Heliweb Magazine - August 2016

AUGUST 2016 VOL 31

CHANGING THE GAME HELIMOTION THINKS OUTSIDE THE BOX TO GROW BUSINESS

JULIET’S LAST FLIGHT CBP RETIRES LAST UH-1H IN SERVICE

I’M A CFI, NOW WHAT? MILE HIGH MEETUP PAYING TO FERRY ALEA 2016

THESE BLADES TURN MORE. More Capability. More Safety. That’s why the H125 AStar is the leading U.S. law enforcement helicopter. With advanced safety features, an open cockpit, excellent visibility and low maintenance requirements, it’s backed by Airbus Helicopters’ HCare three-year warranty. H125 – a multi-mission workhorse.

Made in America. Time for an All-Star law enforcement aircraft? AStar delivers.

2

Important to you. Essential to us. www.airbushelicoptersinc.com

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Visit us at ALEA Booth #110

INSIDE

THE AUGUST ISSUE ALEA CONFERENCE HIGHLIGHTS A PICTORIAL OF ALL THE ACTION FROM THE SHOW FLOOR IN SAVANNAH, GA

44

COVER STORY:

HELIMOTION

MIDWEST COMPANY THINKS OUTSIDE THE BOX TO GROW BUSINESS

By Ryan Mason

34

By Matt Johnson

MILE HIGH MEETUP USHST MEETS TO DISCUSS HELICOPTER SAFETY IN COLORADO

By Steve Sparks

STOP THE MADNESS OP-ED ON PAYING TO FERRY

By Peter Higgs-Coulthard

40

MONTHLY COLUMNS & FEATURES

44 23

I’M A CFI...NOW WHAT? A LOOK AT WHAT IT TAKES TO MAKE THE NEXT STEP IN YOUR AVIATION CAREER

JULIET’S LAST FLIGHT CUSTOMS & BORDER PROTECTION RETIRES LAST UH-1H FROM SERVICE

By Robert F. Curtis

60

Helipix

6

From the Desk of

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The Toolbox 18 Whirly Girls 20 Straight & Level

22

The Instructors Station

24

USHST News 26 Helinews

28

Rotorheads

70

Behind the Lens

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heliweb.com

PUBLISHER & CHIEF EDITOR: Ryan Mason ryan@heliweb.com DEPUTY EDITOR: Adam Johnson adam@heliweb.com

Subscribe to Heliweb Magazine & grab free helicopter pics for your digital devices.

DIRECTOR OF DEVELOPMENT: Ali Mason ali@heliweb.com CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPERS: Tim Pruitt Damon Duran Seth Lasko Ed Simmons Scott Dworkin HELICOPTER ART: Marc Veenendaal marc@mpvdesign.com.au CONTRIBUTING WRITERS: Ben Fouts ben@heliweb.com Jessica Kanellos jessica@heliweb.com

Brian Parsons brian@heliweb.com Lauren Brown lauren@heliweb.com Adam Johnson adam@heliweb.com GRAPHIC DESIGN & ART DIRECTION: Troy Dominy Troodon Design Co. troy@troodon.us

Show off your heli pics & videos by hashtagging your posts with:

#HELIWEB is a publication of Airborne Productions P.O. Box 3134 Alpharetta, GA 30023 PHONE: 844.heliweb FAX: 904-623-4354 EMAIL: info@heliweb.com

All material published remains the copyright of heliweb. No part of this publication may be reproduced, in part or in whole, without the written consent of the publisher. Editorials published do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher. Content within heliweb is believed to be true and accurate and the publisher does not assume responsibility for any errors. Unsolicited editorial manuscripts and photos are welcomed and encouraged. heliweb cannot be responsible for return unless submissions are accompanied by a stamped, self-addressed envelope. Photos submitted by mail or electronically become property of heliweb unless otherwise specified.

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H elicopter i nventory

F����� Q������ 2015

Agusta A109E

sn 11657

Agusta A109E

sn 11773

Agusta A109E

sn 11784

Airbus AS350B-3

sn 3820

Airbus AS350B-3

sn 4183

Airbus AS355N

sn 5594

Airbus EC155B1

sn 6825

Airbus EC145

sn 9087

Bell 407

sn 53850

Bell 407

sn 53939

Bell 407

sn 53986

Bell 429

sn 57021

OEM NEWS* H135

Introducing H135 P3/T3  Increased Gross Weight/Useful load – Ideal for hot/high  Upgraded engines - PW 206B3 & Arrius 2B2Plus  Four-axis digital autopilot  Upon certification, scheduled for 2016, the H135 will feature the Helionix cockpit suite which has identical design/structure to the H225, H175, H160 and H145

H145

Visit www . aVprojets . com to receiVe Your QuarterlY market updates!

Formerly known as the T2, the h145 is now in operating worldwide. Upgrades to the already popular helicopter include:  All new FADEC engines providing improved performance, increased fuel capacity, new duplex hydraulic actuator and the unmistakable Fenestron tail rotor  Operating on the Helionix suite featured on all new AH models the  Active Vibration Control System maximizes passenger comfort while the shrouded tail rotor dramatically reduces noise signature.  Airbus Helicopters strives to produce a machine that can reduce the cost of operations by improving maintenance OEM planning and extending TBO intervals

NEWS

The EC145e was also launched in 2015 and offers a single-pilot VFR alternative for twin-engine operations. With increased payload and range capabilities under normal operations and in hot/high capabilities the ship C145e can haul 3,800 lbs. of payload 2 0 1 5 lbs.) � � � � (3,900 - roughly equal to the empty weight ofQthe � �aircraft

& ANN O

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MENT

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November 9th, 2015 announced During the Dubai Air become the a signed Letter of Show, Unite Inten first

F�����

H160

t with Horiz d Arab Emira Bell Helic Internationa At HAI 2015, Airbus Helicopters launched the H160 as the latest and greatest medium lift helicopter. on Internationa opter R tes, The all new Turbomeca Arrano 1A promises to provide 20% less fuel burn with unparalleled design CTURE l Flight Acad Bell unparallele l Flight Academy is training center in the d flight trainin based at M A N U FA ES the PT2, second prototype, entering into testing, many achievements have Withpment and innovation.

Al Ain Intern Middle East. The emy to g.

Develo M MILESTON Horiz ational Airpo 5-hours inspection work cards validated.

MENT PROGRA withkts VNE, 15,000 ft. in altitude and been reached: alreadycturing and Manufa Nove for 2020,175 mber rt and deliveon TER REPLACE Engineering is planned NTIAL HELICOP rs rice incentive Convention 19th, 2015 Durin Initial fielding te governmentVH-92A PRESIDE g the Natio ,677,064 fixed-pand two test aircraft. and integra OMPLETES 407GXP to and Exhibition in d a $1,244 S-92 aircraftH175 onal nal Busin SIKORSKY C Neva Germ ess the Navy awardeSikorsky for 21 operati y will use its in-production da, in certified been has H175 any. the rotorcraft ation) medium-sized 2014, Aviat class Bell 7-ton of new-generation its as and 7, Developed The aircra ion Asso announced t Corpor it will be On May options to t, Sikorsk ft will be outfitt ciatio the the industry. in first production : Sikorsky Aircraf the contrac latest and most stringent regulatory requirementsthe accordance with the of its kindImprovements ed for Corpo sale of the first n contract with e contractor in 2023. Under executive interior. (source of opera defens ding simplified comfort, passenger for seat per Bell volume U.S. increased safety, flight conclu enhanced rate te an include throughou install production purchase the product lines, the latter t Germany. and VIP transport systems and to meet customer demands and exceed their expectations. and cost effectiveness y Aircraft, a maintenance, civil ss defined mission ition of Sikorsk well as the military and of its helicopter busine acquis $9B ed its Martin y brand, as ation dispos completed (Lockheed the Sikorsk logy Corpor y observers Lockheed Martin will maintain Availability, >1000 Flights Operated, >15,500 Passengers Transported, >95% Commercial Flights Operational some industr United Techno >90% In July 2015, July. Lockheed Martin ions, which heavy twins. in and S-92A lackluster growth project announced December and S-76D medium 16th, 2015 including the a lagging profit margin ighted. its first flight. announce *Source: Airbus Helicoptersnd helicopter made saw er to that Turbo In Bordes, France, AVPRO, INC. 410.573.1515 because it deemed short-s ompou Arrius 2R meca has Bell and a pusher propell900 Bestgate Road, Suite 412 apparently) in Raider semi-c Fax: 410.573.1919 engine that Turbo received the S-97 among them, M but civil use isAnnapolis, Maryland 21401 C Otions E T S .and R O J rotors AV Protating W. WW hours alrea EASA engin meca were pleas powers the in May when E‐mail: info@avprojets.com l, contrady logged rigid coaxia ed to Bell 505 Jet e type certifi advancement at military applica) high level technology combines two Ranger looking mainly cation Online major is S-97 a y AIN of maturity by Arrius variants, the logged Sikorsk strator, Sikorsky the 2R is X. With seven millio for its at entry-intorotorcraft. this year. (source to the X2 demonwith a conventional expected stration tour service.

A follow-on to offer unman flight on a demon nable Raider unattai the h speeds tched dispatc achieve December y intends to 17th, the cards. Sikorsk

NEWS

©Copyright - Avpro, Inc - Aircraft Sales & Acquisitions ® 2016 - All Rights Reserved

S76C+

S76C++

S76C++ supply Q2 2014.

is stable with

rs for sale and

9 serial numbe

Sale: Available for

Percentage

9

us. Two

red to previo

rs for sale compa

nal serial numbe with one additio ured. last quarter VIP config remained stable period; both S76C+ supply traded over the same of Fleet: 13% rs Percentage serial numbe Sale: 19 Available for 70% are VIP

of Fleet: 3%

: $1M - $3M

Trading Range

configured.

No transactions

: $5.9M Trading Range

occurred since

- $9M

2015 Bell located in announced China Service Facili ’s Chongqing Chongqing Provence, certified maint ty. CQGA has a as Bell’s General Aviation (CQG newest autho for Bell 407 enance facility andCivil Aviation Admi rized Custo A), nistration offers non-s mer of first certifi aircraft. CQGA is ed Bell 412 an established pecialized maint China Part 145 enan missions. aircraft to be operated operator and recen ce capabilities tly in China Buying or and used received the sellin for fire-fighting like to discu g an helicopte r is abou ss current market cond t having good informati itions or on to mak woul e infor please cont d like to discuss the sale med decisions. act me at W W W. AV or acquisitio If you any time PROJET *CREDIT n of a helic would .

TO BELL S.COM opter,

AVPR O, INC 900 Bestgate Road, Suite 41 .

Annapolis, Mar 2 yland 21401

S76D There have GP configured. the end of last F � � � � � Q � � � � � � 2 0 1 5 ships are utility/O market at for sale. All ed from the with 3 ships M A N Ur was F A remov CTURER NEWS remained stableto date. One serial numbe r, S76D supply : $14M - $15M This quarte ned transactions this year

Trading Range been no preow FINMECCANICA HELICOPTERS tage of Fleet: 4% Percen

AgustaWestland3Rebranded as Finmeccanica Helicopters: As410.57 part 3.1515 of a wider overall corporate reorganization plan that merges quarter.

