Jon Duke

High school math — popular opinion says you have to be good at it to be an aviator. Many aviators will tell you it’s rarely at the forefront of their mind. But most of them have not spent much time in the hover at night over the Labrador Sea. Water temperature: 5 C (41 F) at best. Go into that and even in your aircrew dry suit you’ll be lucky to last 30 minutes.

Published on: April 13, 2026 Estimated reading time 18 minutes, 19 seconds. When the Stockton Police Department set out to establish an aviation unit, chief pilot Dan Lowry’s shortlist for the right aircraft did not include the Bell 505. “Honestly, the 505 wasn’t on my radar,” he said. Lowry’s evaluation focused on other types, and the department was close to securing its preferred option when the deal fell through.

Nothing occupies the mind of an aviator like the image of an aircraft accident. In 2014, Kurt Opseth sat in the audience at a safety conference for the Norwegian helicopter industry, and watched the footage of a HEMS (helicopter emergency medical services) accident from weeks earlier. The incident had claimed the lives of the pilot and doctor, and seriously injured the paramedic, after their Airbus Helicopters EC135 collided with an unmarked power line near Sollihøgda, northwest of Oslo.