ROTORWA H HAI BRIEFS


HAI Names Rob Volmer VP of Marketing Communications


ROBERT M. VOLMER HAS JOINED HAI as the vice president of Marketing Communications. In this role, Rob will over- see branding, messaging, research, tech- nology, and media for the association. “When I


joined HAI, I told the Board of


Directors that I wanted to overcommuni- cate to our members about what their association was doing to serve them. Hiring Rob was part of that strategy,” says James A. Viola, HAI president and CEO. “Rob’s experience in communicating to a variety of audiences, including government, business, and the consumer, will help HAI demonstrate the value of our industry to the global community while providing addi- tional member benefits.” Rob comes to HAI with more than


20 years of experience in consumer and business-to-business product and brand marketing, government, pub- lic affairs, and corporate pub- lic relations. He is a founding partner of Crosby~Volmer International Communi- cations, a firm providing stra- tegic communications services to companies, non- profits, and associations. His clients there include Fortune 500 companies, foreign gov- ernments, and associations. Prior to Crosby~Volmer, Rob was manager of corporate communications at the Air Transport Association. “Vertical flight aviation


18 ROTOR 2020 Q2


provides unique, essential services to peo- ple around the world. I’m excited to join the HAI team and play a part in telling that story,” says Rob. “I couldn’t resist the com- bination of innovation and opportunity that vertical flight represents, especially in this moment of seismic change in aviation.” A native of Memphis, Tennessee, Rob is a graduate of the University of Oklahoma (go Sooners!). He lives in Washington, D.C., with his wife, three children, and for some inexplicable reason, a new puppy.


HAI BRIEFS


ROTOR Launches New Digital Format


WITH THIS ISSUE OF ROTOR, WE DEBUT a robust digital platform for the magazine, making it easier for you to take ROTOR with you wherever you go. Just visit rotor.org/rotormag and click on


the link for the latest issue—whether you’re on a laptop, tablet, or mobile phone. Our responsive platform will detect your device and resize to fit it. With the platform’s mobile phone view,


there’s no need to navigate a multicolumn layout on your cell phone: just toggle to the mobile phone view and the content will reflow to fit your screen.


INTHESPOTLIGHT By Dan Reed


NFL Star Helps Kids Pursue Aviation Careers Jimmy Graham: Chicago Bears tight end and instrument-rated pilot.


tract by the Chicago Bears—didn’t get much attention or encouragement at home, growing up in what can best be described as a highly dysfunctional military family. Things got so bad that his mother effectively abandoned him as an 11-year-old when she placed him in a group home in Goldsboro, North Carolina, where the older and bigger boys beat him regularly. So it makes sense now that, after his improbable rise to stardom and wealth in the NFL, Graham is commit- ted to encouraging youngsters— especially those from similarly tough and impoverished backgrounds—to aim for futures that seemingly are beyond their reach. What’s surprising, though, is that


N 2020 QUARTER 2 THE MAGAZINE OF HELICOPTER ASSOCIATION INTERNATIONAL


the 6-foot 7-inch, 270-lb All Pro pass-catching machine isn’t using his athletic prowess and fame to help kids excel in athletics. Rather, Graham depends on his personal Bell UH-1 Huey helicopter—plus his Extra 330 LX aerobatic plane (it’s a really tight fit) and his 1957 de Havilland Canada DHC-2 Beaver seaplane (with retractable skis)—to point kids toward potential careers in aviation. Though he’d only been a licensed pilot


for a little less than eight years at the time, Graham jumped at the chance in 2018 to follow in the footsteps of Gen. Chuck Yeager, Capt. Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, and actors Harrison Ford and Cliff Robertson as chairman of the Young Eagles. The organization, founded in 1992 by the US Experimental Aircraft Association, gives children ages 8 to 17


20 ROTOR 2020 Q2


FL TIGHT END JIMMY Graham—newly signed to a lucrative free-agent con-


helicopter operated in the Vietnamese Central Highlands, ferry ing soldiers into and out of battle zones. It also flew into and out of Cambodia and Laos in sup- port of the 5th Special Forces Group. These days, the Huey mostly carries children via the Young Eagles program, along with Vietnam veterans taking brief trips down memory lane.


ROTOR: Given your challenged childhood and the huge amount of time you’ve committed to becoming a top athlete, how did you get so involved in flying? Graham: The first movie I remem- ber watching was Top Gun. My dream was to be a fighter pilot, but then I grew to a freakish six- seven and there went that dream. We lived around military bases— my original parents were in the military. I randomly loitered around airports, talking a lot about aviation and asking a lot of questions. I met


opportunities to experience flight in a gen- eral aviation aircraft and to learn about aviation. Because he can take only one kid at a time up with him in his Extra 330, and only two or three in his Beaver, Graham’s Young Eagles ride of choice is his Huey. The air- craft, along with his charitable organization, The Jimmy Graham Foundation, is based at Miami Executive Airport (KTMB), outside of Miami, Florida. The iconic model is fully restored to the


Helicopter air ambulances and COVID-19 page 26


way it looked when it flew with the US Army’s 170th Assault Helicopter Co. during 21 months from 1968 through 1969. The


a guy named John. He said if I ever wanted to go up [in an aircraft], he’d give me a ride. So I flew with him and loved it.


