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 [...]
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.
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.
The sun's heat reflects off a mottled grey tarmac, glancing back up onto the Fire Boss AT802F faithfully waiting there for me alongside Riley Payne's red-shirted form.
"As a kid, I would always look to the sky when aircraft passed over, and I loved airshows. When it came time to decide what to do for a career, I knew it needed to be hands-on and dynamic. Initially, I thought about going into corporate aviation flying business jets, but then I took an [...]
"When asked how I became a heli pilot I often reply, half-jokingly, 'It was the only option left for me – I was bad at everything else,'" Maxim laughs. "But there Is some truth in it. I didn't perform well in high school, let alone university." "The school benches totally lost me, so I started [...]
"I have many 'whys,'" says Sam. "I never grew up in an aviation family. No one in my family is a pilot or flies. But I always had a love for aviation – I just never really thought it was attainable. I didn't quite know how to pave that path when I was younger." Instead, [...]
