The Helicopter Association International (HAI) has announced the recipients of its 2023 Salute to Excellence Awards, which it plans to present on March 6 during a ceremony at HAI Heli-Expo in Atlanta.
Maintenance Award
Rainbow Helicopters v-p of maintenance Mike Iven has won the 2023 Salute to Excellence Maintenance Award. According to HAI, the award “recognizes an individual for long-standing excellence in rotorcraft maintenance, maintenance instruction or supervision, or a single significant contribution to rotorcraft maintenance.”
After immigrating to the U.S. from Germany in 1998, Iven became a shop hand and then a full-time maintenance technician at Helicopter Adventures in Concord, California, where he completed his helicopter training. He then became director of maintenance and a tour pilot at Rainbow Pacific Helicopters in Honolulu, Hawaii, where he earned his FAA inspection authorization certificate at age 28. Iven then opened his own general aviation maintenance shop before joining Makani Kai Helicopter Tours as director of maintenance.
After spending more than a decade in Hawaii, Iven returned to the continental U.S. to gain customer service and project management experience working at Safran and later Schweizer. However, he returned to Hawaii during the Covid-19 pandemic to accept his current position at Rainbow Helicopters. When he’s not working in the hangar, Iven spends his time helping to mentor the next generation of aviation maintenance technicians.
Communications Award
Vertical magazine photographer and writer Lawrence “Skip” Robinson will posthumously receive the 2023 Salute to Excellence Award for communications. The communications award recognizes Robinson for “creative distinction in disseminating information about the helicopter industry.”
Robinson, who passed away in March 2022 at the age of 56, was an aviation photographer with a passion for helicopters. He photographed helicopters since he was a teenager and later became a regular contributor to Vertical and Valor magazines as both a photographer and a writer. His images have appeared in almost every issue of those magazines and featured on nearly 40 magazine covers.
Robinson liked to share his passion for helicopters with others in his community. He volunteered at the Classic Rotors museum in Ramona, California, and helped the facility build its model collection. A family member of Robinson will accept the award on his behalf.
Law Enforcement Award
Penny Ritter, a criminalist with the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office (ACSO) in California, will receive the 2023 Salute to Excellence Law Enforcement Award. The award goes to individuals and organizations that have contributed to the promotion and advancement of rotorcraft in support of law enforcement activities.
In her 14 years with ACSO, Ritter has helped the agency’s small uncrewed aerial system program grow into a nationally recognized initiative that supports other agencies across the nation. In her work as a criminalist, she has used laser scanners and drone mapping software to create 2D and 3D maps of crime scenes and disaster zones, including the 2018 Camp Fire, the deadliest and most destructive fire in California’s history.
In her work with the sheriff's office, Ritter helped locate countless dangerous criminals. She also documented and reconstructed many dangerous crime scenes, including the infamous Hart family murders in Mendocino County in 2018.
“Penny is an exceptional asset to ACSO because of her leadership and her willingness to assist public safety agencies around the nation,” said ACSO captain Paul Liskey. “Penny not only knows how to safely operate each aircraft ACSO deploys, but she continually offers her time and support to train other team members and local agencies.”
Flight Instruction Award
The 2023 Salute to Excellence W.A. “Dub” Blessing Flight Instructor of the Year Award goes to Karl Cotton, a flight instructor and mentor with nearly 50 years of experience with helicopters.
Cotton developed an interest in helicopters in the 1970s, when he took up heli-skiing in Utah. Before long, he started learning how to fly, and he became an instructor as soon as he received his flight instructor rating.
He landed his first turbine helicopter job as a tour pilot at Grand Canyon Helicopters. In the 1980s, he began working a utility flying job doing seismic exploration in the Rocky Mountains. He later joined the Arizona Department of Public Safety as an officer pilot and flight instructor, after which he worked with the Los Angeles County Fire Department teaching various flight techniques to firefighters.
Cotton has since worked as a short-haul pilot for three U.S. national parks and as a chief flight instructor for Leading Edge Aviation in Bend, Oregon, where he runs the night-vision goggles program. He also works as a senior flight instructor and field pilot at the Helicopter Institute.
“Karl comes to the table with thousands of hours having flown many different profiles and missions,” said Deputy Josh Sweeney of Washington state’s King County Sheriff’s Office. “He is a great communicator and makes sure to constantly pass on this knowledge and experience to those he is instructing.”
Safety Award
GPMS International CEO and chief engineer Eric Bechhoefer will receive the 2023 Salute to Excellence Safety Award for his “outstanding contributions in promoting rotorcraft safety and safety awareness,” according to HAI.
After he retired from his job as a naval flight officer, Bechhoefer earned his PhD in systems engineering from George Mason University, specializing in aviation safety. While working at Goodrich Sensor Systems in the 2000s, he helped pioneer the first-generation helicopter health and usage monitoring system (HUMS) for single-engine helicopters and new condition-based maintenance systems, which Goodrich designed for the UH-60 Black Hawk, CH-47 Chinook, and S-92.
In 2010, he left Goodrich to work for a wind turbine company, where he developed a system similar to HUMS for wind turbines. Then in 2013, he co-founded Green Power Monitoring Systems (GPMS) International, where he applied his wind turbine invention to the light-helicopter market. Since then, he has overseen the design and certification of HUMSs for several helicopter models, including the Airbus AS350; Bell 212, 407, 412, and 429; Mil Mi-8, Mi-17, and Mi-171; and MD 530F. He holds 34 patents and has authored more than 150 papers on condition-based maintenance, diagnostics, and prognostics of rotating equipment.
“Dr. Bechhoefer’s contribution to rotorcraft operational and maintenance safety simply stands above all others,” said Garmin International senior systems engineer Brent Butterworth. “Through his research and development, he has taken a system only large helicopters and fleet operators could utilize to one where all sizes and budgets of Part 27 or Part 29 aircraft can reap the benefits of health monitoring. This has had a radical impact on the knowledge, awareness, and understanding of how the operation of an aircraft affects the health of the aircraft.”
Golden Hour Award
David Ellis, executive director of Haiti Air Ambulance (HAA), is the 2023 recipient of the Salute to Excellence Golden Hour Award, which recognizes individuals for their work to advance the use of helicopters or uncrewed aerial systems in medical transport services.
Ellis served as one of the first flight paramedics to volunteer with charity air medical transport service HAA upon its founding in 2014. He took over as HAA’s executive director in 2020 and made significant changes in the ways HAA chooses which patients it can transport via helicopter. Instead of relying on traditional U.S. helicopter emergency medical services guidelines for severe and life-threatening injuries, Ellis thought HAA should make those decisions for reasons that are more relevant to Haiti and the country’s transportation challenges. For example, Haiti has limited ground ambulance services and frequent gas shortages, and roads are often impassable, sometimes due to gang activity.
“The U.S.’s stringent patient-carrying criteria just don’t work here,” said Ellis. “Sometimes, people cannot get to medical services. Their injuries can become life-threatening if not treated. Our service is for a funded charity, so we look at how we can affect as many lives as possible with that funding. Sometimes it’s bringing patients to medical services. Sometimes it’s bringing vital medical supplies and professionals to the people.”
His work at HAA has led to an exponential increase in the number of flights it operates and has significantly reduced transport times. HAA has transported more than 1,500 patients, and 53 percent of those missions took place in the last two years. HAA’s transport times average 26 minutes, compared with the national average ground transport time of 205 minutes.
Humanitarian Service Award
Ananda “Andy” Thapa, director of Altitude Air Operations, is the 2023 recipient of the Salute to Excellence Humanitarian Service Award, which recognizes those “who best demonstrate the value of rotorcraft to the communities in which they operate by providing aid to those in need.”
