Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: We put Trifan 600 in its place in Prince Rupert. It would have picked up that gentleman in the field flying direct to the hospital pad in an hour and 45 minutes. Done. He's got surgeons on him and so forth. We saved about four hours of time.
Not necessarily the golden hour, but well within the opportunity to save a life.
[00:00:28] Speaker B: Welcome to Hangar X Studios, where former fighter pilot and host John Ramstead takes us on a journey across aerospace as it enters an historic period of innovation and transformation.
Our guests include aviation experts, pilots, financiers, military leaders, and innovators of all types.
Buckle up for another episode of Hangar X.
[00:00:58] Speaker C: Welcome to Hangar X Studios, where we explore stories that are shaping the future of aviation. And today we have Danny Sittenham on the podcast. Danny, welcome to the podcast.
[00:01:09] Speaker A: Thank you very much.
[00:01:11] Speaker C: You are the founder of Helijet International, world's largest scheduled helicopter company. I believe you founded that in 1986, and you guys have really revolutionized air travel up there in British Columbia. You're based up in Canada, both with scheduled operations, flights, charters, but also you've had a huge focus on medical missions. And that's something we're going to also be talking about today. You're also in the Canadian hall of Fame, and that just represents the contributions you've made in your career, and it's an incredible legacy. And toward the end of this, Danny, I'd love to dive in a little bit and talk about what that legacy means to you and how that's also shaping kind of the whole. This whole next chapter of aviation that's being written right now. How's that sound?
[00:01:57] Speaker A: Sounds great. No, thank you for the compliment.
[00:01:59] Speaker C: Well, you started way back. You and I were just talking, comparing some notes. All of Your flight time, 6,500 hours, is in a helicopter. You never even got your fixed win rating because you're like, why would I? Helicopters are so awesome. But you started out way back in the Yukon. Could you tell us about those early days and what got you even interested and say, you know what? I want to go learn how to fly that thing. And I'm guessing the helicopter flying in that area is incredibly demanding and challenging.
[00:02:27] Speaker A: Yeah, it certainly is. You know, it was certainly when I started flying back in the early 80s, it's very much the wild, wild west up north. I mean, it was really the wild, wild West. I mean, we were landing helicopters on.
Come into a town park on the road, along with a bunch of horses and cars. Kind of tie up your helicopter and then go to the bar and you Know, or go to your hotel room and. And it was very much the wild, wild West.
[00:03:00] Speaker C: Like really, you're in the bar, having a drink and your ride, your helicopter is literally parked right out in the.
[00:03:06] Speaker A: Street on the road, along beside a car, beside some horses and stuff like that.
[00:03:10] Speaker C: Nobody cared.
[00:03:11] Speaker A: Nobody cared. It was just part of the furniture, part of the scenery, you know, moving geologists and moving all sorts of exploratory type work. Back then that's probably not done today, but certainly back when I first started flying, it seemed to be very common ground, but just my career started very, you know, serendipitous in many ways. I was not destined to become an aviator, nor did I have an interest. My interest was actually I was two years into a four year apprenticeship to become a machinist after high school. And that's where I started. But one day, someone landed a Bell 47 helicopter on top of Burnaby Mountain, which is a beautiful mountain setting just outside of Vancouver, where I was actually working for some side money as a chef at a steakhouse. And during the day I paused, took a break, came outside, and I saw this helicopter pilot, shuts down, comes over and walks over, we make some small talk and you know, he's waiting for some customer or something like that. And I, you know, he says, you know, my customer didn't show up. Would you like to go for a ride? And I said, sure, why not?
[00:04:29] Speaker C: Seriously.
[00:04:30] Speaker A: So I jumped on board.
[00:04:32] Speaker C: Now, the Bell 47 looks like those helicopters you used to see in the mash. In mash. Like that. It's the same helicopter with the big bubble front and the lattice, the lattice tail. Like, it's like. This is like an iconic helicopter, right?
[00:04:46] Speaker A: It's an iconic, wonderful aircraft.
[00:04:48] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:04:48] Speaker A: And so we go for a ride and I have a. He takes me all over the mountainside here outside of Vancouver and so forth, lands me back there. I go home that night and I said, you know what, Dad? I really found something that I found a little more interesting than possibly becoming a machinist. And I was getting disillusioned with the machinist curriculum. I was working in a unionized shop and I was young, eager, and, you know, excuse my French, piss and vinegar, wanting just to, you know, get on with life at 18. And dad said, yeah, follow your heart, Go for it. So I got my helicopter's license over the next six to 12 months, and then I headed to the Yukon. That was my first job with a Hiller 12E, which is a piston helicopter similar to the Bell 47.
