Southwest Health System’s Classic Air Medical helicopter landed on Mancos school district’s practice field on Aug. 21, allowing students to hear from the pilots about their career.
Excited students crowded the field at 10 a.m. for the landing and then got up close with the helicopter and its pilots to learn about how the helicopter works and the job that pilots do.
“It’s a great opportunity for our students to see potential career paths up close,” said Tiffany Aspromonte, academic adviser and registrar.
One student, Mitchell, said the event motivated him to keep working toward a pilot’s license.
“Seeing that helicopter land was really cool because it inspired me to keep working really hard to get my pilot’s license, which I’m currently doing at the moment, just to help people in need and just be there for people,” Mitchell said.
Another student named Kyler said he hoped to learn more about the career.
“I got to learn what all they do, how they save lives. … It was a very cool experience, and it’s definitely something I’d like to learn more about. It was very cool,” Kyler said.
Eight grader Paxton noted that he was impressed with the pilot’s skill in landing on the field.
“I thought the helicopter was really cool because you could kind of see how well they pilots and land it, so that’s pretty impressive, their training, and it’s just a really cool machine to see work,” Paxton said.
Two fourth grade students, Sophia and Jason, were able to weigh in on what they thought of the landing as well.
“I thought the helicopter landing was really fun because we got to look at all the different parts of it and we got to see all the different people, and they opened the doors for us so we could see inside,” Sophia said. “It was an opportunity to get up close to it and not just see it in the air.”
“I got to walk around it, and I got to see the pilot,” Jason said.
Classic Air Medical has been serving New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona, Utah, Wyoming and Idaho as a medical air ambulance for over 30 years. The company is headquartered in Woods Cross, Utah, and was established in 1988 to provide air medical evacuation in the Lake Powell area. It has since expanded.