Born in Nepal, Thapa attended a Nepali army education program in Kathmandu before enlisting in the army’s officer program. When civil war broke out in Nepal, the army needed more pilots, and Thapa learned how to fly helicopters. He flew in the Nepali army for eight years before taking a job as a civilian helicopter pilot performing rescue missions. He has rescued hundreds of people throughout Nepal, including multiple climbers on Mount Everest.
Thapa says his most successful rescue came during a mission he performed in June 2021, when more than 100 foragers went missing during a heavy snowstorm in the mountains near the border with Tibet. He led the search and located the group after five days, and everyone survived. He transported 70 of the most critical patients off of the mountain in just 2 hours and 20 minutes. When the weather began to deteriorate and he was low on fuel, Thapa brought the remaining 30 foragers a supply drop of food and other survival gear.
Lifetime Achievement Award
HAI has bestowed Capital Air founder and director Joäo “John” Vinagre with the 2023 Salute to Excellence Lifetime Achievement Award. The award “salutes excellence in management and leadership and is granted to an individual for long and significant service to the international rotorcraft community,” according to HAI.
Originally from Portugal, Vinagre and his family moved to Mozambique when he was just six months old to flee post-World War II poverty in his homeland. He earned his private pilot’s license for fixed-wing airplanes at the age of 19 and began flying helicopters after joining the army. As a fourth-generation pilot, he planned to take over his family’s helicopter business, but when the 1974 Carnation Revolution forced Portuguese citizens to leave Mozambique, the new ruling political party seized his family’s company and their 13 aircraft. Vinagre and his family then moved to South Africa, where he founded Capital Air in 1979.
As the private helicopter charter company grew, Capital Air eventually added an authorized maintenance organization certificate from the South African Civil Aviation Authority. The company then expanded into the private security sector and began tracking hijacked and stolen vehicles in Sub-Saharan Africa. While searching for a stolen truck in 1994, Vinagre’s helicopter came under fire and suffered an engine failure before crashing, and he was able to safely evacuate all four passengers. While protecting those passengers from the robbers, Vinagre was stabbed in the back, but he survived the attack.
The Helicopter Association International (HAI) has announced the recipients of its 2023 Salute to Excellence Awards, which will be presented on March 6 during a ceremony at HAI Heli-Expo in Atlanta.
Maintenance Award
Rainbow Helicopters v-p of maintenance Mike Iven will receive the 2023 Salute to Excellence Maintenance Award. According to HAI, this award “recognizes an individual for long-standing excellence in rotorcraft maintenance, maintenance instruction or supervision, or a single significant contribution to rotorcraft maintenance.”
After immigrating to the U.S. from Germany in 1998, Iven became a shop hand and then a full-time maintenance technician at Helicopter Adventures in Concord, California, where he completed his helicopter training. He then became director of maintenance and a tour pilot at Rainbow Pacific Helicopters in Honolulu, Hawaii, where he earned his FAA inspection authorization certificate at age 28. Iven then opened his own general aviation maintenance shop before joining Makani Kai Helicopter Tours as director of maintenance.
After spending more than a decade in Hawaii, Iven returned to the continental U.S. to gain customer service and project management experience working at Safran and later Schweizer. However, he returned to Hawaii during the Covid-19 pandemic to accept his current position at Rainbow Helicopters. When he’s not working in the hangar, Iven spends his time helping to mentor the next generation of aviation maintenance technicians.
Communications Award
Vertical magazine photographer and writer Lawrence “Skip” Robinson will posthumously receive the 2023 Salute to Excellence Award for Communications. The communications award recognizes Robinson for “creative distinction in disseminating information about the helicopter industry.”
Robinson, who passed away unexpectedly in March 2022 at the age of 56, was an aviation photographer with a passion for helicopters. He had been photographing helicopters since he was a teenager, and he later became a regular contributor to Vertical and Valor magazines as both a photographer and a writer. His images have appeared in almost every issue of those magazines and were featured on nearly 40 magazine covers.
When he wasn’t spending time with helicopters, Robinson liked to share his passion for helicopters with others in his community. He was an avid volunteer at the Classic Rotors museum in Ramona, California, and helped the facility build its model collection. A family member of Robinson will accept the award on his behalf.
