Jetcopters Part 5

During the 1984 Olympics, which was held in Los Angeles, CA, Jetcopters had helicopters assigned to every domestic and international news and sports television networks.  We had the only downtown heliport, which was located within walking distance of the Coliseum.  I personally worked on the heliport approval for several weeks and in the beginning, it did not look to hopeful that the FAA would give us permission to use the site.
In the end, we got the nod to make our takeoff's and landings in the temporary heliport, which was a parking lot.

1984 Olympics opening ceremony 

I was assigned to an ABC television sports network out of New York for the seven day event. The Los Angeles and Orange county airspace was highly restricted and you could hardly fly anywhere in the city without being over one of the Olympic events. The Los Angeles police helicopter unit developed a special coding system, with an encryption guide that we used everyday for making entry into these areas.

This was the year that the Russians boycotted the Olympics for security reasons.  Before the Olympic events began, I made a special flight with a presidential team, which consisted of several  military generals and admirals to review all of the event venues to evaluate security.  We also had on board the helicopter an FBI agent to narrate all the security for each area.   In the end, the Russians, still did not come to Los Angeles.  I think in the beginning, it was thought,  there would be several terrorist actions, but nothing happened.  I was scheduled to fly at least 21 hours minimum during the entire time of the Olympics, in the end, I flew about 10 hours.

 I was scheduled to fly three passengers from the Van Nuys, CA airport to a location on the high desert called, Willow Springs raceway.  This was  30 miles north of Palmdale, CA  My passengers were Danny Sullivan, winner of the 1985 Indy 500, in his famous spin to win the race in the final laps, singers, Christopher Cross and John Denver.
Danny Sullivan had arranged for them to try out a couple of exotic Lamborghini Countouch sports cars for the day.

Danny Sullivan, kneeling, John Denver, seated, Christopher Cross, background

click to enlarge

I have always been a big fan of auto racing and also I enjoyed the music of John Denver.

I really had a nice day watching these neat cars race around the road course and enjoyed visiting with John Denver.

This was one of the perks of working for Jetcopters.  They seemed to have a lock on flying all the celebrities from both Hollywood and the entertainment world.

More Jetcopters on the next post. . . . . . . .

 



Jetcopters-NASA Part 4

While I was still working at Jetcopters, I got a call from one of the Los Angeles Federal Aviation Administration office's, requesting that I do some experimental test flights for NASA.  No, I wasn't selected to be an astronaut for a flight to the moon.  Although I must admit, if asked, I would sure do it.  The following week, I reported to the NASA Ames Research Center, which was located at Moffett Field, Mountain View, CA.  This was an old U.S. Navy blimp base.  During the early part of WWII, they hangered airships that were used for defense observation along the Pacific coast of the United States.  One of the interesting things about this facility, is that the blimp hanger still remains.  Back in the 1930's they used this building to hangar the Navy airships Macon and Akron. 

U.S. Airship Macon Moffett Field  click to enlarge

 The Blimp hangar is now being used by NASA  click to enlarge

The purpose of these experimental flights was to evaluate a new technique for making instrument approaches in helicopters.  Just a short history lesson regarding instrument flight in helicopters.

Years ago, when instrument flight was first developed.  The rules and procedures pretty much pertained to airplanes only.  This was mainly because most helicopters then and still today, are not equipped for instrument flight.  Also when these conditions (IMC) instrument meteorological conditions, existed, helicopters could usually operate in special (VFR) visual flight rules and operated in non controlled airspace and also with permission from the controlling agencies, they could enter controlled airspace, again this would be with special flight conditions.  As time went on, more and more helicopters are now able to operate in these weather conditions and also make instrument approaches for landing at airports around the country.

That's me on the far right along with two other NASA pilots click to enlarge

Typically, when an aircraft gets into the airport environment and is going to make an instrument approach for landing,  The approach begins at a designated point and descends along a very shallow flight path to the airport.  Usually at an approach angle of about 4 to 5 degrees.  This enables the aircraft to descend at a very low rate.  At the point where the approach ends, the pilots should be able to see the runway landing system and make his landing visually.  This would be called the decision height.  Usually around 200 feet above the ground, lower in some cases.  If the pilot does not see the runway or approach lights, he aborts the landing and goes around for another attempt.