For a small company that worked out of a town called Mayo, which is still there. It's around the central point of the Yukon. And that's where I cut my teeth learning how to fly and spent the next few years flying up there and building up my time and my experiences and so forth.
So that's kind of where I started.
[00:06:00] Speaker C: Did you do that training yourself? Because that's a big investment. I'm guessing the time and energy, that must have been a real passion to get that rating. Because it's more expensive even today than getting a private pilot license.
[00:06:12] Speaker A: You're absolutely right. It was very expensive back then. I mean, back then it was $12,000 to get your commercial certificate.
[00:06:21] Speaker C: That was in the early 80s.
[00:06:22] Speaker A: That's the early 80s. I mean, today, you know, it's about 100, 110,000 to get your commercial certificate here.
And probably similar to the US just in USD. Yeah, you know, I begged, borrowed and stole. The parents were good. They helped me out a little bit. And it took me about 12 months to eventually receive my license and achieve my, you know, privilege to fly commercially.
[00:06:49] Speaker C: Danny, when did you get your.
That commercial license? 82, 83. Time frame, is that about right?
[00:06:58] Speaker A: It was. No, it was earlier than that. It was 77.
[00:07:02] Speaker C: It was okay.
[00:07:03] Speaker A: Excuse me. Yeah, so I started flying, you know, actively commercially in 79.
[00:07:12] Speaker C: So you founded Helijet in 1986.
[00:07:15] Speaker A: Correct.
[00:07:16] Speaker C: Which has now become one of the largest or the largest operator scheduled helicopter services in the world.
You know, between 77 and 86. Tell me what was happening and how you actually crafted this vision that launched a company that was so impactful. Because I think there's a lot to learn from that, from our company and everybody now that actually has these visions of actually taking something and building, you know, the future, whether it's Helijet or, you know, the next bell, the next Sikorsky, if that makes sense.
[00:07:45] Speaker A: Yeah, sure. So between 77 or 79 through 82, I was just actively flying as a pilot, mostly up north, up in the Yukon area, up in northern British Columbia. Flying, you know, I got endorsed on several types of helicopters flying for numerous types of clients, Government agencies, private sector mining companies and so forth, with three or four helicopter companies that I was employed by. And I built up my time. And then I came back to Vancouver over time, somewhat a little more seasoned as a helicopter pilot. Bumped into a former partner of ours and we started a helicopter training school. So I started the school, and the school is still a successful school. It's being operated out here. And after a few years of that, it really wasn't my focus, but my partner wanted to take the school on and grow it. I said, look, I want to get more into commercial operations. I'll either continue to fly commercially for other companies, but I have some ideas. And that idea that my wife and I actually started talking a little bit more about was here in Vancouver. I live on what is the North Shore mountains, and Vancouver has two bridges that connect the North Shore to the core of Vancouver. I've been taking that bridge now for almost 40 years, 45 years. And every time I drive by on those earlier days, somewhere between 82, 83, 84, whether it was with my wife or by myself going to work in Vancouver, I see these seaplanes going back and forth, back and forth every day with high frequency. And they're all going to Victoria, dropping off whomever, you know, leaving from the downtown waterfront of Vancouver and heading to the downtown waterfront of Victoria, which is the capital city of British Columbia.
And my wife one day I'm driving a bridge, says, why don't you do that with a helicopter?
[00:09:53] Speaker C: You know, clearly there's demand because you see it every time you drive on the bridge, right?
[00:09:57] Speaker A: Yeah, you know, there's about 15 flights a day just going across, back and forth. And I started noodling that thought out and thinking about it, looking at the technology of the aircraft and looked at the value proposition for a possible business consumer. I mean, we identified quickly that it's a business traveler that's using this service. You know, it's extremely convenient to be able to go from the city center to the capital city in 30 minutes, whether it's a seaplane or a helicopter today, because all the other options are either 3, 4 or 5 hours in duration. And for business people, as you can appreciate, time is money. That's a long time just to go for a quick meeting with the government in British Columbia and come back, you've wasted a whole day. So when we looked at it, we said, what are the other added values and propositions that vertical lift can give versus fixed wing seaplane? Well, we're an IFR operator, so we knew on instruments we could fly at night where VFR operations would limit a seaplane, especially in the wintertime. We looked at it saying, you know, they basically can't start till nine in the morning until it's daylight, and they pretty well finish at 3:00, 3:30 when it's official sunset coming along during the winter months anyways. And predominantly we identified that the government actually works Between September through April, mostly with the legislature open in Victoria. Summertime is not so bad, you know, because you've got lots of daylight. So the seaplane operators can expand their schedule and compete with us on a time of day basis. But in the wintertime, we have that edge where we can extend your business day and offer you, you know, a 7 o'clock flight and a 7 o'clock at night flight, coming home. And we're the only guys on the block doing that, so we knew that could be a big advantage. And then the experience of flying in a helicopter, especially during the inclement weather that we get out here in the west coast, you know, it's a pretty bumpy ride with high winds against the Georgia Strait, coming off water, as you can probably appreciate, you know, with a seaplane with choppy water coming in and out on both ends, versus lifting off gently off a helicopter, being there in a few minutes earlier, you know, it's a lot less stressful experience than being on a seaplane during bad weather days. All those things started adding up to say, maybe the helicopter could compete effectively for a portion of this market.