9 ble for Sale: aerospace, defense and security .573.191 AVPRO, INC. Availa Finmeccanica's assets, AgustaWestland has been renamed Finmeccanica Helicopters. m Fax: 410 d, Suite 412 E‐mail: info@avprojets.co gate Roa 01 Finmeccanica announced the change at the end ofland 214 last month, effective January 1, 2016.

900 Best

JETS.COM

Annapolis, Mary

©Copyright

- Avpro, Inc

- Aircraft Sales

& Acquisitions

® 2015 - All

Rights Reserved

O ICEBIRD AW169’S P PRROJECT W W W. AV Leading rescue service operator expands their AgustaWestland helicopter fleet and adds the new generation AW169, marking a milestone in “Project Icebird”. AW169s to be delivered in 2020 with Full Ice Protection System. AW169 to feature a jointly developed customized configuration for emergency medical service/search and rescue. Over 150 AW169s sold worldwide so far, including options and framework contracts.

AGUSTAWESTLAND SIGNED CONTRACTS NJ POLICE

Currently, there are 5 and 3 year training contracts for EMS operator STARS of Canada and New Jersey State Police Department in the U.S., respectively and both customers operate AW139 helicopters. The combined training agreements will deliver more than (Source Finmeccanica Helicopters) 2,600 simulator flight hours.

A109E POWER Last quarter the supply of A109E Power’s has continued to increase for the 3rd consecutive quarter. The influx of supply however has stabilized with (only) 3 new serial numbers for sale. Two serial numbers traded to retail buyers, a dramatically low volume in what is typically the busiest quarter of the year.

Available for Sale: 63

Percentage of Fleet: 16%

Trading Range: $500K - $4M

A109S/SP Grand/Grand New supply was relatively stable last quarter. Over this period, five A109S/SP’s traded to retail buyers, a steady volume compared to the previous quarter – currently with only one under contract.

Available for Sale: 22 Percentage of Fleet: 7%

Supply at Current Trade Level: 12 Month Trading Range: $1M - $4M

AW139 Supply has started to grow again last quarter to 22 AW139 for sale, 60% of which are VIP configured. Two further corporate configured serial numbers are set to enter the market this quarter. Only one VIP configured aircraft has traded to a retail buyer in the last 21 months. Currently, 1 serial number is under contract.

Available for Sale: 22

W W W. AV P R O J E T S . C O M

Percentage of Fleet: 3%

Trading Range: $5M - $14M

AVPRO, INC.

900 Bestgate Road, Suite 412 Annapolis, Maryland 21401

410.573.1515

Fax: 410.573.1919 E‐mail: info@avprojets.com ©Copyright - Avpro, Inc - Aircraft Sales & Acquisitions ® 2015 - All Rights Reserved

www.avprojets.com

410.573.15 15

Fax: 410.573.1 E‐mail: info@a 919 vprojets.com

©Copyrig ht - Avpro,

Inc - Aircraft

Sales & Acquisiti ons ® 2016

Avpro, Inc. is one of the world’s largest brokerage and acquisition companies, With over 25 Years of experience – representing both buyers and sellers globally.

- All Rights

Reserved

Through superior customer service and beneficial long term relationships, we offer impeccable performance, Integrity and reputation.

Whether you are selling, acquiring or just considering your options, contact us today for your in-depth expert market Analysis.

Performance. Integrity. Reputation.

info@avprojets.com l 900 Bestgate road l suite 412 l annapolis, maryland 21401 l tel 410-573-1515 ©Copyright - Avpro, Inc - Aircraft Sales & Acquisitions ® 2016 - All Rights Reserved

W W W . A V P R O J E T S . C O August M 2016

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#helipix

Leonardo AW109, St. Lucie County, Florida Photographer: Joe Fernandez

Vina Helitac Bell 205 on approach after fighting fires in California.Photographer: Michael Piper 6

heliweb magazine

Classic Air Medical Bell 407 atop Good Samaritan Hospital in Phoenix, AZ Photographer Jason Cole

August 2016 August 2016 77

Santa Rosa County, California Lifeguard 407 at night.

Photographer: Antonio An Italian INAER AW 139 prepares to depart.

Photographer Marco BianchiGemma More’ heliwebmagazine magazine 88 heliweb

#helipix

August 2016 August

9

Channel 7, Melbourne, Australia AS350 with the Milky Way Photographer: Shayne Whitely 9

#helipix

4

Uh-60 flying down the Hudson River in NYC. Photographer: Robert Wood 10 heliweb heliwebmagazine magazine 10 heliweb magazine 10 10 heliweb magazine

A PJ Helicopters AS350 during operations in Northern California Photographer: Ray Farmer

German Bundespolizei EC-135 on a suburban hospital pad. Photographer: Sarah Pfannkuch

August2016 2016 1111 August

#helipix 12 heliweb heliwebmagazine magazine 12

Still in testing, the A109 Trekker flying in Italy. Photographer: Marco Bianchi

August 2016 2016 13 13 August

14

heliweb magazine www.maunaloahelicopters.com | 808-334-0234

August 2016

15

From the Desk of

Ryan Mason

Failure is not an Option

Last month we celebrated twelve months at the helm of the magazine.

Our anniversary of taking over the publication falls right around the time of t h e A L E A s h o w, w h i c h w e just returned from a few weeks back.

What a difference a year makes. This issue commemorates a full twelve months of publishing. When I look at the table here in the office that we keep a small amount of copies of previous issues of the magazine, I am blown away by what we have been able to achieve in such a short time.

We w e n t f r o m a t w e n t y - e i g h t page publication to eighty-four in less than twelve months!

Quite a feat, and one that we could not have achieved without our amazing team. Our readership has skyrocketed; showing we must be doing something right.

Lo o k i n g b a c k a t o u r f i r s t issue, I can physically see the difference between what we started with and where we a r e n o w. I t i s n i g h t a n d d a y different and continues to e v o l v e m o n t h l y. I f y o u h a d t o l d me that in the first nine months we would add sixty pages of content, I would have called you mad. But we did.

Many years ago, when I saw my first image published in a magazine, I remembered the feeling of my work staring back at me on that magazine page and thinking to myself “I must

16

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b e d o i n g s o m e t h i n g r i g h t .” I t was that day I decided that I was going to commit to getting better at my craft one day at a time.

T h a t m a g a z i n e w a s Ro t o r c r a f t Pro, now a friendly competitor to us. The person who made i t h a p p e n ; Ly n B u r k s . Ly n a l s o published the first article I ever wrote. Without him rolling the dice and taking a chance on the guy with the funny accent, I know I would not be sitting w h e r e I a m t o d a y.

On the day of the announcement in 2015, as we took over the magazine on the opening day of the ALEA conference in Houston, TX. Ly n B u r k s a n d B r i g B e a r d o n were the first to come by and congratulate me on taking the reins, and offer any help or advice they could if I ever needed it.

I have taken them both up on that offer in the last year and appreciated their willingness that even as competitors to share knowledge and answer questions.

I am thankful for people like Ly n a n d B r i g a n d s o m a n y o t h e r people that have offered to h e l p u s s u c c e e d i n t h e l a s t y e a r.

Be it words of encouragement, an email about how much they love the magazine or helpful advice on how to provide more content that you, the industry want to read.

Even when you hit a bump in the road, like I have many times o n t h i s j o u r n e y, I a m r e m i n d e d of a quote by Nelson Mandela, who said: “Do not judge me by my successes, judge me by how

many times I fell and got back u p a g a i n .” S a g e a d v i c e f o r anyone who is thinking about hanging up their flight helmet, camera, pen or keyboard and giving up on their dreams in t h i s i n d u s t r y. I h a v e f a l l e n several times as I learned the ropes. Some were stumbles; some would make it on to a gag reel of people falling c o m i c a l l y.

I have learned from the stumbles and the falls well.

I have had those moments where I was also ready to throw in the towel, but the determination to succeed picks me back up and makes me dust off and head back in.

Sometimes everyone needs to be talked down from the ledge. The helicopter business is tough. But we are all here because we want to be.

Success comes after lots of failures, requires an absurd amount of long days and hard work. But it is there for those who are willing to work hard enough to achieve it and not t a k e n o f o r a n a n s w e r.

Ryan Mason Publisher & Editor in Chief

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August 2016

17

T h e To o l b o x

Brian Parsons

Mechanic Maintenance What can we as maintainers do to ensure that we are conducting maintenance in a manner that is both safe for the helicopter and its crew as well as the person maintaining the helicopter?

I know volumes have been written on the subject of pilot safety over the years. It is something I ponder when thinking about the next column to write often. A focuson helicopter accidents and prevention is what lead to the first symposium on the subject and subsequent formation of the International Helicopter Safety Team in 2005.

The IHST vision for the helicopter industry is ultimately zero accidents.

Achieved through the development and implementation of safety interventions by sharing lessons learned through accident analysis as listed in the IHST mission statement. While this may be a lofty goal, we all have to play a part.

Proper maintenance procedures and post maintenance inspections are critical for helicopters because of their complex mechanical systems and the potentially adverse environments they operate in.

A lack of attention to detail in performing maintenance tasks or ensuring that the work was done correctly can lead to accidents. One improperly torqued or degraded piece of hardware may result in an uncontrollable helicopter, subsequent crash and potential loss of life. This is a fact and it happens.

But what about you, the mechanic?

Is your complex machinery (aka your body,) properly maintained to operate in any adverse environment?

18

heliweb magazine

What precautions have you taken to help you do your job and to minimize distractions when you are completing complex tasks that require huge amounts of concentration and focus.

For many people in the warmer southern states, the typical scenario goes like this; It’s almost 5 pm on a Friday afternoon. You are tasked with troubleshooting a perceived hydraulic issue before a scheduled flight that has to happen in the next 15 minutes (because no maintenance issue is ever something that can be fixed tomorrow!.)

You are standing on a ladder with one foot, listening to your wife’s ring tone going off every 4 minutes from your pocket reminding you of the dinner reservations you have. Lets not even mention that bead of sweat that has formed at the base of your neck, slowly creeping down your back, while you can do nothing about it as both hands are occupied with the task at hand.

Have someone else check your work.

There is zero shame in this and it could save lives. In doing so, you will help ensure the safety and security of items that have undergone maintenance and any surrounding components that may have been disconnected.

Verify that all work was performed in accordance with manufacturers’ procedures and work with flight check pilots to ensure that all appropriate checks have been completed.

These are just a few of the small things.

If you want to get into the things that affect us as mechanics and pilots directly, review available guidance and training materials regarding human performance errors associated with aviation maintenance. This will open your eyes wide, I promise you that.

The danger is there for you too, not just the helicopter; all this adds up to the increase of errors even when performing the simplest tasks.

These can include stress from pressures to complete the work, missed steps due to fatigue, and procedures that are contrary to the manufacturer’s guidance.

Even experienced aviation maintenance technicians can make mistakes.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Safety Team (FAASTeam) provides access to online training courses, seminars, and webinars. The courses relating to our field and many relating to pilot safety can be accessed from the FAA website: www.faasafety.gov

What can mechanics d o?

Tell me what you would like to hear about from a maintenance perspective?

Email me at brian@heliweb.com

Right about then is usually when a swarm of gnats decides that you are the object of their affection, right as you realize that forgetting bug spray was a bad idea, right as it is too late.

For starters, leave your cell phone on your desk! Complacency and other personal distractions, proper diet, adequate rest, drinking lots of water (and not the kind enriched with barley hops or corn mash if you know what I mean.)

Ensure you receive adequate training so that you have the skills necessary to complete specific maintenance tasks.

Use work cards and OEM checklists, if available, to document completed maintenance steps.

Brian Parsons is the Director of Maintenance for the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office (FL) Aviation Section, where he also serves as a ReserveDeputy. Brian is a US Marine Corps veteran,and holds a commercial helicopter pilot certificate. Parsons’maintenance experience includes factory training on Bell, Airbus, and MD Helicopters, in addition to several engine types.

SNEAK

In April of 2016, we visited with this state of the art HEMS provider utilizing the new H130T2 in Northern California. Learn more about their operation in the September issue.

S E P T E M B E R

PEEK

2 0 1 6

Enloe Flight Care Chico, California

August 2016

19

Whirly Girls

Bumper Scholarship Year Advanced Mountain Flight Training Scholarship

The Whirly-Girls are ramping up activities in 2017 and this upcoming year is proving to be busier than ever.

The Whirly-Girls’ mission is to further women in helicopter aviation. The goal of providing scholarships is to propel deserving and talented female pilots into careers and lasting friendships in the business of flying helicopters.

To achieve this goal, the Whirly-Girls Scholarship Fund was initiated in 1968 in memory of Doris Mullen, a dedicated and professional pilot who lost her life in a fixed-wing aircraft accident.

Since that time, the program has grown from a single $500 scholarship to 33 training and development scholarships awarded each year. In all, the Whirly-Girls have awarded over 250 scholarships since 1968.

These scholarships made possible by significant contributions by helicopter manufacturers and commercial operators.

Last year was a record-breaking in 2016 for the Whirly-Girls. Contributions doubled the scholarships made available to whirly girls members from the previous year and exceeded $175,000 in training and advancement opportunities. This year’s scholarships presented were:

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heliweb magazine

Sponsored by Nancy-Livingston Stratford and Western Helicopters in Rialto, CA, this scholarship provides the skills needed to cope with turbulence, rugged terrain, and landing zone selection in mountainous areas.

A i r b u s F l i g h t Tr a i n i n g S c h o l a r s h i p Airbus provides a Whirly-Girl the opportunity to attend an AS350 Turbine Transition Course at the Airbus Factory School in Grand Prairie, TX.

Oregon Aero CRM/AMRM Instructor Training Scholarship A 5-day CRMI instructor training course sponsored by Oregon Aero’s Randy Mains, Chief CRM/AMRM Safety Instructor.

Embry-Riddle Commercial Helicopter Pilot Ground School Course Scholarship Offered by Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, this 15-week advanced online instructor-facilitated course provides preparation for the FAA Commercial Pilot - Helicopter Knowledge Exam.

Antipodean Aviation and Embry-Riddle Wire and Obstacle Environment Awareness Course Scholarship This course, provided by Antipodean Aviation and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, will increase awareness in conducting safe operations in the lowlevel environment.

Garmin GTN & G500/600 Course Scholarship This scholarship teaches the benefits of Garmin equipment capabilities and to be confident in the operation and integration of Garmin equipment as part of flight operations.

Night Flight Concepts Night Vision Goggle Initial Pilot Qualification Scholarship Sponsored by Night Flight Concepts, this scholarship will provide an initial Night Vision Goggles (NVG) endorsement.

Robinson Helicopter R22/R44 Safety Course Scholarship Sponsored by Robinson Helicopter Company, this scholarship provides the opportunity to attend the R22/R44 Safety Course and build R22 or R44 flight time.

NEW Scholarship - Robinson Helicopter R66 Safety Course Scholarship Sponsored by Robinson Helicopter Company, this scholarship provides the opportunity to attend the R66 Safety Course and build R66 turbine time.

Ditching Course Scholarship Survival Systems USA Aircraft Survival Systems USA provides two Whirly-Girlsattendance to its Aircraft Ditching Course. The course provides the knowledge and skills necessary to react in an aircraft ditching emergency.

Whirly-Girls Memorial Flight Training Scholarship This scholarship funded by the WGSF provides $8,000 to any Whirly-Girl to be applied towards upgrading or advancing her current helicopter rating.

Whirly-Girls Helicopter Add-On Flight Training Scholarship his scholarship funded by the WGSF is awarded to a certificated female pilot who is a Whirly-Girl auxiliary member and does not currently have a helicopter rating. It provides $8,000 to be applied towards earning a helicopter add-on rating.

Check out the Whirly-Girls website at www.whirlygirls.org to learn more about our scholarship opportunities.

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Straight & Level

Preserve your freedom would cause such a problem for the tenants and be mandatory court dates. Now I believed that for a minute, until months later the citations, without warning mind you, continued.

I can’t say what would cause such a move, but the constant assault against citizens who rent hangers, keep aircraft on airports, and the constantly rising price of doing business has had a tremendous effect on the industry.

In just the last two years, I have been cited for a shelf in the hanger, and even parking helicopters where I have been told to park them.

Ben Fouts

In the last eight years, there have been unprecedented moves against the freedoms we enjoy in the USA in General Aviation.

Flying clubs and small operations are going away. The barrier to entry is becoming so big, that few can afford to start a new business in aviation and many of a long time operators are being forced to close shop.

In Hawaii, we deal with the state of Hawaii Department of Transportation that is run by men who very much dislike anything with wings or rotors.

Sadly they have used the power of their position to intimidate and beat down good honest aviation businesses and aircraft owners alike.

We have undergone several hanger inspections where something as insignificant as a computer installation would cause a federal citation.

The best one I had this year: lack of a state of Hawaii airport sticker… (the state had cashed my check and received my application but didn’t send the sticker so of course, this is my fault.).

The problem goes far beyond Hawaii, and I would urge all our fellow pilots who work in this industry and any pilots who enjoy the use of airports and facilities around the US to be sure to stand up and be heard.

For as many issues as we have here, there are other countries that have it far worse. In Australia, you only have to search a few aviation based internet forums or news sites to see a littany of situations that sometimes seem hard to believe if they weren’t backed up by countless other accounts of similar treatment.

These are not simple tickets that you pay and move on, like a traffic citation.

These are mandatory court dates, and if you miss them, there is a warrant issued for your arrest. Attorney fees alone to defend innocent behavior are becoming such a hardship for aircraft owners and operators that many are leaving the business.

Australia’s aviation body CASA is revilled by pilots and aviation companies for their heavy handed tactics and seemingly lawless approach to pulling pilot’s licenses and operator certificates with little to no cause, no chance for appeal and little recourse for affected parties when CASA decides to just never respond when challenged.

In a conversation with the head of the Dept of Transportation Airports Division, I was shocked that he admitted he didn’t know the citations

The USA is still training more than half of the world’s pilots and is a beacon of freedom for flying and for building a career as a pilot.

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We have to stand and protect it. It is a very ripe target for politicians who can easily paint it as a Rich Man’s hobby.

Without defending it as a unified voice, it will diminish more than it already has.

Great organizations like AOPA, HAI, and EAA need your membership and donations to keep state and federal reach from pushing out general aviation.

The constantly increasing costs of fuel, parts, insurance, and the ever threat of landing fees, will ensure that your freedoms will be lost.

It is a delicate balance, but what needs to be highlighted is the economic benefits that communities gain from general aviation.

Write to your state and federal representatives voicing your support for general aviation and enlist others to do so as well.

There is no shortage of need for pilots and the overall commercial industry is growing. We are fortunate to have such a well-developed airport system and a great variety of flight training institutions across the country.

We truly have something special here in the USA, but it needs our help. Don’t let America’s world leading industry get abused and diminished.

Ben Fouts is a career helicopter pilot, business owner, successful entrepreneur, and passionate flight instructor. In addition to his role as an FAA Designated Pilot Examiner —a position he’s held for fifteen years, since he was just twentyfour years old— he is the owner of Mauna Loa Helicopters, based in Kona, Hawaii.

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Be Moved

The recent Airborne Law Enforcement Association Expo in Savannah, GA shed some new light on a popular, controversial topic in the simulator manufacturing world that I’d like to share and would love to receive some feedback from our readers. This topic is regarding motion. Is it worth the additional cost? Is there training benefit to adding it?

Is it realistic? We pose these questions to customers with regularity before pursuing any new additions to our product line, but at the ALEA show, we were able to get some interesting feedback from pilots, instructors, and onlookers specifically about motion on helicopter sims.

Motion was provided on the TH22SM, an R22/R44 based AATD (Advanced Aviation Training Device) with a singleseat motion platform, in cooperation with D-Box Technologies. These motors are gaining popularity at private and public movie theater seating to add a new element of engagement to movie watching experiences.

The overwhelming majority of people who flew the motion based R22/R44 at ALEA were impressed. At a glance, people’s interest was piqued, which is great for a tradeshow, but big questions remained. We were hoping for feedback on whether or not the motion added training value. It’s great for gaming,

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but ATD customers do not care about gaming; they need to justify every dollar that is spent towards a system, based on the value that it will add to their overall program. Fortunately, most pilots who flew the TH22SM said that for the helicopter simulator, as opposed to an airplane, they could see the benefits.

Motion cues plus the visual motion makes for the perfect autorotation trainer. From negative and positive “G’s” on entry, flare and initial to the touchdown ground effects and contact with the ground itself. Many remarks from pilots included that the motion helps make this trainer the perfect platform for learning to hover, practice hovering, autorotation, quick stops, confined areas, slope operations, pinnacle landings and running landings. Hours spent on this sim could significantly reduce the hours it takes a primary student to learn to hover. The muscle memory alone is not something that can be taught or read above, it must be practiced before a pilot gets used to the controls, especially of a helicopter.

For the more experienced pilot, the motion was important during various phases of flight. Some remarked that it helped “keep them honest” on the sim, whereas you could feel the difference in flying at slow versus higher airspeeds, and so forth. It also kept them from becoming lazy or not taking the training as seriously while flying a simulator like

many do, because if you hit the ground hard or if you make abrupt movements you’ll feel it. It also makes a big difference to be on a motion platform in turbulence or any wind conditions for that matter. Tuning frequencies, programming GPS’s, and other normal actions become more realistic and add to the workload, which is excellent practice for pilots of any skill level.

For the airplane ATD market, the consensus has been that if the motion is not done well, meaning it gives false axis cueing or moves in an inaccurate way, then it degrades the training value.

Also if the simulator itself does not have the full functionality in the avionics or flight modeling of the airplane it supposed to be emulating, those mistakes become glaring and frustrating for customers, who then perceive motion as a gimmick.

Overall, the motion platform in the helicopter was well received, with more positive feedback than many airplane motion-based platforms that I’ve come across thus far. I’d love to hear more opinions from simulator users about the use of motion in a training environment and see how this technology develops into the future. Will it become common place on ATD’s or will pilots and operators always opt for the lowest cost possible solution and miss out on the available enhancements to training that modern technology affords.

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August 2016

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USHST

Nick Mayhew

United States Helicopter Safety Team

Power Failure at Altitude or Forced Landing training is something the helicopter industry doesn’t do enough of, and when we do, are we doing it correctly?

Your priorities and actions as a helicopter pilot will change depending on what condition of flight you are in when your engine does quit. Also, there are many variables that your instructor should discuss with you for honing your skills. For this column,we will concentrate on losing power from the cruise condition of flight (above minimum rate of descent autorotation speed).

