Meet a otor


Pro Thurbie Botterill RPMN: What is your current position?


I am chief pilot at the Lee County Mosquito Control District (LCMCD). Our team of pilots operates a fleet of both fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters that currently consists of two DC-3TPs, two King Air 200s and six Airbus H125 helicopters. LCMCD is the largest single-county mosquito control agency in the country and we fly a variety of missions, from daytime liquid and granular treatments to nighttime ultra-low volume treatments with the use of NVGs.


RPMN: Tell me about your first experience with helicopters.


My first flight experience in a helicopter was in Florida at Helicopter Adventures flight school. At that stage, I was so driven to make it as a professional pilot that my focus was not really on the surroundings, but on what was expected of me. It would have been nice if I could’ve taken it all in more, but it was about the individual lessons and making sure I completed them to the standard required. I also was motivated to move along at a similar pace to my peers.


RPMN: How did you get your start in helicopters?


After making up my mind that I was going to become a helicopter pilot and nothing was going to stand in my way, I bought a couple of magazines at the airport after attending my father’s funeral. I sent a letter to every single helicopter flight school that was in the back of the magazine. When I received the brochures back from the schools, I chose what I felt was the


12 May/June 2022


most professional-looking one. It was Helicopter Adventures. This was 1999; I lived in Portugal and had no phone and no internet. I went to a call box, called them up and asked what I needed to do to start. A visa and a plane ticket later I was touching down in Orlando, Florida, and began my private rating.


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


During a lesson in a fixed-wing, there was a helicopter operator on the other side of the airfield. It really intrigued me, and I believe that was the turning point for my move to helicopters. At that moment in my life, I was coaching tennis. I realized that I had to do something else other than chase a yellow fuzzy ball around a tennis court for the rest of my life. I didn’t know anything about them, but the more I read the more excited I got. I just thought the sound of an autorotation sounded fun (didn’t know what it was), but it was definitely the right move for me in the end.


RPMN: Where did you get your start professionally?


My first job was as a flight instructor with Bijan Air in Ann Arbor, Michigan flying a Schweizer 269C. After this, I got a job flying a Bell 47 spraying orange groves in Florida for a company called Airwork Enterprises. It was a steep learning curve being in the agriculture business with 350 hours, but it set me up for the future by giving me the spray experience I needed further down the line. It also helped me find my true passion within the helicopter industry. Unfortunately, the owner was


selling the business and I had to move on. I did a year with Era Helicopters flying offshore but I started to miss the environment I had come from. I realized what was important to me and that was not the type of aircraft I was flying but the type of flying I was doing. An opening for a line pilot came up at the Lee County Mosquito Control District and I got back to doing what I loved to do.


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


It would be very hard to imagine doing anything else apart from flying, but it would have to be to continue as a tennis coach. The teaching skills have been a positive transfer to aviation and the psychology behind teaching is the same; breaking a maneuver down and being as technical as you possibly can be has been useful. Just as in sports, you can always be a better pilot and keep learning.


RPMN: What do you enjoy doing on your days off?


During the heavier spray season in Southwest Florida, which is from mid-May to mid-September, getting scheduled time off is very difficult to come by. When there is time off it is normally filled spending time with the family, traveling with my son’s soccer team, going to the gym, boating, and playing tennis.


RPMN: What is your greatest career accomplishment to date?


I would have to say becoming chief pilot of the Lee County Mosquito Control District.


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