When did you get your pilot’s license? I played basketball at the University of Miami for four years, then played one year of football there before being drafted by the New Orleans Saints. I’d never had the time or money to learn to fly. But after my first NFL season, I had some money and, for the first time, some [spare] time in the off- season, so I started lessons. I took my checkride before the end of that year. Except in years when I had off-season


surgeries, I’ve learned new ways of flying or gotten new licenses every off-season since.


What licenses do you have? Beyond my private pilot’s license, I’ve got my airplane single-engine sea and land, air- plane multi-engine land, tailwheel, rotor- craft, instrument (airplane and helicopter), and commercial helicopter licenses. I’ll probably add my sea and land commercial license, and after I retire from football I want to move into gliders. I’ve kept this under wraps until now, but I’m also a licensed skydiver.


During the season, I may only have time


to fly two or three days. But the rest of the year, I fly on average five days a week. I just love it; I love everything about flying.


Where does that passion and commitment come from? To be honest, I don’t just half-ass anything. Whether it’s football, or athletics, or flying, or investing my money, I want to do it to the very best of my ability and keep learn- ing more and more about it. I’m kinda’


The ROTOR digital platform also enables


you to click through to advertisers or to links in articles. And we can now embed video for a richer environment. Simply click on a play button to launch a new window with video content. (There are four videos in this issue: did you find them all?) The new platform makes moving around the magazine easy. You can navigate through an issue by flipping the “pages” or by clicking on links in the contents page or on thumbnails. There’s also a link to a pdf version of the magazine, so you can down- load the issue to read later or print some pages. You can easily share content, too, via email or social media. We’ve upgraded the online tools avail-


able to you as well. A sophisticated search feature enables you to search the current issue of the magazine (and, in the future, archived issues) for a word, name, or phrase. Clicking on the search results takes you instantly to the exact location where that item appears. But wait. “Where’s my print edition?”


weird that way, I guess. But even if I’m doing a charity event, I guarantee you … it’s going to be excellent.


Have your coaches or teams ever raised concerns about your flying? They don’t want to go there with me. One time when I was with the Saints, [Head Coach] Sean Payton and [General Manager] Mickey Loomis, before I signed my big deal, actually mentioned that they didn’t want me to be in a private plane if it wasn’t a jet with two engines and had a copilot. I told them I wouldn’t sign that contract and that there were 31 other teams that would give me the same contract AND let me fly.


No organization has ever mentioned it again.


How did you get involved in the Young Eagles?


A good friend of mine, Sean D. Tucker, flies airshows. He’s been doing it about 30 years solo. And this last year, he wanted to go to a two-plane operation. So I got involved with him with my aerobatic plane. He also got me involved with the Young Eagles pro- gram, and I quickly saw the benefits of their mission. [Editor’s note: Tucker fol- lowed Sullenberger as the Young Eagles’ chairman in 2013 and continues to serve as co-chair alongside Graham.]


You could champion any cause you wanted, or just spend all your time flying. Why get deeply involved in the Young Eagles? I’m a gutter kid. I came from the gutter. I always tell kids that, as a boy, I had my PhD—poor, hungry, and driven. And that’s a gift.


I’m thankful for every hardship I had. It made me grow up fast and [gave me drive]. The Young Eagles program gives me a chance to talk to kids—especially kids from tough backgrounds like mine who probably never dreamed they could do something like this—and get them thinking about aviation as a career. It gives me a chance to motivate them and encourage them not to be held back by whatever neg- ative circumstances they’ve had to deal with.


you might be asking. For this issue of ROTOR, the 2020 Quarter 2 edition (for- merly called Spring 2020), we decided to forgo the print version because of the COVID-19 pandemic. By not printing this issue, we determined we wouldn’t flood empty offices with paper copies of the magazine while so many of our read- ers are working from home. We hope you enjoy


Save the Date


2020 Q2 ROTOR 21 EXPECT THE


Above and Beyond


Helinet Flies Ahead HAI HELI-EXPO 2021


BY HELICOPTER ASSOCIATION INTERNATIONAL heliexpo.rotor.org


March 22–25 • New Orleans New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center Exhibits Open March 23–25


March 22–25 • New Orleans Exhibits Open March 23–25


Extraordinary


ROTOR’s new digital format and the added benefits it brings. We’d love to know what you think of the plat- form and the features you like best (and those you don’t care for). Of course, we always want to hear what you do and don’t enjoy about ROTOR, from cover to cover. Let us know at letters@rotor.org.


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