Rocky Mountain Helicopters RMH
 

I start this Thread to talk with you guys about RMH Helicopters. It would be great if we could share pictures, good memories and some stories.

Thanks

Ahhh! A fellow Rocky Dude!

Rocky was one of the best helicopter company I have ever worked for! I joined in 1998 in Tucson, AZ as a mechanic. I was called, "Pete the Mechanic!"

An EMS base called Air Care at the time. BK117, BO-105CBS, and a Cessna 441. Then later the fleet were replaced with Astars and called themselves, LifeNet Arizona.

Oh, what great times! Todd McKiney, Joe Foster, and Jeremy Danforth were the maintenance guys I worked with. The people I worked with were great to work with.

I left RMH in late 2000 to work on a EMS Bell 407. Yep, I am still here on the 407's. Best aircraft I have ever worked on.

What about you? Who, what, where were you at Rocky?


Pete

A short history, please.
 

For those of us with a bad memory and/or not working in the US can anyone give us a ‘potted history’ of the company?

As I recall it they were a leading seismic support company that morphed into an EMS outfit.

Sounds about right...and Larry Doll is still in EMS now.

RMH--->AMC
 

I started with Air Methods Corp in 1997. Rocky took over the contract I was flying in Columbia, SC so I went with Rocky. Then AMC bought RMH so I was again flying for Air Methods. Both very good companies when I flew for them: BH-407, AS350B2, BO-105, BK-117 and BH-206L. Great maintenance by Jeff Sheldon in Columbia.
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q...ps25279bf0.jpg

I ran the S61 logging operation in Alaska from 1990 to 1993. Great outfit and had some really great people there. I thoroughly enjoyed my time there and we had some great fun working all through SE Alaska. The bankruptcy in 1993 ended the operation, but RMH came out of it as a purely EMS operation and was finally sold to Air Methods.

Met some great people while I worked there, and still stay in touch with lots of them.

They had some great seismic and utility operations, and a great in-house capability to modify and complete machines for EMS and other applications. I learned to love the Lama while working there!

Former Rocky Mountain A & P
 

jjunior,

Hi I'm keen to ask you if you have any records for the fleet RMH
had in 1976, in particular the n-numbers for the Bell 214, 204B
and two Jet Rangers they had.

Cheers
Simon Beck

RMH
 

My dad is Bob Burr. He was the Vice President and head of maintenance at Rocky Mountain Helicopters. I am going to show his this website. If anyone is out there from the good ole days, I am sure he would love to hear from you.

RMH
 

I knew your Dad. Flew on an airliner all the way to Saudi Arabia with him once! Fond memories of RMHI and the folks that worked there. I then moved onto Continental Hlelicopters, also based in Utah. Another great place to work.

Does anyone know where Rick Inskeep is?

A.M.

I heard that Rick passed away a few years ago, but I do not know that as a fact. Hope I am wrong....

RMH
 

Foggy,

I heard the same, but have since heard maybe not. If I find out, I'll be sure to post...

A.M.

RMH NYC
 

If I recall correctly, didn't RMH have a BK-117 based at the 60th Street Helipad in New York City for some time? I recall RMH grumblings about the pilots being the highest paid EMS pilots in the USA. Imagine that, trying to staff EMS helicopter based in the Big Apple! $$$$

They had a blade snap on the BK while it was parked on the pad. I think a S76 landed next to it and the downdraft and turbulence snapped it!

I think one of the pilots is now a Air Traffic Controller?? Name?? Anyone??

RMH
 

I flew with some of the best of Rocky Mountain's pilots. Some one mentioned Larry Daul. He once punched me 4 ft into the snow, when his rotor wash sent an old aspen down on my head. One of the few times I wore a hard hat. He hovered above looking down at me, as I gathered my wits, I could hear him saying over the radio, are you OK, are you OK. I was.

The first time I layed eyes on Doug Farfel, was at "the airport" in Heber City. Myself and three drillers were walking up to our ship, a lovely Lama, Doug was there. I asked him where was the pilot? Taking him as the swamper. He just smiled, stuck his hand out and said " hi I'm Doug I'm flying for you today. 95 pounds of raw energy, bouncing up and down like a jumping bean, or maybe a coffee bean, or something. Two or three years later I went to his wedding in Durango Co.

Flew with Walt Tausch, always cool and calm, I guess most were anyway. Had a hand painted cartoon on his Army helmet, the only one I ever saw him wear, a vulture sitting in a tree saying, " patience my ass, I'm going to kill someone".
I was in the Crossroads bar in Heber the night he met his bride to be. I think he married her. Real nice guy.