Law Enforcement Award
Penny Ritter, a criminalist with the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office (ACSO) in California, will receive the 2023 Salute to Excellence Law Enforcement Award. This award is dedicated to individuals and organizations that have contributed to the promotion and advancement of rotorcraft in support of law enforcement activities.
In her 14 years with ACSO, Ritter has helped the agency’s small uncrewed aerial system program grow into a nationally recognized initiative that supports other agencies across the nation. In her work as a criminalist, she has used laser scanners and drone mapping software to create 2D and 3D maps of crime scenes and disaster zones, including the 2018 Camp Fire, the deadliest and most destructive fire in California’s history.
Ritter has been credited with helping to locate countless dangerous criminals. She has also documented and reconstructed many dangerous crime scenes, including the infamous Hart family murders in Mendocino County in 2018.
“Penny is an exceptional asset to ACSO because of her leadership and her willingness to assist public safety agencies around the nation,” said ACSO captain Paul Liskey. “Penny not only knows how to safely operate each aircraft ACSO deploys, but she continually offers her time and support to train other team members and local agencies.”
Flight Instruction Award
The 2023 Salute to Excellence W.A. “Dub” Blessing Flight Instructor of the Year Award will go to Karl Cotton, a flight instructor and mentor with nearly 50 years of experience with helicopters.
Cotton’s interest in helicopters arose in the 1970s when he took up heli-skiing in Utah. Before long, he started learning how to fly, and he became an instructor as soon as he received his flight instructor rating.
He landed his first turbine helicopter job as a tour pilot at Grand Canyon Helicopters. In the 1980s, he began working a utility flying job doing seismic exploration in the Rocky Mountains. He later joined the Arizona Department of Public Safety as an officer pilot and flight instructor, after which he worked with the Los Angeles County Fire Department teaching various flight techniques for firefighters.
Cotton has since worked as a short-haul pilot for three U.S. national parks and chief flight instructor for Leading Edge Aviation in Bend, Oregon, where he runs the night-vision goggles program. He also works as a senior flight instructor and field pilot at the Helicopter Institute.
“Karl comes to the table with thousands of hours having flown many different profiles and missions,” said Deputy Josh Sweeney of Washington state’s King County Sheriff’s Office. “He is a great communicator and makes sure to constantly pass on this knowledge and experience to those he is instructing.”
Safety Award
GPMS International CEO and chief engineer Eric Bechhoefer will receive the 2023 Salute to Excellence Safety Award for his “outstanding contributions in promoting rotorcraft safety and safety awareness,” according to HAI.
After he retired from his job as a naval flight officer, Bechhoefer earned his PhD in systems engineering from George Mason University, specializing in aviation safety. While working at Goodrich Sensor Systems in the 2000s, he helped pioneer the first-generation helicopter health and usage monitoring system (HUMS) for single-engine helicopters and new condition-based maintenance systems, which Goodrich designed for the UH-60 Black Hawk, CH-47 Chinook, and S-92.
In 2010, he left Goodrich to work for a wind turbine company, where he developed a system similar to HUMS for wind turbines. Then in 2013, he co-founded Green Power Monitoring Systems (GPMS) International, where he applied his wind turbine invention to the light-helicopter market. Since then, he has overseen the design and certification of HUMSs for several helicopter models, including the Airbus AS350; Bell 212, 407, 412, and 429; Mil Mi-8, Mi-17, and Mi-171; and MD 530F. He holds 34 patents and has authored more than 150 papers on condition-based maintenance, diagnostics, and prognostics of rotating equipment.
“Dr. Bechhoefer’s contribution to rotorcraft operational and maintenance safety simply stands above all others,” said Garmin International senior systems engineer Brent Butterworth. “Through his research and development, he has taken a system only large helicopters and fleet operators could utilize to one where all sizes and budgets of Part 27 or 29 aircraft can reap the benefits of health monitoring. This has had a radical impact on the knowledge, awareness, and understanding of how the operation of an aircraft affects the health of the aircraft.”
