ROCKY
Anyone who came up through the civil helicopter ranks in this century remembers the story surrounding the epic collapse of Silver State Helicopters. The company abruptly shut down on Super Bowl Sunday, leaving over 2,000 helicopter students stuck with training loans, and hundreds of helicopter instructors without jobs. Taylor was one of the lucky students who made it out of the training school with a Certified Flight Instructor (CFI) certificate in hand, but he was not inclined to go to work for anyone as a CFI. Besides, with so many jobless instructors flooding the market, Taylor decided to heed the Fleetwood Mac lyrics of “Go Your Own Way” and do his own thing.
So in 2006, with the help of a financial partner he decided to start a helicopter flight school in Bozeman, Montana. Treasure State Helicopters operated an R22 and an R44. According to Taylor, the partnership ended up not being a good one, and after spending an untold sum of money on attorneys, they parted ways in 2009. Following the messy split, it happened that he had a student who was interested in investing in half the helicopters.
This prospect put Taylor at a crossroads: he could either hang up the flight suit and call it quits or double down and dig in! With true cowboy grit, Mark decided to tough it out. The two new partners decided to keep the dream alive and RMR was born.
By 2011, Taylor had written his own Part 135 certificate, which was approved by the FAA. He was a full-fledged helicopter pilot business owner, while moonlighting as a concrete pump operator at a local plant. Still, Taylor and his new business partner were just making ends meet. The partner went through a divorce and needed out of the business. “Those five years (2006- 2011) were really tough, but I learned a lot of hard lessons along the way that made me a better business person,” Taylor recalls.
BEGINNINGS
48
Nov/Dec 2018
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