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3rd
Quarter 2010
Fellow
Twirly Birds,
Quote
from C.L. Morris, Sikorsky test pilot for the VS-300, and Twirly Bird
founder: “The very fact of controlling a helicopter
at
all, even with two hands and two feet, is something of a modern
miracle”.
As
I waited and watched for the quarterly Twirly Bird news letter it
finally dawned
on me that Jim Hamilton had “ passed the gavel” and it is now my
responsibility
to get out the news, and make it interesting and informative as Jim has
done so
well for so many years.
Jim
is truly a gallant and fearless leader who has devoted an enormous
amount of
time, energy, and money to promote and advance this extraordinary
organization.
One
of the first orders of business, after our reception in Houston, was to
find a new treasurer. Bill Yarber
decided that he had enough fun as the “tight fisted” treasurer but
would like
to continue to serve as the Twirly Bird Historian.
Fortunately Barry Desfor, Managing Director
of Heli-Value$ agreed to manage the Twirly Bird financial empire. Since his wife, Sharon, does all the work at
Heli-Value$, he has the time to keep our finances in order.
As
our “official” historian Bill Yarber
is the point of contact if you wish to donate, papers, documents,
models and
memorabilia to the History of Aviation Collection at the University
of Texas at Dallas.
The Twirly Birds have established a Twirly Bird Archive
Endowment that
will ensure the care of the collection. It is important to preserve our
history
and we must thank Bill Yarber
and
Jim Hamilton who had the foresight to establish this endowment.
You
can contact Bill at williamyarber@sbcglobal.net,
or 972/407-0771.
Nancy
Lematta, our newest associate member, has taken the helm of Columbia
Helicopters. Nancy and Wes, seldom
if
ever, missed a TB reception and we look forward to seeing Nancy at all our
future gatherings. You may
recall that Wes received the Les Morris award in 2009.
Roy Simmons introduced Wes with an overview
of his career and contributions to the helicopter industry that left
most of us
spellbound. If there was ever a
“pioneer” in the helicopter world it was Wes.
Slats
Slattery, who devoted so much time and effort to the Twirly Birds, was
recently
inducted into the Michigan Aviation Hall of Fame. The press release
states, “Lt.
Col. John (Slats)
Slattery, military helicopter pilot, was born and raised in Bay City. As a
helicopter pilot in Vietnam,
he
flew more than 100 life-saving missions and received 30 citations
including the
Legion of Merit, the Distinguished Flying Cross with one Oak Leaf
Cluster, the
Bronze Star, an Air Medal with 15 Clusters, the Vietnam Cross of
Gallantry with
two Silver Stars and the Vietnam Air Cross of Gallantry with Bronze
Wings.
After retiring as a lieutenant colonel, he became the curator for the
Helicopter Association International and the Helicopter Foundation
International. He had more than 6,000 hours of flying time in
rotorcraft.
Slattery passed away in 2008.”
Slats
was a champion collector of helicopter documents, models, and other
memorabilia. Bill
Yarber has transferred much of that collection to the
Twirly
Bird archive at University of
Texas at Dallas.
Twirly
Bird Web Master, Roger Gould, has devoted a huge amount of time and
energy to
update the Twirly Bird roster and web site. In the near future we would
like to
save a few dollars and some time by e-mailing the newsletter to all
members who
have e-mail capabilities. If you don't
have or wish to use e-mail we will mail your newsletter. In
the meantime would you please send Barry
Desfor [barry.desfor@helivalues.com]
your current e-mail address so we can
update our data base?
Senior
Twirly Bird, Jim Ricklefs addressed members of the San Francisco
Chapter of the
American Helicopter Society. The meeting
place was the unique and well done Moffett Field
Air Museum. Moffett
Field is now a Federal Airfield
managed by NASA Ames. Jim was the
first
President of HAI and founded Rick Helicopters in 1946.
His presentation accompanied by slides of the
early days of helicopters was quite an eye opener to the audience of
mostly
young engineers.
Rod
Kvamme and I had an opportunity to visit the Museum
of Mountain Flying at the Missoula, Montana
airport. There was an area devoted to
Johnson Flying Service, a company that was a pioneer in fixed and
rotary wing
support to fire suppression. (Rod’s
first civilian helicopter job was with Johnson.) We also noted pictures
and
articles about other Twirly Birds, including a picture of our humble
historian
who was identified as a helicopter peddler for Bell.
If you have the opportunity the museum is well worth a
visit. It is a short walk from the
Missoula
Terminal.
Several
Twirly Birds attended the annual Fourth of July meeting of the Viet Nam
Helicopter Pilots Association, (VHPA) in San Diego. The
beautiful setting and beautiful weather combined to make this a
memorable
reunion of old friends and comrades.
Some units had their own unit “mini-reunions” and other
attendees were
quite happy to just spend some time with old friends
Please
plan now to attend the Twirly Bird reception at the HAI Heli-Expo in Orlando March 5-8. We plan to hold the reception in the
convention hotel from about 17:30 to 19:00 on the first night of
Heli-Expo. (More
details will be in future newsletter.) This schedule allows those who
have
business dinners and other events to attend, with plenty of time for
socializing with old and new friends, enjoying an attitude adjustment
beverage,
a lot of laughs, and taking care of business since time is always
precious at
Heli-Expo.
Unfortunately
the Twirly Bird organization and reception continue to be a well kept
secret
with many eligible pilots missing out on what is always a pleasant
break in the
sometimes frenetic action of the trade show.
Please bring a new member.
TB
Vice President Jim Kettles has suggested a life time membership
category for
$500.00. With a lifetime membership
you
would be able to avoid paying those pesky dues each year.
Jim is in the very preliminary stages of
developing a scholarship program funded at least in part by the
lifetime
membership dues. Jim has volunteered to be the first to sign up for a
lifetime
membership and I will be number two.
A
good reporter has “sources”. In this
case the “sources” are fellow Twirly Birds. Please send me any
information that
you think may be of interest to the membership.
Keep
your rotor in the green!
Steve
Sullivan
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