A PFL is an exercise normally flown with an instructor to simulate the emergency where the engine suddenly fails to provide power to the rotor systems of the helicopter. This differs from a Practice Autorotation whereby the pilot is typically exploring the helicopter’s flight envelope in autorotation using a progressive approach for reducing the entry height of the maneuver to meet the Practical Test Standards (PTS).The pilot should be competent, current and familiar with all the basic and advanced autorotation techniques before proceeding to the demonstration of a PFL. The safest place to start rehearsing your engine failure procedures is in a

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United States Helicopter Safety Team

Surviving a Real Autorotation synthetic environment; But invariably, you will also need to consider some actual airborne training in order to experience the true sensations of this advanced maneuver.

It is important for the training flight be properly briefed on the ground to include the following points: • A reminder of the advanced autorotation techniques to be used.

Confirm currency and completion of previous autorotation training including knowledge of the Progressive Approach (see FAA Advisory Circular (AC)140-61).

• How the Practice Forced Landing (PFL) will be introduced.

Discuss symptoms to be used preceding the simulated failure such as abnormal T’s and P’s, unusual vibration or engine noise.

• The difference between a PFL and a training autorotation.

• Forced landing procedures.

• Factors affecting the landing area to include wind velocity, density altitude and surface condition.

• Forced landings executed from different altitudes and positions relative to the wind.

• Go around procedures.

The training exercise should only be practiced over an airfield or selected fields that would be suitable for an actual engine off landing. EASEL checks should be conducted by the instructor or student prior to entry to ensure the safety of the maneuver: • Entry height – is it sufficient?

• Area – Authorized and suitable in case the engine really quits?

• Security – All secure, strapped

in and no loose articles?

• Engine – all T’s& P’s in the green and adequate fuel.

• Lookout – Any other aircraft or hazardsaround?

The instructor should introduce the PFL using the verbal warning “Practice Engine Failure Go”. If the CFI wishes to reduce the throttle to simulate the engine loss, the student should be reminded that it does not move when the engine fails for real to avoid primacy misconception. The flying pilot then needs to consider the following elements of the maneuver: • Aviate – Enter autorotation.

• Navigate – fly to your selected landing point considering wind.

• Communicate – Mayday call (and crash checks per the RFM.) The entry into autorotation is critical to survival and the following actions are essential: • Positively and fully lower the collective – reverse the airflow and decrease the angle of attack to a tolerable level to preserve rotor RPM (RRPM). Apply proper pedal input.

• Aft cyclic to adjust for the auto attitude – plus sustain or regain any lost RRPM (or Nr) and stabilize the rate of descent.

Once in a safe flight configuration; • Stabilize the aircraft in the auto-rotational descent or glide using optimum attitude and therefore airspeed to navigate to the landing point.

Either then: • Go around or • Conduct a flare and power recovery (or possibly a “full touch down” on the appropriate spot).

Bristow Search and Rescue outfitted AW139 flying off the UK coast. Phototographer: Simon Pryor

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SIKORSKY TO LOSE PRESIDENTIAL HELICOPTER MAINTENANCE

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While Sikorsky may have secured the contract for the new presidential helicopter with the S-92 based program in full swing, it was announced in August that Sikorsky Aircraft lost the U.S. Navy maintenance contract for the existing VH-3 Presidential helicopter fleet.

Sikorsky was the original manufacturer of the VH-3D Sea King on which the presidential helicopter is derived from and has maintained the aircraft

since it was designated as the primary presidential helicopter in 1978.

Although the new development contract is not in danger, the loss of the maintenance contract for the helicopter will likely result in some voluntary layoffs and reassignments of the 85 personnel that maintain the current fleet of 11 VH3-D helicopters.

The decision not to award Sikorsky continuation of the longstanding contract was reached after both parties failed to reach an agreement during contract negotiations. The Navy stated that the maintenance work for the Presidential fleet will now transition to the Navy’s Fleet Readiness Center Southeast in Jacksonville, Florida.

The decision has drawn the attention of many, including Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal, (D), who remains concerned that Presidential helicopter maintenance work should remain “within Sikorsky’s control and the care of the Connecticut workers who have supported” the program since its beginning, Blumenthal said.

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H-160 CONTINUES ACHIEVING TESTING GOALS IN FRANCE In a press release in early August, Airbus Helicopters detailed several validations of the H160’s aeromechanical configuration in testing – a crucial milestone allowing the program teams to confirm key aspects of the next-generation, twin-engine helicopter’s design and performance.

“Thanks to more than 200 hours accumulated in flight-testing, and with the achievement of this formal program milestone, we have been able to confirm several key design assumptions and even exceed some of them against a real-life environment”, said Bernard Fujarski, Senior Vice President in charge of the H160 program. “With the

helicopter’s flight envelope now fully opened, we are confident that our next-generation helicopter will set new standards of flight experience for passengers and crews”, he added.

During its ongoing flight-test campaign, carried out with two prototypes in the company’s main site in Marignane, France, the H160 has demonstrated exceptionally low vibration levels along with remarkable aircraft stability levels, setting new benchmarks in the field.

“Vibration levels have been a key objective since the launch of program, and observed results give us confidence that the H160 will

set new comfort standards for all missions segments, from EMS to passenger transport or private and business aviation.

We can’t wait for our customers to experience this exceptional level of comfort themselves”, Fujarski added.

Next steps of the flight campaign will focus on hot weather trials, followed by performance testing of the Arrano engines – now fitted in both prototypes, and cold weather testing later in the year.

A third prototype will join the flighttest program next year to support the certification process ahead of the H160’s entry into service.

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AW609 PROTOTYPE RETURNS TO LEONARDO’S PHILADELPHIA PLANT TO RESUME TESTING

Leonardo-Finmeccanica announced today that the first flying AW609 prototype has arrived back in Philadelphia, following a recent resumption of flight testing for the TiltRotor aircraft.

include the company’s Philadelphia facility for part of the testing program that resumed at the return of the AW609 to the Italian manufacturers headquarters, located in Cascina Costa, Italy.

The involvement of the Philadelphia site in the AW609 program represents the anticipated progression towards assembly and certification in the United States by the FAA of the long awaited TiltRotor.

Departing from Arlington, Texas, the aircraft’s flight plan included an overnight stop in Huntsville, Alabama, before arriving in Philadelphia, Wednesday, August 10.

The prototype was seized by Italian prosecutors for further investigation relating to the crash of an AW609 prototype in Italy that took the lives of test pilots, American Herb Moran and Italian Pietro Venazzi.

The civilian TiltRotor has been in development for over 12 years.

Facilities in Italy, the UK and Poland will also play critical roles in the production of the AW609.

Leonardo-Finmeccanica has expanded the AW609 TiltRotor program to

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Helinews

LIGHTSPEED ANNOUNCES NEW OPTION FOR TANGO CORDLESS HEADSET Lightspeed Aviation, the first company to market a wireless aviation headset solution, announced this month that the Tango wireless headset now has an enhancement made to the LEMO version of the headset.

The new feature allows the panel interface unit of the headset to charge a spare battery from a helicopter’s onboard power that allows the pilot to charge a replacement battery in flight if needed.

Lightspeed advised customers that own the Tango wireless headset with a LEMO connection can have their unit retrofitted for a small fee to the newest version.

It is a breakthrough experience pilots have been waiting for,” said Teresa De Mers, Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing. “Pilots are also enthusiastic about the convenience and value of the lithium ion rechargeable batteries.”

While battery life has long been a concern of pilots wanting this type of solution, Lightspeed appears to be working hard to make sure that there is a solution already at hand for anyone on the fence due to the small size of the batteries contained in the large cordless headset.

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PARADISE HELICOPTERS FIRST TOUR CO. FOR CUSTOMER ADVANTAGE PLANS Bell Helicopter, in cooperation with subsidiary Able Aerospace Services, announced Paradise Helicopters, a leading helicopter tour company in Hawaii, has signed its fleet of Bell 407s up for Bell’s Customer Advantage Plan (CAP). Paradise is the first helicopter tour company to enroll in the company’s new service solution.

Bell Helicopter’s Customer Advantage Plans provide customers with

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comprehensive coverage solutions for daily operations. The plans offer a fixed-price-per-flight-hour that provides predictable maintenance costs, priority access to parts and assemblies, and ease of maintenance and planning.

Under the Customer Advantage Plans, Able provides Paradise with all dynamic component repair, overhaul and accessories solutions.

“This innovative program helps us know what our costs are per hour, offering complete direct maintenance cost protection and no required buyin for our installed fleet,” said Calvin Dorn, CEO of Paradise Helicopters.

“It also underscores our continued commitment to safety and reliability throughout our operations, which we have provided to our customers for nearly two decades.”

Helinews

KAWAK INTRODUCES NEW FIRE BUCKET PUMP MODELS FOR HEAVY HELICOPTERS

Kawak Aviation Technologies announced this month the introduction of a new high capacity refill system for heavy helicopter firefighting buckets.

The product was developed in response to operators desiring a simplified, more reliable, and faster filling system. Kawak’s new line of products, that include bottom-filling buckets that can fill to capacity in streams, ponds, and tanks as shallow as 16”, allow more flexibility in dip sites

and a fill rate that reduces cycle times.

The initial application of the new pump was designed to integrate into 1060 gallon tanks and larger Bambi Buckets with 27” valves and provide fill rates between 1150 and 2500 gallons (4354-9464 Litres) per minute.

According to Kawak representatives, the modular design of the pump system requires no modification to existing bucket systems used by many operators performing firefighting work.

“The development of the JP series

solves the current problems of mechanical issues, complexity, and reliability and as a result it allows us to provide our customers better value to pass on to their customer”, said Mike Reightley, Kawak President.

“Many of our current clients are using our electric motor and hydraulic variations for tanked operations.

Now we can offer them a fully supported, reliable, plug and play high performance option for large buckets.”

August 2016

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2016

ALEA

Savannah, Georgia

Images by

Tim Pruitt

July in the helicopter world means heat, doors off and if you are a member of the Airborne Law Enforcement fraternity, a yearly trip to the annual ALEA show.

This year’s show was typically well attended, with the show held at the Savannah International Convention Center on the Savannah River.

Guests were able to take a scenic steamboat to their hotels and one of the many functions.

On show was the latest in aviation technology for law enforcement selling everything you can imagine. Take a look at our highlights from the show floor.

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Highlights at the show included the Seminole County Sheriff H125, Martin Jetpack, complete with VR simulator that remained busy the entire show.

Of the many events held during each years show, this year’s standout was the MD Helicopters Casino Night, complete with multiple flyby’s from the Savannah/Chatham County Aviation unit in their MD500 and 520N helicopters down the Savannah River during the event that sent the crowd wild.

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Above: Savannah/Chatham County Aviation Unit prepare to depart the promenade between the host hotel and convention center after the MD helicopters “Casino Night� event at ALEA Below: Each year, ALEA gives out multiple scholarships to the children of ALEA members

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August 2016

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OP-ED

Stop the Madness!

With new pilots flooding the industry at alarming rates and no cost hour building opportunities becoming harder to find, some operators have turned the moving of an aircraft into a for profit enterprize, with the loser, the low time pilot.

By Peter Higgs-Coulthard If you have spent any time in helicopter forums or on social media in helicopter groups, you will be familiar with seeing posts that for lack of better terms or catchy titles are “Pay-To-Ferry” flights.

These frequently pop up as “CrossCountry Hour Building Opportunities.”

