“He’s done a great job of preserving Helinet’s reputation in the film production community, which is very small and competitive,” says Kathryn. “Word gets around quickly, and the way you get asked back is by being well-organized, per- fectly prepared, and able to improvise safely and efficiently— because on-site conditions and creative requirements are constantly evolving.” Helinet is also a major player in the LA electronic news-
gathering (ENG) market, providing a range of services to several TV stations in the area, including KABC, KCBS, and KTTV (Fox). “We provide all the aircraft and pilots,” says Cross. “Te
companies actually invest in the equipment on board the aircraft because that’s a competitive advantage. All clients provide their own on-air reporter, but some bring their own camera operators and for others, we provide them.” While current battery limits and regulatory permits limit
the use of drones in ENG work, Kathryn foresees their eventual use by that sector. Meanwhile, a Helinet ENG aircraft recently had a too-close encounter with an sUAS. “Our helicopter flying ENG for KABC-TV, Air7HD, was hit by a drone on Dec. 4. Our pilot thought it was a bird strike and put it down, but there [were] no feathers or other evidence,” says Kathryn. “Te NTSB can’t be sure, but they found metal fragments lodged in the aircraft. If that drone had hit a bit farther back, it could have been fatal.” “Tat helicopter was flying at 1,100 feet agl, where no
drone should be flying legally,” adds Cross. “Tere’s a lot of unprofessional people out there flying drones. Te aviation industry needs more than luck to prevent a tragedy from happening.”
Medical Transport Transport for LA-area hospitals’ organ donor programs was one of the first contracts Alan won, and it’s a service Helinet still provides today. “I’m extremely proud that over the last year, we’ve transported 20% of the organs transplanted in California,” says Cross. “Trough this mission, Helinet has impacted the lives of over 1,300 people.” Te service requires complex planning and precise timing.
“We’re not just going from hospital pad to hospital pad in Southern California,” Cross says. “We’re going to get organs that are being harvested as far away as Seattle, St. Louis, or Salt Lake City. “Our organ transport pilots demonstrate a culture of
conservative decision-making, and that’s penetrated to other business lines at Helinet,” Cross adds. “Our pilots have to think really hard about decision-making because of the viability of that organ. ‘If there’s going to be a delay, is it better to use land transport? Because if I make a bad decision, someone who needs this organ might have to go without.’ ”
2020 Q2 ROTOR 35
Of all of Helinet’s missions, Kathryn is most proud of one
the company has been carrying out since 1999: providing Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA) with free round- the-clock helicopter air ambulance service. “Helinet provides everything—the helicopters, the insur-
ance, the maintenance, the pilots. Children’s doesn’t pay for anything, and neither do the patients or their families. We transport about 450 kids a year,” says Kathryn. In 2015, CHLA renamed the program the Alan Purwin
Emergency Transport Program. “It’s something that means a lot to the entire company. It certainly means a lot to me,” says Kathryn, who also sits on the Children’s Hospital Foundation Board of Trustees. “Tis was an important mission for Alan, and under another owner, this would have been one of the first missions to go.”
Helicopters as Tools For all that made Alan a pilot’s pilot—someone who loved the detailed planning that goes into, for example, safely flying through a tunnel for a movie scene—he was also a technol- ogist. As a stunt pilot, he had a deep understanding of what a helicopter could do. As an entrepreneur and a businessman, he knew the many ways in which helicopters could be used, so Helinet has a long history of branching into complementary lines of business.
“Helinet is through the stabilization phase,” says Kathryn. “Now we’re moving forward to ask what the future of Helinet looks like.”
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