And we put our business case together, our business plan together, identified, you know, my partner and myself put together a couple more business associates.
And certainly you got to remember, we hadn't started yet. So I think I was at my seventh bank that I'd been kicked out of with the business case, okay? And they said, you are out of your mind. Get out of my office. Or even if I did establish, we established a small little operating line and lines of credit to start a business. I think within two months, I got kicked out.
We bled so much red ink, so much red ink that I think after we started, eight months later, we were definitely insolvent.
[00:13:24] Speaker C: What was the turning point when you said, you know what? I think we're gonna make this, this is gonna happen.
[00:13:28] Speaker A: So this is what happens. And I remember it clearly. So I'm sitting with my board of directors, we're having a very, very difficult conversation. They call me in, they said, danny, it's time to wrap this up. It's not gonna work. We're not getting the traffic. There isn't enough build coming into the, into the program to support the kind of expenses that are just gone through the roof. And you got two options. And I remember my corporate secretary, who was a pretty hard nosed accountant fellow, which is my best friend today, said, you got two options. He looked at the chairman, he looked at me, says, you either shut her down tomorrow, bow out, lay out the 15 people that you have, okay, on the payroll, close it all down, lick your wounds and walk away from this. Or increase the fares by 100% tomorrow.
[00:14:20] Speaker C: You got nothing to lose, right?
[00:14:22] Speaker A: He says, try it, Danny. I said, nobody will come to the table, Trev. Nobody. He says, those are your two options. I recommend to the board those are the only two.
So I go back solemnly to my office that next morning. I call my team in, my management team, lay down the cards and said, increase the fares. Everybody throws up, gets under the table. Said, okay, let's try it, see what happens. Well, we put the fares up. We waited a few days to see if the booking profile would shallow off or come to nothing. And not a blink, Not a blink.
Everybody kept coming. And my experience, nobody complained.
[00:15:08] Speaker C: They just kept. The people that were booking started booking. They said, I'll pay the increase, absolutely. They didn't say a word.
So you should have doubled it again the next day.
[00:15:16] Speaker A: Well, there you go. No, but one of my loyal travelers, a government minister, called me up personally. I remember the calling. He said, danny, I'm going to tell you something. We were all concerned. The service is impeccable, the operation is impeccable, but we were concerned that the price is too low, and we were apprehensive to put all our eggs in one basket.
Thank you for increasing the price. It's worth double that, Danny, for what you offer and so forth. And I thought to myself, there you go, you know, and we never looked back.
[00:15:56] Speaker C: And what led to the growth from that point, realizing, you know what, we can make this work, Danny, to what you're doing today, which is, you know, one of the largest scheduled operators in the world, because there must have been some highs and lows. But I'm just curious about if you can pull the thread that I think connects that. That growth over time, if that makes sense.
[00:16:16] Speaker A: Yeah. Well, I think the first thing you got to do is, you know, you learn from your experiences. And that was a. What? That was, you know, probably the most difficult day I had in my career of operating this business.
So my first thought with my team is, you need to stare the devils in the face every day. Whatever you're doing, you've got to stare that devil in the face. And you can't blink. First you've got to believe in yourself. Then you have to believe in your team and your product, you know, that you can make a go of it. And I think that's the first piece. So every turn that we take and we look at our growth pattern is do we have the confidence that the consumer will buy our product, believe in our product and so forth? And really it does boil down to great people. It's all about the people that, you know, the aircraft itself is wonderful and so forth, you know, but it's, it's about the people and the experience that the people give that consumer, you know, at the front line, at the reservations line, you know, the ground handlers, the pilots and so forth and so on. And when you package all that up and give from start to end and it's like buying any product, when you have a great experience from start to finish, you're coming back to buy more of that product or that service and that allows us our growth.
