Rotary Wing Show – Helicopter News, Safety, Training & Pilot Stories

Landing in the urban jungle of inner Sydney is a far cry from dropping off SAS troops in the jungles of Vietnam – Ken Vote has done both in his career as a Navy and EMS helicopter pilot. Ken started his helicopter career with the Australian Navy, spent time in Vietnam, instructed in the military … Continue reading "RWS 51 – Australian Navy, Vietnam and EMS with Ken Vote" The post RWS 51 – Australi...

The God Machine: From Boomerangs to Blackhawks, The Story of the Helicopter by James R. Chiles delves into the origins of the helicopter and the people that made them into the machines they are today. It has been another long break between episodes but we are back this week with a stroll down memory lane … Continue reading "RWS 50 – The God Machine with James Chiles (Helicopter History)" The post...

Dini Petty forged her mother’s signature on a permission form for skydiving lessons when she was 17. By age 22, Dini Petty was flying above Toronto, Canada as the first female traffic helicopter pilot who was also giving traffic reports while flying. Dini was tapped on the shoulder in a Toronto restaurant to fill a … Continue reading "RWS 49 – Toronto Traffic Helicopter with Dini Petty" The post R...

This is a recording from a session at the Rotortech 2016 expo on the Sunshine Coast. Vice President of the Australian Helicopter Industry Association (AHIA), Ray Cronin leads a discussion about regulation change and recent progress. This audio is what you can call an extra from our normal interview series that I’m going to slip … Continue reading "Extra – Impromptu Session at Rotortech 2016 About...

Glen White has been providing recurrency and initial training to helicopter pilots around the world through his company Eurosafety since 2004. He is a strong proponent of the benefit of full touchdown autorotations in training. Glen first learnt to fly in France in a Bell 47 before picking up roles in flight training, tours based … Continue reading "RWS 48 – The Case For Full Down Autos with Glen...

This is Episode 47 of The Rotary Wing Show and our main interview today is Dick Smith, the first person to fly a helicopter solo around the world plus a bunch of other aviation first and records. For Australians, Dick Smith is someone that doesn’t need too much of an introduction. He is very active … Continue reading "RWS 47 – First Around the World Solo and Australian Regulations with Dick Smith"...

The Vietnam war has been called the helicopter war. They were used as troop carriers, gunships, medevac, heavy lift, observation and aerial trucks. Chickenhawk author Robert Mason shares some of his memories of flying the Huey in this episode. They fundamentally changed the way that war was fought. Probably nothing is more iconic from that … Continue reading "RWS 46 – Chickenhawk with Robert Mason...

In 1965 Rosemary Arnold became the first Australian female helicopter pilot, the first female helicopter pilot in the southern hemisphere and Whirly Girl No.99 In this episode listen in as Rosemary tells the story of her 50yr+ career in aviation. You can find Part 1 of this episode here. In Part Two we continue to … Continue reading "RWS 45 – Rosemary Arnold – First Australian Female Helicopter Pi...

In 1965 Rosemary Arnold became the first Australian female helicopter pilot, the first female helicopter pilot in the southern hemisphere and Whirly Girl No.99 In this episode listen in as Rosemary tells the story of her 50yr+ career in aviation. It is a career full of firsts – as well as the above, Rosemary was … Continue reading "RWS 44 – Rosemary Arnold – First Australian Female Helicopter Pilo...

Our guest today is Larry Thimmesch, Vice President Bell 525 Relentless Sales. Larry has been involved with the 525 for the last 5 years from the program’s very earliest days. The 525 is Bell Helicopter’s largest helicopter to date and weighs in at 20,000lbs or 9000kg. It has been created off a completely clean sheet … Continue reading "RWS 43 – Bell 525 Relentless with Larry Thimmesch" The post RW...

Spidertracks is a New Zealand company that produces a real time tracking solution for general aviation allowing owners and operators to know exactly where their aircraft are and to greatly increase the speed of rescue if something should go wrong. Dave Blackwell is the CEO of Spidertracks. In this episode he talks about the technology … Continue reading "RWS 42 – Spidertracks Real-Time Tracking wi...

The difference between an expensive falling brick and a helicopter is rotor RPM. Pete Gillies talks about the importance of aft cyclic in autorotation entry to conserve rotor RPM in this episode. Depending on where you did your training this might come across as ‘yeah, of course, doesn’t everyone do this’. If that’s you then … Continue reading "RWS 41 – ‘Cyclic Back’ in an Autorotation Entry with...

