Meet a otor
Pro WHAT IS YOUR CURRENT POSITION?
I am currently employed by REACH Air Medical Services at the Thermal, California, base where I fl y Bell 407s serving Coachella Valley and the surrounding areas. The area of responsibility
poses interesting TELL ME ABOUT YOUR FIRST FLIGHT.
My fi rst fl ight was a MS Flight Simulator 1.0 on an IBM PC circa 1985. I mention that because that “game” whet my appetite for aviation. After that, one short fl ight in a Schweizer at a local fair piqued my interest in rotary-wing aircraft. Then my fi rst “real” fl ight at the controls was, like many, at ole Mother Rucker (Ft. Rucker, Alabama). It was the winter of ‘89 in a UH-1H Huey sitting beside a crusty Vietnam veteran named George Small. Man, he had patience! I soloed and graduated fl ight school in that aircraft before attending the CH- 47D qualifi cation course in late ‘90, fi nishing in January of ‘91.
I clearly remember the day I completed the
qualifi cation course. I was watching Wolf Blitzer on CNN through NVG-assisted cameras, which made the nighttime anti-aircraft tracer fi re all the more ominous. Wolf was donning his gas mask, as Desert Shield became Desert Storm. I swore the U.S. Army was going to send me to Iraq for the fi rst Gulf War, but my orders assigned me to Korea.
10 September 2014 Hayden Goldman
HOW DID YOU GET YOUR START IN HELICOPTERS?
challenges,
including sand storms, temps upwards of 50 degrees Celsius, and helipads at 7,000 feet. You’re defi nitely milking every last bit of power out of that Rolls-Royce 250 C47B.
My father introduced me to a friend of his during my last year of high school. Jack Hayes was a Vietnam veteran helicopter pilot that served as a U.S. Army Warrant Offi cer. It was Jack that introduced me to the conduit to my dream. I visited a local recruiter to chat about the prospects and thank goodness the WOFT (Warrant Offi cer Flight Training) program, aka “high school to fl ight school,” was alive and well.
WHEN AND HOW DID YOU CHOOSE TO FLY HELICOPTERS? OR DID THEY CHOOSE YOU?
The WOFT program was the quickest and
most economically feasible way to get in the air, but I don’t think it was merely that simple. As stated by many “rotorheads” before me, the freedom of vertical fl ight outweighed my need for speed. You just can’t beat that feeling; to takeoff and land wherever you want...and to hover. You own all three dimensions; it’s simply an amazing machine. I’m married to rotary-wing, but have been known to have an occasional aff air with fi xed-wing—it’s cheaper!
WHERE DID YOU GET YOUR START FLYING COMMERCIALLY?
My fi rst commercial job came after I got out
of the U.S. Army in ‘97. I was fl ying Bell 412s for ERA Aviation out of Houma, Louisiana. The problem was, I was living in Italy and working in Louisiana on a 14/14 schedule. I
was jump-seating my way over the pond, but eventually that wore me out. At that point, a good friend of mine, Kyle Arnett, asked me if I would be interested in fl ying for the U.S. Coast Guard. “Heck yeah!” I answered. I submitted an application and was accepted with an assignment to Air Station Miami: “The Busiest Air-Sea Rescue Unit in the World.”
IF YOU WERE NOT IN THE HELICOPTER INDUSTRY, WHAT ELSE WOULD YOU SEE YOURSELF DOING?
I realize my career is fragile. You have to
remain in good health and life isn’t always fair. I have dangerously put all of my eggs in one basket. I love fl ying helicopters and fi nd it diffi cult imagining anything else. It’s better than working for a living! That said, I’d probably do something in physical therapy or sports medicine. I like the whole nutrition, fi tness, health world; it’s important stuff !
WHAT DO YOU ENJOY DOING ON YOUR DAYS OFF?
Spending time with my amazing wife; she’s
my rock. I run, bike, hike, and go to the gym. I need to stay active; I hate how I feel when I get too sedentary. You can’t forget Newton’s fi rst law; you must stay in motion. The older you get, the more important that becomes.
WHAT IS YOUR GREATEST ACCOMPLISHMENT TO DATE?
The greatest accomplishment with a decisive metric would have to be saving nearly 100 lives in Puerto Rico, with the assistance of another
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