About Our Flight Instructors

TIM PFAHLER (CHIEF FLIGHT INSTRUCTOR)

Tim Pfahler is the former National Helicopter Standardization Pilot for the US Forest Service. Prior to assuming that position, Tim began his aviations career as a United States Naval Aviator.

His Naval career encompassed tours in an Attack Helicopter Squadron supporting US Naval Special Forces and a Helicopter Combat Support Squadron flying Vertical Replenishment at Sea. His military career also included 16 years of service in the Montana Army National Guard holding positions from Company Commander to Executive Officer of an Attack Battalion and attaining the level of Master Army Aviator.

Tim has been involved in an industry natural resource aviation career flying numerous makes and models of rotary wing aircraft in both the lower 48 states and Alaska for over a quarter of a century.

In 1985 he was hired by the State of Montana, Department of State Lands as the Supervisory Pilot and Safety Officer operating both standard category and Federal Excess Property aircraft, fixed and rotary-wing. There he was responsible for the supervision and training of a cadre of natural resource aviators both fixed and rotary wing. At that time he was designated a US Forest Service Helicopter Inspector Pilot.

In 1996 Tim moved to the US Forest Service and completed his Government Aviation career working for the US Forest Service Washington Office National Aviation Operations Officer as the National Helicopter Standardization Pilot. His flying career includes over 10,000 hours of flying, accident free as an aircraft commander and Certified Instructor Pilot both fixed and rotary-wing.

Accomplishments

Tim has been responsible for numerous advances in advanced aviation training and safety. He has authored proven academic courses and is respected as an advanced flight training instructor of flight proficiency courses in many natural resource missions to include Vertical Reference (longline), High Altitude Mountain Flying, water bucket operations, prescribed fire missions, and rappel.

He has been responsible for standardization of the checkride process used both by the US Forest Service and the US Department of Interior for missions related to Wildland fire. Tim’s military aviation background coupled with his strong natural resource industry background has brought advances and standardization of military proficiency within the wildland fire arena. He has been intimately involved with numerous Army National Guard and Active Duty units operating within wildland fire and drug enforcement activities.

In the Safety arena, Tim has been intimately involved in helping to author the National Safety brief and guidelines for all vendor pilots operating on both exclusive use and call-when-needed contracts with the US Forest Service. He has been asked to provide technical expertise during numerous accident investigations and has been responsible for authoring “action items” mandated as a result of aircraft accidents. On a routine basis, he is requested to be a participant in Safety reviews and audits of companies and State agencies.

TODD M. DONAHUE (ASSISTANT CHIEF INSTRUCTOR)

Todd Donahue is the President/founder of Homestead Helicopters Inc. HHI was incorporated in 1996 in Missoula, MT. We began with a Robinson R22 and Robinson R44 and within 2 years began to operate Bell Jet Rangers.

After successful completion of several years of NRCS Snow surveys in the Northern Rockies, scenic operations and charter, HHI added a Bell Long Ranger IV and in 2001 began contracting with the USFS for Fire utilizing Jet Rangers and Long Rangers for CWN and Exclusive Initial Attack, Fire Suppression, and Aerial Ignition throughout the US. Todd has long been known for his commitment to safety and desire to enhance operational safety in the helicopter industry.

In 1994 while working for Northeast Helicopters in Connecticut, Todd was assigned the task of reading accident reports and compiling a statistical analysis of every accident in every make and model helicopter from 1980 – 1994 to determine trends in the causes of helicopter accidents ranging from make and model, type of operation, pilot experience, as well as ultimate cause.

This work lead to his nomination and appointment as a FAA Accident Prevention Counselor in the New England Region. Todd gave several lectures over the next few years at FAA sponsored seminars on the cause and prevention of helicopter accidents.

He has taken this experience along with his operational knowledge, thousands of fire piloting hours and management to develop a comprehensive advanced training program together with Tim Pfahler. Todd has been responsible for the development and implementation of HHI’s FAR Part 135, 133, and 137 Training programs and Operational Manuals. He is also the company’s Chief Pilot and Check Airman.