Ron Newman started his career in aviation in 1955 as an apprentice aircraft engine mechanic with Trans Australia Airlines (now QANTAS).  Toward the end of his apprenticeship he became fascinated with TAA’s Bell 47J helicopters and, when TAA sold them, he transferred to Ansett’s helicopter division.

Ron travelled all over Australia with Ansett as a helicopter engineer until, in 1965, he was transferred to Queensland as the Base Engineer for their 28 passenger Sikorsky S61 operation between Proserpine and the resort on Hayman Island.

The Sikorsky technical representative, who travelled to Proserpine frequently, recruited Ron as a technical representative for Sikorsky, but at the same time Ron was asked to join a small helicopter company in Sydney to look after two Sycamores.  Part of the remuneration package for the local job was a helicopter pilot’s licence so he accepted this offer instead, and got his pilot’s licence in 1968.

This company went bankrupt and Ron freelanced for a couple of months until he was recruited by Helicopter Utilities to start their S61 offshore program and, after a couple of years there as a pilot/engineer, he moved to Jayrow Helicopters, again as a pilot/engineer.

During his time with Jayrow, he worked all round Australia and the British Solomon Isles, and did two trips to Antarctica as a pilot/engineer.

He then joined the Victoria Police in order to start their helicopter division.  After travelling overseas to evaluate different helicopter types he selected the Aerospatiale Dauphin (SA 365C) and then made several more trips to France to do the engine, airframe and electrical courses for the Dauphin, as well as the pilot’s course and the acceptance flights for the Police helicopter.

He spent the remainder of his time with the Police as their Chief Helicopter Pilot and Chief Engineer.  During this time he trained other engineers, recruited and endorsed more pilots, and conducted all their rescue and instrument training.  As well as conducting routine Police patrols, he also flew on numerous rescue missions and major fires, one of which was the horrific 1983 ‘Ash Wednesday’ fire in Victoria.

Ron was awarded the ‘Royal Humane Society’, Bronze Medal for a night rescue where he had to operate extremely close to a cliff face to pick up two injured people who had fallen over the cliff.

In 1981, whilst still with the Police, he purchased a Hughes 269B and started a part time training school.  The school grew rapidly, and in 1983 the Police Force bureaucracy got too much for him, so he resigned and made Professional Helicopter Services Pty Ltd his full time passion.

Ron is endorsed to fly 15 different helicopters, ranging from the Robinson R22 to the Sikorsky S76;  he has over 17,500 helicopter hours with well over 7,000 helicopter instructional hours.  He is a Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) ‘Approved Test Officer’ qualified to conduct tests for the issue of Private and Commercial Pilot Licences, Instructor Ratings, and Night Ratings as well as Winch, Water and Formation endorsements.

He is also a Licensed Aircraft Maintenance Engineer (LAME) with licences in Engines, Airframes, Electrical and Instrument categories, with engineering endorsements ranging from the Robinson R22 to the Sikorsky S61.

In 1999, he wrote his first book, HELICOPTERS WILL TAKE YOU ANYWHERE, which started off being an instruction to Professional Helicopter Service’s low hour pilots on how a turbine engine works, but it quickly grew into a full book.

This book was proof read by Ray Prouty, who claimed it to be one of the five best books of its type in the world.

Ray Prouty is a world renowned helicopter aerodynamicists and author of many technical books for helicopter designers, but he is best known amongst the helicopter pilot fraternity for the sought after articles he wrote for ROTOR & WING as well as his books aimed at pilots and engineers titled PRACTICAL HELICOPTER AERODYNAMICS, MORE HELICOPTER AERODYNAMICS and a third one, EVEN MORE HELICOPTER AERODYNAMICS.  He now has a fourth one that is a conglomerate of the previous three.

In 2004, Ron developed a theory website as he was not happy with the standard of theory in the available text books, particularly in relation to helicopters.  There are now over 700 helicopter and aeroplane subscribers to this website, including several helicopter and aeroplane schools that either use the website as their primary means of theory instruction, or they recommend it to their home study students.

Ron has written articles for ‘VERTICAL’ magazine, and is currently writing a regular column for the ‘HELI-NEWS – ASIA PACIFIC’ magazine.

As you can see, Ron has a wealth of experience, and he shares a lot of it with you in these books, and even more in his Online Aviation Theory website (www.OnlineAviationTheory.com).