McConkey Receives Excellence In Safety Award | Aviation International News

McConkey Receives Excellence In Safety Award

McConkey is considered an unsung hero of the helicopter industry for his pioneering work on GPS approaches.

By Kerry Lynch • Editor, AIN monthly magazine

March 1, 2015

Helicopter emergency medical services (HEMS) operators transport about 400,000 patients and life-saving organs a year. Many of those trips require operating in poor weather, but for years HEMS pilots were prevented from taking off or landing at hospitals under instrument flight rules (IFR). Those limitations grounded many potentially life-saving HEMS missions.

That changed when Edwin McConkey, a mathematician and software engineer, devised a means to enable pilots to fly instrument approaches to hospital helipads without existing IFR infrastructure. “Edwin McConkey is an unsung hero of the helicopter industry,” said HAI. “He is not a pilot or mechanic, but he has arguably done more to keep pilots, crews and passengers safe in poor weather conditions than any other individual.”

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