Rotorcraft Report: People

Australian Army Maj. Daniel Cash has received Australia’s Medal for Gallantry, presented to military personnel for gallantry in action in hazardous circumstances. A Boeing CH-47 Chinook pilot in Queensland, Cash was honored for twice flying his helicopter into an Afghanistan landing zone as part of a major action by coalition forces against the Taliban in 2006. While disembarking and re-embarking the assault forces, the citation for Cash’s medal reads, "the enemy aggressively sought to destroy the helicopter through heavy fire."

Mark Duncan, Bristow Group’s senior vice president of global business development, will be promoted and succeed Mike Suldo as senior vice president for the Western Hemisphere when Suldo retires later this year. Suldo also is retiring as president of Bristow’s Air Logistics unit. Bristow’s current senior vice president of global training, Patrick Corr, will take the new post of senior vice president of global safety, training, and standards upon the retirement March 31 of Bill Hopkins, the company’s vice president of global standards. Corr will be based in Houston and have responsibility for the combined functions of the Global Training Div. and the Global Standards Team.

Chevron Global Aviation has named Scott Rapacki as Alliance Program area manager-East and Robert Taylor as the new manager of branded programs for General Aviation. Based in Houston, Rapacki comes to Chevron from Universal Weather & Aviation, where he was an international flight controller and account manager in the U.S. Southeast and Northeast regions. Taylor has been with Chevron for 18 years. In his new role, he is responsible for Chevron Global Aviation GA branded and business support programs for over 750 Chevron- and Texaco-branded FBOs and other customers.

Texas Aviation Services has appointed Tom Lark as vice president-operations. Each of its operational divisions and departments will report to Lark, who will report directly to President Tim Woodard. A West Point graduate with an MBA from Duke University, Lark has significant experiences as both a helicopter pilot and rotorcraft MRO leader.