Pilots

Jeff Caniglia will tell you that he's an artist. It is, he says, his creative side that attracts him to flying helicopters. He has the same passion for his job as an emergency medical helicopter pilot that a guitarist has for his music. At age 34, he not only flies a full schedule but also manages two Eurocopter BK117 helicopters and a Beech King Air 200 airplane for the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.

Caniglia's fascination with helicopters began while watching them land and take off from Offutt Air Force Base in Omaha, Nebraska. In college he started taking flying lessons, but airplanes never produced the excitement that he felt when watching helicopters. In his sophomore year, Nebraska's Army National Guard made him an offer: Sign up with the Guard for six years, and they would teach him to fly helicopters and pay for his college. Ten days later, he was in the military.

Caniglia says that he learned valuable lessons from the guys who flew in Vietnam. They taught him to extract the maximum performance from his abilities, yet respect the aircraft. Also, he received an introduction to instrument flying in the Army's famous UH-1 "Huey." While few civilian helicopters were flying IFR, Caniglia was sold on the increased safety and utilization levels that it produced.

At that time, the state of Nebraska was leading the country in air ambulance research and development. "The idea of doing something I love like flying helicopters and helping people at the same time would be the ultimate career," says Caniglia. So, after college and with 500 hours of flight time, he started looking for an EMS pilot job, preferably where he could get more IFR experience. He found St. Mary's LifeFlight in Duluth, Minnesota. Operated by Omniflight Helicopters in Dallas, they were flying two-pilot IFR in a Eurocopter BK117 B1 helicopter and had a copilot slot open. Caniglia barely met the minimum flight time requirements, but Director of Operations Tom Reed liked his enthusiasm and forward-thinking ideas and gave him a chance. Caniglia sharpened his IFR skills and, in his words, "learned a heck of a lot about winter flying."

Two years after Caniglia joined Omniflight, St. Mary's LifeFlight ended its contract with Omniflight so that it could hire its own pilots. While waiting for another EMS job to open up, he spent a year at the Omniflight's Baltimore, Maryland, location, flying Bell JetRangers.

Grant Medical Center's LifeFlight program in Columbus, Ohio, needed an EMS BK117 pilot, and Omniflight sent him there. Caniglia spent four years polishing his piloting skills in the VFR-only program. He missed the options and extra safety that IFR capability brings, and started studying the benefits of using the IFR system in air medical operations. Before he could convince Grant Medical Center to seriously consider flying under IFR, Omniflight offered him the job of running the Mayo Clinic's IFR program, Mayo One. He didn't hesitate and packed his bags for Rochester.

At Mayo One, Caniglia took a proactive approach to instrument flying. He developed decision flow charts, a comprehensive training program, and peer-run review meetings to standardize the IFR process. In a year's time, he doubled the program's completed IFR missions, heightened the pilots' awareness of instrument flight capabilities, and raised the medical crews' safety and comfort levels to new highs.

An event that Caniglia finds the most fulfilling happened July 5, 1998. At a hospital in Mason City, Iowa, Caniglia was on the helipad awaiting an IFR release from Minneapolis Center. ATC informed him that it was trying to contact a small airplane flying VFR in the Mason City area. Caniglia thought that the airplane pilot might be in trouble because the visibility was one mile with low overcast ceilings. The pilot stated that he could not see the ground and needed to find better weather conditions. ATC asked what his location was and what his intentions were. Again, the pilot stated that he could no longer see the ground and needed help.

Realizing that the pilot was unable to accurately communicate the level of assistance he needed, Caniglia contacted the pilot directly and told him to state his altitude. The pilot replied 1,600 feet, which was less than 400 feet above the ground. Cloud tops were at 3,000 feet and clear above, so Caniglia told the pilot to keep his wings level and immediately begin a climb to 3,500 feet. At 2,800 feet, the pilot reported he was above the clouds and could see. ATC picked the airplane up on radar at 3,000 feet and issued the pilot radar vectors to Rochester.

Caniglia and the small airplane were handed over to Rochester Approach. Hearing the stress in the pilot's voice, Caniglia told Rochester Approach that the airplane could follow him to Rochester, and the pilot quickly agreed. Some 30 miles from the airport, Rochester Approach advised Caniglia that the airfield was now IFR and the weather in the surrounding area was rapidly deteriorating.

Knowing an area that normally was the last to close down, Caniglia headed that way with the airplane in trail. In about 10 miles, Caniglia spotted a small hole and helped the airplane pilot to set up a descent. At 400 feet agl, they were below the overcast, and Caniglia guided him to a safe landing at the Rochester airport.

The FAA sent Caniglia a letter thanking him for his help, the Mayo Clinic gave him an award for going above the call of duty to help another person, and the Helicopter Association International honored him with its prestigious Pilot of the Year Award. "I guess it was my chance to be in the right place at the right time to help someone else."