Here I am at the controls of a Bell UH-1 Iroquois helicopter, these were used in the Vietnam war click to enlarge

Our test flights were to evaluate instrument approaches utilizing a much steeper flight path, up to 12 to 15 degrees on the approach. This would produce a higher rate of descent. Also to see if the pilot could react quick enough as t0 not  sag through the decision height before hitting the ground on an attempted go around.  I spent a week at NASA doing these flights.  I have no idea of why this concept was being tested or if it every was used.  Maybe in a military application, but I doubt it would every be used for civilian use.  Another adventure in the career of a helicopter pilot.



Some explanations to the previous post

Several of my friends are following this blog, and from time to time I may get a call from one of them, asking a question or for an explanation of some of the events that may have occurred during my career as a helicopter pilot.  Recently I received a call from one of my best friends, Ron Green who lives in Kansas City, MO regarding the flight described in the previous post.  He brought up some good points and ones that I should have considered at the time.  Which I did later, but sometimes later is too late?

click to enlarge

Over the years, their has been a tradition in the aircraft cockpit amongst pilot's about the pilot in command. He is in charge of the flight and all decisions regarding the flights operation will be made by the PIC.  Kind of like the captain of a ship.  On this particular flight the FBI had chartered the aircraft and requested to use their own pilot to act as PIC. I was requested to go on this flight to act as an observer to comply with the companies requirements.  Because of the nature of the flight and the fact that it involved the presidents security, I choose not to ask  too many questions or to interfere with the operation of this flight.  Jetcopters was a fast growing company and was pursuing the business of many government agencies.  We were doing flights for the DEA, CIA,FBI and the IRS.  For that reason I did not want to add anything negative that might reflect on future business.

Ron's questions , and I might add,  very good ones, is why didn't the FBI pilot do more prior planning on his part before starting out on a flight with marginal flight conditions.  Why did he elect to take two additional passengers that did not have a purpose during this flight?

I really don't know and could only guess.  It may be that on prior flights he had not encountered any difficulties and that he assumed that this flight would be pretty much the same.

Out of professional courtesy to the FBI pilot involved I have omitted his name.  Like myself, I know he will never forget this flight and the mention of his name, serves no useful purpose.

I would also not give myself credit for saving five lives and a million dollar helicopter.  I should have offered some more helpful suggestions prior to the flight and maybe taken control of the helicopter while it was still in it's performance envelope.  I do take credit for having made  poor decisions on my part.

Most helicopter flight activity is done in a sea level environment or at much lower levels above sea level.  The margin for error when flying a helicopter, my old flight instructor Jerry Getz used to say, is ZERO.  But when the conditions are not extreme such as the 9500 feet of altitude we were operating at,  some errors or conditions of flight can be recovered before disaster strikes.  Sometimes a situation is allowed to go to the limit, then a more experienced pilot  could take over the flight controls and recover the aircraft to a normal flight condition.  This has happened to me many times in my days as a flight instructor.  So I learned from this flight experience and the outcome was uneventful.  Ron, thank you for asking.  Back to Jetcopters in the next post.........................

Jetcopters Part 3

November 10, 1983.  Jetcopters did a lot of charter flights for most of the law enforcement agencies in the State of California and also the U.S. government.  Jim Deeth our Chief Pilot called me into his office one morning to go over the flight details for a flight I was to do with the FBI.  The FBI had their own helicopters and pilots, but elected to use our helicopter for a special flight on this day.  The company allowed the FBI to use our aircraft, but also required that one of our pilots be on board  the flight.  I did not know the FBI pilot for this flight, but assumed that if the company trusted him, I could too, but with a watchful eye. Normally when I was not the pilot of the aircraft, but an observer, I did not give or offer advice to the pilot. I did not touch or operate any of the controls including the radios.  Even though I might have done things differently, I think one should respect the pilot in command.  Whenever I was acting as the pilot in command and I had another pilot sitting in the seat next to me, this is what I would expect.  If needed, I would ask for help.  I did watch for other aircraft during the flight and if the pilot asked for my assistance, I would do as asked.   We departed the Van Nuys airport and flew to the Banning,CA airport.  This airport was located between two large mountain ranges. San Gorgonio mountains to the north and San Jacintos mountains to the south.  The purpose of the flight was to take several hundred pounds of special electronic equipment to a location known as Snow Peak. It seems that President Reagan was going to be in Palm Springs, CA and this equipment was to be used for the presidents security.   Snow Peak was near 9000 feet above sea level.  This is not a normal environment to operate a helicopter.  Typically the higher you go, the performance of the helicopter is greatly reduced.  For this reason, I took it upon myself to do some mental calculations to determine that we could land safely at that altitude.  Oddly enough, the FBI pilot did not?

