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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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Markus Schmitz Axnes
Rotorcraft Pro
Rotorcraft Pro Executive Watch
Categories:
Human Interest
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Jul
03
2022
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Posted by Admin
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There is a unique city in the heart of Europe that is nicknamed the “City of a Hundred Spires.” This magical city allows one to get lostin the labyrinth of its narrow streets in the inspiring old city center and enjoy the breathtaking views while standing on its beloved Charles Bridge. Prague is a romantic, ancient city, but it’s also vibrant, successful, and cosmopolitan.
Yet, the skies of Prague don't just display its amazing church spires, but also contain a great deal of aircraft flying in and out of the airport as Prague is where Bell Textron has offices in Europe located at the Prague Vaclav Havel International Airport (LKPR). It’s where the only Bell owned service facility in Europe is located.
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Bell 429 approved facility in Europe
Bell Amsterdam Distribution Center
Bell Helicopter
Bell Helicopter Maintenance Facility Prague
Bell Textron Prague
Rotor Blade UK
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Company Profiles
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Jun
27
2022
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Posted by Admin
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Frank Sonnenberg, the author of the book, Listen to Your Conscience: That's Why You Have One wrote, “Exceptional people don't shun tests of their strength and determination -- they relish them.”
It almost seems there’s a cultural movement in some parts of society who want to diminish the idea of exceptionalism. Personally, I hope the movement is not successful because in our industry, we are blessed with many exceptional people and companies that keep driving us all collectively to new heights with respect to safety, technology, and performance.
Without the existence of these exceptional people and companies, we would be relegated to hand flying underpowered helicopters in only VFR conditions using only basic instrumentation . . . and training in them too! Instead, we are seeing exponential technological advancements in vertical lift aircraft that will relegate many old platforms to obsolescence. It’s both a scary and interesting time for those of us living it.
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Rotorcraft Pro
Rotorcraft Pro Editor Lyn Burks
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Opinion-Editorial
Helicopter Sectors
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Jun
20
2022
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Posted by Admin
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Helicopter pilot flight training can be hazardous for reasons I will highlight in this article. I’ve been a flight instructor in the military, a senior instructor for Bell Helicopter in Iran teaching pilots how to be instructor pilots, an instructor and a flight examiner for 13 years while working for the Royal Police Air Wing in the Sultanate of Oman, and a type-rating instructor and type-rating examiner in the Bell 412EP and Bell 212 while working for Abu Dhabi Aviation. While in Abu Dhabi, I trained and examined airline transport pilots hailing from more than 20 countries. In my 13,000-hour flying career, I have developed habits I use while training that I pass along to you to, hopefully, keep you safe.
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Tags:
aviation safety
aviation training
Helicopter Safety
Helicopter Training
my two cents worth
randy mains
Rotorcraft Pro
Categories:
Safety
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Jun
14
2022
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Posted by Admin
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The Military to Civilian Transition Workshop at HAI’s Heli-Expo 2022 was a great success! The workshop was held on the first day of the world’s largest vertical aviation conference and trade show.
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Military to Civilian Aviation
Military to Civilian Helicopters
Rotorcraft Pro
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Career Development
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Jun
06
2022
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Posted by Admin
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If anyone ever doubted that smaller helicopter operators want to deploy fully featured, voluntary Safety Management Systems (SMS) in their companies, that doubt was dispelled in 2021. This was when Helicopter Association International (HAI) surveyed its members and found that a significant number of them wanted access to turnkey SMS support programs designed for small helicopter operators.
In response to this desire for comprehensive voluntary safety management, HAI sought bids from 14 SMS software providers to help the association launch an affordable, members-only turnkey solution called the HAI SMS Program. Although all 14 bids passed muster, three were so well suited to HAI members’ needs that the association chose them as HAI SMS providers. For the record, these SMS providers are Air Charter Safety Foundation, Baldwin Safety and Compliance, and WYVERN Ltd.
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Air Charter Safety Foundation
Baldwin Safety and Compliance
Helicopter Safety Management Systems (SMS)
WYVERN Ltd.
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Safety
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May
30
2022
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Posted by Admin
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RPMN: What is your current position?
I am an owner, chief pilot, and instructor at Rogue Aviation. We operate Robinson models R22 Beta II, R44 Raven II, and R66 for helicopter flight training, scenic tours, photo flights, and aerial cinematography. I also had the privilege of serving the Robinson Helicopter Company as one of their safety course instructor pilots. Like many in this industry, I wear many hats!
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James Baker Rogue Aviation
Meet A Rotorcraft Pro
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May
23
2022
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Posted by Admin
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Growing up in the Deep South often meant when you turned 16 years old you went to work in the cotton mill, which was true for me. My mom, dad and sister all worked for the local cotton mill in one capacity or another. That wasn’t a bad thing. The mill provided dependable jobs for our community and had other benefits as well…company paid retirement and a company provided vacation destination with housing if desired.
The one thing I remember as a great employee incentive was the Zero-Defect award. The ZD award was given to deserving employees who achieved an established criteria and maintained excellence.
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Helicopter Maintenance
Maintenance Minute
Mark Tyler
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May
16
2022
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Posted by Admin
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Airbus Helicopters has operated for 30 years from Marignane, France. The company started as Eurocopter but was renamed to Airbus Helicopters in 2014. This spring, they’ve announced massive changes to new aircraft, customer support and training, and the integration of the newest technology in modern helicopters.
Airbus Helicopters has its main assembly facilities in France and Germany and a worldwide presence with 31 customer centers and affiliated sites in locations such as Brazil, Australia, Spain, United States, Romania, and the United Kingdom. The North American Customer Support division has new leadership in Niko Szodruch for its 800 customers, operating from Grand Prairie, Texas. He came from the company’s global helicopter maintenance and retrofit business and is leading in development of a strategic service plan for North America. The H125 is the best-selling helicopter in the world and there are 30 produced each year from Columbus, Mississippi. The volume of helicopters sold varies year-over-year, but in 2021, they sold 419 units to both civilian and military markets.
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Company Profiles
Helicopter Sectors
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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