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May
25
2020
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Posted by Admin
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After listening to Erickson Incorporated’s Vice President and General Manager Hayden Olson for an hour, one is not sure whether he just concluded an executive interview or finished a life coaching session. The momentary confusion is resolved upon reflection that Olson views all facets of his life as interconnected by his faith and calling to coach others. Thus, he can approach family life as building a high performing team as he similarly does on the job at Erickson where his team building is based on interpersonal relationships and caring. Away from family and work, he’s either coaching personal growth and fitness at the non-profit he founded, or he’s being coached by his “Core Four” board of mentoring friends to which he holds himself accountable for personal and professional growth. The interview all comes together when one realizes that Olson is not only an executive at one of the leading global rotorcraft manufacturing and aviation service providers of utility aircraft, but he’s also a determined, uplifting coach who expects himself and his teams to consistently perform. Olson is Nick Saban in a Fred Rogers’ cardigan. Actually, he’s more likely to wear athletic gear and a T-shirt; which is how he inauspiciously started his business career.
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Categories:
Career Development
Company Profiles
Human Interest
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May
18
2020
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Posted by Admin
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When I started planning for my transition from the Coast Guard a few years before my retirement, there was one thing I tried to do in addition to all the normal administration preparations. I researched companies. All sorts of companies, not just helicopter-specific companies: Twitter, Amazon, Tesla, Facebook, Apple, Starbucks, Walmart. Air Methods, REACH, PHI. I read everything I could about them. I looked for companies with aviation departments and I researched companies who had good reputations hiring veterans. I wasn’t sure if I’d find a flying job, so I was also hedging my bets and looking into operations management opportunities.
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Categories:
Career Development
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May
11
2020
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Posted by Admin
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Taiwan is taking a major dive into improved emergency health care access for its outer-island residents with state-of-the-art Leonardo AW169 multi-purpose helicopters, and Emerald Pacific Airlines is the biggest partner in that effort.
It's a huge dive for Emerald Pacific as well, since it has transitioned from a company that focused on electrical grid maintenance using Bell 206 helicopters to one that focuses on ferrying critically ill patients in larger and more powerful AW169s that cost 10 times more.
"The transition from the B206 to the AW169 is a very big job," related James Lee, chairman of the board at Emerald Pacific, aka EPAIR Taiwan.
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Categories:
Company Profiles
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May
06
2020
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Posted by Admin
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What is your current position?
Currently, I’m the lead pilot and Instructor pilot flying King Air 300s in Afghanistan for an aerospace company that provides intelligence, reconnaissance, and surveillance on a government contract.
Tell me about your first flight.
My dad was an Air Force pilot stationed in Orlando, Florida. I was nine years old and my dad loaded the family up in a Cessna 210 for a week in Naples, Florida. During the flight home he let me sit in the right front seat with the headset on. During cruise flight my dad looked over and said, “You have the controls.” For the short time I held the yoke I knew all I wanted to be was a pilot. He never pushed me to be a military pilot, but he knew exactly what he was doing by letting me think I was flying that plane.
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Categories:
Human Interest
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Apr
27
2020
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Posted by Admin
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Whoever has visited the southernmost country on the African continent agrees that it rightfully holds its nickname “The Rainbow Nation.”
South Africa has an intense, amazing history and because of its multicultural diversity it received this nickname. In all honesty, South Africa really is a colorful and diverse area, and not just from a cultural aspect. It holds breathtaking mountain ranges, offers bustling city life, unique and one-of-a-kind wildlife safaris, takes you down sun-soaked coasts, and introduces you to amazing and vibrant cultures.
South Africa is also home to National Airways Corporation (NAC), which is the largest general aviation company in Africa and one of the largest of its kind in the world.
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Categories:
Company Profiles
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Apr
20
2020
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Posted by Admin
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As a person of faith, I never really felt I was in complete control of things . . . at least not the big things.
Sure, I can control little things like when to go to bed and how many hours to work in a day. But when it comes to big things, like what career path my daughter will take or what my business will look like in 10 years, or when I will hang up my wings (rotary-wings, of course) for the last time, I believe I am not in total control of those things.
