We can all talk to malcontents, Ned.

The secret is to look more broadly, talk to a wider range of people (including those who don't have an axe to grind) and take a wider view.

It might not make for such exciting headlines, and it may not suit the classic antipodean 'only happy when he's whingeing' temperament, but it makes for better and more accurate journalism.

Congratulations on the 'flag waving' comment. It doesn't warrant a serious response, so I'll stoop to the kind of snide insinuation that you seem to like: Did Lynn turn down a request for an interview, or for an air-to-air sortie?

You clearly have a great deal of regard for your journalistic capabilities, and very little for mine. That's fine. I'll keep my views of them to myself.

I think he works for Bell :E:E

Jacko - First off who said I was talking just to malcontents. I have spoken to a lot of operators who have both good and bad things to say about MD, some from the very good to some you would never want to read about, and you would be surprised how many of these there are and some of the horror stories I have heard. George got on here and posted that he had a good experience with MD so good on him, if there are more out there who have had good experiences with MD then post away, would love to see them.

Interesting comment about the Antipodean temperament, quite wrong though actually. Aussies and Kiwis dont actually whine about things, we actually just dig in and get things done. I think you are actually referring to people in your neck of the woods.

With regards to the flag waving comment I think you need to develop a harder skin. You stand up and proclaim that Lynn Tilton is doing all these wonderful things for the American people, well why dont you go and have a chat to all those that have been told that they HAVE to take this week off with no pay and they have no choice. And if Tilton is doing such amazing things with MD then why is she trying to flog it off to Boeing at the moment. And No we havent been turned down for an air to air sortie with MD or an interview. In fact we couldnt be bothered. Would rather go and work with the operators on the coal face instead of listening to all the media hype and getting given a glossy 8 x 10 photo of her half naked with the American flag draped all over her - yep real classy for the CEO of a true american icon.

Not sure where I said I have little regard for your journalistic capabilities. For one I dont even know who you are, or who you work for, so bit hard to have an opinion. Everyone is entitled to an opinion, you posted yours on the forum and likewise so did I. And with regards to my post its my opinion, nothing more, nothing less - has nothing to do with my journalistic capabilities, which by the way I am not that great at, which is why I have an editor and contributors writing for the magazine. Me - I stick to doing what I enjoy - taking photos.

500E - No I dont work for Bell - wrong.

Bugger - I just sprayed coffee over my keyboard.....

glass of red on mine, up em for the rent ned.

In all fairness, I rather think it is round the other way Jackonicko. My friends at MD tell me that Ned-Air2Air has repeatedly turned down MD offers of a MD sponsored air-to-air photo shoot. Pity actually. I think Ned is the best in the business at helicopter air-to-air photography and would very much enjoy seeing some great MD photographs in and around the lovely desert of Arizona.

Only Ned can tell if what I have heard is true and why, if indeed true, he would make that decision.

I don't agree with Ned's opinions about MD as my experience has been contrary. Nor do I find Ms Tilton's photograph offensive.

212 man - No $hit from you Bro :ok:

BlackFly - Thanks for the comments about the pics, we always try to shoot the best we can and look for something different in each shoot we do. I think good pics help illustrate a story well and in some cases tell their own stories.

My personal pref is its much more fun and realistic to get out in the field with the operators and shoot their helos working and doing real work, not just scenic shoots around the factory or local area. But thats just what I like.

Re your experiences with MD, great that you have been treated well by them, am not saying everyone has had the short stick, just some that have been highlighted. I will scan in the pic of Ms Tilton that was being handed out and post it here for posters to enjoy.

Ned


http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g1...g?t=1243312383

This pic is nice....:D

Must consider to buy MD....:ok:

In marketing one of first rules is to attract potential customers.
If you consider about this pic like wrong way you are just to conservative.

Must say that picture is a lot more conservative than she sometimes appears in the flesh !

Heli1 - You got that right. You ever see the photos of her straddling the tailboom of a 600/902 wearing low cut top :eek:

Dress or flesh as long as the AOG times are coming down do I care.

Ned-air Two.......See the pictures strddling the boom...Nah... I was too busy adjusting my thruster !

