COLORADO AIRLINES: United States (1976-1984). Upon the completion of Crested Butte Airport in the summer of 1976, its owners, Ronald D. and Sharon Y. Rouse, establish two airline divisions of their Crested Butte Air Service, Inc. to fly passengers and cargo to Denver and Aspen. Passenger services are operated by Colorado Airlines and freight by Colorado Air Freight Services. Flights commence in October with a pair of Cessna 206s.
Operations continue apace for the remainder of the decade, although the fleet is enhanced by the addition of Britten-Norman BN-2 Islanders.
In June 1981, the couple takes over the FBO operation of Cimarron Air at Grand Junction. Company headquarters are moved to this new base and C-206 operations continue between Grand Junction, Denver, Crested Butte, and Aspen. Cargo flights are extended to other Colorado towns and cities before the operation is forced, by mounting debts, into bankruptcy in 1984.
COLORADO AIRWAYS: United States (1926-1927). Having obtained Contract Air Mail Route No. 12 (CAM-12), Anthony F. Joseph forms Colorado Airways at Denver in the spring of 1926 to link Colorado Springs, Pueblo and the state capital with Cheyenne on the transcontinental mail route. Employing a pair of Standard biplanes, Joseph inaugurates service on May 31. Later in the year, the mail-only flights are improved by the replacement of the Standards with Ryan M-1 Mailplanes.
The company is acquired by Western Air Express on December 10, 1927.
COLORADO RIVER AIRWAYS: United States (1966-1968). Colorado River is set up at Long Beach, California, in April 1966 to provide scheduled passenger and cargo services with a fleet of de Havilland DH 104 Doves and DH 114 Herons. Roundtrip revenue flights commence on May 26, linking the company’s base with Burbank, Bullhead City, and Havasu City, and continue until the company goes out of business in 1968.
COLUMBIA AIRLINES: United States (1935-1936). Very shortlived, Columbia is formed at Curtiss-Steinberg Field at East St. Louis on August 15, 1935 to offer scheduled passenger and small package express services to Detroit via St. Louis, Louisville, and Cincinnati. Five Stinson Model U Tri-Motors are purchased from American Airlines and Canadian Colonial Airlines and are employed to commence operations in September. Traffic is so poor (984 passengers and 2.9 tons of express) that the company, without affiliation or subsidy, must shut its doors in mid-February 1936.
COLUMBIA HELICOPTERS: P. O. Box 3500, Portland, Oregon 97208, United States; Phone (503) 678-1222; Fax (503) 678-5841; Http://www. colheli. com; Year Founded 1957. Edward and Wesley Lamatta form Columbia Helicopters at Troutdale Airport, near Portland, Oregon, in 1957. While the two men supplement their incomes as truck drivers and longshoremen, they employ a single used Hiller 12B on contract service flights. Revenues for the start-up year total $22,000.
Piloting the Hiller 12B, Wesley gains national attention in 1958 when he rescues 17 seamen from a sinking dredge off Coos Bay. A new Bell 47-G2 is purchased in 1959, followed in 1960 by the acquisition of a new Hiller 12B. Company headquarters are transferred to Swan Island, near Portland’s downtown area, in 1962.
Operations continue apace during the 1960s, with Columbia providing lift for transmission-tower construction and the stringing of communication lines. The most unusual feat during the first half of the decade is the towing of two water skiers from Portland to the mouth of the Columbia River in order to set a new world record.
In 1967, President Wesley Lamatta, who had let his dream to start helicopter logging be known three years earlier, is approached by representatives of Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation, which sell him an S-61 and recommend the purchase of the Boeing Vertol 107s currently operated by New York Airways. The scheduled rotary-wing operator needs to find a buyer for its older aircraft before it can obtain, under an agreement with Pan American World Airways (1), Sikorsky S-61s.
Lamatta approaches New York Airways in 1968 and is able to purchase three machines. The first of these enters service and helps the company execute a contract to set power line towers across the Continental Divide in Colorado. These, along with the Sikorsky S-61, are employed in construction work during 1969-1970.
