to safety. When I flew for the King of Saudi Ara-
bia, another pilot and I were tasked to ferry a Bell 214ST helicopter from Jeddah, to Malaga, Spain, transiting the airspace of five countries in five days, including Egypt, Greece, Italy, France, and Spain. We then rendezvoused with the king’s yacht that was steaming across the Mediterranean from Morocco to the Span- ish mainland. The real prize I’m bringing back home
from those 28 years is the new paradigm I was exposed to over there after flying HEMS in the States, where I’d been flying single-pilot IFR for San Diego Life Flight. When I arrived in Oman, I was immedi- ately taught how to fly two-crew ops using proper CRM by the ex-British forces and former North Sea pilots. The profession- alism I witnessed was something I imme- diately aspired to. Probably the greatest compliment I ever received in my aviation career was when they asked me to be their head of training at the Police Air Wing. Flying offshore oil work for Abu Dhabi
Aviation (ADA) had its own rewards. I’ll never forget the colorful characters I flew with there. Going to Abu Dhabi, for me, was like returning to the womb where my aviation career began. Like Vietnam, ADA had its fair share of colorful and ec- centric characters. In Vietnam we were baby pilots, with
210 hours right out of flight school to per- haps 1,200 hours after a one-year tour. When I arrived at ADA, the average logged flight time per pilot was well over 10,000 hours. But the characters were the same,
just older and a bit more nuts, with
a lot more flight time. I shall always be an expatriate at heart.
I crave the adventure that living and work- ing abroad offers. My first flying job after Vietnam was herding cattle by helicopter while living on a 1,369 square-mile cattle ranch in the Australian Outback. As I spent more time working abroad, it didn’t take long to begin to see Americans as oth- ers outside America view us. In many ways it’s because of that unique view of America that I became an activist, to try to bring about change in the HEMS system back home. I return now with a valuable message, a different way of doing things
rotorcraftpro.com 9
that, if followed, will save lives. There’s no reason to reinvent the helicopter to “fix” our HEMS system in America, but people are operating more safely in other parts of the world, or what I call “outside the cave,” the “cave” being America, where my fly- ing career began. I am returning after 28 years to share the “good news,” my way of giving back. My new job is Chief CRM/AMRM Instructor at Oregon Aero, a position the company created for me be- cause they believe in my safety message. Wish me luck!
Randy Mains is an author of several books, a public speaker, and a
CRM/AMRM Consultant who continues to work in the helicopter industry after a long career of aviation
adventure. He currently serves as Chief CRM/AMRM instructor for
Oregon Aero. He may be contacted at
randym@oregonaero.com
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