HAI President Matt Zuccaro was in Atlanta, Ga., on Thurs., June 7, where he was the guest speaker at the Spring luncheon of the Atlanta Aero Club.

Zuccaro brought the attentive crowd up to speed on the current state of the vertical flight industry, as well as some of the issues facing rotorcraft operators, manufacturers, and support companies. And he helped the Aero Club close out some long-unfinished business with tributes to two helicopter heroes.

HAI President Matt Zuccaro (left) greets fellow Vietnam veterans during the Atlanta Aero Club luncheon.

Zuccaro noted that while some issues are unique to vertical flight, others, such as the FAA’s plan to mandate flight routes based on nothing more than noise complaints, could have detrimental effects on fixed-wing operations as well.

HAI President Matt Zuccaro (left), congratulates Pilot Boyd Clines (center) and Crew Chief Larry Rogers (right) for awards honoring the pair’s dramatic rescue of a crane operator trapped high above a raging building fire.

During the luncheon, Zuccaro also helped pay tribute to a helicopter crew from the Georgia Department of Natural Resources for a dramatic,nationally televised rescue more than a decade ago. Repeated scheduling conflicts had confounded the Aero Club’s efforts to honor pilot Boyd Clines and crew chief Larry Rogers for their 1999 rescue, along with Atlanta firefighter Matt Moseley, of a tower crane operator trapped on his crane high above a raging inferno. Buffeted by intense heat and gusting, fire-generated winds, Clines and Rogers carefully lowered Moseley by long-line to the tower crane boom, where operator Iver Sims had retreated to the concrete counterweight blocks to escape the heat. After Moseley had attached Sims to his harness, Clines flew the two to safety about 200 yards away from the fire.

HAI President Matt Zuccaro (right) chats with fellow helicopter pilot and former Ga. Governor Sonny Perdue at the Atlanta Aero Club Luncheon.

While in Atlanta, Zuccaro also met with former governor and helicopter pilot Sonny Perdue, as well as John Woodruff, president of the Atlanta Helicopter Association, and others from the Atlanta helicopter community.