Meet the Contributors

CLAUDIO AGOSTINI, R&W’s Latin America correspondent since mid-1999 and author of Latin America Notebook, is participating in development of a helicopter sub-group of the São Paulo Federation of Industries’ Aviation Working Group and the organization of a new, all-helicopter business and safety event to be held in São Paulo, Brazil this year. He is based in São Paulo, which has more than 300 helicopters and 160 elevated helipads.

LEE BENSON, our Public Safety Notebook columnist, is the retired senior pilot for the Los Angeles County Fire Dept. Before he was named senior pilot, Lee ran the aviation section’s safety and training programs, including organizing the section’s yearly safety meeting with other public agencies and the press.

KEITH CIANFRANI pens our Safety Watch column. A retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel, master aviator, and instructor pilot, he is both fixed- and rotary-wing rated. He served as an aviation safety officer and accident investigator for the Army Safety Center, where he was the author of many aviation safety articles in Flight Fax magazine. He holds a master’s degree in aerospace safety from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. Keith is a CFI and has flown commercial aircraft for more than 20 years in and around the New York City area. He operates an aviation safety consulting business in Philadelphia. He also is a risk management instructor and teaches at Drexel University and at The Philadelphia Military Academy at Elverson.

ELIZAVETA KAZACHKOVA is on staff with the Air Transport Observer, a Moscow-based airline business publication. She also edits an online resource for general aviation pilots called Polet. She has worked for Kamov Helicopters, whence her interest in rotorcraft originates.

TERRY TERRELL has served as a U.S. Navy amphibious warfare specialist, naval aviator, and instructor, a U.S. Coast Guard aircraft commander, and a past contributor to R&W. He is rated in fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft and has more than 15,000 hr flight time. He stays active as a manager for Omniflight/Rescue Air 1’s emergency medical service operations in Atlanta. He authored our Helicopter Training feature on winter flying in an effort to take some mystery out of surprise encounters with zero-visibility conditions.

RICHARD WHITTLE filed our report on the V-22 in Iraq after spending several days there in December with the U.S. Marine Corps squadron flying it on its first operational deployment. He visited VMM-263, and got his third V-22 ride, as part of research for a book he’s writing on the Osprey for Simon & Schuster.