Latest from Bill Wagstaff
Rotorcraft
EH 101, NH 90 helos get the Nordic nod
Scandinavian countries are famous for going their own way and it seems only fitting that one of what was originally four nations participating in the Nordi
Rotorcraft
Gulf Coast oil support struggles to keep its footing amid uncertain times
Taking the pulse of the offshore oil industry is like grabbing a handful of the viscous mud drillers use for lubrication in the drilling process.
Rotorcraft
Rotorcraft Update: Schweizer introduces improved 300CB variant
Working in its own quiet low-key way, Schweizer Aircraft has revealed its new 300CBi.
Rotorcraft
Rotorcraft Update: Hindustan helo surfaces at last
In the latest development of a helicopter program that could best be described as “better late than never,” Indian state-owned aerospace builder Hindustan
Rotorcraft
Rotorcraft Update: Hangar time for tiltrotors
While Bell Helicopter and program partner Agusta Aerospace are pondering their next moves in the ongoing saga of tiltrotor development (see page 1),
Rotorcraft
Unions-Yea or Nay?
Next to fighter jocks, helicopter pilots are probably the most iconoclastic flavor of aviators flying today.
Rotorcraft
Rotorcraft Update: Keystone allies with investment group
Pledging to build already successful long-time central Atlantic coast helicopter support and repair operation Keystone Helicopter into a $350 million busin
Rotorcraft
Rotorcraft Update: Rotorin' Romanian seeks helo to feed his need for speed
By now all the major arguments for helicopter use are well established, right? Time-saving hops over crowded urban areas.
Rotorcraft
Rotorcraft Update: New York mayor logs more helo stick time
No stranger to the skies, New York mayor Michael Bloomberg’s piloting skills are part of his well known resume.
Rotorcraft
Helicopter Plan Enrages North Sea Rescue Vessel Operators
For those toiling for oil on the roiling North Sea, the stormy nature of that piece of water keeps the possibility of rescue constantly in mind.
Rotorcraft
Carroll Suggs Sells Off Controlling Interest in PHI
An era has ended in the helicopter offshore oil-support business with Carroll Suggs, wife of Petroleum Helicopters Inc.
Accidents
Columbia Helicopters BV-107 Crash Claims Three
A Boeing Vertol BV-107 operated by Columbia Helicopters of Portland, Ore., crashed in August during a maintenance check flight in southern Montana, killing
Rotorcraft
Bell Announces Layoffs
Bell Helicopter Textron last month announced plans to lay off 270 workers at its Fort Worth-area plants.
Rotorcraft
Top of the world
In a world in which one can, by means of a relatively inexpensive handheld GPS, determine one’s position within two feet, there just aren’t a lot of explor
Rotorcraft
PZL-Swidnik’s turbine single helo certified
More than a decade-and-a-half after PZL-Swidnik introduced it to the Western world in 1985, the Polish helicopter manufacturer’s Ecureuil-like SW-4 turbine
Rotorcraft
Rotorcraft Update: U.S. corporate helo hit by ground fire
A helicopter owned and operated by U.S.
Accidents
Rotorcraft Update: Beloved French baker killed in helo crash
French baking baron Lionel Poilane was killed November 7 when the Agusta 109C he was piloting crashed into the sea off Brittany, France’s northwestern coas
Rotorcraft
Rotorcraft Update: Aeromed pioneer passes on
Ellsworth “Dutch” Kuhlman, the hospital executive who in 1972 founded the Flight for Life medical airlift program at Denver’s St.
Rotorcraft
Rotorcraft Update: Tltrotor flight-test proceeding satisfactorily
A pair of Bell Boeing MV-22 tiltrotor transports have joined the remedial developmental flight-test program that’s hoped to get the cause of tiltrotor oper
Accidents
In-depth exam of aeromed accidents yields results
Last month’s annual meeting of the Association of Air Medical Services was its usual low-key success as some 2,500 aeromedical professionals, a record numb
Rotorcraft
U.S. Army sold on the benefits of pilot airbags
Most aviators feel pretty secure when ensconced in that expensive, fleece-covered, form-fitted cockpit seat, their bodies held firmly in place by a five-po
Rotorcraft
NASCAR needs helos to move
The men and women who race cars on the Nascar circuit are addicts.
Security
New York’s flying finest cope with post-Sept. 11 realities
More than a year later, southern Manhattan still seems scarred, incomplete; the variegated skyline stretching the length of the island seems an archite
Regulations and Government
Rotorcraft Update: NTSB wants certain helo pilots to be IFR proficient
Helicopter pilots who conduct commercial passenger-carrying flights in areas where whiteout conditions routinely occur should be required to have a helicop
Rotorcraft
Rotorcraft Update: Biggest Sikorsky ever proposed
Nobody beats the Russians when it comes to rotorcraft “bigness.” Mil unveiled the Mi-12 in 1971 and later hoisted a record-setting 44 tons to more than 7,0
Security
Rotorcraft Update: How to avoid football (and other big public gatherings)
The FAA has released a list of stadiums to help pilots comply with notam 2/0199.
Rotorcraft
Rotorcraft Update: Wrong place, wrong time, baby's fine
Most medevac helicopter missions are a race against time, and when the helicopter loses, it’s usually a time for sadness.