John Cooley was one of the "crew". He was our pilot in '77-78 my first year in seismic work. My first year out of high school. .Long time ago.

Tom Kupcho, Carl Rosapepe, Skip Fisk , Mike McGill, Dave Fitz. Had a foot fetish as I recall.

The days of my youth, some of the bests times of my life.

Old Shooter

RMH
 

Old Shooter thanks for the memories. Several you mention are no longer with us. John "Jack" Cooley was killed in a wire pulling accident in 2004. Don Sheetz succumbed to cancer just last week. I think Carl Rosapepe is still flying EMS in Roanoke, VA. Walt Tausch flew EMS out of Sacramento for a long time, but took a course in massage therapy and left to do that, I believe. I think Dave Fitz retired to Mexico. The good ol days....

Larry Doll flew part time with Walt at Redding Air Service for a long time. He was flying full time for Reach, retired a year or so ago and this year was back with Spike over at Classic Helicopters.

I talked to Doug Farfel a couple of weeks ago, completely out of the blue, whan I called Jim Duerock to see what he was up to. They were sitting in the shade under the Air Race bleachers at Reno, waiting for fires, with the S61. I first met Doug in Trenton, NJ, when we went to pick up a couple of ex-Trump S61N's and ferry them back to Provo, UT and thence up to Alaska as Loggers.

Sadly, I attended Skip's funeral a few years ago, at his home in Hamilton, Montana. It was very moving and brought out a large number of people from the helicopter logging business.

I met some great people working there and still deal with a lot of them on a regular basis.

Doug
 

Hi - I stumbled onto this website when I was trying to locate some of the people my ex-husband and I used to helicopter log with and up popped a couple of familiar names such as Doug Farfel - wondering if he is still married to Casey? I remember them well from Libby Montana working for RMH. I believe there daughter had already been born when were there (Bridgette). I am glad to hear than he is alive. I also recognize the name Skip Fisk and very sorry to hear that he is no longer with us. Some others that I am familar with is Brian Brennan, Phil Mascott, Bruce Bower, Irish Cobb. It's been so long ago (1980's)

Did some Seismic with Rocky in the mid to late 70's and then on to EMS in Denver and then Houston. Harold Skarr pops into my head as an excellent longliner. I was just average and I used to watch Harold snake the line down through the trees, as I just beat the trees into submission with my hook! The layout crew once transmitted "Run for your lives baby Aspens! here comes the flying hook!" LOL

Larry Boyer
 

Sorry to piggy back on this, but I am looking for anyone who may have any stories about working with my dad, Larry Boyer. He worked for Rocky Mountain Helicopters from the mid 1970's through his death in December of 2000. If you have any stories, please let me know.

Thanks

EX-PJ,

RMH was never based at 60th St. NYC. They were at Weschester Co. Hospital some miles north.

Rotor incident at 60th is factual, but not RMH.

Harold Skaar is still around. He retired Last year. Even on his last day of work he impressed me with his longline skills.

RMH owning Western Helicopters
 

In 1981, I was on a BLM firefighting 500D flying out of George AFB. Our contractor was Western helicopters, then part of RMH. I have actually been wearing a RMH belt buckle for 32 years, now. Not sure if that is bragging or embarrassing.

Our primary pilot was Chuck Smith. He was a CWO in Vietnam in the early 1960s, then a Bell guy in Iran when things fell apart. Amazing pilot. A couple tales I recall include flying north towards the Owens valley. We were at Kramer Junction and still did not have clearance to go through the north part of Edwards. We dropped to the deck and flew north at 110+ knots, under the high lines. Another was hopping out of the ship in the eastern Mojave, one skid on the ground (flying at ground level, not the only time) and stepping out carefully to sign a recently discharged midshipmans shirt displayed as a flag. We also auto-rotated back to the station (engine running, but eerily quiet). And the coolest and scariest was riding a thermal from Lone Pine to a trail head near Whitney, right against the cliffs.

One time the electric trim (coollie cap, IIRC) failed outside of Fresno. A few of us figured out how to take Western out of contract so Chuck could fly all the way back to Rialto to get it replaced.

Our relief pilot was their manager, Dorcey Wingo. He'd show up in the afternoon as Chuck was maxing out. Take off his jacket, tie still on, pull on the Nomex, and start flying.

Thanks for letting me reminisce.

Rocky Mountain Helicopter Down Under
 

Please forgive me for crashing your thread but I thought you guys would like to know that a piece of your history has turned up in Australia. The Queensland Air Museum at Caloundra recently acquired SA315B Lama s/n 2575 which once served with Rocky Mountain Helicopters as N3597D.