The Guimbal Cabri G2 helicopter has a lot going for it. One of the type’s biggest fans is Joey Arena of Texas Rotorwing Academy. Joey operates two Cabris with another two on order. The Guimbal Cabri G2 is a two-seat light piston-engined helicopter designed by Bruno Guimbal, a former Eurocopter engineer. The aircraft are built … Continue reading "RWS 40 – Cabri G2 Introduction with Joey Arena" The...

Imagine the flying experience, tips and tricks that you would pick up in a helicopter career spanning 5 decades. Pete Gillies has just retired from full time work in the industry and in this episode he talks about his first experiences of learning to fly a helicopter in the 1960s and passing his commercial helicopter … Continue reading "RWS 39 – Pete Gillies Talks About Learning to Fly Helicopters...

Billed as the largest Helicopter Airshow in the US (possibly the world?), Rotors ‘n Ribs is in its 5th year running at Goshen Airport, Indiana. In this episode we chat with event president Randy Sharkey about what he and his team of directors have in store for attendees. Randy is the Chief Pilot at Indiana … Continue reading "RWS 38 – Rotors ‘n Ribs Fly-In with Randy Sharkey" The post RWS 38 – Rot...

Look online for information about helicopter operations in the tuna industry and it won’t be long before you see mention of Moggy’s Tuna Manual. Author of the manual Francis ‘Moggy’ Meyrick is our guest in this episode of the Rotary Wing Show. Francis is Irish born and had a number of years helicopter flying experience … Continue reading "RWS 37 – Tuna Helicopter Flying with Francis ‘Moggy’ Meyric...

John is the UK military’s chief instructor in Land, Sea and Extreme Environment Survival. In this episode he talks about the priorities of survival should you find yourself forced to land in a remote location. How much attention do you pay to what you wear or carry on you when you go flying? For some … Continue reading "RWS 36 – Survival and Rescue with John Hudson" The post RWS 36 – Survival and...

In terms of wealth probably nothing says you’ve made it more than owning a superyacht – unless of course its owning a superyacht with helicopter landing facilities. In this episode we find out about the section of the helicopter industry that operates off these exclusive vessels. Gareth Ross from Superyacht Aviation served 26 years in … Continue reading "RWS 35 – Superyacht Helicopter Operations w...

Flying long range assault missions at extremely low altitudes on NVGs with a cabin full of special forces soldiers is all in a days work for the men and women of the 160th Special Operations Regiment. Mike Durant was a Blackhawk element flight lead with the ‘Night Stalkers’ and in this interview talks about his … Continue reading "RWS 34 – Special Operations Aviation with Mike Durant" The post RWS...

As a private pilot Paddy Wills wanted to find new and interesting places to fly to and explore. This involved asking around, researching locations, trawling forums and poking around on Google Earth. He thought there must be a better way so he went and created one. Helipaddy is a mobile app for helicopter pilots that … Continue reading "RWS 33 – Helipaddy with Paddy Wills" The post RWS 33 – Helipad...

Bernie Walker is a Flight paramedic working with STARS – which is the Shock Trauma Air Rescue Service – an EMS organisation that covers most of Western Canada. Bernie has been with STARS as a flight paramedic for over 16 years now and these days plays a big part in their educational programs. So he … Continue reading "RWS 32 – Helicopter Flight Paramedics with Bernie Walker" The post RWS 32 – Heli...

The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) is the largest general aviation body in the United States. Hover Power is the association’s helicopter themed blog covering a mix of news, stories and advice. In today’s episode we cover a heap of ground as we talk about the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association in the US, … Continue reading "RWS 31 – AOPA Hover Power Blog with Ian Twombly and Mar...

With the ink still drying on his A&P licence Jerry landed a job at Robinson Helicopters and went flying on his first day on the job with Frank Robinson in R22 serial number 2. We cover several of the experiences from Jerry’s career in this episode. Jerry Trimble is today’s guest and is the owner … Continue reading "RWS 30 – Touchdown Autorotation Competition and more with Jerry Trimble" The post R...

As a Royal Navy SAR pilot Jerry Grayson was involved in a number of high profile rescue missions along with the crews of the Wessex helicopters he piloted. He has written a book – Rescue Pilot – that captures many of the stories of this part of his career. Jerry decided early on in life … Continue reading "RWS 29 – Ocean Rescues and a Tail Rotor Failure with Jerry Grayson" The post RWS 29 – Ocean...

From the outback of northern Australia, to the jungles of Vietnam and the mountains of Papua New Guinea and Nepal – plus much of the US, time in the Philippines, Columbia and Russia, David Earley is one well travelled helicopter pilot. Along the way he has held almost every position from line pilot to a … Continue reading "RWS 28 – Vietnam, Culture and Helicopter Company Management with David Earl...