My view on these flights, well, I believe these flights are detrimental to the helicopter industry as a whole.

Allow me to explain.

While some of these flights are for maintenance or leasing reasons to return the ship to a maintenance facility or back to a leasing agency, more typically, the operator has contracted the use of their helicopter somewhere in the country away from the aircraft base of operations.

If the operator of a helicopter relies on contract work, that operator often must ferry the helicopter to the contract location. In the specific instances, I am referring to; these same ferry flights are being offered to private pilots that are looking to build cross-country hours at a reduced rate. This practice is now common to see pitched in the industry by operators around the country.

These flights are being offered for one of two reasons; the business owner bid

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the contract without the cost of ferrying the aircraft factored in, trying to make his bid the one selected for the job.

They are then hoping to offset that cost by charging another pilot to ferry their aircraft. If we look at it from an angle of greed or “double dipping” the operator could also bid the contract with the cost of ferrying the aircraft included yet, can essentially, double charge for the ferry flight to maximize profits by making the profit twice.

The first reason is a flawed business model that will likely fail; the latter is opportunistic dishonesty. Neither are to be exemplified. Unfortunately, there is nothing illegal in the practice even if it is self-destructive to the industry. However, for our industry to survive, opportunities must exist for people to develop the experience necessary for higher level careers. This is where the helicopter industry is failing.

In the current state of our industry, there are very few employment opportunities available to pilots immediately after achieving their commercial certificate.

Until a pilot reaches a thousand or so hours, he or she is not considered marketable in the eyes of the industry. For some rationale beyond comprehension to me, the helicopter,

and insurance industries have determined that a low-time pilot incurs too much liability when flying in just about any market niche other than the ones most likely to result in an accident or incident. This reasoning is almost paradoxical.

Of the employment opportunities that do exist, they primarily consist of teaching at a flight school the low-time-pilot-turned-flight-instructor attended to receive their certificates.

[I’ll discuss at a later date the drawbacks of having the industry’s primary trainers being the least experienced pilots.] This results in a compounding problem.

For a low-time commercial pilot to be widely marketable, he/she must build hours by, most commonly, becoming a flight instructor and training others to be commercial pilots. Rarely is this done at a 1:1 ratio. For every flight instructor, there are scores of students aspiring to become helitack pilots, emergency medical service pilots, law enforcement pilots, electronic news gathering pilots, corporate pilots, or pilots in other similar roles.

Those students then become flight instructors in their own right. More low-time commercial pilots beget an

exponentially increasing number of lowtime commercial pilots.

This glut of low time commercial pilots has wide-ranging effects on the helicopter industry. The supply of low-time pilots grossly outweighs the industry’s demand for those same pilots. Many low-time pilots find it near impossible to find employment as a pilot leaving them with a virtually useless commercial certificate and sometimes greater than $100k in student loans.

As students, these impressionable and sometimes desperate pilots jump at “Pay-To-Ferry” opportunities to reduce the cost of obtaining their licenses or the required hours to hit the next hour milestone that will open up more job opportunities. Few realize how detrimental it is to their careers in the long run. Many see the path ahead of them as being immutable and fail to comprehend the complexities involved in the helicopter industry; the industry is as it has been, is, and always will be.

Operators offering “Pay-To-Ferry” flights further exacerbate the situation by making it easier for student pilots to meet commercial requirements while simultaneously eliminating the commercial helicopter ferrying market.

Ferrying aircraft is an ideal opportunity for low-time commercial pilots to broaden their respective experience bases by flying diverse aircraft types in various flight environments. While the experience can be valuable for pilots of all skill levels, the employment of low-time pilots in a market niche not involving passengers, mission complexities, or other distractions, like ferrying an aircraft is especially valuable.

For the most part, the operators offering “Pay-To-Ferry” flights are smaller operations that are struggling to make ends meet and are flying aircraft similar to those used in flight schools. They see these flights as opportunities to increase their bottom line and pay the bills while “helping” student pilots. Often they are sold as a win-win situation; the operator is making money, and the student is spending less.

Unfortunately, an industry that allows this to continue is akin to irresponsible parents that let their children, the student pilots, eat all their Halloween candy in one sitting. The resulting analogous upset stomach is a product of our own doing. Those low-time pilots that do find employment do so at low wages because of the laws of supply and demand.

How do we fix it?

Refraining from accepting the status quo, will result in a smaller supply and a higher demand for helicopter pilots. More low-time jobs outside the instructional forum will lead to an increased demand for pilots overall while decreasing the demand for flight instructors. With less demand for instructors, students will incur fewer student loans on average since they won’t need to spend as much to become CFIs or CFIIs. Additionally, schools will produce fewer pilots who may not be good in a flight instruction role, but are better for the industry.

We, as an industry, need to inform our potential students of a more realistic assessment of the helicopter job market. We, as pilots, business owners, and industry professionals, need to avoid creating shortcuts to meeting minimum requirements.This does no one any favors, except the guy trying

to make a buck while getting his aircraft where it needs to be. We, as an industry, need to look at ourselves under a macroeconomic light, not a microeconomic light. The effect of this will be wages that are aligned with other experts in the aviation industry and commensurate with a helicopter pilot’s levels of responsibility and risk.

Without accepting this responsibility and committing to changing “the way it has always been” the helicopter industry will continue to be a life full of struggles with low wages, too many pilots with too little experience, high student loan debts, and too few jobs. Stopping “Pay-ToFerry” flights and creating a commercial helicopter ferrying market won’t fix all of this but it is a necessary step in the right direction.

Peter HiggsCoulthard is an EMS helicopter pilot in the Pacific Northwest and retired Army Kiowa pilot having earned multiple industry and military awards during his career, including the Bell Helicopter Safety Award, and Bell Helicopter Combat Hour Award. Higgs-Coulthard has a BS in Aeronautics from EmbryRiddle Aeronautical University and is a permanent member of the Alpha Sigma Lambda National Honor Society.

August 2016

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A Coast Guard HH-65 from Air Station Atlantic City flies in the TFR area of Washington D.C. Photo by: John Edwards

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Story & Images by Ryan Mason

Chicago based helicopter operator Helimotion has been rapidly expanding operations in the windy city to keep up with increased demands in motion picture aerial work, charters and tours.

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THE

HELIMOTION EFFECT

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Nestled in the fourth largest city in Illinois, you will find a helicopter company that in some ways is like many others, but in other ways, is worlds apart.

Helimotion is staffed by people that share a passion for the industry and people that are always looking for ways to stand out as an operator in their chosen markets through innovation and safe flying that achieves what each wants, no small task in the industry today.

Started in 2002, Helimotion is now known as one of the premier helicopter aerial filming companies in the United States. The driving force behind the brand is Michael Franck.

Franck started as Chief Pilot at Helimotion from day one as a Single Pilot 135 operation. Franck relocated to Chicago from Panama City Beach, Florida in 1999 where he was flying an Enstrom F-28F, C2 in the tourism industry. Franck grew up around helicopters, his father operating a part 135 helicopter company in Portland, Oregon.

According to Franck, he and his father would fly “every kind of helicopter work there was” after he gained his commercial helicopter rating and followed his father into the family helicopter business.

Originally taking a job with well-known company Helicopter Transport Services (HTS) in Chicago, Franck had joined HTS to be a charter pilot. Before the company’s focus being heavy lift work as it is today, HTS was the major charter provider for the Chicago metro area.

After only a couple of years working in Chicago, Franck was informed that HTS would be pulling out of the Chicago charter market in 2002, choosing to move into heavy lift operations as their primary business.

At the time of the announcement, an existing charter client who owned a large national construction company based in Chicago approached Franck, distressed that he would soon be left without a helicopter to accommodate his needs once HTS exited the market.

Franck was asked if he would like to procure a helicopter for him and manage the operation that was to become Helimotion.

Franck took to the challenge, purchasing a Eurocopter (now Airbus Helicopters) AS355 “Twin Star” for his client. The AS355 served as the primary helicopter for Helimotion’s 135 certificate, performing many different missions, starting with corporate charter service and tourism flights and later blossoming into what is now the businesses main source of income, aerial filming work.

Having done some aerial film work in Oregon working for his father’s company doing commercials, Franck was no stranger to the requirements of aerial film work. Most of the work Helimotion had completed in its early days had been as a “helicopter for hire” arrangement where a pilot that worked in the industry had rented the twin star to complete a specific filming role. The chance for Franck to show his skills, which would, in turn, take the business in its current direction came in 1999 when a movie pilot was sent to Chicago to hire the HTS 206L to film a movie scene.

Chicago’s reputation as “the windy city” however stood true, and after three days of waiting for the right weather, the pilot was forced to return to LA for another assignment. The pilot asked Franck if he could take his place filming what was required once the weather improved, Franck accepted the role. And the rest, as they say, is history. Unbeknown to Franck, he had unintentionally started the company’s rise to becoming one of the motion picture industry’s few well known and respected “go to” operators.

A Bump in the Road The business continued to grow under the stewardship of Franck for the next 12 years. Until in 2014, it came time for the twin star to have its 12 yearly inspection completed.

British Columbia, Canada-based HeliLynx was in charge of the inspection, and Franck was expecting a call any day to advise the helicopter was

complete, and ready to go back to work. Instead, the call that Franck received was more troubling.

Franck was told that Heli-Lynx had been authorized by the owner to sell the 355. Puzzled by this development, Franck questioned the owner of the helicopter who told him that it was time to sell the helicopter. His desire was to close the business that Franck had spent the last 12 years building an industry reputation.With months of business already booked in advance, Franck set about finding a solution.

A solution to the problem was found in long-time friend and owner of wellknown musical instrument powerhouse Sweetwater Sound, Chuck Surack.

Surack had recently started his own helicopter aviation business Indiana Helicopters. Franck and Surack were able to come to an agreement and purchase the 355 from the previous owner and begin the process of takingHelimotion to the next level in the industry.

The Fleet The first expansion to the Helimotion fleet came by way of Surack becoming the backer of the business.Surack brought with him, his EC120 and the EC130B4. Both helicopters were added to the companies 135 certificate in July of 2014.

The charter side of the business began growing almost immediately, leading to the next purchase, a 1991 AS365N2, acquired after the EC120 and EC130.

The AS365 was purchased from Sony music in New York when the company had begun reductions to their flight department. A worthwhile investment for Helimotion as the demand for VIP charter service was continuing to grow.

The final purchase for the company’s current fleet, made in May of 2015, was the purchase of a new AS350B3e.

The newest helicopter in the fleet purchased to become the primary aircraft for filming work. Franck’s logic behind the company fleet is one based on experience in the market they primarily serve.

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The new B3e splitting the role performed for the last twelve years by the company’s AS355. The new helicopter purchase allows the 355 to transition into a corporate charter helicopter, along with the AS365.

Both outfitted with a custom designed corporate leather interior, although the AS355 remains capable of being quickly reconfigured for aerial work if needed Although the AS355 now spends most of its motion picture work as the helicopter in front of the camera on motion picture work.

Helimotion also operates a single Bell 206 in their fleet that is contracted full time to DHL. The Bell 206 flying several times daily between O’Hare International and Chicago’s downtown Vertiport helipad, where it meets waiting couriers to transport time sensitive documents into downtown Chicago.

All of the companies helicopters are fitted with the Garmin G650/750 combo, with the B3e, and EC130 fitted with two axis HeliSas autopilot.