So it was necessary to determine the weight of the helicopter, which includes fuel, cargo,  pilot and passengers. Also it is necessary to know the approximate temperature at the altitude for the proposed landing site.  These preflight calculations will give you the expected performance of the helicopter at altitude.  The main concern would be to know you could make an approach and then be able to hover the helicopter in ground effect safely.  Supposedly this pilot was very experienced and had been to this location before.  I am still being casually watchful, but also did not want to give any unwanted advice to the FBI pilot.   After all it was their flight to do, and I was just an observer.  We met three FBI technicians at the airport and proceeded to load the equipment on to the helicopter.  In the beginning the planned load for this flight, would consist of the FBI pilot, myself, one FBI technician and the electronic cargo. This would be our takeoff configuration.  At the last minute, the FBI pilot elected to take the other two FBI people.  Again, he is the pilot in command, so I will keep my opinions to myself. We sure didn't need the extra weight at that altitude.  We departed the Banning airport and climbed to an altitude of 9500 feet.  As we began our approach for landing, I am looking at the side of a mountain, but I do not see a place for us to land.  We continued the approach and I'm still looking. I am beginning to feel very uneasy and I can see the  pilot is not looking too sure of himself.  We continue closer to the mountain terrain and I notice that we are exceeding  the engine torque limits, the turbine outlet temperature is at the red line and we are losing rotor RPM.  This is all happening at once and I haven't got a clue of what his intentions are.   We were drifting into the side of the mountain and had lost directional control of the aircraft, which in turn was causing the aircraft to rotate to the right.  Also the aircraft was settling to the ground at the same time.  Now I am certain we are going to crash. At that same moment, the FBI pilot turned to me and casually said, "you got it".  Which means he was relinquishing control of the aircraft to me.  I had no idea of what was below the helicopter or if the ground was suitable for landing.  I had no other choice but to land the helicopter the best I could,  knowing we would probably roll down the side of the mountain.  This helicopter was not going to remain in the air much longer, considering the flight conditions we had.  I lowered the collective control, which controls the vertical movement of the helicopter in a hover.  I could not make any choices now and I had to go with what we had.  Luck was on my side, the helicopter settled to the ground and remained upright on slightly unlevel ground.  Needless to say, I am really angry with having been put into this situation.  After we off loaded the cargo and the three FBI passengers in the rear of the aircraft, the helicopter would be much lighter and our takeoff would not be a problem.  I told the two extra people that got on the aircraft at the last minute. they could get out now.  They replied, that they just came along for the ride and would be returning with us to the Banning airport.  I would guess that the two of them would have weighed together around 350-400 pounds. The ordeal we had just gone through, would have been much different without them on the aircraft .  At this point, I had used up all my patience and told the FBI pilot, that I would fly the aircraft for the remainder of the flight.  When I got back to Jetcopters, I walked into Jim Deeth's office and closed the door.  I then expressed my displeasure with having been put in that situation.  I also told him I would quit Jetcopters, if ever I was asked to babysit any more of the government's pilots. As I am writing this post today and also looking through my pilot's log book.  I noticed that I made this comment in the remarks section for this flight. THIS ONE ALMOST ATE MY LUNCH!  More on Jetcopters in the next post. . . . . . .

Jetcopters Part 2

Working weekends really helped with the commuting problem, but as a rule the flight activity was pretty slow.  On occasion I did get called in on my days off and so there was some disadvantage to having days off during the week.  Once I got to the airport, I really didn't mind.  I don't think I ever got tired of flying and if I was scheduled to do a flight, I had no problem working the extra days and flight hours.  We had one big long building that had nothing but Jetranger and Longranger helicopters hangared there.  When you rolled the hangar doors open, it looked like a rainbow of helicopters.  All brand new aircraft and always equipped with the latest and best equipment.  Jetcopters was very involved in both the movie and television business.  So many of the pilots were getting a chance to fly for these companies. 

