HomeMy WebLinkAboutPEC140011 Covell Brown Email
Warren Campbell
From:Pam Brandmeyer <PBrandmeyer@vailgov.com>
Sent:Monday, January 05, 2015 2:59 PM
To:Matt Mire; George Ruther
Cc:Patty McKenny
Subject:FW: what to do?
-----Original Message-----
From: Covell Brown \[mailto:covell@covellbrown.com\]
Sent: Sunday, January 04, 2015 2:04 PM
To: Pam Brandmeyer
Subject: what to do?
Hi,
And a Happy New Year to you!!! I will start driving West on the 7th.
Pam, yesterday I met with Mr. Richard Pearce. This year Richard retired as the inspector and certifier of helicopters for a
large part of the Canadian helicopter communicty, particularly Military and government operations.
I asked him, to comment on the situation we have in Vail.
"Covell, there is NO lift at 8000 feet. for certain you must only use two engine helicopters." "The American Air
Ambulance industry has a terrible safety record, getting better but still bad."
Why I asked.
"It's private, they compete and therefore pilots are under pressure to take chances and do things that they should not."
"In Ontario we have Orange, a government owned and operated service. When a flight is called for the pilots are not
told if it is training or an emergency or anything in between. The check the weather and locations and file a flight plan.
Thus they do NOT fly when they should not. In the USA that is not the case. They compete, it is a business and they fly
on and over the edge>"
We talked of landing and taking off. Bottom line Pam, is that we have a very very dangerous context in Vail. Richard has
no horse in this race. He is the best we have here. When I told him that I live on the top floor of a building he replied,
"When ever we have a movement to fly low over buildings e.g. putting an air conditioning plant on top of a building, our
rules require that we evacuate the top three floors of nearby buildings." "No way should you be there if they are coming
over you to land and take off, NO WAY."
That's what the man said.
Smiles,
Covell
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