We have the RMH log books from Oct 91 to Dec 93 but there are many gaps in the history so we will be very pleased to receive any anecdotes about her time with RMH. It seems that she did a lot of geophysical survey ranging as far afield as Alaska and Mexico. Above all does anyone have a photo of N3597D?

Wingo.....now there is a character in his own right!

Ahhh.... "The Adventures of Captain Methane"

Lama N3597D
 

Further to my post #24, closer examination of the RMH log books (OCT91-DEC93) for this aircraft reveals the following ops amongst many others:

JAN92 with the Dighem system at La Grande OR, Republic WA & Lincoln MT.

SEP92 geo survey at Fernley, Eureka, Ely, Pioche & Winnemucca NV.

APR-JUL93 ops at Talkeetna, AK culminating in a hard landing.

NOV93 with Aerodat geo system at Culiacan, Mexico.

Does anyone remember these ops? In the absence of a photo of N3597D, I'll be grateful for a colour photo of any RMH Lama.

Rgds

Pictures Anyone
 

Hey guys, we are looking for some pictures that show the RMH paint scheme on the old Lama's. I know there wasn't a lot to paint but if you have anything please post here or send them to me at [email protected]. A museum is trying to restore an old RMH machine for display and they would like for it to be as authentic as possible. Many thanks for any help you can give us.:D

Did the Lama STC for the PT-6 ever get into production?
I believe it was done by AeroProducts International back in the early 90's.

RMH Bell 204
 

Anyone remember the Bell 204 RMH had that had a window bulge
on the port side pilots door?

Dorcey Alan Wingo
 

Dorcey, Huey pilot from the movie "The Twilight Zone" has several books out, but "Wind Loggers" about his long line experiences is my favorite.

60th Street Pad
 

I worked as a flight medic on that BK. We flew out of NYC for about three years.
We here parked next to Colgates BK and they had a rotor snap because of the S76

Not true. I was a flight medic on NY117 BK. We started out of east 60th street and then went north after a couple of years. It was Colgates BK that had a rotor snap because of the DD of a S76.
A couple of years later that same bird lost a tail rotor and webt into the river. Pilots got out, not OK and three people drowned in the cabin because it had pneumaticly sealed doors that didnt pop off on impact

Jeff is still there in Columbia...
 

And still a great guy and great technician.

Chuck Smith at George AFB
 

Ha! I remember when Chuck Smith's trim motor went away. He used a bungee cord to relieve some of the strain and flew it back to base for repairs. If you've never experienced the problem, you don't know what you've missed, ha ha!

Thanks for the memories!

Dorcey

Captain Methane
 

Many thanks for the plug on one of my three books, Gordy!

Am enjoying the thread about RMH and the seismic days. For those of you who haven't read any of my nonfiction stories, I have elaborated about the Rocky Mountain seismic days and added my two cents worth regarding what was good and what was bad about that era. Yes, we lost some good pilots. I've saluted most of the logging pilots in my memoirs, hoping they are not soon forgotten.

"Wind Loggers" - 2015 Edition now available at Xlibris Publishing.

"The Rise and Fall of Captain Methane" - Award-winning autobiography.

"Captain Methane and his Finely Feathered Friends" - 2015 edition available at Xlibris Publishing.

Fun summer reading!

Cheers,

dw

Back in the late 80's, I was on HAI's EMS committee... Reid Griffin was the chair and he was with RMH at the time, if i remember correctly... Think he got into marketing with Aerospatiale... no idea where he is now...

Were you ever at Bear River with Walt Tausch and Doug Farfel in 1980?

Death Rangers, Long Dangers, Lamas and N214RM
 

Hi All,


Wow! What memories this forum brings back.
I can't remember everyone I worked with, but they were all great guys.
I crewed quite a few types of aircraft, but mainly supported 214RM until I left in 84'


Here are a few: (Sorry for the misspellings)
Gary Norris, Wayne Forbes, Kurt Sawatzki, Bud Johnson, Brian Brennan, Morris Scott, Dave Fogowaga, The Burgermeister, Semi Lapho, Tom Lights, Mike Cunningham, Brad Warren, Kawalski, Brad Hassey, and the girls in the front office :), Tom Banks, .....


So many great people and only so many functioning brain cells....


Please update with more names.


To all the survivors, cheers! To all those who didn't, cheers and rip!


Jeff

Came upon this website looking for info about RMH...great site! I worked as a flight nurse with Lifeflight Southern Calif from 1980-83. Wonderful memories. Anyone know of Ted Cash, Pat Conway, Mike Brand? I believe Joe Sulac was killed in a hell crash in Hawaii, sorry to say.

John Hood
[email protected]