The three dragons

Conferences, training days and other events address the three dragons in one fell swoop. It is surprising how positive you become simply by mixing with other professionals, seeing new equipment or hearing a new take on an old problem.

This year, Sidney Dekker gave a great presentation that challenged listeners to think of not who is responsible, but what is responsible when things go wrong. Alan Corr from the US delivered a workshop on spraying excellence that really got the discussion going, and delegates heard from aircraft manufacturers and a wide range of trade exhibitors.

But inspiration doesn’t stop at good speakers – AAAA recognised great contributions to our sector. The Ray Mackay Award for a lifelong contribution went to Harley McKillop who has trained, mentored and helped hundreds of application pilots over many years. The Professional Pilot Award went to Craig Patton for his unselfish development and sharing of safe scooping sites for the Fireboss firefighting aircraft. The Leland Snow Innovation Award went to Balmoral Engineering for its development of a high quality, low-cost powerline marker, while AAAA president Stephen Death received the Midcontinent Award for his contribution to AAAA.

AAAA also looks forward at these events and this year Kaddie Crosby was awarded the Col Pay Scholarship to assist with attaining an application rating.

Even the Deputy Prime Minister tweeted “Aerial application is invaluable to the productivity of Australian agriculture and the delivery of emergency services. Congratulations to all the award winners at the AAAA gala dinner tonight.”

Undervaluing the power of mixing with your peers is common, but selfrecognition as a professional is critical to lighting a fire under your career. Real industry professionals search for opportunities to learn and engage.

If you see yourself as a professional with a commitment to learning, you can start by simply participating in the regular fare of relevant and fun events run by your association or professional body.

With the quality of speakers and the tailored content on offer, all you have to do is register and turn up.

‘Undervaluing the power of mixing with your peers is common.’

Taking flight

Rotortech 2018 a great success

There has been plenty of recent discussion surrounding the state of the helicopter industry in terms of growth and activity, but if the interest levels demonstrated by participants at Rotortech 2018 is any measure of our sector’s engagement and willingness to grow, then we are in good health.

With 996 registered delegates (an almost 10-fold increase), 78 industry booths, helicopter static displays and three days of informative presentations ranging from night firebombing operations to interactive sessions with senior CASA executives and the CASA Director of Aviation Safety Shane Carmody, the event’s success was evident.

The keynote speaker Chuck Aaron held court with 400 people packing the presentation hall to hear about and watch footage of his stunning helicopter aerobatics demonstrations using his highly-modified BO 105. Vision from both inside and outside the helicopter gave a realistic sensation of being thrown around the sky with some in the crowd feeling slightly uncomfortable, especially with Chuck’s stunt of 20 consecutive barrel rolls with a full glass of water poised above the radio stack not spilling a drop. If you’ve seen the James Bond movie Spectre you’ve seen Chuck in action, in the stunning flying sequences above Mexico City’s Zocalo Square.

Rotortech served to highlight a diverse industry on the move serving communities across Australia, from agriculture to emergency medical retrieval, firefighting, offshore transportation, policing, tourism, Antarctic science and exploration, mining sector support, critical utility infrastructure construction and monitoring, with other activities too many to list. No other aviation sector stretches across such a broad range of capabilities.

Rotortech also hosted the inaugural helicopter awards dinner with a sold‑out crowd of over 250 people. The dinner saw presentation of the Pilot of the Year (Roger De Souza), Engineer of the Year (Trevor Breed), Crewman of the Year, (Trent Owen) and Support person of the Year (Maria Coutinho) awards. All were nominated by colleagues for providing long-term, dedicated and outstanding service to the helicopter industry.

These helicopter industry awards will now be an annual event to recognise and reward individuals who serve our important industry above and beyond the norm.

Let’s take Rotortech’s success as our platform on which we drive forward until the next conference in 2020 – it sets the example of how our combined strengths will help us through the regulatory changes ahead.

Finally, the AHIA would like to thank the organisers, presenters, exhibitors, delegates, volunteers and everyone involved in Rotortech 2018 who made it an outstanding success.

‘Rotortech served to highlight a diverse industry on the move.’