MedFlight

Good Morning! I am beginning to feel like the Monday morning weatherman where each week I give you the new and latest weather for the south. Last week it was bitter cold, then we moved into the weekend where it was unseasonably warm and now rain. You just have to love late winter in the south.

One of the things that I enjoy the most about my profession is getting the opportunity to do aerial photography. To coin a phrase, “it is a whole different view from above.” My father was a private pilot so I grew up with little fear of flying and over the many years of my professional career I have spent more than my fair share of documenting my clients needs from above. During my years at NASA we flew our photographic missions with the Army in Huey helicopters strapped in with the side door completely open. I acquired a great appreciation not only for their pilot’s talents but also for flying in helicopters, which allows for the ease and potential of different perspectives than a fixed wing plane. I think my many years of being around airplanes and flying with my dad helped provide me with an acute awareness that has benefitted me when I deal with clients in aviation or clients with aerial requirements.

One of those clients that I feel very blessed to have had the opportunity to work with is the group of pilots, Para-medics and staff at Med Flight. Theirs is a life and death mission every time they lift-off. Over the many years of our professional relationship, many of the faces have changed but their dedication to their craft has not. Their pilots are some of the best I have ever had the pleasure to fly with when that rare opportunity does arise.

One of the most challenging requirement came a few years back when the wanted to photograph both of the transports with the Huntsville Hospital as a backdrop, which required the use of a third helicopter. After a few meetings discussing requirements and logistics we got airborne and headed out from their station in Meridianville. Coordinating all three helicopters and the aerial staging was a very monumental task. What we did not factor in was what the sight and concern of three helicopters hovering outside the perimeter of the hospital would cause to those on the ground. Word got back to the pilots that cars were stopping on the roads and the phone lines were lighting up at the TV and radio stations. I guess that was one for the records.

So the next time you hear that “aerial music to my ears”, the roar of the beautifully painted green helicopter flying overhead, give a nod to them and know that they fly for all of us.

ENJOY!!!