In 1971, New York Airways’ last 4 Boeing Vertol 107s are purchased. With the requisite lift now available, Columbia is ready to initiate the first trial use of helicopter logging in the U. S. (helicopters had first carried logs in Scotland in 1956). The initial effort is a cooperative venture between Columbia, the U. S. Forest Service, and Erickson Lumber Company of Marysville, California. One of the 107s on this Lights Creek Timber Sale experiment is piloted by joint venture partner Jack Erickson, who will later form competing Erickson Air Crane to log with Sikorsky S-64 Skycranes.
A second heli-logging experiment and the first commercial timber sale occurs in early summer in Plumas National Forest, in northern California, during the Drum Timber Sale. The 107s prove Lamatta’s concept is sound and, in the first successful commercial heli-logging operation in the west, harvest 3 million board feet of wood in 12 weeks.
A third commercial timber sale and another study involve the Siskiyou National Forest in Oregon and the Boulder Overstory sale. The research is designed to study the feasibility of helicopter yarding of large Douglas fir trees, as well as the fire hazard potential and aesthetics associated with heli-logging. This operation, netting 5 million board feet of wood, is completed between August 8 and October 7.
The company’s first big overseas contract is accepted during the year. Two BV-107s are dispatched to Papua New Guinea to provide oil rig movement and support flights on behalf of Texaco and the Australasian Petroleum Company.
During the remainder of the decade, the Boeing Vertol 107 fleet grows to 12 and are employed to undertake both logging and construction contracts. Overseas business is also accepted as oil companies hire Columbia to transport oil rigs, often to such inhospitable locations as Papua New Guinea. Transport work is also carried out in Africa, including sandstorm-ridden Sudan.
Between 1975-1976, two BV-107s support energy development operations in Peru. During the latter year, 4 Kawasaki-Vertol 107s are acquired from the government of Thailand. In 1977b, 2 BV-107s are sent to Saudi Arabia, where they provide fire suppression and search and rescue flights during the Hadj, the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca.
In 1978, Alaska Helicopters is taken over and 2 Boeing Vertol 107s are sent north to join the new acquisition’s choppers in providing passenger and cargo charters throughout Alaska.
Over 128,000 acres of forest are blown down when Mount St. Helen’s explodes on May 18, 1980. Consequently, a massive log salvage operation is announced by the U. S. Forest Service, the Washington State Department of Natural Resources, and Weyerhaeuser Industries. Columbia dispatches several of its Boeing Vertol 107s to Gifford Pinchot National Forest to participate in the clearance and these begin to remove over four million board feet of timber.
Operations continue apace in 1981 and, in 1982, a Boeing Vertol 107 is shipped to Lae, Papua New Guinea, where it provides support flights under contract to Chevron Oil at Moro, in the central, Lake Kutubu area. Also during the year, a BV-107 tows a hover barge through 50 miles of broken ice to an offshore drilling island; loaded with 220 tons of equipment, it is then towed back to shore.
In 1983, pilots from the carrier operate 2 Boeing 234s, which ARCO Alaska has chartered to fly workers from Nome to its Navarin Basin Cost #1 platform, some 400 nm. out in the Bering Sea.
A Boeing 234 Commercial Chinook is purchased from British Airways Helicopters, Ltd. in the spring-summer of 1984 and is delivered in September. Assigned to the Alaska Helicopters subsidiary, the first owned Commercial Chinook to be operated by a North American carrier is employed to make an inaugural passenger flight from Nome to one of Amoco’s Navarin Basin oil platforms 400 miles offshore. A contract is now received to regularly fly Amoco Production Company rig workers from St. Paul Island to the Navarin Basin in the Bering Sea.
Following the ditching of a second British Airways Helicopters, Ltd. Boeing in the East Shetland Basin on May 2, 1985, the damaged machine is acquired during the summer. Repaired, it, too, enters service in support of Amoco fields off Alaska. In 6 months of operation from St. Paul to the drilling rigs, the 2 aircraft operate 439 hrs. of primarily IFR support, maintaining 100% mission availability.
