• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

chopper pilots from KTSP

D

desertskies

Who was the chopper pilot from KTSP (now Fox10) who was busted for drag racing on Van Buren after causing a bad accident?
Len ???
 
i cant recall the name but i do remember the storie didnt it happend in the late eighties?i thought it was a news anchor that crashed his car.and the pilot they had was a female that crashed while flying for an other station up north somewhere.
 
Speaking of choppers and crashes, I think it was about 1990; didn't the DPS traffic copter crash, I think his name was Mike Neutzman? I believe this was one of the original East Side/West Side traffic reporters for KTAR. Was a sad situation.

Was this the end of traffic copters for radio?
 
Former Channel 10 pilot Len Clements was busted for DUI and was grounded for a while. I don't recall the drag racing portion of that incident, but the DUI arrest was in the late 1980s.

Karen Key was also a pilot for Channel 10, and she died in a crash while working for a Denver station.

The KTAR incident was right around 1990 or 1991. It was not a DPS helicopter. KTAR used DPS officers in airplanes for many years, but dropped that for their own chopper, which was piloted by Mike Neutzman, who also did the traffic reports.

He went down near 32nd and Shea one July afternoon and the investigation as to the cause was inconclusive, though they suspect he was distracted by something - perhaps a model rocket being fired - and lost control of the craft. He was the last helicopter traffic reporter, though KFYI and KNIX used airborne traffic for many years after that. KFYI only stopped using airplanes when they were grounded immediately after 9/11. They were grounded so long, they disovered they could do the job just as well or better using ADOT cameras, scanner traffic, etc.
 
We'll dispense with the 55/FYI Traffic Twins east side/west side
traffic vs. Deputy Dan's west side/west side traffic on KT'R
long enough to hit the wayback machine for some more PHX TV
chopper pilot history...

After Jerry Foster crossed the street from 10 to 12, was
Bill Dimond his immediate successor on KOOL News 10?

And who preceded Foster on 12 Action News?

And who was the unlucky airman to be piloting the KTVK
Total News chopper on its first day in the air, only to have
a crash-landing? Legend has it the font over the VO footage
on one of the other stations read "Totalled News." ;D

Somewhere after Dimond on 10 was Bruce Erion, who later had
a long stint at WXIA-TV Atlanta.
 
speaking of jerry what ever happend to him?last i heard he had gotten fired over the pot dropping from the chopper at a school.
 
oldiesfan6479 said:
After Jerry Foster crossed the street from 10 to 12, was
Bill Dimond his immediate successor on KOOL News 10?
Click to expand...

By any chance, was Jerry Foster at 12 in 1983?? Was he the one who also did weather at 12? I remember that 12 had a newscast with Dewey AND Jerry (???) both doing the weather. My memory is very fuzzy about that period. Can anyone confirm?
 
buster2 said:
KFYI only stopped using airplanes when they were grounded immediately after 9/11. They were grounded so long, they disovered they could do the job just as well or better using ADOT cameras, scanner traffic, etc.
Click to expand...

I'm sure Rubbernecker will correct us, but KFYI did restart flying after restrictions were lifted. I was listening when Mark Jeffery did his first airborne traffic after 9/11. They originally had two airplanes, went to one after 9/11, and then quietly stopped flying altogether.
 
I was only like 13 but I was OBSESSED with KTVK and wanted to be a news anchor... haha

anyway... im pretty sure it was from some Hells Angels drug tie from northern AZ from some story e had done years before.....

Maybe Mister Hagerty might remember (I believe he worked at KTVK at the time)
 
I honestly don't remember the particulars. I just know that we got the memo that he was gone and that Bruce Haffner was our new pilot. A lot of us who wouldn't fly with Jerry (I was spoiled by very careful, conscientious pilots like Rick Crabbs and Jerry Clifton) were happy to get to ride in NewsChopper 3 again.

---Michael Hagerty
 
michael hagerty said:
I honestly don't remember the particulars. I just know that we got the memo that he was gone and that Bruce Haffner was our new pilot. A lot of us who wouldn't fly with Jerry (I was spoiled by very careful, conscientious pilots like Rick Crabbs and Jerry Clifton) were happy to get to ride in NewsChopper 3 again.

---Michael Hagerty
Click to expand...
The two best pilots in the market, Crabbs and Clifton.
 
formeraa said:
oldiesfan6479 said:
After Jerry Foster crossed the street from 10 to 12, was
Bill Dimond his immediate successor on KOOL News 10?
Click to expand...

By any chance, was Jerry Foster at 12 in 1983?? Was he the one who also did weather at 12? I remember that 12 had a newscast with Dewey AND Jerry (???) both doing the weather. My memory is very fuzzy about that period. Can anyone confirm?
Click to expand...
Last I heard he was hauling the corporate crowd around town.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom