Episodes

As a Royal Navy SAR pilot Jerry Grayson was involved in a number of high profile rescue missions along with the crews of the Wessex helicopters he piloted. He has written a book – Rescue Pilot – that captures many of the stories of this part of his car...

From the outback of northern Australia, to the jungles of Vietnam and the mountains of Papua New Guinea and Nepal – plus much of the US, time in the Philippines, Columbia and Russia, David Earley is one well travelled helicopter pilot.

Helicopters are uniquely suited to the demands of the US Forest Service. John Harris is one of the Service’s inspector pilots and in this episode talks about his career and his current role. Based in Missoula, Montana,

Dr Warren De Haan has been an Aviation vision specialist for 48 years and is considered the world’s leading expert in the field. In this episode we will be talking about vision science, tips on looking after your eyesight,

Today’s episode is about a single seat helicopter design being developed in Australia that makes use of a coaxial rotor system. And who better to talk us through the design than Airbus A380 captain Richard Woodward. That’s right,

To take us through everything you ever wanted to know about helicopter aircrew helmets we are joined today by Mark Jones of Gentex Aircrew Systems. The modern helmet does much more than just provide head protection as you are about to find out.

Blackdeath 23 was Robert Mill’s callsign in an Air Cavalry Unit operating the Kiowa Warrior in Iraq. Robert has published his journal as a book of the same name covering his two tours in Iraq and the daily challenges of operating a scout helicopter in ...

A battle truck that cruises at 240kts and can land in your supermarket car park – the V-22 Osprey is one of the more unique aircraft kicking around. Ok, technically its a tiltrotor design but we’ll adopt it as more rotary wing than fixed wing.

A great example of the utility of helicopters is their use in firefighting support. There is more to it than meets the eye though. [Warning: This is a longer episode, approx 85mins, so you might want to download the file and play locally] Using under...

Whether you walk away from a landing after an helicopter engine failure or not depends on many things but one good predictor is the Height Velocity(H/V) diagram. The H/V diagram (also known as H/V curve and dead man’s curve) ...

A box full of maps, a sat phone, a support crew of 1 in a British hangar, full tanks and off you hop for an around the world record flight in an MD500 helicopter – that’s what Simon Oliphant-Hope did. Podcast: Subscribe in iTunes | Play in new window |...

Its time to dust off your CV and step behind the scenes of a helicopter aircrew recruiting office so you can be better prepared for your next job application. Several times in our flying careers we’ll need to go through the process of applying for a po...

Educating or instructing can be it’s own skill set regardless of the actual content taught. Philip Greenspun is a MIT lecturer and a flight instructor and shares his own approach to flying training. If you are a helicopter instructor or in a check & tr...

This is part 2 of the interview with British helicopter display pilot Dennis Kenyon. For part 1, listen to Episode 14 In this episode we delve deeper into the preparation, setup and mindset needed to be a display pilot. Denni...

Display flying has captured the imagination of the public ever since the very first flights. One the longest performing and well respected helicopter display pilots in the world is UK pilot Dennis Kenyon Note: This is part 1 ...

Do you remember how humbling it felt first learning to hover? If you ever want to experience that feeling again then give longlining a go. The ability for helicopters to move equipment and loads to remote or hard to reach locations makes them incredibl...

NASA is not just space shuttles, Mars robots and moon landings! Susan Gorton has been leading the NASA Rotary Wing Project for the last 8 years helping to pave the way for faster, quieter, safer and more economical helicopter designs and operations.

Whirly Girls International president(2014) Dianna Stanger got her start in flying thanks to a need for breakfast eggs on her island home. That started a love affair that most of us can relate too. Dianna is one busy lady.

For most young helicopter pilots opening your own helicopter training school is probably not high on your list of things to do. But this is exactly what Heather Howley, this week’s guest on the show, did when she was left in the lurch with a helicopter...

John Eacott’s aviation career has spanned 49 years and he’s still adding time on top of that today as an active commercial pilot. He has spent a huge amount of time flying over oceans as an ex-Royal Navy pilot and multiple stints in the oil industry.

Alaska is still largely wilderness and remote communities rely heavily on helicopter operations. Air Ambulance services like the one that today’s guest Lorena Knapp flies for can drastically reduce the time needed to get a patient to primary care given...

30 seconds ago you were airborne but now you are in the drink and water is quickly filling your helicopter cockpit while the machine starts to roll upside down – what do you do next? If you are not 100% certain then you will want to listen to this inte...

In this episode of the Rotary Wing Show we head to Zululand, South Africa to hear about how helicopters are being employed in the fight against Rhino poachers. Etienne Gerber is the chief pilot at Zululand Anti-Poaching Wing and shares first hand the c...

Flying helicopters doesn’t come cheap but for those of us that can’t get enough of it or don’t have the funds for the real thing then a new technology might be the answer – enter First Person View (FPV) remote controlled aircraft.