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The AS365 and AS355 have another purpose in the Helimotion fleet explained Franck. “Many of our corporate clientele that charter our aircraft have a corporate legal requirement to be flown in a twin engine aircraft. Larger corporations are moving towards wanting the redundancy of having a second engine when flying corporate executives to increase the safety factor. We can provide that with the Dauphin and with the 355 Having two capable aircraft helps us as a business should one of them be down for maintenance, or in the case, we need more than one aircraft on a charter flight.

We have the ability to accommodate our customers directly, without having to subcontract to a partner operator.”

completion center Green Mountain Aviation, located in Sidney, British Columbia. Helimotion worked directly with the company to design the interiors of each aircraft to suit either a single mission focus or as in the case of the companies AS355 and the AS350B3e where the helicopters mission can vary from corporate charter one day, to aerial filming the next.

W hat makes H el i m otion Di ff erent?

When functioning as a corporate aircraft, the helicopter is fitted with a luxurious custom leather interior. But within 15 minutes, Helimotions’s team can convert the aircraft into an aerial filming platform, thanks to audiovisual and power connections installed into the helicopter allowing a camera operator to plug in any number of monitors and camera controllers directly inside the cockpit thanks to Franck’s foresight in design.

The approach to business in both aerial filming work and Helimotion’s other missions in corporate charter, aerial survey and tourism is evident from the moment you open the door of one of their helicopters.

Each helicopter has a custom interior that was designed and built by

The Helimotion B3e is what one would call a “plug and play” solution. Unseen by corporate and tourism clients is the work put in by Franck to make sure that the helicopter fits their need for multi-mission functionality perfectly.

This design requires no external wiring running outside the helicopter from the camera operator platform to the externally mounted gyro-stabilized camera.

Seeing cabling running outside a helicopter between the operator station and the gyro-stabilized camera system is very common for multi-mission aircraft when their primary role is not centered on only aerial filming work.

Helimotion can fit any one of a vast array of gyro-stabilized cameras from a Cineflex rig, to a Shotover K1 or F1 system that can accommodate any one of many high-end cinematic camera systems used by the motion picture industry.

Dependent on the role the B3e is to perform. Helimotion can also switch out the VIP interior for a more rugged interior if a client requires. Helimotion also has a nonVIP interior that consists of a rubber floor and cloth seats for missions such as survey work, where the type of mission does not suit a VIP interior. The cloth/rubber interior can also be switched out within approximately 15 minutes if needed.

Thinking outside the box In 2008 when the economic downturn

occurred, Franck was looking for a solution to keep the costs to his customers down. He set about trying to find a solution that would enable Helimotion to compete more effectively for filming work that was available outside of the Chicago area, which was becoming a more frequent request as their industry reputation grew in that market.

To make their product both affordable as well as high quality for their clients, Franck looked for a road transport solution that would allow them to transport the helicopter by road to destinations that would otherwise cost several thousand dollars in ferrying fees. Not to mention additional hours spent in the air that would speed up maintenance requirements.

Setting out to achieve a trailer based solution quickly proved to be more difficult than first thought. Franck was searching for a trailer that would allow his team to have the helicopter operational very quickly after arriving on a location. So he desired only

to have to remove two rotor blades and make no other changes to the helicopter to get it on or off a trailer.

Franck was quickly disheartened after speaking with over a dozen trailer manufacturers that told him it could not be done, due to the height of the helicopters main rotor mast.

After many months of trying to find someone to work with him to engineer a solution, Franck located a trailer manufacture up to the task. Franck had seen a trailer solution made by the company for race cars, which allowed the trailer to shrink down on itself, reducing its footprint once a car was loaded. Franck approached the company and asked if they could do the reverse for him and make one that was able to expand, accommodating the height of the 355.

A week later Franck flew the helicopter to the company’s headquarters and met with engineers who agreed to make it work. It would be an idea that has since opened up opportunities that had previously been out of reach for the industry to make it affordable.

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Helimotion splits its fleet around several Midwest locations and moves them as necessary for work. The company’s EC120 is based in Goshen, Indiana for charter work, while the AS365 and EC130 are hangared at Chicago’s downtown Vertiport to cater for their corporate charter and tour operations. The company’s AS350B3e and AS355 are hangared at the company’s Joliet, Illinois headquarters.

For some readers, Helimotion may not be a name you see on social media as often as you may with some companies that prefer to have a more forward

facing persona. Michael Franck is very much a “quiet achiever” both in his humility in his approach to the helicopter industry and also in how he highlights his business. For Franck, it is not about being an industry personality or someone recognized from an internet persona. For him, it is about the personal relationships he builds within the company and with business partners such as his work in the motion picture industry.

Franck’s flying credits when you look at the amount of major motion pictures he has flown on are seemingly endless.

Franck has been a movie pilot on blockbusters such as Transformers – Age of Extinction, Batman vs.

Superman, Divergent, i-Robot, Driven and much more. His quiet and confident demeanor, matched with his flying skills are likely a key part of amassing over 16,000 hours flying time during his career. The next time you watch a blockbuster movie with action scenes filmed from a helicopter, perhaps wait to watch the credits. You may be surprised how many times you see the name Helimotion in the future as the business continues to grow.

Chuck Surack:

Pilot, Entrepreneur & Philanthropist.

To learn more about Helimotion owner Chuck Surack, go to page 70, where you can read about how the man that started a recording studio from the back of a VW bus now owns 11 helicopters.

30 years later, Surack’s company is one of the most well known brands in music. See how he has grown a single helicopter into an aviation business that shows no signs of slowing down.

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I’m a CFI

By Matt Johnson

Now What?

Attributes of a Professional Flight Instructor As an FAA designated pilot examiner (DPE), I’m often asked which fight exams I enjoy the most. To the surprise of many, it is the certified flight instructor (CFI) exam I enjoy giving the most.

Yes, the CFI exam is a long one, no doubt. However, it is very rewarding to see successful outcomes and what I consider to be the true “certificate to learn” issued to those applicants who have come prepared.

Most CFI applicants put an enormous amount of work into their academics and have polished their flying skills while sitting in “the other seat”.

One of the greatest benefits of being a DPE is that you get the opportunity to become a mentor to new CFI’s; after all, it is CFIs that will be preparing future up and coming pilots for flight exams.

Almost without fail, I am often asked

by CFIs “now what”? Sometimes this happens before the ink is dry on their temporary airmen certificate and sometimes later on when the newly minted CFI acquires his/her, first student.

Either way, the new CFI that asks for guidance and seeks mentorship is off to a great start in demonstrating the attributes of a professional flight instructor. So what advice do I have for all new CFIs? I recommend

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five things to all CFIs, regardless of experience, to maintain a high level of integrity and professionalism when representing the industry.

Being a Professional Pilot It’s not just showing up on time; a professional CFI shows up not only on time but also ready to help applicants achieve their goals. Any CFI that shows up to work and asks the student “what are we doing today” is doing a disservice to our industry.

Understanding your student’s strengths and weaknesses and knowing where they are at their particular stage of training is a key factor in everyone’s success. You are not there just to “build time” you are there to help students log valuable lessons, lessons that you are getting paid to give!

Along with a good pre-flight briefing, post-flight briefings are a critical component to your student’s success.

The material is recent and with the experience fresh in the student’s mind they are more likely to absorb more when reviewed after a flight.

Push your students to keep a “flight journal”; have them write down what you covered on the ground, in-flight maneuvers, what went right and what needs work. And just importantly, you as the CFI should keep a flight journal to track your progress

and continued growth as a flight instructor. You mustlead by example in all that you do and say.

Part of being a professional CFI is taking your students to a higher level of proficiency and understanding and not just some arbitrary “minimum” standards established by the FAA or flight school. The influence you have on your students will last throughout their career, whether it is as a career pilot or as a private owner of an aircraft and company. Think about that the next time you see your physician, did he or she just meet “minimum standard” in medical school? I would sure hope not!

K n ow Yo u r A i rcraf t Knowing your aircraft inside and out is paramount. If you don’t fully understand your aircraft and it’s associated systems you can’t properly instruct a student on that aircraft. Period!

Over the past several years, I have witnessed first-hand many student weaknesses on now basic aircraft systems work. While I agree the student must meet their instructor half-way, the instructor is the “expert” that the student is looking up to for guidance.

No matter how basic your training helicopter may be, it has associated systems, and you owe it to your student to empower them on how they work.

On several occasions, I have reconfigured simple things on an aircraft before an applicant begins their preflight during a flight exam.

Simply shutting the fuel valve to “off” has caused many applicants a great deal of stress, confusion and embarrassment when (if) they figure out why they couldn’t sump the gascolator. As another example, I frequently turn the cabin heater blower motor to “on”. It is astonishing to see the different results from applicants when they turn the master switch on only to hear an “abnormal” noise coming from the helicopter “that they have never heard before.”

I have witnessed about everything imaginable including an applicant that said he heard it but didn’t know what the noise was but elected to proceed with the engine starting sequence.

Needless to say, the aeronautical decision-making portion of the exam did not end favorably. In examples, a basic overview and understanding of the helicopters systems would have had much less consternation on the part of the applicant.

One of the most educational experiences you can give your

students is to have him, or her observe an annual or 100-hour inspection when all the cowlings are removed.

A good mechanic will take the time to point out the various systems and explain things that may not normally be covered during regular lessons. And while students are taking part in this exercise, you as the CFI encourage to take lots of pictures of the aircraft to have a good lesson library for future ground sessions.

Pilot Endorsements You put a lot of hard work into earning your CFI, so don’t lose it. The endorsements you sign off on for your students are important. Federal Regulations even require you to track and maintain what endorsements you have given over the last 3-year period. Students are in essence flying on your name and certificate. How do you handle (endorse) an individual who already possess a certificate in another category and class?

What endorsement do you provide him or her to “solo” the aircraft?

The endorsements necessary for a primary student (non-rated pilot)

and an already rated pilot are totally different. If a student pilot happens to get ramped checked on a solo cross country and they don’t have the correct endorsement you can expect a phone call or visit. Take the time to make the correct and necessary endorsements.

While it is not an all-inclusive document, the FAA has done a reasonably good job with Advisory Circular that provides recommended endorsements. The most recent version (61-65F) released this past February is a major improvement over past versions. They even included the SFAR 73 endorsements for those training in the Robinson R22 or R44.

This Advisory Circular should be a key component of every CFI’s library of resources.

Forming Good Habits Remember that “Law of Primacy” that you learned about when studying for your CFI? Of all of the “laws of learning” that we study and teach I feel this principle is critical to the success of your students.

Teaching good habits from the beginning doesn’t have to be difficult.

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Consider this: work a weight and balance for every flight, change the weights to configure other than “normal” situations. Additionally, work a “performance” for every flight with figuring density altitude, pressure altitude, In and Out of Ground Effect ceilings, etc.

I realize the student won’t be doing that on day/lesson number one, but I feel it is paramount that they see YOU taking responsibility for the flight by determining the parameters. It breeds confidence and good habits.

Proper and thorough pre-flights are an absolute must and as an instructor, you must be stern and professional in ensuring that your students do an adequate pre-flight inspection of their aircraft before flight.

Lessons Learned from Past Accidents Sadly, the NTSB’s database is filled with a multitude of “what not to do” when it comes to helicopter operations. Stay on top of industry accidents and trends.

Consider using one or more accident reports as part of your lesson plan and

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pre-flight briefing. Associated videos can be an excellent teaching tool.

