Who was Floyd Hiser?
Micbloo
left a post trying to get info on him but since that board is rarely used I
figured this would be the place to go.
So, who is(was) Floyd Hiser and why was he so popular(?) and controversial(?).
Thanks
Gerard
Sergeant Rock
>He was a bigtime commercial and flight school operator in Southern California.
>Pacific Flyer had an obit. I never met him personal, but I had the distinct
>pleasure of flying an R-22 that had previously belonged to his flight school.
>It was quite thoroughly USED, with a lot of desert-environment wear and tear,
>and you could tell it had been used to teach FLYING by a PILOT. That ship was a
>testament to Frank Robinson's reliability engineering, and to Hiser's giving a
>student a REAL education... kinda like sitting in Captain Kirk's swivelchair. I
>tracked down the ship's history on a paperwork check before a checkride.
Floyd was killed recently in a ariel fire fighting accident. He used
to own Hiser Helicopters at Corona Airport. It is my understanding
when his business closed which was prior to his death, many people
lost their money. So goes the story anyway.
Scotmeistr
logging with Kaman Huskies. In 1996 he went to work for Rogers Helicopter based
in Fresno CA. and flew a Bell 206L on their fire contract based in Trimmer, CA.
Winter of 96 he flew Bell 212's for Rogers in the LA and San Diego area.
Summer of 1997 he went back to the Trimmer Contract flying a Bell 206 (N?395) .
While fighting a fire in the San Bernardino mountains he experienced an engine
failure while in a canyon and impacted hard and was killed.
To me Floyd was a real gentleman and an experienced aviator who other pilots
could look up to. To some Floyd owed them money and was thought of in less
kind light after the failure of Hiser Helicopters.
-=SCOTT=-
If God didn't mean for us to eat animals, then why did he make them out of
meat?
Scotmeistr
NTSB Identification: LAX97GA235
Accident occurred JUL-06-97 at HIGHLAND, CA
Aircraft: Bell 206L-1, registration: N27591
Injuries: 1 Fatal.
On July 6, 1997, about 1700 hours Pacific daylight time, a Bell 206L-1, N27591,
crashed in the San Bernardino mountains
north of Highland, California. The pilot was conducting water dropping
operations as part of an ongoing forest fire fighting
effort. The aircraft was destroyed and the pilot, the sole occupant, received
fatal injuries. The aircraft was being operated by
the USDA Forest Service under contract as an exclusive public-use aircraft when
the accident occurred. The flight
originated about 1635 from the Forest Service Helitac base in Highland,
California. Visual meteorological conditions
prevailed with localized smoke in the fire areas. No flight plan was filed.
Several people who were monitoring a common
frequency reported hearing a transmission that repeated the phrase "flame out"
twice. Another pilot, who was among those
that heard the radio call, flew to the area in which the aircraft was working.
He reported seeing a cloud of dust and flew to
investigate. Upon his arrival at the site, he saw the accident aircraft on the
ground at the bottom of the ravine. A ground scar
was visible on the west side of the ravine about 5 to 10 feet from the top.
John M Thompson
I now read this group for the 1st time and see this!
I got my Private Helicopter rating at Hiser Helicopters in Corona. That was
1989-1990. My favorite jacket has a Hiser emblem embroidered on it.
Floyd was the acting FAA Examiner, which I thought an odd conflict of interest, and
he signed me off as a pilot.
I also saw him as a gentleman. I had heard about the failure of Hiser Helicopters
a few years back, but hadn't heard about what Floyd was upto.
How did you know him Scott?
Cheers,
John T
Scotmeistr wrote: