The “Assembly line” where the life saving process begins
The first thing I saw as we walked into Mike’s office (the creator and CEO of Metro Aviation) is a Kingfisher print and below it the portrait of a naval aviator. The portrait of his father and his aircraft, I new I was going to like Mike! After our day at the Metro Aviation, I could write a book and not cover all this Shreveport business has accomplished and is doing to make our world a better place. In a nutshell, saving more lives is at the heart of this impressive business. If you’ve ever seen a MediVac flying about, more than likely it was born right here at Metro Aviation. They receive the helos from Airbus in crates and months later send them out ready to deploy to hospitals around the US completely fitted out and in many cases, with gear invented and proven at Metro Aviation. In this process, they have a “command center” (another of Mike’s inovations found nowhere else in the world) where the 100+ helos they help owners operate with hardware / software they invented, one of a kind saving lives.
Getting the final touches prior to going into service
Mike is quite the southern gentleman taking hours from his day sharing every aspect of Metro Aviation with me. For an aviation restoration geek like me, it was heaven! Ended putting in 6000 step learning about Metro. And it all comes for a medical student forty years ago wanting to do more and following his passion to make that happen. Wow, just wow!
In the paint booth