Jim Deeth was involved with  John Carpenter making a movie called Starman.  He was the Aerial Coordinator and one part of the movie was going to involve several helicopters and pilots. Vietnam era Huey's, Jetrangers and Longrangers.  One scene was a large formation of helicopters making a low level flight over the desert.  This was shot near Winslow, AZ.  Also several shots would be taken at the Meteor crater in the same location.  Several of Jetcopters helicopters and pilots were being used and Jim had contracted several other operators from around the country to be used in the film.  A few days before this was to take place, we flew into the Winslow, AZ airport where the movie crews prepared the helicopters to look like Army aircraft.  They masked off the windows of the helicopter and then sprayed on a rubberized peel paint in Army colors.  Then added decals for the insignias and markings to make them look like military aircraft.  When the shoot was finished, they  put the helicopters on a wash rack and  sprayed the peel paint off with a high pressure water hose.  If for any reason there was any damage to the paint, the movie company would repaint the aircraft.  The technology was pretty advanced for this application and repainting the helicopters was not done very often.

Civilian helicopters used in the movie Starman click to enlarge

This was really going to be my first experience being directly involved in an actual movie.  We were a large group of pilots and we spent nearly a week doing this part of the movie.  It was fun being out on location, doing the wardrobe thing and watching the making of a movie first hand.  I had met John Carpenter earlier before working for Jetcopters, so I was comfortable with working with movie people.  Jeff Bridges and Karen Allen were the two principal actors and were both very friendly to work with.  Finally, this was going to enable me to become a member of the Screen Actors Guild.  I was now qualified and just needed to fill out the application forms and pay a membership fee.  This was one of the first things I did when we returned to Los Angeles a few weeks later.

At the end of the shoot at this location, Jim asked me to fly the camera helicopter a Bell BH-206L3 to the Scottsdale, AZ airport where it would receive a 50 hour maintenance inspection.  They could complete this inspection in one day and the next day, I ferried the helicopter to Nashville, TN.  I made one overnight stay in Dallas, TX before going on to Nashville the next day.  more on Jetcopters in the next post.........

Jetcopters Part 1

I spoke with Jim Deeth several times in the next few weeks and still I could not make a decision on going with Jetcopters.  The biggest obstacle in my mind was the 50 mile drive each way.  I was already driving 35 miles to downtown Los Angeles, but at least I was commuting at a time of the day when traffic was not as heavy.  Then at night when I left to go home around 1:00 am  early in the morning, traffic would be light.

Typical Los Angeles Freeway Traffic (405 between LA & Van Nuys) 

Driving 50 miles in Los Angeles traffic, could equate to two to three hours in some cases.

This would  have been for each work day, I could be on the freeway four to six hours a day. There were several ways to drive from my home in Cypress, CA to the Van Nuys, CA airport, but they were all within a few tenths of being 50 miles.  One day I decided to just pick a day during the week, and drive the freeway route I would most likely be taking each day, and see what the time to drive would be.  I must have picked an exceptional day, because I drove it in one hour.  This I could live with.  So I gave Deeth a call and we sat down and worked out a plan for me to come to work for them.  Jim Deeth is probably one of the best pilots I have ever worked with.  Also a very fair and honest person.  Jim had been a long time veteran pilot with the California Highway Patrol.  He left the CHP with lots of years of service and joined up with a man by the name of Peter McKernan.  A great partnership to say the least.  I  had first met Jim Deeth  in Long Beach, CA.  He had been giving flight instruction to Peter McKernan at the time.   They had come to me to ask if I could give McKernan an FAA flight test for his commercial license to fly helicopters.  Peter was the owner and president of Jetcopters, so I was well acquainted with the principals of the company now.  Earlier when I first met Jim Deeth, he brought another man in one day and asked if I would schedule him for an FAA fight test.  His name was John Carpenter a well know movie director in Hollywood.  Later on, I became better aquainted with Mr Carpenter, flying helicopters in a few of the movies he directed.  Jetcopters was a very aggressive fast growing helicopter operation.  We had a stable of new helicopters second to none.  They had a large maintenance staff and twelve pilots, some were flight instructors only and others were part time.  They were well established in every part of the helicopter business.  Peter Mckernan had an unlimited amount of resources to  purchase new helicopters and equipment.  Jetcopters was becoming the largest operation in the Western part of the United States.  They had a major television contract in Hawaii doing a show called Magnum P.I.   They had just purchased a new Bell 222 to be used in a television show called Airwolf.   Working at Jetcopters was like being on the dream team.  Peter McKernan provided the best employment package for pilots anywhere in Los Angeles.  He was  generous and very involved in the everyday operation of the company.  Jim Deeth was the Chief Pilot and Director of Operations.  These two people were creating a company that was known throughout the United States.  Things are going pretty good for me now and I am dealing with the daily commute without too much trouble. Although one morning it did take me nearly four hours to make the drive. Later on I asked to work the weekends.  I also bought a small motorhome and stayed at the Van Nuys airport three nights a week.  This reduced my days of driving to two days a week.  More on Jetcopters in the next post. . . . . . . .