[00:17:44] Speaker C: You know, I love that perspective, a stare, the devils in the face. Basically what I'm hearing is, you know, don't shy away from big challenges. You got, you got a great team, trust them and figure out a way to push through when you feel that resistance and invest in your people, trust them because it's all about the people and then the experience that they give your customer. So what I'm also hearing though is you are very customer focused and centric. It wasn't specifically about the helicopters and that we do, this is what we do, but it's all about who we serve and the experience we create for them. Now we could do a helicopter. We're going to talk a little bit about advanced air mobility and kind of some of the future. The helicopter is just the vehicle you chose, but it was a different philosophy that really allowed you to have such loyalty and grow and attract great people.
[00:18:32] Speaker A: Absolutely. Yeah.
[00:18:34] Speaker C: And with that said, one of the things you guys have specialized in, and this is what I believe is an area that our company will be participating in in the future is really medical operations from. I had an accident. It was 13 years ago. It was a horrible accident. My body was crushed and life flight helicopter had to show up. Saved my life, but it took an hour to get there. And then they flew me back to a level one trauma center. I actually spent the next two years in the hospital. But without that life flight transport, I either wouldn't be here, I'd be more like Christopher Reeves. I broke my neck in two places and it was a long recovery, but organ transplant. And we have an airport here at Centennial Airport. We're out of and this great little restaurant. But it's where all the life flight comes in. You know, we see a lot of like the pilatus will come in and it's clearly this is an organ that's then going to an ambulance to get to someplace.
[00:19:28] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:19:28] Speaker C: And there's going to be some more efficiencies in the future where they'll build, you know, something that has longer range, has vertical lift capability, can actually just go right to that landing pad. But what got you interested in that part of the industry? What challenges have you seen to, I think, you know, deliver excellence in that area? That is a time critical area. I mean, we're talking about, what do they call it, the golden hour?
[00:19:49] Speaker A: The golden hour.
[00:19:50] Speaker C: If you're not there in time to get somebody, well, it didn't matter if you took off or not, right?
[00:19:57] Speaker A: No, you're absolutely right. We started looking at the opportunities to grow not just our scheduled air service business product, but also look at where we could add value to the province of British Columbia. And you know, the province has historically had contracts out for supply of services for dedicated air medical helicopters and dedicated air medical planes as well.
You know, British Columbia has the largest aviation service in Canada out of all the provinces in Canada for dedicated air medical equipment. So when we looked at the opportunity of Vancouver and a couple other outlying areas where the government was putting a new RFP out, we bid on it. We felt we could do that. And again, it falls back on the deep IFR experience that we have operating rotary wing and you know, definitely we operate on a 724 with the air medical operation. We operate, you know, with goggles, under night vision operations, religiously all the time during night operations here we're in some very difficult areas that we're going into. I mean, there are just black holes everywhere. I mean, there's not a lot of light that we're going into. Some of the communities that must take.
[00:21:13] Speaker C: A lot of training for your air crew.
[00:21:16] Speaker A: Absolutely. And we have a tremendous amount of training curriculum that crews have to pass by. So when we bid the job, we knew we were going in with a lot of experience, operational experience on how to do it.
We have a lot of airways that are already approved that we have been given by Transport Canada. So we knew we could apply the air medical program onto the existing airways that the schedule service already has approved, but just doing a different mission profile. And when we were successful in winning our first piece of contract with the air medical side, we grew it up and work with our customer, the government of British Columbia in this case, to grow it out and make it safer and make it more reliable to allow us to get into. Allow them. And the paramedics. The paramedics, unlike maybe in The US of A. In your country, they work independently and they don't work with Helijet or for Helijet. They're independent group under contract with the government of British Columbia. But when we started working with the people in the back cabin, we started talking about areas that were not servicing and how can we develop those routes, get NVG involved so we can fly on goggles at night and offer truly 724 services. And that gave us more opportunity to grow the air medical. And we were in turn afforded more contracts from the government to expand into outer bases. And you know, it's grown from there. A big key to it is that it is also a very satisfying role from a pilot's perspective because you're actually making a difference, especially during that golden hour, you know, when you're saving people's lives, you know, and you come home and you knew you got that person to the hospital or back home or otherwise.
It's a feeling of completeness, you know, that you've actually made a difference to someone's life today. And I think that's a big part of wanting to be involved. It's, it's almost a giving back, even though it is a revenue contract. But there's a giving back there that we spend a lot of time in trying to develop the program to make it much more accessible to all citizens of British Columbia, not just the people in the core centers.
