![\"\"](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/Rex-Alexander-edit-2.png\")
A veteran rotorcraft professional, Alexander has made\nsignificant strides increasing safety in the vertical aviation industry through\npatience, diplomacy, and perseverance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Alexander began flying in 1985 as a helicopter pilot in the\nUS Army. He later served in the Indiana Army National Guard as a pilot,\ninstructor pilot, and standardization instructor pilot. After serving in the\nmilitary, Alexander flew helicopters for the offshore oil-and-gas industry\nbefore becoming a helicopter air ambulance pilot with Omniflight Helicopters. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Over the next two decades as an air ambulance pilot,\nAlexander became a force for safety. He joined the Indiana Association of Air\nMedical Services and the National EMS Pilots Association (NEMSPA). He served as\na board member and president of both organizations, advocating for increased\nsafety in the helicopter air ambulance industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI lost a lot of good friends in military and EMS\naccidents,\u201d Alexander says. \u201cWhen you look at the accidents, most were\ncompletely preventable. One of the biggest things that pushes me is that pilots\nare held to a higher standard than anyone else when looking at an accident.\nAfter an accident occurs, it\u2019s way too easy to blame pilot error. It requires\neffort and specialized training to identify and classify the causes of and\ncontributing factors in an accident. I\u2019m driven to identify these causes and contributing\nfactors, educate the industry on why they are threats, and work to eliminate\nthem.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
While serving in the air ambulance industry, Alexander began\nto develop and design heliports. Assisting hospitals, he learned how to\nidentify safety issues regarding heliport standards, building codes, fire\ncodes, and pilot education. With this knowledge, he began to advocate for\nincreased safety across the industry. In 2006, he worked with colleagues at\nNEMSPA to develop the HEMS Weather Tool. The following year, Alexander became\ncochair of the US Helicopter Safety Team\u2019s (USHST\u2019s) new Infrastructure Working\nGroup (IWG). <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2013, with the HEMS Weather Tool still in experimental\nstatus, Alexander collaborated with the National Center for Atmospheric\nResearch to hold a joint industry\u2013government summit that led to full funding\nfor the HEMS Weather Tool and the tool\u2019s establishment under the National\nOceanic and Atmospheric Administration\u2019s Aviation Weather Center. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since then, Alexander and members of the USHST IWG have\nhosted eight highly successful summits dedicated to advancing helicopter safety\nand improving low altitude\u2013aviation infrastructure. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Heliport and vertiport safety remain a key passion for\nAlexander. Today, he is an infrastructure advisor to the Vertical Flight\nSociety; a member of NASA\u2019s Advanced Air Mobility Ecosystem Working Groups; and\nchair of the National Fire Protection Association\u2019s Helicopter Facilities\nTechnical Committee, which produced the association\u2019s 418 Standard for\nHeliports in 2021. Alexander is also an instructor for the US Department of\nTransportation\u2019s Transportation Safety Institute, teaching heliport evaluation,\nplanning, and safety courses as well as an advanced rotorcraft accident\ninvestigation class. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhat drives Rex to action every day is knowing system\nsafety is always shared and is always perishable,\u201d writes Tom Judge, executive\ndirector of LifeFlight of Maine in his nomination letter for Alexander. \u201cEvery\nday, our people climb into helicopters, and soon new vehicles, and operate in a\nsafer environment due to Rex\u2019s efforts they will never know.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Safety Award will be presented during HAI HELI-EXPO 2024. HAI HELI-EXPO\u00ae, the world\u2019s largest helicopter trade show and exhibition, will be held at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California, Feb. 26\u201329, with the exhibit hall open Feb. 27\u201329. For more information on HAI HELI-EXPO 2024, visit heliexpo.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Helicopter Association International (HAI) is pleased to announce that Five-Alpha Founder and President Rex Alexander is the recipient of the 2024 Salute to Excellence Safety Award. The award, sponsored by BLR Aerospace, recognizes outstanding contributions in the promotion of safety and safety awareness throughout the international vertical aviation community. It will be presented Feb. 26, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[115],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27625","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27625"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27625\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27627,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27625\/revisions\/27627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}