The fifteenth year of heli-logging is celebrated and it is reported that, since this type of operation began, Columbia has yarded more than 2.04 billion board feet of timber, enough for the construction of 408,600 houses. On behalf of Marathon Oil Company, a BV-107 now transports an Adeco Heli-rig from its base camp to a well site at an elevation of 7,650-ft. near Cody, Wyoming.
During 100 days ending December 5, the company undertakes a contract in the Darfur region of western Sudan on behalf of the U. S. Agency for International Development (AID). Employing three Boeing Vertol 107s, company pilots fly over 8.8 million pounds of food, fuel, and medical supplies.
The 3 BV-107s fly 2,598 hours on this contract, then a world record for helicopter utilization, with 100% aircraft availability and mission completion. At year’s end, a USAF C-5A Galaxy returns the 3 helicopters to Portland, Oregon.
The company’s fleet of 11 Boeing Vertol 107s enjoy a productive 1986, particularly in July-August. Beginning in June and continuing through July, a BV-107 moves oil rigs and provides oil-company support in Papua New Guinea; at month’s end, the rotary-wing aircraft is flown back to the company base at Aurora, Oregon, aboard a Lockheed L-100 Super Hercules of Transamerica Airlines.
During August, several 107s, employing the newly developed CORDS (Columbia on-board retardant dispensing system), join in a two-and-a-half week forest fire fighting campaign in Idaho and Oregon. During the same period, another 107, leased to Whonnock Industries of Vancouver, British Columbia, establishes a logging record during work at Hovel Bay on Bute Inlet. In August, the machine flies 338i'3 hours (a 30-day record) and lifts out over 52 million pounds of timber. In total, the Boeing Vertols have, thus far, amassed over 160,000 flight hours. Meanwhile, the decline in North Sea oil prices causes a planned lease of a Civil Chinook to British Airways Helicopters, Ltd. to be put on hold.
Beginning on August 31, 1987 and continuing throughout the fall in a fire fighting campaign termed “unprecedented” by forestry officials, Columbia’s entire Northwest fleet of 7 BV-107s and a Civil Chinook are committed to fire suppression flights in northern California, southern Oregon, Idaho, Washington. The Model 234L is particularly impressive as it battles a blaze in California’s Mendocina National Forest. Through October 31, the 107 s fly over 800 hours and the Civil Chinook another 73.
During a two-day contract with Cincinnati Gas & Electric Co. in December, a two-man crew, suspended from a company BV-107, replaces aircraft in marking spheres on power lines stretching across the Ohio River. At year’s end, one of the 107s acquired from New York Airways back in 1971, completes its 30,000th flight hour during a logging operation; the mark is a civil record for the type.
One of the company’s Model 234 Civil Chinooks is reconfigured for helicopter logging in 1988. Its first contract is the harvest of timber from the Olympic Peninsula near Hoodsport, Washington. A Boeing Vertol 107 is placed on a logging contract at Big Jeff, Oregon, in April; the aircraft will yard about four million board feet of timber from elevations nearing 2,500 feet.
During the summer and fall, three 107s are dispatched to Papua New Guinea. The contract has them transporting oil rigs and supporting exploratory drilling in the nation’s southern highlands. The logging Chinook is dispatched to Grant’s Pass, Oregon, to begin a year’s work cleaning up valuable and salvage timber from the Silver Complex burn. Late in the year, a letter of intent is signed with British International Airways, Ltd. (BIH) for the purchase of the U. K. airline’s final 3 Commercial Chinooks.
In February 1989, the company completes its purchase of the 3 British International Airways, Ltd. (BIH) Model 234s at a cost of between $20 million and $25 million, including spare parts. The first of these Civil Chinooks departs the U. K. for Portland, Oregon, on February 17, with the other two following at monthly intervals.