[00:23:47] Speaker C: You know, it's interesting.
I'd love to maybe even have you come back on Danny. And I would love to do an episode, maybe even bring on some of your, you know, some people in different areas from you know, the management to dealing with the paramedics, to a pilot and just do a panel. I think this is an area that I think people would be very interested in because I also think some of the platforms that are being developed now, a number of which are going to be maturing, could for both search and rescue, disaster relief, life, flight, medical missions could completely transform how we're actually we're going to be able to deliver, I think much higher level service. Would that be something you'd be interested in coming back and maybe we host something like that? Very much so, I would love to do that. And you know, that said, that kind of leads me into my next question because you're also at the forefront. You guys are thinking ahead, you're progressive, you're looking into advanced air mobility, looking at EV tolls, EC tolls. So if anybody that's electrified conventional takeoff and landing, you've done Some work with Beta. We just have Dave Stepanic on from Bristow.
[00:24:49] Speaker A: Oh, wonderful.
[00:24:50] Speaker C: And they're starting their entire kind of test program with Beta out of Norway and Stavanger, Norway. So he's going to be coming back on in around July when they, when they have some good data to share on what they found with that.
[00:25:02] Speaker A: Nice.
[00:25:02] Speaker C: So that's going to be great. But questions are when you're looking at some of the technologies that are coming out from basically the air taxis. Right. Advanced air mobility is really kind of these shorter 100 miles or less really probably 60 miles with in the US into the SFARS with the reserve requirements, things like that. Yep. Where do the platforms as they're coming into the market now fit into your business model? How are you thinking about it today or your company?
[00:25:29] Speaker A: Yeah, that's a great question.
What we've been looking at and monitoring and studying and learning about UAM and these new technologies that are coming out and you know, I've been working with XTI now for two or three years as your program is coming to development.
I think it's a wonderful vehicle. I think it's a vehicle that Helijit can definitely fit into our ecosystem, our existing ecosystem and where UAM and the new technologies add value to what we're doing today. Obviously we live in a very environmentally sensitive province, more so than any other province in Canada. The government is very big on cutting down the carbon footprint and wants their suppliers such as Helijet to move in that direction. So they're giving financial incentives on infrastructure and other programs to incentivate people like us to look at the new technologies.
So that's one main reason is we do want to reduce our carbon footprint. We want to get into a lower footprint for all the right reasons. We do need a lower cost of operation because we service a high end market today primarily who can afford to use a helicopter from point A to point B because they can justify their time. But not everybody needs to be there in 30 minutes in Victoria and not everybody can afford $450 each way to go to Victoria on Helijet. You know, it's a $900 ticket, you know, it's out of the price range. I want vehicles that can do that at a much lower price point to broaden the, you know, the people on the street that can use aviation more effectively. And so when I look at our Vancouver Victoria corridor as an example, we have numerous, you know, we're like a mini airport for all intensive people are coming down to the waterfront Parking their vehicles and jumping on Helijet and going to Victoria, doing their business or whatever they're doing and coming back.
[00:27:43] Speaker C: Some of these platforms coming into like Joby in Archer, I'm thinking would fit this mission to Victorian back. This is like kind of almost what it's made for. Right. And you would be the operator of that craft. Is that fair?
[00:27:56] Speaker A: Yeah, that would be fair. That would be.
[00:27:57] Speaker C: I mean, that's an option to. That you're considering, I'm guessing you're considering.
[00:28:01] Speaker A: Yeah, but where it has an opportunity to grow. And I can put XTI in a different category because it's more of a longer haul opportunity to move. And I'll come to that in a moment. But in the short haul opportunity, the Betas and the Jobys and so forth, their vehicles are designed to allow almost a hub and space to exist. At Helijet, the people that are coming down to downtown Vancouver are coming from the suburbs.
We did a survey with our customers and we said, where do you live and what's your biggest stressor to fly Helijet? And the biggest stretcher by far is getting to the heliport, you know, at rush hour from my home, which takes me an hour and a half to come from Langley, Pitt Meadows, Abbotsford. These are the suburbias of Vancouver. Driving through that crazy traffic to get to the heliport to board Helijet, to get to Victoria in 30 minutes. How do we fix that stressor of an hour, an hour and a half? That's where maybe these evtols can come in and become a hub and spoke. They can feed the heliports to some outlying vertiports that are located in the suburbia areas and cut your travel by an hour.
