When I caught up with Stephen Dengler in early August, he was a bit frosted. “The weather has been against us the whole way,” he commented. They were stuck in Nome, Alaska for a couple of days, and he had “no idea” when he, his father, and former Bell Helicopter test pilot Rob ‘Dugal’ MacDuff would complete their world circumnavigation in a Bell 429 GlobalRanger.

Earlier this year, Helicopters highlighted OEMS, operators and industry leaders who are enhancing the safety landscape both here in Canada and around the world. In our special Innovation in Canadian Rotary Safety Week Aug. 21-25, Helicopters showcased companies such as Vector Aerospace, Heli-One, VIH Aerospace and more, who are innovating with new technologies and processes in the maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) space.

There are people out there who simply don’t recognize opportunities until they are rapidly diminishing in their rear-view mirrors. For those that “get it,” a sound definition of opportunity might be as simple as this: it’s a set of circumstances that make it possible for you to “do something” – in other words take a chance to implement change or seek employment.

Focus, integrity, clarity, leadership. They’re critical attributes in establishing success at any operation and they’re even more necessary when an organization has gone through periods of scrutiny and corporate strife.

Aviation, photography and movies – it’s a creative bond that goes back to the very inception of flight. Wilbur Wright, for example, is credited with the first use of a movie camera from an aircraft in April 1909. Not long after, the First World War saw the wide acceptance of aerial photography and the post-war years saw a surplus of aircraft and trained pilots, a combination that was a boon to the nascent motion picture industry.

Eagle Copter was born in Calgary some 40 years ago, but don’t let its journey into middle age fool you – the company shows little signs of slowing down.

Ah, spring. It’s the perfect time to retool and clean the slate for the season ahead. And for western Canadian operator Highland Helicopters, spring is also an ideal time to continue one of its most important new projects – a brand “refresh” and integration of all things Highland into one neat intellectual package.

Sept. 11, 2014 – We were flying up the Fraser Canyon in a small plane just north of the two-car Big Bar reaction ferry, way west of the tiny cowboy town of Clinton in the south Cariboo, when we finally found it.

July 31, 2014, Slave Lake, Alta. - Airbus Helicopter Canada and Turbomeca representatives joined George and Debbie Kelham, Owners of Slave Lake Helicopters, for tree planting operations and 15th Anniversary celebrations with key customers, employees, operators, family and friends.  During the event Romain Trapp, President of Airbus Helicopters Canada was on-hand to plant the 100th Million tree.

Look out for the 2015 winners in the upcoming July/Aug 2015 issue of Helicopters Magazine. Finding (and retaining) dynamic employees who can lead, innovate and transform corporate cultures is a goal management teams nationwide are always striving to attain. And with a looming crisis of retiring pilots, maintenance workers and other skilled aviation and aerospace professions, the search for these multi-dimensional all-stars is suddenly paramount.

Ascent Helicopters is not unlike many other small- to medium-sized helicopter operators in British Columbia.

Finding dynamic, innovative employees capable of developing new systems, processes and techniques to fuel the success of an operation for years to come is a major challenge facing fixed- and rotary-wing operations of all sizes.