the lives they carry, is a heavy weight. I was grateful for the opportunity to work with these crews and grateful we are still friends.


RPMN: Have you ever had an “Oh, crap!” moment in a helicopter? Can you summarize what happened?


Oh gosh, there were so many, but one that comes to mind was a hovering auto during a checkride. The student rolled the throttle  perfectly aligned (I was thinking to myself this is going to be a great auto) until the throttle rolled out of the detent under the student’s sweaty palm. As the nose went right the student countered with left cyclic before I could react. I dumped the collective, rolled     which did nothing but gave me something to       on its left skid in what felt like a 90-degree bank. I leaned hard right pushing against the student as the aircraft sat there balanced on the left skid for what seemed like an eternity.         back onto both skids. The student asked if 


RPMN: If you could give only one piece of advice to a new helicopter pilot, what would it be?


aeronautical decision-making. I like to spend extra time with new instructors to give them and their students the         retired and I have a captured audience.)


As for the future, we haven’t even scratched the surface of the technology that lurks around the corner. Our great-


Do you know someone who would be a good subject for Meet a Rotorcraft Pro? Email your suggestion to the editor-in-chief:





grandkids will be stunned that they actually had pilots in aircraft. They will look at us with admiration and amazement. I will tell them...


The older I get, the better I was.


My advice: Fly the aircraft the way it was  percent of your problems.


  with a retirement package.


RPMN: In your view, what is the greatest challenge for the helicopter industry at this moment in time?


From the standpoint of a DPE, I can tell you it is the inexperience coming from brand- new instructors teaching brand-new pilots. The FAA is correct about scenario-based training, however new instructors have no experiences to base that on. This is seen with the lack of situational awareness and


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