[00:29:20] Speaker C: You bring them straight in in 15 minutes and then they jump on the helicopter. It has a higher payload, it can fly ifr, it has, it has all the mission requirements.
[00:29:29] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:29:29] Speaker C: And then if the weather's bad, the helicopter can fly, but the EVTOL can't. Well, then you're gonna have to drive in today.
[00:29:35] Speaker A: Exactly.
[00:29:36] Speaker C: But maybe 60% of the time or more, you'll have this really nice option for people.
[00:29:41] Speaker A: Right. And then when you go to a longer stage, that's where I see the XTI vehicle being perfect. Because one day we want to be able to go Vancouver, Seattle, you know, and with conventional helicopter, I can't find the cost model that will attract someone to spend, you know, a significant amount of money. Today, with a conventional helicopter, it's about an hour's flight to downtown Seattle. But there's tremendous commerce going north and south between Seattle and Vancouver and the whole corridor down the west coast, Portland, then into California and down to la. That's where I see the opportunity of connecting the suburbias to a heliport or a vertiport and then taking a flight to Seattle in 30 minutes with an XTI vehicle.
[00:30:34] Speaker C: And you can fly IFR up at 20, 25,000ft.
[00:30:37] Speaker A: And exactly that's where I see the opportunity growing.
[00:30:43] Speaker C: Well in your thought too with the Trifan 600 that we're developing because I was actually thinking, I wonder because they brought me to a level one trauma center and it was a good place, this was in Great Falls, Montana. And then they had to work really hard to arrange transport to get me down to a specialty hospital here in Denver. And it got urgent and I was actually doing the back of the napkin math. The Trifan could have picked me up in that field in Montana and delivered me to that hospital in Denver at virtually the same time that the helicopter came out and got me and brought me back locally to Great Falls.
[00:31:18] Speaker A: Totally.
[00:31:19] Speaker C: And how does that fit into. Let's just say that capability was around our platform and maybe some others. What does that do as you think even about the medical mission in the future?
[00:31:28] Speaker A: Look, we made a perfect example and demonstration to the government of British Columbia, our air ambulance executive clients and, and Salim and I worked on it and built it showing how the tri fan because I'm not sure if you notice it's on the COVID of our application. We show the XTI on a roadway. Okay. And we photo, you know, we brought it in and I believe you folks use it in some of your other collateral which we have no problem with. It's in a red and white color of an ambulance aircraft at a scene call with a whole bunch of cars stopped on the highway. That proposal was what we do today. So here's the quick example. We have a 724Sikorsky S76 under contract in a small community up north about Midway up in British Columbia called Prince Rupert. We have a full facility there. We have 15 pilots, seven engineers so forth taking care of one aircraft.
What typically happens at that base is it's the most remote area in British Columbia. It's God awful dark, it's black. Ten months of the year it rains like you wouldn't believe all the time. It's on the coast of bc, it's an indigenous community and so forth. So they live in very remote areas outside of the Prince Rupert hub.
When someone gets hurt the helicopter goes and picks them up in the forest or, you know, whether it's a forester who maybe got their leg hurt, took a chainsaw to themselves or something like that, the helicopter picks them up, brings them back to Prince Rupert. So you got one load in a golden hour of this person having to get loaded into a helicopter, flies to the Digby airport, which is the Prince Rupert airport. And, and a fixed wing ambulance aircraft has to come in because we, economically, we're 500 miles away from Vancouver.
[00:33:31] Speaker C: So you got to coordinate all that because there might not be a fixed wing up at St Rupert or Prince Rupert.
[00:33:36] Speaker A: And that's all done by the government through their fixed wing contracted aircraft. So they have to line up a fixed wing to meet the helicopter, move the patient from a helicopter into the plane. Okay. And we clocked all that time. We're already two and a half hours from incident and we are just loading them into a plane now. They got an hour and a half to two hours to get to Vancouver airport, load them into another one of our helicopters to take them to the hospital helipad in the downtown core of Vancouver. Five hours have gone by.
In a golden hour, that guy's gone.
[00:34:14] Speaker C: I'll tell you this, knowing the extent of my injuries, if that had been my scenario, I wouldn't have made it. Yeah, I wouldn't, I wouldn't have made it. I had a brain bleed. It was, it was bad.
[00:34:24] Speaker A: But, yeah, we put tri fan 600 in its place in Prince Rupert. It would have picked up that gentleman in the field flying direct to the hospital pad in an hour and 45 minutes. Done. He's got surgeons on him and so forth. We saved about four hours time, not necessarily the golden hour, but well within the opportunity to save a life. That's where we see. And we mapped all that out, giving them all the times and the examples and, you know, I believe that is going to happen and can happen and should happen.
[00:35:04] Speaker C: Well, it's an exciting time and you guys are, I mean, you guys are leading the way. You. And it was fun talking with Bristow also, just.
[00:35:11] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:35:12] Speaker C: How you guys are actually embracing what's happening and, you know, this is going to change business models and. But I'd like to change gears a little bit because your induction into Canada's hall of Fame, which I think is really cool, and I know you're a very, you're actually a very humble man, but it just, you know, it acknowledges the contributions you've made to the industry. But here's a question I'd like to ask you is, you know, what does that mean to you and how does maybe that help you shape or reinforce this legacy that you'd like to create while you're operating both in Canada, serving people, building this company and this passion for aviation?
[00:35:50] Speaker A: Yeah, well, yes, I'm humble about it. I don't wear it on my forehead. I'm obviously very proud that I was nominated for the opportunity, but I honestly don't think about it a lot as far as what does it mean to me going forward? Because to be very transparent, I'd be doing it anyways, with or without the award. In front of my face and around me.
The award was wonderful. You know, it's a great recognition. My family are proud of me, my employees and everything else, and my close industry friends. But it wouldn't make much difference to what I want to do and how I see the opportunities growing with, with these new advanced technologies, whether it's with XTI or others. I just feel that it can better communities, certainly on the air medical side and just air transportation in general. I think it is going to revolutionize aviation in many ways. I believe it's going to better the communities that want to be serviced by air and I think it's going to assist the industry to become a much better partner with communities, you know, by offering these new technologies, preferably at a lower cost, you know, so more people can afford to travel.
[00:37:13] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, more people. More. I do. I think we're gonna look back, it's going to be transformative and, you know, maybe as we land the helicopter, I'd love to get up to Canada and go flying with you. One of these days I'll get my writing and I can sit, sit in the seat next to you.
[00:37:30] Speaker A: That'd be great.
[00:37:31] Speaker C: You know, when you're looking ahead in the future, let's just say five to seven years out, what opportunities and challenges do you see both for Helijet and the industry in general? I just love your thoughts on what you see because you really have a, you know, a front row seat to everything happening.
[00:37:50] Speaker A: Well, two thoughts. Do not underestimate the power of the community that you're operating in.
You know, there's always been a concern and I sit on the board of directors of cam, the Canadian Advanced Air Mobility Group, which we formed about four years ago.
And that is to promote and learn more about how UAM can serve communities in Canada and abroad, what infrastructure we need and so forth. And engaging with the community is really key in engaging with the potential end user, if not the existing end user. So when we look at Helijet, I've learned that my audience is really important to ask them and everybody says, well, you know, who's going to get into that new state of the art aircraft? You know, they're going to be apprehensive and you know. Right. You know, moving way ahead into, you know, unmanned vehicles one day and so forth. And I said, look, I think we've developed a relationship with our customers that use helicopters. It's, for them it's like getting on a bus. I mean, they just don't even think about it. Many of them fall asleep when they're going to Victoria in the back. They're so accustomed to it, don't even blink. So as long as the brand is reputable, which I believe we have a good brand, as long as Helijet's on the side of that tri fan, they're gonna just come in as if it's just another aircraft that Helijet's operating. We've built that because the trust is.
[00:39:22] Speaker C: There, the experience is there. They're like, if you're flying this, I don't have to worry. I'm gonna go get on board. They're gonna get me where I want to go. I'm just gonna enjoy the flight.
[00:39:30] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:39:30] Speaker C: And the people that I'm with here, some cool people, you know, if you.
[00:39:33] Speaker A: See American or United on the side of an aircraft, whatever it is, you don't have any apprehension. People are just going to buy the ticket and carry on, you know, so we've, we've resolved that issue. But when it does come to community relations, it's where the infrastructure is going to be. And I believe that's the story right now with UAM and some of these technologies. Where are these vertiports going to come into play? And you know, not in my backyard is the standard line in, you know, I don't want that noisy aircraft landing beside me or near me or whatever the case may be, you know, and I think those are the things that we need to study harder to make sure that the community supports it and understands it then the infrastructure. The second part, can I ask you.
[00:40:20] Speaker C: A quick question on that, just as an aside because we're right now in the middle with our engineering team of actually doing all the modeling on the, on the sound signature and the decibel reduction of this ducted fan that we're doing versus having an open blade. Is there a maybe. This is a follow up question after this interview, but I'd love Your input on what is that sound signature that would allow like in a small community municipality to have a vertiport where they're like, you know what? That's not going to bother us. We'd be okay if it sounded like this. Do you have a.