Ned - The MD902 tailboom photo was especially notable since it was on the back of a business card. :ooh:

Jacko - One of the downsides to the industry's magazines opening themselves up to a wider [i.e. youth] audience seems to have been that the standards of reporting and analysis have fallen dramatically when compared to the 1960s, '70s and '80s. This is perhaps not so much the case w.r.t. the publications to which you principally contribute (which retain a more 'serious' mil target audience), but most of the 'newsagent' mags seem willing to print whatever PR departments give them, without checking the facts or researching the backstory. I don't know whether this is due to publications not wishing to upset potential advertisers or whether it's due to the average experience levels of journos falling, but it's been very noticeable, even in 'reputable' mags such as Flight. As a result we see baseless claims being made about program schedules/costs, product technologies and company forecasts (and I'm not just thinking about MDHI here), contributing to the 'accepted' norm of most program targets being missed, with any editor brave enough to question what they're told being burned at the stake (q.v. JTM). This is not meant as a slam on journos on general - I have many good friends in the field (even including that whingeing antipodean Ned :E) - but I miss the journalistic standards of old.

I/C

It took a huge appetite for risk when Patriarch take over MD without running it through a bankruptcy to fix its capital structure. I know this because I looked at the asset, would have been a bidder on the asset or teamed up with others to bid on the asset. Give the entire Patriarch team credit for stepping up as there is no way I could figure out how to make money on the investment in the way they structured the deal.

At the end of the day, it is a good product with good uses. It is easy to maintain and is monumentally simpler than most other helicopters with similar performance capabilities. There are plenty of PMA parts, repairs and the model 250 is easily maintained by multiple shops both authorized and independent.

Patriarch has a history of buying troubled assets and working to turn them around. They are not afraid to put an asset in bankruptcy if necessary subsequent to purchase. Patriarch bought American La France from Freightliner and roughly two years later put it into bankruptcy.

So we can all speculate as much as we want but a few things are certain.

1) MD or whatever it will be called will be around for a long time. Assuming it is having some financial stress, and we have no actual knowledge that it is or is not, it has several options to include additional capital from its parent, bankruptcy restructuring, additional partner investment or even a sale.

2) People will continue to whine, yes we whine in America, about which is better product and who has better support.

3) Absent someone posting the financials, we have no real idea what is going on.

Lastly, let me comment on Ned from personal experience. In the dark days of MD, I was involved in the rebuilding a 530 and were short one part to finish. Ned got the part when no one else could. He got it by going to Patriarch directly. My experience with Ned is that he knows just about everyone and is willing to help without compensation. A rare characteristic.

Nice pic, but appears to have been taken many years ago - sure doesnt look like the LT in person at Heli Expo.

EN48 - Actually it was one of the set of four that were being handed out at HeliExpo and was shot at the same time as the others, so yep same person.

Amazing what photoshop can do :}

Jackonicko - I didn't see that one coming. One minute we're talking about MD Helicopters, next thing you have managed to gratuitously insult 25 million people with your unsubstantiated and irrelevant generalisation - "... the classic antipodean 'only happy when he's whingeing' temperament...". I find it somewhat bizarre that in the same sentence you mention "...better and more accurate journalism..."

Yup id agree with Mark Six on this one, that comment did nothing for your argument Jackonicko.

And off the top of your head name one other helicopter manufacturers CEO?

If nothing else she's raised the profile of the company. When you say MD helicopters now everyone thinks "Lynn in leather pants" and not just "company with no idea"!
(Although alot of people think both)

P-easa.im.r.s.01538
 

to all: received our easa certification for the md 500/520 and 600 rapid release door kit.
let us know if you need a copy
thanks for your patience
cal

Lynn's 902 pics
 

Re Neds post #47 and the pic of Lynn which were handed out, anybody got the other pics of Lynn straddling the Exploder tail boom.

Whats happening in MD since they lost the US military contract?

Shame there is so much personal comment, := , as said before don't care about LT as long as things get better, I did have course as previously posted to email the lady & the response was instant, up till that time we felt we were getting the run around, coincidence may be but perhaps not, we had the answers in hours.
The problems with AOG spares have improved by leaps & bounds.
Some people do not like the 600 perhaps they should have looked at mission role closer, could it be it was not the platform for them

In '99 when the 500, 600 and 900 lines were sold off from Boeing/MD I was involved in a number of meetings with the new MD Helicopter Holdings management in which strategy was discussed.

I said at the time that their biggest risk was of becoming a one product firm and which is exactly what they have become and even that, the 900 series, will soon require modernization.

500 spares will keep them turning over but recent ownership while busy doing a lot of 'stuff' has resolved nothing in terms of securing any realistic hope for the company's future.

The killer, really, was carving up the company and from which I just dont expect MDH to ultimately survive. Would love to be wrong though!

