Tim Tucker has been the Robinson Helicopter Company’s representative to the US Helicopter Safety Team since 2010. He has had roles on the Training Working Group, the Executive Committee and now the Steering Committee. Tim’s helicopter journey began shortly after graduating from St. Michaels’s College in Colchester, VT in 1969, when he was drafted by the US Army. It was the height of the Vietnam War so Tim followed the advice of a friend who had just returned from the war who said “It’s best to fly over the rice patties and jungles of Vietnam than to walk through them”. He enlisted for the Army’s Warrant Office Rotary Wing Aviator program. After receiving his wings he completed a 12 month tour in Vietnam flying the Army’s iconic UH-1 and logging over 1100 combat hours. During his tour he was awarded the Silver Star, the Distinguished Flying Cross, 28 Air Medals (one with the “V” device), a Bronze Star for service and later the Army’s Broken Wing Award. Tim spent a combined 27 years as a US Army reservist, on active duty and as a Department of Army civilian. He attended the Army’s Instructor Pilot course in 1977, the Instrument Flight Examiner course in 1986 and has over 5600 military flight hours.
One day in the spring of 1976, Tim opened up the Los Angeles Times at breakfast and noticed an article about a fellow who had designed a small helicopter in his living room and was flight testing it at Torrance Airport in California. At the time Tim was teaching airplanes at nearby Long Beach Airport so he went and visited this guy who was named Frank Robinson. To make a long story short, Tim put a $300 deposit down and a little more than three years later took delivery of the first Robinson R22 helicopter ever sold. Little did he know that this helicopter and the man who designed it would go on to transform the helicopter world. A few years later, Tim went to work at the Robinson Helicopter Company doing experimental test flying, production test flying and, along with Frank Robinson, developed the well-known Robinson Safety Course in 1982. Tim would spend the next 38 years as the Chief Instructor for the Safety Course and during this time over 20,000 pilots attended. In 2000 Tim was selected as the Helicopter Aviation International’s (HAI) Outstanding Flight Instructor and in 2005 was HAI’s Joseph Mashman Safety Award winner.
By 1992, Robinson helicopters were operating in over 50 countries around the world so Tim began teaching the Safety Course in other countries. To date he has taught 125 foreign Safety Courses in 31 countries and along the way has earned 17 foreign pilot licenses allowing him to act as PIC on commercial/instructional flights in foreign aircraft. He has received awards in Argentina, South Africa, Russia, Mexico and in 2021, the Honourable Company of Air Pilots awarded Tim with the prestigious Cumberbatch Trophy at a ceremony in London’s historic 15th century Guildhall.
From 1984 until 2023 Tim worked as an FAA Designated Helicopter Pilot Examiner for private through ATP certificates. He was authorized to give tests in 14 different make & models ranging from an SK-76 to the R22 and has administered over 8500 FAA practical tests. Tim served on a number of FAA Working Groups including for the Helicopter Flying Handbook, Airmen Certification Standards and the DPE Reform project. In 2020, he received the FAA’s Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award.
Tim has over 21,000 flight hours and was inducted into the National Association of Flight Instructor’s Hall of Fame in a ceremony at the 2024 Oshkosh Air Adventure.