A Civil Chinook is assigned to participate in suppression of the King Gulch Fire at Idaho City, Idaho, between July 29 and 31. Delivering 3,000-gallon bucket loads at a time, the giant helicopter flies nearly 23 hours and drops a total of 426,896 gallons onto the blaze.
After 8,158 hours of service over five-and-a-half years in the Southern Highlands of Papua New Guinea flying support for oil rig operations, the leased Boeing Vertol 107 returns to Aurora, Oregon, in August.
On the U. S. West Coast, the Chinook works in Happy Camp, California, on a contract to log timber from Ten Bear Mountain and then returns to Grant’s Pass in Oregon. During December, the company accepts a contract from Fiberboard Corporation to begin the salvage, with its Civil Chinooks, of 10 million board feet of dead, but valuable, old growth timber from Stanislaus National Forest, just north of Yosemite National Park.
In January 1990, a Civil Chinook is dispatched to South Carolina to heli-log upwards of 20 million board feet of pine and red oak blown down during Hurricane Hugo the previous fall. In February, a second Model 234 begins working on the Stanislaus National Forest contract, taking upwards of 400,000 board feet of timber daily in 13-ton slingloads to 3 designated landing zones.
Also in the first quarter, Columbia Helicopters receives timber salvage contracts to remove valuable dead trees from Sequoia, Plumas, Lassen, and Eldorado National Forests. The Boeing 107s are sent to deal with these tasks, which will remove timber killed by fires in 1987 and a 1988 bark beetle infestation.
During the summer, company helicopters are also involved in West Coast fire fighting operations. While combating a blaze near Wenatchee in northwest Washington on August 4, a BV-107 crashes and burns; although its crew escapes without injury, the aircraft must be written off as a total loss.
Between August 8 and 19, 2 Boeing 234s operate 134 flight hours helping to combat the great “Stormy Fire,” near Kernville, California. Dropping 3,000-gallon bucket loads of water at a time, the two helicopters deliver a total volume of 1,346,000 gallons during their effort.
After six months of negotiations, the company purchases the 2 Civil Chinooks flown by Trump Air. With 7 such machines, each certified by the FAA to lift underslung loads of up to 14 tons, Columbia now operates the largest Boeing 234 fleet in the world, along with 12 Boeing Ver-tol 107s. Two of the latter, under contract in Papua New Guinea, operate in excess of 2,500 hours.
Columbia pilots ferry the 2 former Trump Air Civil Chinooks from Farmingdale, New Jersey, to Aurora, Oregon, during a four-day period in January 1991. Under contract to Mobil Oil, one of the older Model 234s is transported to Lae, Papua New Guinea, where it arrives on May 5. Within days, the Civil Chinook is transporting drilling equipment over high mountain ridges, some in excess of 8,800 feet.
The huge helicopter joins 4 Boeing Vertol 107s already on station in Papua New Guinea providing, as they have for nine years, support for Chevron, Mobil, Command, and British Petroleum. Flights continue, as they have from the beginning, to be made in association with the local concern Milne Bay Air (Pty.), Ltd.
During the year, the concern, which had begun the practice the previous year, continues its work in support of fish habitat enhancement by placing boulders, logs, and root wads into streams and creeks previously disturbed by logging activities.
Operations continue apace in 1992. During November, the Civil Chinook in Papua New Guinea and a BV-107 relocate more than two million pounds of Chevron drilling rig and support equipment owned by Parker Drilling Company in a record number of flight hours. The BV-107 handles 54% of the mission in just under 52 hours, while the Model 234 flies its 46% share in just 12 hours. In North America, heli-logging, as it has for some time, continues to account for the majority of the carrier’s flight hours.
During the spring of 1993, the Papua New Guinea helicopters accept another contact to move Parker Drilling equipment; altogether, 1.8 million pounds are transported in just 12 days.
President Roy M. Simmons’s corporation is now a worldwide operator of contract and charter passenger and cargo services Its large fleet of rotary-wing aircraft exceeds 50 in number of various types. During the fall, one of these, a Boeing Vertol 107, N6674D, breaks the 40,000-hr. mark to become the world’s highest-time helicopter. Five more BV-107s are acquired from the Swedish armed forces, bringing the total number of civil CH-46 Sea Knights in its inventory to 16.
