Meet the Contributors

CHARLOTTE ADAMS covers aviation and defense technology. She writes for our sister publication Aviation Maintenance and was the editor in chief of Avionics. She also writes for the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Assn.

RON BOWER for 10 years has been a contributing writer for Rotor & Wing and has been flying for 45 years, having accumulated almost 9,000 hr with no accidents, incidents or violations. He has flown in 37 countries, and held the absolute around-the-world speed record for helicopters from 1994 until it was broken in August. He flew on the last leg of that historic flight. Since 1999, Ron has worked with his son, Shannon, at Bower Helicopter Inc, helping people buy and sell helicopters worldwide.

STEVE COLBY, LT. COL., U.S. AIR FORCE (RETIRED), started his helicopter career 28 years ago as a USAF helicopter mechanic. He is dual rated fixed- and rotary-wing and a CFI and holds an A&P mechanic’s license. His career culminated with command of the USAF Weapons School’s 34th Weapons Sqdn, which provides advanced training to combat search and rescue (CSAR) instructor pilots. During his career, he was credited with 22 "saves." He now works for a major defense contractor as the program manager for integration and test. He participated in a discussion of the go/no go decision at R&W’s Search & Rescue Summit 2008 last month.

DOUGLAS NELMS has more than 30 years as an aviation journalist and currently works as a freelance writer. He formerly served as managing editor of R&W. A former U.S. Army helicopter pilot, he specializes in writing about helicopters and, for this issue, brings us a report on how current economy turmoil is affecting the corporate sector.

BARNEY O’SHEA helped introduce helicopters into the British Army Air Corps and assisted in setting up the Australian Army Aviation Corps. A recipient of the American Helicopter Society’s Gruppo Agusta International Fellowship, he is a guest lecturer at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology and other universities.

MAJ. TONY SOMOGYI is executive officer of the High-altitude Army National Guard Aviation Training Site, the school house in the heart of the Rocky Mountains (in Eagle, Colo.) that is run by the Colorado National Guard and specializes in training military helicopter pilots in the science and the art of power management. He is a graduate from the University of North Dakota’s Air Battle Captain program with a degree in aeronautical studies. After being commissioned in the Army and spending eight years on active duty as an OH-58D pilot and a maintenance test pilot, he is now an OH-58A/C instructor pilot there.

ERNIE STEPHENS is a retired police sergeant and chief pilot with a bachelor’s degree in management of technical operations and a master’s degree in aeronautical science, both from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, where he also teaches. He served as chairman of the Washington Metropolitan Area Council of Governments’ Disaster Assistance Recovery Team from 1997 to 2006. He has been writing for R&W since 2004 and was nominated for the 2008 Aerospace Journalist of the Year Award. At R&W’s Search & Rescue Summit 2008 last month in Reston, Va., he moderated a panel discussion on "Old Lessons, New Tools in Search & Rescue."

TERRY TERRELL was a U.S. Navy naval aviation officer/pilot, Navy flight instructor and U.S. Coast Guard aircraft commander, where his service included operations in search and rescue Sikorsky S-61 helicopters throughout the Caribbean and Pacific. Airline Transport Pilot-rated in both airplanes and helicopters, with more than 16,000 hr, Terrell acted as safety director with Houston’s Transco Energy, operating the largest private fleet of Learjets and TwinStar helicopters established to date. His current community involvement as a medical air transport operator allows him a continuing opportunity for satisfying civic participation.