WesternHelicopter

History:

In 1966 Western Helicopter Services began with President and Chief Sales Executive Norman Parker, Vice President and Director of
Maintenance Norman McGrew and Chief Pilot Alan Cole. WHS began working primarily with private timber companies to provide
herbicide application, aerial fertilization and slash burning services; and has since expanded its operations to conducting wildlife
surveys, OSU's seed certification, recon work, aerial crop inspection and spreading larvacide on riverbeds to combat mosquito larvae.
Starting as a one helicopter operation, we now operate seven helicopters and have more than 20 employees.

Western Helicopter and its employees aided in the development of a safer and more accurate process of slash burning. Traditionally
slash burning was done using napalm cans tied together with a detonation cord, known as the "ping pong" method, which was quite a
dangerous procedure. In an effort to increase safety and efficiency, long time employee Ralph Grow began to modify the ping pong
machine, his idea was to pump jellied fuel out a nozzle slung under the helicopter, which would provide a much safer means to ignite
slash piles. Mr. Grow came up with the idea of a sled type device, consisting of a tank, pump and delivery nozzle controlled by the pilot
via two switches in the cockpit. On January 27th, 1981 a patent for the "Helitorch" was issued, many live demonstrations were done and
it was clear to any observer the Helitorch was far superior to any device ever invented to ignite anything from a helicopter. As the
success of the Helitorch grew, we could not keep up production of the torch to meet customer demand. In an effort to maintain focus on
our primary business model, Western Helicopter reached a license agreement with Simplex Manufacturing. Western Helicopter has
received national recognition from publications such as Rotor & Wing, and Farm Chemical Magazine.

Since 1966 Western Helicopter has established itself as the primary forestry aerial applications company throughout the Pacific
Northwest. It is now owned and operated by Rick Krohn, who began as Director of Ground Support in 1989. We currently employ seven
pilots including Chief Pilot John Mateski, and 8-10 commercial truck drivers. Karson Branham is the Director of Maintenance, he is a
certified inspector (IA) and a licensed A&P mechanic. We have a total of three A&P mechanics as well as a Certified Flight Instructor
(CFI). Long time employee Paul McKee is the Director of Ground Support and Safety Director. We are licensed aerial applicators in
Oregon, Washington, Montana, Idaho, California and Utah.

For over 40 years Western Helicopter Services has provided outstanding aerial application work at an extremely efficient rate, even in
1978 we were able to do 80 to 85 tons of fertilizer a day, versus the Bell 205's which ran from 100 to 120 tons per day, and had a 5000
pound slingload, our Soloy Conversion helicopters had only a 1000 pount slingload. That says a lot about the efficiency of the
helicopters we operate, and since we trailer our aircraft everywhere the majority of our time is spent generating revenue. We strive to
provide the highest quality of work at a competitive price.