Information about Colorado Helicopters, Inc.

My  name is Ron Magnus, president and owner of Colorado Helicopters, Inc..  I learned  to fly helicopters courtesy of the United States Army in 1968.  I flew Hueys 6  months, Chinooks 6 months and Cobras 6 months in Viet Nam.  After leaving the military, I flew for civilian  companies, doing such work as fire fighting, predator control, search and  rescue, seismic exploration, flight instruction, uranium claim staking, scintillometry  (airborne uranium exploration), claim staking, snow surveys, hauling heli-skiers, diamond  exploration, and powerline construction.  After about five years, I purchased my own helicopter, a Hughes 500D,  and went into business for myself.

I  learned lessons along the way, of course.  I continually tried to determine  better, safer, and more efficient ways of accomplishing different flying tasks.

In those early days, I realized that some helicopter companies tried to take as much time as possible at each task in order to log the most flight hours. Since they were paid by the hour, they thought they made more money this way.  My philosophy was  different.  I figured that if I accomplished every task with the least amount of flight hours possible, the customer would find it very economical to use my company, and that they would begin to use us for more and more contracts.

 

When I began to hire pilots, I knew that they had to be aggressive, but also safe,  willing, and capable. They also had to have high quality aircraft mechanics working  alongside them.  And everyone needed to be efficient.  For instance, in the field, we would refuel hot (with the engine running) so the customer’s time was not wasted in shutting down and starting up.  Since we only charged for time actually in the air and not time on the ground with the engine running, customers loved it.  We worked out procedures to ensure the safety of this practice, and never had any problems with it. Our insurance company and the FAA approved it.

While our main line of work was powerline construction, Colorado Helicopters has also worked on seismic projects, heli-skiing, telephone pole setting, and wild animal capture, among many others.

 

Over the years I, or the pilots who worked for me, completed power line construction contracts for the following companies:

 

Brink Electric Construction Company

Bruce and Marrilees Electric Company

Buffalo  Electric

Buffalo - North Star AJV

Commonwealth  Electric Company

C.W. Wright Construction Company, Inc.

EBCO Commonwealth

El  Paso Electric Company

EMKO Corporation

F.A. Tucker Transmission Company

Georgia Power Company

Henkels & McCoy, Inc.

Irby Construction Company

JOB Line Construction, Inc.

L.E. Myers Company

Lord  Electric Company

Seaward  Corp.

Southeast  Power Corporation

Transpower Constructors

Tri-O, Inc.

Union Power Construction

 

Harold  Nelson of Pendleton Aircraft Service, Pendleton, Oregon can tell you about the  quality of maintenance we demanded.

 

Colorado  Helicopters was, and is, highly recommended by all who have used our services.

Ron Magnus
President
Colorado Helicopters, Inc.

719-495-0100   or   800-444-0066

Ron@ColoradoHelicopters.com