[00:40:55] Speaker A: Well, I guess it would boil down to the DBS of what the aircraft's putting out would be the primary, I would think, as. As the main concern. I don't think it's the visual of the aircraft or how it looks in whatever shape it's in. But, you know, is it. Is it obtrusive, you know, and can it.
You know, I think enclosed rotors and enclosed shrouds such as that are a great thing. I mean, you see that on some of the conventional helicopters like the Dauphines and so forth. You know, that sends a signal of, oh, that's quieter and maybe it's not, but it looks like it's quieter and it looks safer.
[00:41:39] Speaker C: Because perception can be reality, Right?
[00:41:41] Speaker A: Exactly.
[00:41:41] Speaker C: Actually, we're hoping It'll be 40% plus quieter.
[00:41:45] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:41:45] Speaker C: Than a traditional helicopter.
[00:41:47] Speaker A: So, yeah, I would think it's. It's probably just those noise studies that you will do, you know, and the flyovers that you'll do and approach and departures that you'll do nearby communities. But I found it very effective just to bring the community to the area and let them witness these aircraft landing and taking off during that critical study time, you know, as you're developing, I think, you know, bring the city fathers in, you know, and so forth, and let them hear that.
But what I wanted to share with you when you. The. The. The possible restrictions in advancing UAM and moving this, it's the regulatory body.
It's all about, in our case, Transport Canada being able to keep up with the technology that wants it. So when we were the first company in Canada to put firm orders in for the Beta evtol, it suddenly put Transport Canada in a very difficult place where they admitted that they have to put resources against this because their trigger typically is if a new make and model comes into Canada, they need to service that certification process and that operator who needs to go to work with it. And so now we have some attention in Ottawa, we have some attention out here at Pacific Region, out in Ocean west, where they're really having to struggle and realize we've got to put some resources here. We've already told them and we've sat down again with them. They said once the FAA approves whether it's a Trifan or a Beta technique Or a Joby. Why are you going to be three years behind them?
[00:43:32] Speaker C: Well, just the FAA issuing the Sfar and powered lift was a.
It was a huge tailwind for all of us.
[00:43:41] Speaker A: Totally. But we still manage ourselves in Canada that we're always two years behind the faa. We're asking ourselves why we have to. Why can't we work in parallel with the regulator? I mean, we have a good bilateral between the two countries and so forth. Why are we going to wait another two years and maybe longer? That seems to be the area of concern and the one where we need to spend more time with the government to put more resources against it.
[00:44:12] Speaker C: So I love this. So your last two, what you close with is engage the community. That's where you learn. That's where you create, buy in. That's where you build relationships. That's where you get the feedback, you know, to just fine tune and shape your strategy, your business model. And the number two is it doesn't work without the regulators giving approval, which we're very painfully aware of. Because you know what? In this industry, you can't fly a Beta. You can't sell a Beta. It has to be certified.
[00:44:39] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:44:39] Speaker C: So not only does it have to be certified, but then it's gonna have to be. You know, operators like yourself are gonna have to then comply to the certification over time. But, man, this has been brilliant. I really appreciate your time, Dave. We're gonna have to, you know, what we need to do is come up to Vancouver with the camera crew and just film some stuff on the ramp and some of your missions and out in the Yukon. And I think that would be so much fun because then we could even get. I think a big focus of what we're doing is really on where advanced air mobility through. I think I'm almost thinking of X vtol, like extended range vtol. Right. There's a range of out there. But where this is going in the future and, you know, the technology, the operators, the innovations that are happening, we're just looking through the technological breakthroughs that a lot of the industry players are having. And, you know, and people like, you know, Rockwell Collins and ge, and there's just so many things happening. But yeah, anyway, that would be a lot of fun. But love to Danny. Thank you for your time. Keep knocking them alive out there. Thank you for what you do. Because as a beneficiary of a life flight, you know what my kids, my family, my friends are. They don't realize it, but I'm here because somebody like you up in Montana had that service available. And there's probably thousands of men and women and fathers, sons, mothers, kids that are here and might not even realize it, but because it was a vision you had back in 1986 that turned into having a service that saved a life. And so I'm very grateful.
[00:46:20] Speaker A: Thank you very much for the opportunity. And please call anytime. We'll be here and would love to have you up here and host you up here if you could.
[00:46:28] Speaker C: Okay. That'd be awesome. All right, Danny, have a great day.
[00:46:30] Speaker A: Thanks so much.
