RPMN: That award was well deserved. But enough sucking up; it’s time to embarrass yourself by telling us about any “oh crap” moment you’ve had in a helicopter. BURKS: I had a stuck right pedal in a hover hole! One very windy day, I took a pre­solo student into a confined area surrounded by woods (to block the wind) to practice hovering. I asked him to do a right­pedal turn and he did. I asked him to stop the turn, but instead he pressed more right pedal and we spun faster. I calmly asked him to stop the turn and he pressed even more pedal. Now approaching “tilt­a­whirl” speed, I slid my feet from the floor up onto the pedals to assist. At that moment, his brain kicked in and he jammed in left pedal to stop the turn. Only one problem – my right foot slid between the pedals and was now wedged between the two. The dilem­ ma: the harder he pushed left pedal, the more my foot was crushed. The more right pedal we pushed to get my foot out, the faster we turned. Solution: I pulled pitch and performed a climbing, right­spinning turn to get out of the hole and to extricate my foot from between the pedals.


RPMN: That wasn’t as embarrassing as I hoped; the solution was rather resource­ ful! So, what do you enjoy doing on your days off? BURKS: Aside from helicopters, my favorite things to do are mountain and road cycling, surfing, photography, fish­ ing on the Santa Fe river behind my house, and watching my daughter play volleyball . . . not necessarily in that order.


RPMN: If you could give one piece of advice to a new helicopter pilot, what would it be? BURKS: Never compromise your repu­ tation as a professional, safe pilot. This industry is way too small to make care­ less mistakes. Your integrity and repu­ tation are all that you have to progress in this business. You can have lots of experience and many contacts in the industry, but if you do something stupid


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to harm your reputation or integrity, your career will come to a screeching halt. Fly professional. Act professional.


RPMN: That’s good advice;many indus­ tries could use more professionalism. Finally, what do you see as the greatest challenge facing the helicopter industry today? BURKS: I know it has become cliché, but I still believe it is the looming threat of a helicopter pilot shortage. Many


thought the Vietnam­era pilots – our biggest generation of pilots – would mostly be out by now as they hit their early­to­mid 60s. With better health, and poor 401k performance, they are sticking around longer than projected. However, with the inevitable departure of that generation, increasing global demand for helicopters in emerging markets, and a historical reduction in trained pilots, it is not a matter of if a shortage will come, but when.


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