An unfavorable trend that I have observed is that applicants are generally weak on helicopter performance topics.

Much of this can be attributed to regional differences between relatively low MSL locations where students get primary training compared to that of high MSL regions. You may “discuss” high-Density Altitude operations, but until a pilot experiences it, they may not get a true appreciation of helicopter performance and limitations. The accident database is full of reports where pilots learned the “hard” way that their poor planning (or no planning) led to less than optimal performance.

Summary It’s not a surprise that many new CFI’s use their instructor certificate as a “time-building” opportunity. While I’m not overly thrilled with the “get your time and move on” mentality, it is a mainstay of our industry, and I don’t see it changing in the near future.

Use this time to make the most of it by developing a reputation for being a true

professional. This reputation will follow you throughout your career endeavors.

Even the newest of CFI’s can be great instructors by taking their job serious and BEING PROFESSIONAL.

Matt Johnson is a Helicopter FAA Designated Pilot Examiner conducting Private through ATP level exams in numerous makes and models. His experience spans air medical, law enforcement, flight instruction, and ENG flying.

He is a three-time Master Instructor recipient, FAA Gold Seal Flight Instructor and FAASTeam Representative for the Greater Cincinnati Ohio Region.

Additionally, Matt is an Air-Medical Pilot flying a single-pilot IFR Helicopter in SW Ohio.

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United States Helicopter Safety Team Mile High Meetup

By Steve Sparks Images by Dennis Pierce

On August 10th-11th, the United States Helicopter Safety Team (USHST) held its semi-annual face-to-face meeting at Colorado Heli-Ops in Denver to discuss strategies for reducing fatal helicopter accidents.

As part of the event, the USHST presented the results generated by its JHIMDATA (Joint Helicopter Information Monitoring Data Analyses Team (JHIMDATA) that analyzed 104 fatal accidents occurring between 20092013.

In support of this effort, the organization delivered six keynote presentations and several sidebar follow up discussions focusing on mitigating fatal accidents caused by poor aeronautical decision making (ADM), Inadvertent-IMC, wire strikes, low altitude flight, and loss of control (LOC).

This study revealed that wire strikes, loss of control and low altitude flight contributed to over 50% of the fatal accidents occurring between this timeperiod. The Top Four industries involved in these fatal accidents were personal/ private, helicopter air ambulance (HAA), commercial operators, and

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aerial applicators. In moving forward, the USHST plans to focus its outreach efforts in these main industry segments.

The USHST is formulating new Task Groups (TG) to focus on improving aeronautical decision making (ADM), risk mitigation, instrument proficiency, and situational awareness during night flight, and education and training.

The organization plans to increase its outreach presence via its website (www.

USHST.org) and seminars sponsored by the FAA FAASTeam, HAI and other industry stakeholders.

USH ST m em bers f rom aro und the co untry attended t h e event put together by C olora do H el i Ops and were even t reat ed t o a to ur of the fa ci l ities by ow ner Dennis Pierce .

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Juliet’s Last Flight CUSTOMS & BORDER PROTECTION RETIRE THE LAST OF THE OLD GUARD

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Story by Robert F. Curtis Images by Ruben Reyes, Robert Curtis & Chad Miller

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Hennes,(pictured right) assists clients he will fly to check out the view they may get from the Auberge Beach Residences, a new luxury high rise being built by Related ISG and Moss Construction Management.

Juliet, aka N7247J, nee 69-15533, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Air and Marine Operations’ (AMO) last Vietnam War-era UH-1H, had her final flight on May 25, 2016. One final patrol along the border with Mexico out of AMO’s base at El Paso and her 47-year long Government service career came to an end.

No one associated with them will forget that sound Huey’s make. A heartbeat “WHOP, WHOP, WHOP”, that the iconic aircraft of the Vietnam War era makes when it comes toward you. It’s a sound that brought fear to our foes and comfort to our men on the ground.

Most helicopter pilots of the Vietnam War are nearly all retired now, as are most of the aircraft we flew. Some, like Cobras, are scrap, waiting for recycling.

Others, like this one in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, stand sentry at museums

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or war memorials. A few serve as a draw for tourist traps, like the red one in the picture, somewhat ignominiously, perhaps, but it still beats the scrap yard. But a few Huey’s soldiered on, defending our country in another way, at least for a little while longer.

Between 2002 and 2016, AMO operated a fleet of seven UH-1H Huey’s.

“The Huey was the real utility aircraft of our operation, the same role Huey’s fulfilled in Vietnam.” stated Mitch King, Deputy Director, CBP AMO El Paso.

clouds over the mountains without so much as a click of the radio button to talk to ATC. We finally broke out of the clouds at 10,000 feet. Their wide-eyed passenger, me, was sure they would call radar to come back down, but no, they simply turned toward the South China Sea and descended to 400 feet above the ground before they broke out. The whole time, the Huey crew appeared bored to tears, but it took me 20 minutes to recover from the “pucker factor” and remove the seat cushion after we landed.

I flew several times in Huey’s in my time in Vietnam; twice nearly scared me to death. The 101st Airborne insisted everyone – cooks, bakers, and helicopter pilots – all at least fly in the Huey so that everyone would have some idea of what the “grunts” went through routinely. During one of those flights, the crew climbed into the

My third and final Huey flight in Vietnam came after my Chinook was shot up too badly to continue flight and we went down 15 miles over into Laos. After the hit, I kept my helicopter under control and got it on the ground. My crew dashed out with their machine guns and set up defensive positions while we waited for rescue. Twenty long minutes

later, we heard that familiar WHOPWHOP-WHOP of a Huey inbound and five minutes after that, we were aboard and climbed out, headed for the relative safety of Khe Sanh.

Knowing that they hold a special place in my heart, a friend who works at CBP told me that they were just about to retire the last of their H models, so I started the process of setting up a visit. During my research for the story, I learned that “Juliet” the final H model and I, might have had a passing relationship years before.

Juliet flew in Operation Lam Son 719, back in February and March 1971, the largest helicopter operation ever. For six weeks over 600 helicopters, most of them Hueys were engaged in an all-out assault on the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Laos.

After the war, Juliet changed from Army 69-15533 to FBI N7247J and was later transferred to the U.S. Border Patrol. In 2002 she moved over to what would be her final assignment, CBP’s AMO. There she did it all, insertion of Agents into difficult terrain, fast rope, and rappel ops, Search and Rescue missions, Night Vision Goggle operations, ferrying agents between posts and even helping in New Orleans, Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina, flying disaster relief missions.

But like the pilots that flew her in Vietnam, she was getting old and was no longer state of the art. The terrain around El Paso is hot and high, so Juliet was limited in the loads she could carry.

Her 1960s military flight instrument suite prohibited her from instrument flight.

Further to that end, major components such as engine, transmission, rotor blades, etc. were all nearing time limits.

more range, built in Forward-looking Infra-Red systems, glass cockpits, radar altimeters and altitude hold, all things currently lacking in the Huey’s currently in service.

The men who flew remind me of Vietnam Huey pilots in some ways. Routinely doing difficult missions in harsh terrain, sometimes against armed criminals.

Pilots coming from every diverse background you could imagine. Some former military; others learned to fly as civilians. All are required to be dual rated, qualified to fly AMO fixed wing assets, as well as helicopters.

While they are consummate professional aviators, the pilots of AMO are first and foremost CBP Agents. Before they can fly, agents must complete all field training requirements, the same as agents assigned to one of the many During that time, 107 helicopters were hundreds of job assignments within destroyed and 600 damaged, with new the CBP. Pilots must also complete the helicopters constantly coming from all As her sisters retired, CBP bought Super same recurrent training requirements over Vietnam to replace the losses. Juliet Huey’s and Huey IIs to replace them. as field agents to maintain their flight was one of the damaged ones, taking Essentially, both are rebuilt H models status. Once pilots have completed hits twice. From my Chinook, I saw flight with 400 additional horsepower and their initial training, airborne operations after flight of Huey’s returning east after more efficient main and tail rotors. training begins on the aircraft, taking a missions, some of the aircraft riddled But even these will be leaving service full qualification course in each aircraft, with bullet holes. Our Chinooks never shortly. Set to be replaced by twinfollowed by an annual check flight in left Khe Sanh without a shot up Huey engine UH-1N Huey’s that will be each and additional training for NVG slung below us, headed for repair and divested from the Navy, and Marine designations. return to combat. Although there is no Corps. The UH-1N will have even more way to know for certain, Juliet may have power and load capacity to add to the There are no former Vietnam pilots left in been one of them.

AMO, since the maximum age for active CBP mission. The UH-1Ns come with

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agents is 57 years of age. Like the UH1Hs, they have all timed out.

The day of her last flight, we walked out to Juliet, who was still waiting on a dolly from the ramp. Before we reached her, the maintenance director reminded us that she only

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had 50 minutes left on her main transmission, so that was how long our flight would be.

Deputy Director King would be aircraftcommander, Agent Robert copilot, and Agent Albert filling the

role of crew chief on Juliet’s last run.

One of the Huey IIs would also be flying wingman to record Juliet’s last flight.

With Agent Robert calling the checklist and Deputy Director King completing it, we were soon up to full rotor speed and took off headed for the Rio Grande.

Flying right along the edge of the border, the two Huey’s reminded everyone on both sides of the border that CBP is always watching. Deputy Director King turned to the west and the desert of New Mexico, into their low-level flight training area.

Our destination was a long extinct volcano that is used for ridge line and

confined area landing training. Two landings later, we were on our way back to base.

All too soon, on a flight no one wanted to end, Deputy Director King chose not to land her on the dolly, but rather next to her six sisters parked on the ramp. Juliet’s Government service was complete after 6,900 flight hours flown over 47 years. Like the others, when her blades stopped turning,

she became the property of General Services Administration, to be sold at auction. Given her rather low total hours, it is possible that the buyer may put her back into service, but who knows.

The mood was quite somber as we all walked back the hanger. As the Bard of Avon wrote for Juliet: “Farewell, God knows when we shall meet again.”

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Rotorheads Chuck Surack Story by Ryan Mason

Above: Chuck Surack shows Indiana Governor and Vice Presidential nominee Mike Pence (R) the EC130T2 before takeoff.

Top Right: Surack poses with his new EC130T2 during a cross country flight back to Indiana, the EC130T2 owned by Surack was the first delivered in the USA.

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Chuck Surack may be part of the business end of Helimotion by providing backing and direction from a 50,000 feet perspective, but there is much more to Surack than meets the eye.

a touring musician. His company started as a mobile studio, has now blossomed into one of the largest musical instrument and sound equipment sellers in the world. Listing over three million customers.

Aviation was a late-blooming passion for Surack, who gained his private pilot certificate in 2007 at the age of 49.

The business, says Surack, still operates with the same principals he started with back in 1979. Surack’s desire to take care of people and do the right thing still resonates through his business empire and every one of the 1100 staff that work for him.

For anyone that plays a musical instrument or has a passion for studio recording of any type, you may not know the name Chuck Surack, but if you have shopped online for a musical instrument or any sound equipment. There is a fair chance that you may know the brand that Surack started in 1979, selling recording time from a mobile studio, located in the back of a VW bus.

Sweetwater sound was born from Surack’s desire to stop his hectic life as

Sweetwater Sound was one of the first companies to embrace the digital age.

In 1995, Sweetwater launched a website that allowed customers to shop online for instruments and sound equipment, which unheard of at the time. Well before the dawn of digital sales giants Amazon and Ebay became household names.

Those who wanted quality sound equipment, however, were given the opportunity to buy equipment personally selected by Surack’s team for its quality.

Something they are still respected for today.

One of Surack’s other legacies that will continue long after he is gone, is his customer philosophy. Surack has built his company’s reputation on personal service from the start. “When a client calls Sweetwater to get advice on a product or to make a purchase. That sales representative that they talk to the first time, is the same person assigned to them from start to finish, every time they want to make a purchase from us” said Surack.

The Sweetwater Sound representative will keep track of everything they buy, the brand of equipment they prefer.

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Right down to the strength of guitar pick that they like.

Each sales person should know which products work well with each other or upgrades that are compatible with each client’s specific equipment and needs. This mindset that has built Sweetwater into what it is today.

Surack’s father was a chemical engineer and airplane pilot during his career. Igniting a lifelong passion for aviation in Surack that has spurned

into not one, but three aviation businesses in addition to his primary business and the eleven other businesses he owns.

Obtaining his first helicopter rating in 2007 at the age of 49 [incidentally with the same instructor as the publisher of this magazine –Ed.] Surack took to the aviation world like he does everything else – with passion and determination to success.

Purchasing his first personal helicopter, an Enstrom 480B

turbine model in late 2007. Which according to Surack “was great at the beginning for three people, but wasn’t a long term solution for more passengers in the end.”

The need for more passenger space led to the purchase of his first Airbus Helicopters EC130 and his first foray into owning an aviation business, Indiana Helicopters which operated the EC130 and later an EC120 that is now based in Goshen, Indiana.

Below: Chuck Surack prepares to depart Heli Expo 2014, in Anaheim, CA after showing his new EC130T2 at the Airbus Booth.

Top Left: Surack preparing to depart Indianapolis with Indiana Governor, now Vice Presidential candidate Mike Pence.

Top Right: Flying the EC-120 with FAA DPE Randy Sharkey

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It was fine, until it wasn’t...

Surack learned in the aviation business that mistakes can sometimes be costly.

Surack speaks very openly and honest about his one and only incident in his aviation career that resulted in the loss of his first EC130.

Flying the helicopter from Fort Wayne to Indianapolis with a full load of passengers on board, Surack learned how incorrect weather forecasts could be.

Initially, Surack’s forecast information was showing low cloud approaching from the north. Which with the systems projected speed, and their flight path for the trip heading directly south appeared to be no factor.

decided to land at the nearest airport, situated in Noblesville, just outside the City of Indianapolis.

Surack made the decision to “land and live”, but after making the turn northeast towards Noblesville regional airport, Surack was met by cloud descending from the north as well.

cornfield, made soft by days of rain in the area before the flight.

Rather than pressing on into potential IIMC conditions, he made the decision to land immediately, settling on landing in a cornfield just short of houses located in the neighborhood adjacent to the Noblesville golf course.

With no injuries to anyone aboard other than Surack kicking himself for not being able to prevent the situation, he looks back on the incident as a valuable learning tool that he shares with his flight instructors at one of his other businesses, flight school Sweet Aviation based in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

The landing was “fine until it wasn’t” as one skid sank deep into the wet

Attempts to pull the skid free failed as the helicopter sank into the mud while Surack tried to put the helicopter down evenly. The uneven angle causing the EC130 to roll onto its side.

Unfortunately for Surack and his passengers, the weather was changing rapidly and picking up speed. The system moved faster than predicted, quickly putting the destination in Indianapolis IFR conditions while a mere fourteen miles from their destination. Surack

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#rotorheads Above: Chuck Surack (pictured)is the driving force behind music retailer Sweetwater Sound,and multiple aviation based businesses in Indiana. Surack is also a tireless community volunteer and philanthropist who shaped his businesses around doing the right thing by his customers. His business empire now spans 11 businesses and employs almost 1100 people.

Right: Surack poses with government and fire officials after his company donated metronomes to assist in improving CPR efforts iamong first responders in his home town of Fort Wayne, Indiana 7474 heliweb heliwebmagazine magazine

Surack’s school has an Enstrom 280 FX and F28F used for primary flight training for clients in the Fort Wayne area.

Surack’s tireless efforts to serve his community over the years have not gone unnoticed.

Surack also owns an additional EC130T2 (pictured on pg. 72) that featured on the show floor of the Airbus Helicopters booth in Anaheim, California at the 2014 Heli-Expo show.

Receiving many awards covering both his business success and his philanthropic efforts.

Including honorary doctorates from Indiana University and the University of St. Francis and the Governors Arts Award.

This helicopter is flown by Surack personally and kept at his property in Fort Wayne. Surack in addition to founding Sweetwater Sound, Indiana Helicopters, Sweet Aviation, car dealership, “Sweet Cars” and owning Helimotion (see cover story) is also a tireless philanthropist.

Giving of his time, helping others discover the arts and volunteering in his community. Serving over the years in many board capacities in over a dozen organizations including the Boy Scouts Advisory Board and the Fort Wayne Philharmonic Orchestra board to name a few.

Just a few of the long list of accolades for this businessman turned pilot and aviation magnate in northern Indiana, who continues to give back and ensures that his staff does the right thing by his customers in the music and aviation industries.

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BEHIND

ERIC LIAN

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Eric Lian is a name known to many industry professionals. But by design, he keeps a low profile in a public sense. Known for quality work in California, Lian also works in graphic design, providing some of the best helicopter wall art and helicopter paint designs seen on helicopters that are photographed daily around the world.

E

ric Lian was born in San Francisco, California. Growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area. Lian can remember being eight years old when he was able to use a camera for the first time; his mother’s Kodak Instamatic X-15. He describes it as the super old kind that used a 126 sized cartridge and Magicube flash cubes, discarded after use.

The Kodak X-15 was state of the art at the time. Lian explained “I anointed myself the official picture taker on family outings or any other excuse I could come up with to use it. I remember one outing for a family picnic with friends to a place called Hidden Valley, which was about an hour away from where we lived. Just the name of the location sounded magical to me.

I was in the back of the station wagon with the camera imagining what the place looked like and planned the kinds of pictures I would take. Half way there, we got a flat tire. My dad changed the tire and headed back home because he didn’t want to risk puncturing the spare, which, of course, was a reasonable thing to do,

But to an eight-year-old with a camera and vision, it was the worst possible decision that anyone could have made.

I was as devastated as an eight-year-old could be.

We got home, and the picnic continued with everyone in the backyard, except me. I locked myself in my room and refused to come out, and all attempts to coax me out with promises of food dismissed. I’m pretty sure I didn’t eat that day. But even back then, I don’t think it was about being a photographer. I don’t think I was even aware that being a photographer was an actual job at the time. It was about being creative.”

Like many creative types, Lian’s love for photography was encouraged by an adult mentor. In the later years of elementary school, Lian was lucky enough to land in a class that taught by a very progressive teacher that employed unorthodox teaching methods to motivate her students.

His class learned to develop film, dry negatives, mix developer fluid and made prints. Without the structure of traditional schooling, Lian, and his classmates were

learning chemistry, math, workflows, and cooperative production without even realizing it.

Lian credits those two formative years as the time that taught him the practical skills needed to be a well -rounded photographer. Being a shy kid, Lian embraced photography as a means to express himself creatively, without ever having to speak. If given the choice as an adult Lian says that art and photography are still his primary means of expression.

The memory of having a passion for aviation based photography for Eric Lian go all the way back to the age of three. “I can remember my dad taking me to the midtown parking garage in San Francisco to watch the S-61 commuter helicopters fly in and out, or the airport to watch every kind of aircraft.” When asked if a flying career was ever on the cards, Lian laughs and remarks that he would rather be on the outside watching a flyby than inside an aircraft. “You can’t beat the exhilaration to see a helicopter or plane coming at you low level, streaking overhead, and banking

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hard to come around again. I’ve been inside aircraft hundreds of times for that kind of thing, and all I can think is “damn, that must have been impressive from the ground.”

Lian shoots in many places around the world, but mainly in California where he lives and is the primary photographer for well known airborne law enforcement unit “Henry 1” otherwise known as the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Department Aviation Unit. The unit flies a Bell 407 and conduct rescues via a long line. One of the few Sheriff’s departments that do that, but that type of rescue work is a blessing for Lian when photographing their unit.

He also ranks one of his favorite shoots as one completed with Henry 1 during a rescue from heavy surf. That was the shoot that almost took Lian and his camera gear into the ocean due to his focus on “getting the shot” which he did.

However, his lack of situational awareness almost cost him most of his equipment as it headed out to sea,

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carried by a wave that came ashore that was now dragging back into the ocean.

Lian can’t say enough about ThinkTank gear for this reason. He describes the incident as remembering being hit by a small wave. Taking his eyes from the viewfinder just long enough to see his bag, complete with his very expensive video camera sitting on top being dragged into the surf.

As he chased his equipment (and likely pride) into the ocean, his bag never gave up. It stayed upright, not even losing the video camera to the water as it was dragged backward into the sea. Lian says that it is a testament to their hardwearing nature and why he recommends their bags to anyone.

let him use his Canon AE-1 while in high school. Lian’s first purchase of a Canon body was the Canon A2, switching from film to digital around 2004 with the Canon 10D. He later progressed to the Canon 1D MkIIs for its rugged design, as Lian states “I needed a camera that could take the abuse I give it.” Today, Lian still shoots Canon and uses a pair of Canon 5D MKIIs that he has used for the past five years.

Lian’s go to lenses for all of his photography tasks vary from the Canon 15mm (manual focus), Canon 24-70, Canon 70-200, and the 100-400 because of its flexibility rather than the straight 400mm.

After retrieving his bag from the ocean. He was surprised to find not a drop of water inside and the only thing wet was him.

When asked to share the best advice he could give a budding photographer looking to break into this market, Lian said “Overall, make it easy for your client.”

A Canon shooter by brand, Lian started shooting with Canon because of a teacher during his school years, who in later life is now a good friend would

Along with perfecting your photography skills and workflow, learn to write, shoot and edit video. If you can give your customers a package

that includes these three things, you’ll increase your value. Tell a story when you shoot and learn to write stories that engage readers, it gives your images context.

Shooting video and editing are an art in themselves and infinitely more time consuming, but that’s where the world is going.

For air to air shoots, the spaces are more confined than you think, time is more compressed than you think, and

things you never worried about on the ground become enormous challenges.

Like being able to reach for things or not being able to bring everything you want because there isn’t enough room or weight available.

something (like a card or battery), or have an equipment failure after you liftoff, the chances that you’ll get a do-over are slim to none. You need to show up prepared, ready, and with a plan in mind.

There are a hundred little details you need to remember and forgetting one thing can adversely affect your experience.

Make a checklist of everything you’ll need. Have a solid ‘what if’ backup plan for every failure of gear you can imagine and how you will fix it midair.

It could mean the difference between getting what your client or publisher wants, and missing the shot.”

Five minutes is a long time in air to air photography, and if you forgot

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“Shooting video and editing are an art in themselves and infinitely more time consuming, but that’s where the world is going.”

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Beh ind t he Lens Eric Lian

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To see more of Eric’s work, visit www.henry1.com

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Photo credit: Dan Megna, Mesa Police Aviation Unit. Mesa, AZ

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