Tracy Stallings’ family moved from northern Nevada up to Fairbanks, Alaska, when she was young. There, the sky was filled with general aviation planes for commuting, mail and delivery, shipping supplies out to isolated towns and villages, and dropping off hunters. “They used them for everything up there, and I got to fly to various [...]
It's early summer in Australia, and Jeremy Smith is spending the night out at Maningrida, a remote outpost on the coast of the Northern Territory. He's just rolled his swag out on the floor of a community building after a big day in the bush with the rangers. The last few days have been spent [...]
In this issue, we are introduced to Éder Navacerrada – pilot, mentor, husband and father, philosopher, and friend. At time of writing, he is en route from Spain to Chile, flying a single-engine turbine, VFR. 5500 nm in four to five days. He answers my questions from hotels in the evenings. As I observe his [...]
Jenny Svedberg grew up in the southwest Swedish countryside with her parents and two brothers. She first encountered a helicopter when one landed in a field near her home. "I was about seven years old, and my eyes were wide as plates – just WOW! That image and feeling followed me my whole life. Something [...]
Matt Otto was born with the desire to get into the air. "When I was 13, Rotor Work's Hughes 300C came to our farm in New Zealand to do some topdressing, and my younger brother Tom and I got a ride." Today, Tom and Matt both work in the industry, a direct result of their initial encounter with Hughes 300C.
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Dylan grew up in the world of aviation; his father was a helicopter pilot in the French Air Force for 27 years and is now an aerial work and firefighting pilot. "I remember going to air meets, seeing my dad up there showing thousands of amazed people what a helicopter can do, and dreaming about being that guy in the sky.
Leigh Coate's first flight was in southern California at age 15, when her stepdad, a private pilot, took her up for a spin in a Cessna 172. "That feeling, when we were 1000 feet up looking down at all the cars on the freeway stuck in slow-moving traffic, was mind-blowing. It was absolute freedom – up above it all."
All Mylène Marionvalle ever wanted was to be able to help people from the sky. As a child growing up in northern France, she dreamt of joining the Service d’aide médicale urgente (Urgent Medical Aid Service) as a helicopter pilot.
To those who know Taylor Chism, a quick look at the way her life has unfolded is not surprising at all; to others, it's an enviable, intriguing, and sometimes confronting combination of everything outdoorsy, adventurous, and exciting. She possesses the zest of a confident kid who hasn't yet been taught how to fear, but she's a frank, steadily spoken young woman with the quiet self-assuredness of one who knows her personal limits.