Airline employment in 1994 stands at 700. Following a presentation to the Malaysian forestry department, the company inaugurates heli-logging operations during the first quarter for a company based at Sarawak. The logging will be done in both Malaysia and Laos.
At the same time, the first of the 5 BV 107s from Sweden undergo refurbishment and enter services during the summer. Six used Sikorsky CH-54As Skycranes are also purchased and refurbished.
Once again, the line is engaged in its annual April 15-October 15 seasonal fire fighting activities. By mid-August, the 3 Model 234s and 9 BV-107s assigned to the mission have set company flight-hour records in fighting over 30 fires in nine states.
After it stops providing Chinook service to Phillips Petroleum in the North Sea’s Ekofisk oil field during April 1995, Helikopter Air Service, A. S. puts its last 2 B-234s up for sale. Also in April, a Model 234 begins operating on behalf of Helifor, Ltd. from a floating base near Campbell River, British Columbia. In May, the Civil Chinook flies a record 274.6 hrs. and transports 84 million lbs. of timber from logging sites to fjords, from which shipment is completed to sawmills.
The first CH-54A enters service on September 8; it is assigned to a logging contract at Burney, California. The HAS Chinooks are purchased by Columbia later in September and are delivered at the end of December. Arriving at Baltimore by ship, the B-234s are then flown to Columbia’s base at Aurora, Oregon. With 9 units, Columbia becomes owner of all of the world’s operating Civil Chinooks.
Heavy-lift work increases 20% during the year to 34,157 hrs. The heli-logging business grows 50% by volume and now represents approximately 90% of Columbia’s work.
In January 1996, one of the former HAS Chinooks is shipped to Papua New Guinea, where it joins another unit and a BV-07 in moving oil rigs for multiple customers. In May, the two Chinooks move the 99th rig transferred by the company in Papua New Guinea; the Parker Drilling Company’s Rig 140 is set up for Chevron Niugini at the Moran 1X site in the central highlands. Bad weather slows the process and it requires 73 flight hours over 12 days to complete the rig’s transfer.
Logging protesters attempt to disrupt heli-logging activities at Enola Hill, Oregon, in early June, by lying down among the trees being hoisted up. One protester grabs onto the hook that hangs down from a hovering helicopter; workers scramble to pry him loose and dissuade him from this dangerous tactic. Shortly thereafter, the BV-107 assigned is called away to help fight forest fires at Mount Jefferson.
During July-August, company helicopters assist in the rebuilding of flood-damaged streams in King County, Washington, by hoisting in root wads and logs to help establish ponds and fish breeding sites.
While undergoing a maintenance test flight near company headquarters at Aurora on October 4, a BV-107 crashes while approaching to land; Chief Pilot James Davy and two others aboard are killed.
During the year, the company’s helicopters transport 2.5 million tons, more tonnage than is flown by any other helicopter operator in the world. In logging, it delivers sufficient logs to load 98,700 trucks, which, if lined up end-to-end, would stretch from Seattle to Los Angeles.
By March 1997, Columbia has four Civil Chinooks supporting overseas activities. One is heli-logging around Sarawak, Malaysia; two are engaged in the support of energy development in the southern highlands of Papua, New Guinea, and the fourth now enters a new contract to support Shell Oil’s oil explorations in eastern Peru.
In early June, the company completes a selective heli-logging operation near Juneau, Alaska, at Echo Cove. The esthetic beauty of the forest is retained because the loggers and helicopters remove only about one in every eight trees.
A sixth B-234 joins the fleet in July, joining 9 others, 3 of which are inactive. It is designated to support a second unit engaged with Canada’s Helifor in Pacific Northwest heli-logging operations.
During the first week of February 1998, a BV-107 passes the 50,000-hr. flight time mark, a record for this aircraft type. A second 107 will pass the same mark in midyear.
