesses in a very competitive market.
Abbott began his career in Army Special Operations where his “get it done” mentality was recognized and cultivated. After the Army he went to a civilian flight school and became a certified flight instructor. As his career in the helicopter industry progressed, he went on to fly approximately 22,000 hours in sectors such as ENG, sling-load, HAA, tours, tuna boats, utility, firefighting and offshore oil support (his true flying love).
While flying for Air Evac Lifeteam in 1997 Abbott determined that he had a need for a helmet. He bought his first helmet at an army surplus shop, then proceeded to tear it down with the intent of refurbishing and customizing it for his own use. When other pilots saw the improvements he made, they were so impressed that they began asking him to refurbish helmets for them. Realizing there might be a market for helmet refurbs, Abbott began buying used helmets, breaking them down, and customizing them to meet pilots’ needs.
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Categories:
Human Interest
Company Profiles
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Jun
19
2017
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Posted by Admin
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A military multi-role helicopter at an economical price: This is an apt description of the Bell 407MRH (Multi-Role Helicopter). Built upon a ‘green’ commercial Bell 407GXP airframe, the 407MRH covers a range of military missions without customers having to buy military-specific aircraft to do the job.
Designed by NorthStar Aviation of Dubai (NorthStar), the Bell 407MRH is commercially modified from its ‘green’ state by Southeast Aerospace (Southeast or SEA) at its integration/maintenance hangars in Melbourne, Florida. (Southeast is an aircraft modification, MRO, and parts supplier based at Orlando Melbourne International Airport.)
The first two aircraft were designated as prototypes and all commercial and military modifications were completed by SEA at its facility in Melbourne. With Department of State approval the aircraft were exported as military aircraft to the UAE. On the remaining aircraft SEA incorporated all the commercial modifications in Melbourne and exported the aircraft to the UAE as commercial aircraft. The military modifications were then installed by Northstar in the UAE utilizing SEA work instructions and modification kits. The modifications kits contained all of the electrical and structural components required to perform these military modifications.
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Categories:
Company Profiles
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Jun
12
2017
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Posted by Admin
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Every second, a Pratt & Whitney Canada powered aircraft takes off or lands somewhere in the world. When listening to Irene Makris discuss the aviation industry from a 30,000-foot overview, as her discourse periodically dives down into details, one gets the distinct impression that the Pratt & Whitney Canada vice president of marketing well knows where each of those takeoffs and landings in the last few minutes occurred. Still, Makris stays on-message with clear, direct answers, befitting an executive with the requisite resume that gives one the opportunity to earn such senior responsibility: an engineering degree, an MBA, engineering, quality auditing, and service and operational experience at Honeywell and GE, maintenance, repair and overhaul program management, supply chain management, vice president of supply chain, and an extensive breadth of knowledge gained while serving as executive assistant to the president of Pratt & Whitney Canada.
Yet, despite those business bona fides, Irene Makris began as, and remains, an engineer at heart: studying pure and applied science in college prior to her engineering degree at McGill University in Montreal. Makris recalls when her enthusiasm grew for the engineering side of her alma mater’s campus. “I wasn’t totally convinced I wanted to major in mechanical engineering. My brother was in engineering at McGill. He was making things fly, building and powering cars, and designing bicycles. It fascinated me. Engineering became my passion and I stuck with it.”
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Categories:
Company Profiles