Who Am I?

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A nobody; a nitwit; a pilot; a motorcyclist; a raconteur; a lover...of life - who loves to laugh, who tries to not take myself (or anything) too seriously...just a normal guy who knows his place in the universe by being in touch with my spiritual side. What more is there?

18 September 2007

We Bought A Ship!

How many blog posts start out with, "I know I haven't posted in a while, but..."

Well here's another one.

I had wanted to take the summer off and just chill. But that didn't happen. Since I got back from Honduras I've been involved in the Search For The Perfect Helicopter for my new boss. It has not been easy. I mean, you'd think that helicopter brokers and salespeople would be falling all over themselves to sell me a half-a-million dollar helicopter. But no. Many times my calls went unreturned. Often I had to chase people down just to send me what we call "spec sheets" (component times and general records) for a particular ship. I've been to look at a few candidates, flown a couple. None were just right.

There was that one down in Sarasota, Florida that I looked at. It was very nice, although it did not have the most modern radio package. There were a couple of other things we didn't like too, and the seller wanted too much money for it.

Quick background lesson: Helicopters have a huge amount of rotating components: gearboxes and rotor blades and such. Some of these components must be overhauled at certain intervals. Many of them are also "life-limited." This means that after a certain amount of flight time you have to throw away that component and replace it with a new one. (By comparison, airplanes generally have zero finite-life components.) On a helicopter, overhauling and replacing these components can be costly. Thus, the closer the components are to overhaul or their life limit, the proportionately less that helicopter is worth. The key is to find a helicopter with good component times.

There was one for sale up in New Jersey (still is for sale, in fact). On the surface it appears to be a very nice ship at a very good price. But in scrutinizing the component list, the owner cleverly buried a little fact: One of the four turbine wheels in the engine will shortly need to be replaced. Very shortly. The wheel costs $12,500 by itself, not to mention the labor to dismantle the engine to get at it. And as picky as the overhaul shops are, who knows what other "little" discrepancies they'll find? The prospective buyer could easily be looking at a bill of $50,000 on top of the purchase price. Needless to say, we passed on that one.

I kept coming back to that ship in Sarasota. It was just super-clean and it flew very nicely.

About a week or so after I'd been down to see it, the seller called me up. His name is Philip Carey and his company is Engage Aviation. Philip normally sells big planes (airliners and such), but he's a helicopter nut and a pretty decent helicopter pilot. So he decided to branch out into the used helicopter market. He buys them, puts them through a complete overhaul, puts a nice interior in and then gives them a new paint job on the outside. He can "spec-out" the ship any way the buyer likes - for a price, of course. Here is the ship he had for sale.


And that is the one we ultimately bought.

Last Monday began a flurry of back-and-forth phone calls and negotiations. We finally came to an agreement on the price and the boss said, "Go get it." The next morning I was in a Beech 1900 airliner headed for Tampa. (I do not like flying on the airlines. I would have preferred to drive but time was of the essence.)

It really is a beautiful ship. Right-click on the picture and select "Open Link In New Window" to see how the paint gleams and sparkles in the sun. The paint and interior (done by Lance Aviation in Lakeland, Florida) are gorgeous. Honestly, it looks like a brand-new Bell 206B and frequently gets mistaken for one by people who do not know. Those of us in aviation can easily spot the things that mark it as being "old," but the thing about helicopters is that with continuous rebuilds and component replacement, they can realistically last almost forever.

Those strange angular protuberances on the front of the cabin are wire-cutters. Helicopters often land at places that are not airports, as ours certainly will. Whenever you're operating "off-airport" there is always the danger of hitting some sort of wire, especially at night. This usually results in a fatal accident. The wire-cutters at least give you half a chance of surviving the event. It's just a little bit of extra insurance that I requested we install. As luck would have it, this ship already had them.

So I got the ship back up here to the Pensacola area on Thursday. The boss started using it for his business on Friday. We flew right through the weekend. Then I had a day (a grueling day, I might add) of Recurrent Training yesterday. That's a whole story in itself. It's been hectic, to say the least. But hopefully it will all settle down into some sort of routine soon as I begin the life of a Corporate Pilot.


8 comments:

Adrien said...

Hey Bob, what a fun read! Thank you, I learned a lot from this post. Nice meeting you at dinner, have fun zooming around.

Adrien

Redlefty said...

That's a purty ship right there.

The helicopter pilot doesn't like flying on the airlines, huh? How come?

Hal Johnson said...

Congrats on getting another aircraft under you, Bob. Looks like a nice one.

Guanaja Sharon said...

Oh, Bob, she is really beautiful and I'm sure you are pleased to be flying her. I am glad that you have the purchase behind you now and can concentrate on the job ahead. Best of luck.
We still miss you in Guanaja and your name comes up more than you can imagine and I ALWAYS say positive things about you because, heck, what more can I do?
Safe flying and happy landings.
Sharon

Bob Barbanes: said...

Well that's nice of you, Sharon, but you know that I don't like people to lie. I'm sure that my name keeps popping up by bartenders who suddenly have an oversupply of Flor de Cana rum.

And yes, the ship is beautiful, thank you.

La Gringa said...

Congratulations! I can only imagine how exciting it must be to have new "ship."

Anonymous said...

Nice ship, Bob. My first and only ride in a helicopter was in Kauai, cruisin thru the Waimea Canyon and the Na Pali Cliffs with a set of headphones listening to some classical music. Definitely a life changing experience. Why didn't I pursue my pilot license after that... I don't know.
You have a very cool career!


kman

Linc said...

Ahh, I miss Kauai. I've only flown there two or three times, but what a great view. I'm sure the classical music adds to the grandeur of the canyon, as well.

Bob,

Beautiful bird. Glad to see you back!