[Read More...]
Categories:
Helicopter Sectors
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Apr
13
2020
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Posted by Admin
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RPMN: What is your current position?
From the moment I started learning about becoming a helicopter pilot, I was not 100% certain, but I saw myself doing something that would help people; air ambulance was on that list. I consider myself both lucky and grateful to have achieved that goal. Today I’m a line pilot flying an H135P2+ for Air Methods Corporation in the eastern U.S. Additionally, I’m an account executive for Rotorcraft Pro Media Network helping helicopter businesses promote their services to the industry.
RPMN: Tell me about your first flight.
My first flight was way back in 1988. My eyes had always jumped skyward whenever I saw a helicopter cruise by. I grew up directly under the flight path of runway 1R at Washington Dulles International Airport and regularly saw Concordes arriving and departing which was awesome, but there was always something about helicopters like that of the Fairfax County Police Dept. that blew me away. My Dad was in the Army and in the mid-to-late ‘80s there were a number of movies released about Vietnam; Platoon, Full Metal Jacket, Hamburger Hill, MIssing in Action and so on. Naturally, they featured Hueys, etc. and they just captured my imagination. I used to beg my Dad to take me up on a helicopter and I thought maybe this was a possibility. Well to my surprise for my 13th birthday he took me to Reagan National Airport and I took a 10-minute tour over D.C. in a Beige 206. To say that this was one of the most impactful moments in my life is the understatement of the millenium
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Categories:
Human Interest
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Apr
06
2020
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Posted by Admin
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Stephen R. Covey, the American educator and author of the popular book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People once wrote, “Synergy is what happens when one plus one equals ten or a hundred or even a thousand! It's the profound result when two or more respectful human beings determine to go beyond their preconceived ideas to meet a great challenge.” And such can be the case when it comes to bringing new helicopters into service.
There are several methods for bringing mission-oriented aircraft – such as those for air ambulance, SAR, or law enforcement – from the manufacturing line to community service. There are times when the aircraft will remain at the OEM facilities during the entire production process, and the customer will travel back and forth from their base of operations for meetings to check the progress. This process can be time-consuming and costly depending on how far the customer has to travel.
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Categories:
Company Profiles
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Apr
06
2020
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Posted by Admin
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Summit Helicopter, a subsidiary of Welk Aviation, is a well known Los Angeles-based company providing helicopters for energy, construction, and maintenance projects. The company operates MD500D, MD500E and MD530F aircraft, but also has a relatively unique Sikorsky S-58T able to provide additional lift up to 4,500 pounds. Through ACA (ENG Division), also a Welk Aviation subsidiary, Summit has access to Airbus AS350 B2 Astars for jobs requiring the abilities of that airframe, as well as access to a variety of airborne imaging systems and data capture capabilities.
Summit Helicopter was founded in 1996 and in 2014 merged with Whiteman Airport-based Welk Aviation, an operator of news gathering and film production helicopters. Summit is an FAA-approved Part 135 air carrier and is also approved for Part 133 helicopter external load operations. Summit employs 20 personnel, including pilots, mechanics, and ground operators. The company's pilots are all experienced utility pilots with many hours on jobs of every sort. Summit’s founder, Jim Woodaman, said, “We look for guys that have excellent judgment and fly smart; there is no room for hotdoggers or guys who move too quickly. We need mature pilots that always make the right decision. That’s our priority.” Summit also provides its customers large-capacity fuel tanker trucks, mobile field shops, and Heiltender support trucks and trailers that follow the helicopters while they do field operations anywhere in the country
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Categories:
Company Profiles
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Mar
30
2020
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Posted by Admin
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John Talmadge, director of worldwide sales for avionics company, Avidyne, says he didn’t choose to work in the helicopter industry; instead, he was born into it. “My dad was a Vietnam War pilot, doing what he called his (high school) ‘senior trip’ to Southeast Asia in 1970,” Talmadge says. “They had nose art on their aircraft back then. The lady painted on his helicopter had a baby bump. That bump was me.”
[Read More...]
Categories:
Company Profiles
Human Interest