HM

So where's the Tail Boom pic ?

Couldn't find it anywhere, but Googling "Lynn-Tilton-XMAS-Card"
brings up a couple of interesting results ;)

.... and after all ..... it will soon be Christmas :ok:

http://postandcourier.media.clients....63ad7b451e7676

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d1.../Coconutty.jpg

leather trouser pic
 

In Coco's pic - Is that the cyclic she's got hold of there :E

No - Not the cyclic, just a doomed Military project :rolleyes:

I was going to post the actual XMas card from when she was a mere salesgirl back in the late '80's,
and didn't because I think that might have breached copywrite somewhere,
but if you click the link so skillfully located by the good Earl, you will get the idea !

I doubt there will be too many Christmas cards or bonuses from MD this year -
What's the real story behind the production line closing ?

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d1.../Coconutty.jpg

The other shareholder in MD
 

Could the other MD shareholders story be part of the problem?

The Dutch are looking closely at the RDM firm and their associates or whatever they are calling themselves these days?

Somebody got a huge bonus here. Got this in an email today, makes interesting reading! :eek:

CorpWatch : Pinochet's Dutch Secret

IMHO, Coconutty's pix of LT is one of the most appealing I have seen of her. Just mildy provocative, not the cheap hooker look she usually exhibits. Leaves much to the imagination, which is good unless one has a perfect body. Like many women, LT can be quite attractive when dressed approproiately (not in the show-it-all style we are accustomed to seeing). No amont of skin will earn my respect. Leading MD to a roaring success would surely do so.:ok:

Xmas for some, jail for others.
 

Thanks to my fellow ppruner for sending me the LT pic but I dont know how to attach it? Its an age thing I know, nearly pension time for me :oh:

On a more serious note, I read this and wonder if the Dutch Police contract was really cancelled because of weight issues on the Explorer, when the Police investigation into RDM was going on over there!
There may be further questions by the british authorities after this has all come out! Jail time for one man behind RDM/Elite and their operations! :=

CorpWatch : CorpWatch Bribery Report Helps Spark Dutch Inquiry

DutchNews.nl - Controversial Dutch businessman arrested

xmas cards
 

Best card I've seen, batteries not included ;)

http://sjdrimages.com/Mb/UserUploads/d28Kb44AAu0W45.jpg

Wow! Talk about symbolism! :E A shrink would have a field day with LT!

I don't think it takes a shrink to figure where she's comin from. If she were my daughter I'd hold her under a cold shower while I explained a little about what it means to have some self respect.

Re: the photo - it would suit a caption contest!

HM

caption
 

Captions for the LT photo;

I bet the other MD shareholder Joep said,

' Here lass, hang on to this while I'm in the clink' :}

or could it be;

'Every extra inch in that tail boom counts' :E

I know nothing about MD helicopters but did anyone actually take this woman seriously?

I think that was part of the problem, the fact that people did take her seriously.

To be fair to the old girl she's fallen victim to that most unforgiving of industries which, if you don't know exactly what you are doing, will turn around and bite you in the ass - and there are a few sore asses around as living proof.

Seasoned US investor Warren Buffet (owner of NetJets) has many a time warned investors to "stay the hell away from aviation" unless they have experienced (aviation) management teams to support them.

HM

One of the BIG problems with Tilton is that she turned the MD management offices into a revolving door. I can count five different CEOs in a few seconds. She would always come up with some reason for firing higher up management when they didnt do EXACTLY what SHE wanted, and these were people who spent a lifetime in the helicopter industry.

When you try and micro manage the experts you have put in there to do the job then they have no choice but to leave. And besides if you talk to her she knows everything about everything so they are on a hiding to nothing anyway.

She wouldn't be from the Middle East school of Aviation management would she?

Lynx

Just pop upstairs and check there is no horses head in your bed......:E

Lynx... Trainee Reporter perhaps
 

That boy has an agenda.... :suspect::

I'd want to know if I was working there....
 

Been called a few things in the army, but never a reporter!

No agenda here, just think the pilots and engineers who work for the dutchman should know whats been going on abroad and who is in charge. It all seems well known in other countries, but not by the PAS line pilots in the UK?

If I was a reporter I would have been printing it all Notar, not telling the UK pilots, now would I...... think about it :ugh:

As I said before dont slot the messenger...end of message.

Still like the product and give her credit for having the stones to take on the project. With respect to the pictures, those of us who live in glass houses....