Edward Murphy – A Pilot Profile

Edward Murphy – A Pilot Profile

Name: Edward John Murphy

Birthdate/Birthplace: September /15/ 1956, Brooklyn, NY

Hometown: Mix between Ellenville, NY (early years) and Ridgewood, NJ (Teen years)

Parents Names: John Edward Murphy & Janet Elizabeth Murphy

Married? Yes: 31 wonderful years

Spouse/Children’s names: Jane Ellen Murphy / John Edward Murphy 28, James Patrick Murphy 25

Education: High School, college, Degrees and such: Attended and graduated from New York Military Academy Class of 74, after which, I attended Valley Forge Military Junior College graduating with an Associates degree in Criminal Justice in the Class of 76. To complete my college education I attended Elmira College in NY graduating Cum Laude with a Bachelors of Science degree in Criminal Justice in the winter of 77.

Military Experience: Dates, locations, duty positions: All totaled spent 21 Years on active duty;

Jan 1978 entered service as a Second lieutenant through ROTC at Valley Forge.

May 1979 attended Flight school at Fort Rucker Al. At the end of flight school remained for an additional 3 months and attended the AH-1 Cobra helicopter qualification course.

May 1980 through Mar 1983 – Stationed in Fulda Germany assigned the 11 ACR as a First Lieutenant Cobra platoon section leader then as a Platoon Leader. I spent the entire time flying border missions, and I was very lucky to remain flying my entire tour. This was very unusual for a commissioned type in those days.

May 1983 to September 1985 – Returned to Fort Rucker, Al. Cobra Hall (AH-1 qualification course) as an instructor Pilot. After 18 Months, I was selected as the Flight Commander to run the Instructor pilot course as their Senior Standardization Instructor Pilot in charge of all AH-1 initial instructor pilot training for both Fort Rucker and line units.

July 1986 to March 1999 – Served as a NYARNG Active Guard and Reserve (AGR) Instructor Pilot in Long Island NY instructing in UH-1H, OH-6A, AH-1S, UH-60A aircraft. During the period between 1986 and 1989, I was proud to be the Troop commander of Troop C 101 Cavalry Squadron which flew OH-6A and AH-1S aircraft, when the Squadron converted from all ground troops to a mix of both ground and air troops.

April 1989 to December 1995 – Served as the Aviation Brigade’s Standardization Instructor Pilot working directly for the Brigade Commander and Brigade’s S3 regarding aviator training requirements and assisting unit instructor with their training programs.

December 1995 to Mar 1999 – Served as a state aviation liaison officer / Instructor Pilot Supervisor holding this position till retirement. During this period the state was reorganized to UH60 aircraft retiring their UH1’s and AH-1 aircraft. It was during this period I developed a UH-60 Systems handbook to assist field pilot to better understand their aircraft systems. All totaled I produced several hundred copies which were locally copied and are still in use today. My biggest compliment was when Sikorsky used it as a supplemental guild for their international Blackhawk training programs.

Combat Experience: When, where, hours, awards(Air Medals/DFC/Purple Heart, etc) – None

Licenses/Ratings:

FAA

Airline Transport Pilot – Rotorcraft Helicopter

Type – BH-204 / SK-92

Commercial Privileges – Airplane Single/Multi-Engine Land

Instrument Airplane

Flight Instructor – Rotorcraft Helicopter

Instrument Helicopter

Pilot Examiner – SK-92

JAA

Type Rating Instructor- SK-92

Type Rating Examiner – SK-92

Simulator Flight Instructor

Simulator Flight Examiner

Hours: 7145 RW hours, 480 FW hours

Aircraft you’ve flown: Military and Civil. Which, of each, you enjoyed flying most, and why.

UH-1H, OH-6A, OH-58A, AH-1S, UH-60A, U-21A, T-42A, C-172, PA-22, SK-70, SK-92

Which have I have enjoyed the most is a hard question. It would be a tie between the AH-1 and the SK-92. The AH-1 because it was my first instructor pilot job, and every instructor remembers his or her first flight as the instructor with a fledgling pilot in the other seat. However, I would say it is the SK-92 that wins my accolades because of its diverse mission capability: passenger offshore or VIP, SAR, and external loads capability, not to mention, almost all weather launch ability. The SK-92 has forced me to stay sharp in both my VFR and IFR skills.

Current job: Please describe this in detail. Do you enjoy it? Satisfaction? I currently am the SK-92 Lead Pilot Instructor/Examiner at FlightSafety’s West Palm Beach Learning Center located in Florida. As the lead instructor, I assist the S-92 Program Manager in monitoring new instructor training. As one of the aircraft flight instructors, I perform both Simulator and in aircraft flight instruction to the pilots, operating under part 91 and 135 operations. I also work with the Sikorsky Aircraft flight test center as the S-92 liaison to FlightSafety to gather new aircraft information to develop training programs as newer systems are added to the SK-92. As liaison, this allows me to fly regularly with the test pilots on pre-production versions of the SK-92, during the final stages of new system testing just prior to certification.

In regard to the question do I enjoy it? This period of my aviation career has been the most enjoyable experience of my life. As a pilot/instructor, I owe FlightSafety a lot, because I got to experience a wonderful opportunity that very few get to enjoy. That is the chance to get in on the ground floor of a new aircraft still in development and work along side test pilots and engineers learning how systems worked directly from the engineer in charge of designing that system. Then to fly the aircraft with the test pilots years before it was even certified. Do I enjoy my job? I went past enjoy and directly to ecstatic several years ago and it has never changed. I can’t help but hope that this same enthusiasm/passion spills over into my teaching of my clients/pilots here at the Learning Center. So for this opportunity, I thank FlightSafety and Sikorsky for making this ordinary pilot’s dream a reality.

Hobbies: Scuba Driving, Boating, Camping at Lake George NY, Family time with my boys and grandchildren.

Most memorable flight: My last flight in the military as an instructor pilot. It was a multi-ship troop lift operation. During the flight, with me being totally unaware, one of the aircraft was video taping the mission along with still shots of me and my crew. During my retirement party the crews on that training mission presented me with a video presentation of that day. One of the aircraft commanders on that flight was a CW2 pilot I mentored and sent to flight school who had been a young crew chief on UH-1H helicopters when I first started in the unit 12 years prior. That video and memories of that day remind me that the mentorship program is very much alive and well in aviation both in the past and present.

Instructor Pilot who made the most difference and why: Coming out of the active army in 1985 for the first time, I joined the New York Army National Guard as a part time pilot. I met a full time instructor pilot that saw potential in my instructing skills and placed me in UH-1’s, training me to be a UH-1 instructor. By the end of the training program I had quit my civilian job and joined the unit as a full time instructor under him, this working relationship lasted 9 years. This individual showed me the importance to never stop striving to learn and that aviation self improvement was a daily practice, not something you studied for periodically. So, he mentored me in many ways. He retired in 1995 and I was privileged to replace him as the Instructor Pilot Supervisor in the last 3 years before I retired.

“If I could share one bit of advice to a new pilot, it would be…. To pilot’s – never stop learning, today’s aviation is ever changing becoming more technical knowledge based and less hands on. It’s not how well you can fly the aircraft, it’s how well you can set up and use the information the aircraft is providing you. To fellow instructors – my advice would be, your newer pilots out there want to learn, they all thirst for knowledge. So, as a wise instructor in my early years once taught me. that if the pilot failed to learn – it was us the instructor that failed to find a way to teach them.