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Report: MSP Short On Reserve Chopper Pilots

July 25th, 2018 by WCBC Radio

The Hagerstown Herald Mail says they have talked with a union official who says the Maryland State Police helicopter fleet is short handed.

Maryland State Police spokeswoman Elena Russo told the paper that the aviation unit has 14 vacancies, but hopes to fill eight of them in the near future.

The story quotes pilot Rick Bartlett as saying overtime requirements have caused exisiting pilots to leave for other jobs.  Each of the state's seven helicopter basis needs four pilots on duty 24 hours a day.  Bartlett, the union president, says troopers have shown up at pilot residences to conduct well checks.

 

One Response to “Report: MSP Short On Reserve Chopper Pilots”

  1. July 25, 2018 at 8:17 pm, mike said:

    I know several of the very proficient and professional MSP pilots and it isn’t a “reserve” pilot shortage problem but a normal staffing problem. The dedicated pilots cover the base but the result is a quality of life that is detrimental without any job satisfaction. What they do isn’t what they signed up for. Under proper staffing they would be very happy but as it is, detrimental to the pilots and their families.
    I have been in an airline environment for 37 yrs and have seen this sort of problem many times over.
    As I see the problem the MSP, bless them,for sure,are the upper management of the flight part of the helicopter fleet and staff.They do not know anymore about how to operate a helicopter fleet than Bristow Helicopters or Petroleum Helicopters would know how to operate a very good State Police Department as the MSP is.
    UPS, as we all know is a great company and does what they do well, got into aviation several years ago and bought their own fleet of planes and hired pilots. It was a disaster as the upper management of the flight dept were truckers, who were very good as trucker management but new nothing about aviation depts. They, being smart , saw the light and got aviation folks in and the rest is history.
    Maryland needs to learn from this and fix the problem-it isn’t big bucks but a mind set fix.

    Reply

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