Yearbook Saying

Newport  . . .  
"Sul"  . . .  blue MG  . . .  
great trip to New York  . . .  
helped Mag get to his room

Nickname:  "Sul"

Current Info

Tim lives with his wife Cindy in Carrabelle, Florida.  Tim has been flying helicopters since the mid-1970's. For the past 16 years he has been working for Chevron, flying out to oil platforms all over the Gulf of Mexico.   In his spare time, he enjoys sailing his boat on the Gulf.

Last year he was transferred to Angola (west coast of Africa) where he is in charge of 50 pilots that fly out to oil platforms off the coast.  Tim works one month on and one month off and he could not make the 40th reunion so Bill Winthrop and his wife Beth held a pre-reunion BBQ for Tim and Cindy while they were in Newport.

Left:  Picture of Tim and his wife Cindy taken at BBQ held for him
at Bill Winthrop's house on July 5, 2011

Biography - July 2006

Dear Classmates,

I started flying lessons in 1975.  I had an engine failure in Pompano Beach, Fl., wrecked the aircraft but continued flying.  I joined the Mass. National Guard at Otis AFB in 1977.  I was accepted into US Army Flight School at Fort Rucker, Al. in 1978.  After graduating from the Army’s Aircraft Maintenance Officers Course in 1980, I became a maintenance test pilot for the Army National Guard. Through my career in the Guard I was in the Mass., Ct., Pa, NJ, and Louisiana Guard units.

My first civilian job as a helicopter pilot was in Danbury, Ct.  I operated a helicopter flight school.  From there I had my own company in NJ with a Bell 47 (like Mash).  I did whatever I could to fly, flight training, parachutists, photographers, sightseeing, etc.

I was offered a job in Pa, near Philadelphia to run a flight school flying Hughes 300’s.  We got a contract to run checks at night with a Bell 222 (Like Airwolf).  We flew checks from a check-processing center in Valley Forge, Pa. to the roof of the Federal Reserve Bank Building in downtown Philadelphia, then to Teteboro, NJ.  In the daytime I would fly charters for large corporations.

From there I went to work for a company in Spring Valley, New York.  During the day we would fly corporate VIPs from New York to Washington DC, Boston or wherever in the northeast corridor.  At night we would fly for the casinos in Atlantic City.  We flew the high rollers and entertainers to and from Manhattan, Long Island, and Atlantic City. Tom Magnan flew all night with me once as my “co-pilot”.  We made several trips from New York City to Atlantic City. 

In 1985 I attended the Aviation Warrant Officer’s Advance Course at Fort Rucker.  I used those five months to find a job down south.  I went to work for an offshore helicopter company, PHI, in Lafayette, La.  I had an engine failure about 100 miles offshore.  It turned out a lot better than the airplane I wrecked.  I put it in the water with no damage and was rescued by boat.  I flew the same helicopter several days later. 

I was offered a job at the National Guard facility at Lakefront Airport in New Orleans as a test pilot.  I became the Supervisory Maintenance Test Pilot with 32 aircraft and 45 full time mechanics. 

Chevron hired me in January 1991.  My schedule is seven days on, seven days off.  We fly in the Gulf of Mexico, as far as 200 miles offshore.  I am a Check Airman which means I take an annual check ride with the FAA so that I can train and give check rides to our pilots.  I’m now flying the Bell 206 and 427, Sikorsky S-76, and Agusta 139.

We routinely evacuate for hurricanes.  Many of the people I work with lost their homes and neighborhoods where they had lived for generations.  The size and amount of devastation from the storm is phenomenal.  

My wife Cindy is an FAA licensed A&P mechanic.  She doesn’t work as a mechanic anymore but we met when she was a helicopter mechanic working on the aircraft I flew.   Our son Casey is a Computer Technician for the State of Florida in Tallahassee.  We live in Carrabelle, Florida on the gulf coast near Apalachicola. We have a 30’ O’Day sailboat and have sailed it for 12 years.  We have five dogs, two cats, and a bunch of fish. 

Thanks to Larry and Bart for the work they have done for the DLS Class of ‘71.   

Sincerely,