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Jan
20
2011
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Posted by Admin
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As I sit outside a restaurant talking with Pat Cox and Pete Riedl in the gorgeous So Cal weather, I can’t help but think about flying helicopters. I wonder aloud why I chose to drive and not fly down to the Robinson plant in Torrance, California.
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Categories:
Company Profiles
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Jan
12
2011
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Posted by Admin
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Helicopter Specialties Inc (HSI) is a Part 145 maintenance, repair, overhaul and custom completion company located at the Southern Wisconsin Regional Airport in Janesville, Wisconsin. Their niche is helicopter medical conversions and custom completions. One of their more unique products are custom isolettes systems used for transporting infants.
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Categories:
Company Profiles
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Jan
05
2011
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Posted by Admin
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For the majority of helicopter flight schools, their honest efforts to meet students’ goals of attaining FAA Certificates at various levels are based on the principles of Maneuvers Based Training (MBT). This system was developed during the era of the Wright Brothers, specific to airplanes, and teaches a pilot to “fly” to a Practical Test Standard (PTS) defined by the FAA. Although pilots who learn to fly through MBT can “fly” the helicopter within the parameters for which they are trained, it is no doubt an antiquated training model by modern day standards.
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Categories:
Company Profiles
Training
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Dec
28
2010
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Posted by Admin
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By Lyn Burks - Recently while in Kona Hawaii on helicopter related business, I swerved off my intended course and popped into a local helicopter operation called Paradise Helicopters. Compared to some of the larger tour operators I have visited over the years, this operation had a true “mom and pop” look and feel. I later found that the outward image of quaintness mixed with a smidge of “Leave it to Beaver” family values was by design. However, scratching through that facade revealed a thriving, hardworking, all around skids-meet-the-ramp helicopter shop.
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Categories:
Company Profiles
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Dec
15
2010
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Posted by Admin
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Interview by Brad McNally, Contributing Editor - As we wrap up the Rotorcraft Pioneers Series I was lucky enough to have a chance to talk with one of the few people who have been involved with helicopters in North America from the beginning, Mr. Sergei Sikorsky. He’s crossed paths with more than few of the people profiled in the Pioneers Series and I had the chance to ask him about helicopters, his father’s legacy and his encounters with some of the people I profiled.
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Categories:
Human Interest
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Dec
08
2010
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Posted by Admin
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One name more than any other is synonymous with helicopter development, Igor Sikorsky. Often regarded as the father of the helicopter, Sikorsky was actually an incredibly talented aeronautical engineer who twice established himself as one of the world’s greatest designers of fixed wing aircraft before he built a successful helicopter. After designing, building and flying the first successful North American helicopter, Igor Sikorsky led the company which still bears his name through over forty years of helicopter innovation.
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Categories:
Human Interest
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Nov
29
2010
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Posted by Admin
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GOMER: Working in the Gulf of Mexico - Part 2
Article, Photos, & Video by Lyn Burks
In my experience, if you would like to see how serious a helicopter operator is about safety, then look no further than its new hire or recurrent pilot training programs. On one hand, there are programs which barely meet the FAA minimums, with their training program loosely packaged between the covers of Part 135 Operations Specifications. On the other, there are operators who go beyond the OpSpecs and fill the training “tool box” with innovative techniques and dedicated people.
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Categories:
Career Development
Becoming A Pilot
Safety
Helicopter Sectors
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Nov
23
2010
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Posted by Admin
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By Brad McNally - In 1957, Columbia Helicopters started with one helicopter flying primarily in Oregon. That first year the company grossed $20,000. Forty years later the company grossed $100 million (Bernstein, 2009). Today Columbia Helicopters employs 700 people and has over 20 helicopters operating around the world. The story of how Columbia Helicopters grew to be one of the premier heavy lift and heli-logging companies, operating the world’s only commercial tandem rotor helicopter fleet starts with its founder Wes Lematta.
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Categories:
Human Interest
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Nov
09
2010
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Posted by Admin
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Having been invited in to conduct a week’s worth of program evaluation and EVS training by Wojciech Wozniczka, the LPR Deputy Technical Director. I had the sincere pleasure to work with this tremendously professional EMS group based out of Warsaw, Poland which had been founded in 2000. The LPR was a result of the consolidation of several independent EMS units to form a single state (country) medical service with the ability to coordinate all care from one single location.
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Categories:
Safety
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Nov
03
2010
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Posted by Admin
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The Federal Aviation Administration announced on Oct 7, 2010, via a Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM), sweeping new equipment and regulation changes in an effort to enhance the safety of all helicopter operations. While this action has been expected for many months, there will no doubt be a great deal of debate and political wrangling before any changes are actually put into place.
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Categories:
Regulatory