Although as noted, Columbia’s helicopters have been involved in fighting a variety of fires in western states, Mexico, and elsewhere over the years, the company is largely unknown in the eastern U. S. until the spring. Fortunately, the Interagency Fire Center, at Boise, Idaho, has, on behalf of the Federal Emergency Management Administration, had the foresight to contract with Columbia and several other companies, including Erickson Air Crane, for airborne fire fighting support.
Hundreds of lightning strikes ignite the drought-stricken swamplands and underbrush in northern Florida toward the end of May. As these wildfires sweep across the state in the weeks after Memorial Day, local firefighters are nearly overwhelmed. Even the Daytona 500 car race must be cancelled.
By the fourth week of June, 45 of 67 Florida counties are on fire. Fire fighting aircraft, as well as personnel and equipment, are mobilized from across the U. S. and these volunteers arrive from around the country to assist in combating the inferno engulfing over a third of the state.
Columbia dispatches 3 BV-107s, equipped with 1,000-gallon water buckets, to Florida to assist in the campaign against the wildfires. One of the tandem helicopters is reassigned to Lake City from a heli-logging operation in Texas, while a second is moved from logging operations in Redding, California, to De Land. A third is dispatched into the state from Covelo, California. In addition to flight crews and mechanics, the company also provides its own support crews, with maintenance service vehicles and fuel trucks.
Columbia’s helicopters are engaged in water drops for 25 days from June 22.
Flights continue during the remainder of the year and into 1999, during which months a new homepage is opened on the Internet’s World Wide Web.
Company helicopters again fight fires and harvest logs. Due to environmental and wildlife regulations, logging in many locales can only be completed during strictly regulated monthly windows of opportunity.
The U. S. suffers its second driest summer on record, leading to a rash of wildfires in California, eastern Oregon, and other Western states during July-September. All of the fires spread rapidly, requiring quick responses. With most of the company’s helicopters working on logging operations in the Pacific Northwest, all concerned are proud of the rapid response made to calls from the U. S. Forest Service or state forestry departments. During this period, as many as 10 of the company’s 12 heavy helicopters simultaneously become involved in fire fighting.
Several fires in California are so large that they must be fought by 8 Boeing-Vertol 107s and a Skycrane, while one blaze, the Pilot Fire near Sonora, is extinguished by a BV-107 and a Model 234 Civil Chinook, working, as is always the case, with ground firemen. Another 234 joins the fleet at the end of August.
Late in the year, the company achieves a milestone of 500,000 tandem-rotor helicopter flight hours. The achievement is finalized through the addition of 92.6 hrs. logged by a BV-107 and 23.2 hrs. performed by a Civil Chinook.
The 2000 fire season is the worst in the U. S. West since 1994, with over 67,000 fires consuming in excess of five million acres in Washington, Oregon, California, Idaho, New Mexico, and Montana by mid-summer.
Spectacular fires first grasp the attention of world viewers in May and June when television networks picture the huge fires raging through New Mexico, including the Los Alamos area where a nuclear facility is located. The Cerro Grande fire consumes over 47,650 acres of federal forest and wildlands in the Bandelier National Monument while the stubborn Viveash fire in Santa Fe National Forest burns over 30,000 acres. Columbia is one of 10 civil helicopter operators assigning assets to the blazes; through June, company Boeing-Vertol 107s dump 53,000 gallons of water and 27,000 gallons of retardant on the Cree fire near Ri-udoso and 146,000 gallons of water on the Cerro Grande fire.
The most severe damage occurs in Montana, where Columbia, under contract, assigns 10 of its 13 U. S.-based heavy helicopter fleet. Working daily through June, the operator’s BV-107s, Model 235 Chinooks, and a Sikorsky CH-54 Skycrane drop over 250,000 gallons of water and retardant.
Although the conflagration continues, Columbia is required to cycle aircraft in and out of heli-logging commitments. Still, by the end of August, eight helicopters are engaged at five fire sites.
World History
