Meet a otor


Pro Jerry Trimble RPMN: What is your current position?


My wife Alison and I own Jerry Trimble Helicopter Inc. We started the company in 2007 with one helicopter and one airplane. We provide primary and advanced flight training in both helicopters and airplanes. Our school is located in McMinnville, Oregon.


RPMN: Tell me about your first experience with helicopters.


I flew with my dad, Robert Trimble, in one of his Bell 47s back in the ‘50s. He worked for Etna Helicopters along with his two partners, Bill Mathews and Erling Hertager.


RPMN: How did you get your start in helicopters?


My dad’s friend Tom Pfeiffer had a contract to train pilots in Jakarta, Indonesia, and he had me fly over and get about 80 hours of training in a Bell 47. I was currently instructing in airplanes. I had about 700 hours airplane time when I started flying helicopters.


RPMN: When and how did you choose to fly or work on helicopters? Or did they choose you?


I came back to Oregon and I got my commercial add-on with Herb Henderson at Henderson Aviation in Springfield, Oregon in 1976. I had been driving a mix truck for Herb for his spray operations. Herb was spraying with a Bell 47G-4A.


RPMN: Where did you get your start professionally?


I got my A&P at Northrop University in 1978 in Inglewood, California. I was instructing in airplanes at Hawthorne Field just southeast of LAX when a friend introduced me to Frank Robinson. One of Frank’s mechanics had just quit, and the ink was still wet on my A&P. Frank offered me a job as a mechanic on the experimental R22 prototype for FAA certification. It was quite an education working for Frank. The first prototype, SN 001, had an issue and ended up in the Pacific Ocean (this happened before I showed up). When they fished it out of the water, Bob Golden, the pilot, was unharmed save for some scratches to his belly that happened when the Coast Guard


12 Jan/Feb 2022


pulled him out of the water. It seemed like Bob’s only complaint about the entire water landing was that his watch got destroyed by the salt water. He kept asking Frank to buy him a new one.


RPMN: If you were not in the helicopter industry, what else would you see yourself doing?


If I couldn’t fly helicopters anymore, I would fly airplanes. When I can’t fly either anymore, I want to move myself and my wife to Hawaii. I just want to sit by the pool in Maui drinking overpriced cocktails with exotic plants floating around the ice cubes and watch tour helicopters fly by!


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