About

Yep…It’s been 35 years. It went by pretty fast. Where do I start? My senior year I went to Clover Park Voc Tech and finished a two year course for Aviation Maintenance. I specialized in helicopters and ended up traveling all over the World taking care of helicopters. I moved to Tacoma Washington the summer of 1968. I then lived in Seattle for a while, then Federal Way and Edgewood. I moved to Oregon two March 2008 to take the current job. I am working for Wilson Construction Co a construction company that uses helicopters to build power lines. www.wilsonconst.com I have six helicopters that I am the director of maintenance for. The job prior I was based in Seattle working for Paul Allen (Vulcan) I had 5 helicopters that were all yacht based. He had three yachts that all had helicopters on them. One of the yachts was big enough that it had two helicopters. It was 150 to 220 days a year all international travel. Spent lots time in Europe, France, Germany, and Belgium. Lots of time in the in the Caribbean and South Seas islands even made it to China and South Africa. It all sound very glamorous, the reality of it is, you get on an airplane and fly to the location then get in a cab go fix the helicopter get back into a cab and get on an airplane and come home. All hotel rooms look the same. In addition the world all looks the same through the bottom of a highball glass. I did it for nine years and got burned out on it. Working for this particular flight department is a real challenge most guys go for 3 years. The job prior to Vulcan was for the Boeing Executive Flight Department. I did that for 10 years it was a good gig. I had the unique distinction of VIP’s flying around in the helicopter that I was taking care of. Prior to Boeing was lots of short Jobs. The summertime’s were in Alaska supporting exploration geology. The winter times were spent in the US doing helicopter seismic surveying and helicopter agricultural spraying. There were two tours on Tuna Boats, (they use helicopters to find the fish) spent a lots of time in Panama, American Samoa and Hawaii. I got married was I was 32. I was married live on the air on KXRX by Gary Crow and Mike West on a billboard on the corner of Boren and Howell downtown Seattle. Currently still married to the same woman and doing great. I moved to Oregon in March 2008. I live about an hour south of Portland and about an hour east of I 5. I am 4 south miles out of a small town called Molalla. Molalla has four bars two stores and that about it. I have 15 acres and five Appaloosa’s a Border Collie and a Dogo Arginteno My drive two work is all two lane farm roads, speed limit 55 everyone does 70. I might see 5 or 6 cars on my way to work. By comparison I used to spend 45 minutes in a back up on I5 between Federal Way and Seattle. I am living a totally different life since I have move to Oregon and have horses. The Seattle life was wondering about who is playing at Jazz Alley and bitching about the commute on I5. The conversation now is now about the price of hay and what the part number is for the backhoe attachment for my John Deere tractor.

Education

• Mount Tahoma High School

Favorite saying

• ""Take it from me, there's nothing like a job well done. Except the quiet enveloping darkness at the bottom of a bottle of Jim Beam after a job done any way at all." HST"