Excellence in Helicopter Maintenance Award Sponsor:


TJ Hall Base Lead Mechanic, Air Methods Corporation


TJ HALL, AIRBASE LEAD MECHANIC for Air Methods, started his career as a young enlisted helicopter mechanic and crew chief in the Marine Corps during the Vietnam War. March 2019 ushered in his 50th year in helicopter maintenance. After spending 12 years in the marines and with multiple overseas deployments,


Hall entered the civilian world of helicopter maintenance, obtaining his A&P license and going to work for Burnside-Ott as a contractor at Naval Air Station Whiting Field in Florida. From there, Hall was hired by ERA Helicopters to work in Louisiana’s petroleum industry until he transitioned to the helicopter air ambulance sector in 1992 to work at Air Methods. Nearly 30 years later, Hall remains working with Air Methods to this day. Over his career, Hall served as Air Method’s lead mechanic at three


different bases. He entered the management side of the business when he served as the program aviation manager (a job normally held by a pilot) for MedCenter Air in Charlotte, North Carolina, and was then promoted to the southeastern regional area maintenance manager. After nearly a decade in the world of maintenance management,


Hall decided to go back to “the line” and worked as a traveling relief mechanic before coming back to Charlotte, his current home, where he is once again working as a base lead mechanic. Hall’s insight both as a mechanic and a leader have had a tremen- dously positive effect on the Air Methods program. He is always willing to work, and he most recently volunteered to be the deployed mechanic for FEMA recovery efforts after Hurricane Florence.


Safety Award Sponsor:


Chris Sharpe HeliSOS Project Manager, Helicópteros de Guatemala


A NATIVE OF THE UNITED KINGDOM, Chris Sharpe spent 18 years in the British Royal Navy before beginning his civilian aviation career in 2010. He has considerable expertise as a combat flight paramedic and search-and-rescue crewman, with more than 15,000 flight hours and approx- imately 6,000 rescues to his name. In early 2015, Sharpe began working


as chief aircrewman, search-and-rescue specialist, and flight paramedic for helicopter operator Helicópteros de Guatemala and SOS Servicios Médicos, a provider of medical and emergency transport services and medical training. Te two companies joined together to create the HeliSOS project, a licensed and accredited helicopter air ambu- lance and rescue service, with Sharpe as project manager. HeliSOS flies the first helicopter fully licensed as an advanced cardiac life-sup- port air ambulance in Guatemala. Sharpe has given his time—and often, his own money—to train


and educate others. He developed and offered aircrew survival courses for the anti-narcotics and anti-terrorist units of the Guatemalan Air Force. He initiated the first community visit of a helicopter air ambu- lance to the Colegio Maya, a pre-K through 12 school in Guatemala City, acquainting future generations with the helicopter industry. Sharpe also opened Black Wolf Helicopter Special Operations,


which offers training and operational support to government and military helicopter special ops units, as well as charter and adventure flights. All Black Wolf profits go to support HeliSOS’s initiatives to provide first-class air ambulance and rescue services to all, regardless of ability to pay. Sharpe’s nomination reads, “Chris does not teach with an air of


superiority but with a spirit of collaboration and sharing.… His com- mitment to raising industry standards for safety, training, and patient care is above and beyond an employer mandate. It demonstrates a personal passion worthy of recognition.”


SPRING 2019 ROTOR 55


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