Golden Hour Award
David Ellis, executive director of Haiti Air Ambulance (HAA), was named the 2023 recipient of the Salute to Excellence Golden Hour Award, which recognizes individuals for their work to advance the use of helicopters or uncrewed aerial systems in medical transport services.
Ellis was one of the first flight paramedics to volunteer with the charity air medical transport service HAA when it was founded in 2014. He took over as HAA’s executive director in 2020 and made significant changes in the ways HAA chooses which patients can be transported via helicopter. Instead of relying on traditional U.S. helicopter emergency medical services guidelines for severe and life-threatening injuries, Ellis thought HAA should make those decisions for reasons that are more relevant to Haiti and the country’s transportation challenges. For example, Haiti has limited ground ambulance services and frequent gas shortages, and roads are often impassable, sometimes due to gang activity.
“The US’s stringent patient-carrying criteria just don’t work here,” said Ellis. “Sometimes, people cannot get to medical services. Their injuries can become life-threatening if not treated. Our service is for a funded charity, so we look at how we can affect as many lives as possible with that funding. Sometimes it’s bringing patients to medical services. Sometimes it’s bringing vital medical supplies and professionals to the people.”
His work at HAA has led to an exponential increase in the number of flights it operates and has significantly reduced transport times. To date HAA has transported more than 1,500 patients, and 53 percent of those missions took place in the last two years. HAA’s average transport time is 26 minutes, compared to the national average ground transport time of 205 minutes.
Humanitarian Service Award
Ananda “Andy” Thapa, director of Altitude Air Operations, will be the 2023 recipient of the Salute to Excellence Humanitarian Service Award, which recognizes those “who best demonstrate the value of rotorcraft to the communities in which they operate by providing aid to those in need.”
Born in Nepal, Thapa attended a Nepali Army education program in Kathmandu before enlisting in the army’s officer program. When a civil war broke out in Nepal, the army needed more pilots, and Thapa learned how to fly helicopters. He flew in the Nepali army for eight years before taking a job as a civilian helicopter pilot performing rescue missions. He has rescued hundreds of people throughout Nepal, including multiple climbers on Mount Everest.
Thapa says his most successful rescue was a mission he did in June 2021, when more than 100 foragers went missing during a heavy snowstorm in the mountains near the border with Tibet. He led the search and located the group after five days, and everyone survived. He transported 70 of the most critical patients off of the mountain in just 2 hours and 20 minutes. When the weather began to deteriorate and he was low on fuel, Thapa brought the remaining 30 foragers a supply drop of food and other survival gear.
Lifetime Achievement Award
Capital Air founder and director Joäo “John” Vinagre will receive the 2023 Salute to Excellence Lifetime Achievement Award. This award “salutes excellence in management and leadership and is granted to an individual for long and significant service to the international rotorcraft community,” according to HAI.
Originally from Portugal, Vinagre and his family moved to Mozambique when he was just six months old to flee post-World War II poverty in his homeland. He earned his private pilot’s license for fixed-wing airplanes at the age of 19 and began flying helicopters after joining the army. As a fourth-generation pilot, he was on track to take over his family’s helicopter business, but when the 1974 Carnation Revolution forced Portuguese citizens to leave Mozambique, the new ruling political party seized his family’s company and their 13 aircraft. Vinagre and his family then moved to South Africa, where he founded Capital Air in 1979.
As the private helicopter charter company grew, Capital Air eventually added an authorized maintenance organization certificate from the South African Civil Aviation Authority. The company then expanded into the private security sector and began tracking hijacked and stolen vehicles in Sub-Saharan Africa. While searching for a stolen truck in 1994, Vinagre’s helicopter came under fire and suffered an engine failure before crashing, and he was able to safely evacuate all four passengers. While protecting those passengers from the robbers, Vinagre was stabbed in the back, but he was able to survive the attack.