Out on the street again

Throughout my career, I have been pretty lucky whenever I was unemployed or between jobs as they say.  This time it was totally unexpected.  In the past I have managed okay and I would again. In most cases, I have been able to see it coming, this time I didn't.  I had a few things going for me and some time to plan my next move.  Meanwhile, I was still going to the airport every day and taking care of the Oxy helicopter until it was sold.  I had a young man come in weekly to help me wash and wax the helicopter and we kept it looking like new.  Once a week I would roll in out to the flight line and crank it up and run it for a few minutes.  The company would not allow me fly it, so that was as much as I could do.  I didn't really have any experience in selling any type of aircraft, so I was not making a big effort to do so.  I was still receiving a salary,  I did  what I could.  A friend of mine, Mike Dresman, was walking through the hangar one day while I was doing some work on the helicopter.  In passing, he said hello, and I casually yelled back to him, "do you want to buy a helicopter".  We both laughed and that was the end of it.  In my past, I've sold three helicopters that ranged in  value of nearly a million dollars each.  About a week later, I received a call from Mike and we met to discuss the sale of the helicopter. The helicopter now had a new owner and I had finished my obligation.  Too bad, I didn't ask for a commission, it would have amounted to several thousand dollars.  As I said earlier, I was not a helicopter sales person, so the sale was more by accident, rather than to my credit.

Mike had several pilots working for his company part time, and one of the provisions of the sale, was that I was to conduct a ground school and a checkout for each pilot on his staff.  One thing led to another, and I was employed part time to work for Helitac.  The company was located in a part of Los Angeles, CA called Echo Park.  They had an entire upper floor of a bank building on Sunset Blvd. that also had a rooftop heliport.  The heliport could manage four helicopters and they were left on the roof overnight after the evenings work was finished.

Helitac Heliport, Echo Park, Los Angeles 

Echo Park was once one of the finer parts of Los Angeles, but now it was in the heart of a gangland center.  At night, looking down on the streets below the bank heliport, you could hear gun shots being fired sometimes.  Every takeoff from the heliport was over  water, any type of emergency landing would be directly in the lake at night.  Whenever my work was finished late at night, I made sure my doors were locked and I took the shortest route to the freeway.

Mike Dresman was the owner of Helitac.  Most of their work was courier work at night collecting bank checks and cash from several large banking institutions in the greater Los Angeles area.  After the banks closed for the day, a fleet of trucks would collect bank checks and in some cases cash. They would meet with the helicopter several times during the evening hours at the Fullerton, CA airport.  This was done five or six times at almost every other hour intervals. All of the bank transactions were packed in small boxes about the size of a shoe box.  We could load the helicopter to the ceiling and carry a considerable amount of weight.  Everything was striped out of the helicopter with the exception of the two front seats.

View inside of a Bell BH-206B Jet Ranger click to enlarge

The above picture was going to be my office for the time being.  Most of the flying would be at night with the exception of the first hour and then I would be making these flight throughout the evening.  When we made our pickups at Fullerton, we then dropped off the banks cargo at a clearing house in downtown Los Angeles they also had a rooftop heliport.  When all the collections had been completed, we then flew back to the clearing house heliport and transferred the processed bank paperwork to either Burbank or Los Angeles airport.  At these airports we would rendezvous with a Lear Jet aircraft that would fly the completed processed checks and cash to either New York or San Francisco.  It was my understanding that this would enable the banks to realize a considerable savings in unpaid interest.  Flying around Los Angeles at night was okay, but sometimes the weather could really make some flights very difficult.  This was the major part of our flight activity, but we also flew a television news helicopter for ABC network in LA.  I continued on with Helitac for several more months.  Eventually I talked Mike into giving me a full time position.  This would at least give me peace of mind for the time being.  I enjoyed the work, but the drive into downtown Los Angles everyday was not to my liking.  Most people in Los Angeles seem to live in one place and work in another.  So I guess I fit in with all the other people on the crowded freeways. Later on I met with Jim Deeth who was the Director of Operations for a company called Jetcopters, located in Van Nuys, CA.  They had asked me to come to work for them, but the 50 mile drive everyday caused me to have some second thoughts.  See what happens in the next post. . . . . . .