Contributing Editors – Patrick McNamara, David Honeywell, Doug Postal Often referred to as the city of angels, Los Angeles is the second most populous city in the U.S. It has a population of more than 3.8 million and covers more than 465 square miles Located in downtown Los Angeles and atop the Erwin C. Piper Technical Center sits the J. Stephen Hooper Memorial Heliport. “Hooper,”as it is known,...

Brad Nelson — Contributing Editor Talk to anyone about Phoenix, Ariz., and they will say that they either love it or hate it. There does not seem to be any middle ground. “Oh, its summers are way too hot,” some will say. “But it’s a dry heat” others chime in. (So is the inside of an oven). They may talk about the fantastic golf that can be played 365 days a year. They might even talk about the...

Dan Sweet — Contributing Editor Whoever coined the phrase “routine maintenance” for working on helicopters surely didn’t mean doing the same work over and over again. As most helicopter maintenance specialists will tell you, there is hardly anything “routine” about working on helicopters, except that there is almost always work to do. This is certainly the case for Columbia Helicopters, where the...

Ralph Hawkins | Contributing Author For many years, Paul Harvey had a syndicated radio spot where he spoke about a topic that everyone knew about, and then said “AND NOW FOR THE REST OF THE STORY!” With apologies to Mr. Harvey, this article is in a similar vein. This is part one of a two-part series. Gas turbine engine manufacturers make aircraft engines (i.e., turbo jet, turbo fan, turbo prop...

R. Fred Polak | Editor GPS: we hear that term used by someone, in some profession or occupation almost every day. More and more aircraft are using it for navigation. We may even use it ourselves! People driving their cars use GPS, people hiking use GPS, it even allows cell phones to work. It’s in my golf cart when I am on the course. Just what is GPS? Let’s take a closer look. The global...

We live in a great time in history. We can tweet, text and email to our hearts content and never have a meaningful conversation with anyone! We have big screen 3D televisions, DVD’s, iPads, iPhones and iPods galore. When we perform maintenance on our helicopters we have computers and laser beams and all sorts of the latest and greatest tools to work with. But, what happens if we have to do a...

Danny Green with Tim Hobgood — Contributing Authors I can’t figure out why people look at me so funny when they ask me what I do for a living and I tell them I’m a vibration analyst. When I explain (in laymen’s terms) exactly what it is that I do and why I do it, it tends to make sense. Either that or they’re just being polite or bored and trying to get away as quickly as possible. What is an...

Today’s business environment is complex and competitive. You have to be the best in order to succeed. This means having the highest quality and lowest cost, whatever your price point. In order to be the best, you have to concentrate on one thing. You can’t be all things to all people and be the best. This concept has led to a major transformation of American industry. A generation ago, IBM used...

AMT Day is today, May 24th! Want to learn more about AMT day an the founding father of aircraft maintenance? Visit www.amtusa.com . Charles E. Taylor 1868 to 1956!

Rolls-Royce announces it is proud to be a member of the team that was recently awarded the prestigious 2010 Robert J. Collier Trophy. The Light Helicopter Turbine Engine Company (LHTEC) CTS800-powered Sikorsky X2 Technology demonstrator won the award given annually to recognize the greatest achievements in aeronautics or astronautics in America. LHTEC is a 50:50 partnership between Rolls-Royce...