(Photo above by Steve Kadel | Big Mountain Heli Tours CEO Patric Douglas, left, and Leading Edge Aviation President Brad Fraley are partnering to boost the number of scenic flights over Central Oregon)
A longtime Bend aviation company and an adventure tour organizer are teaming up to offer more ways for Central Oregon residents and visitors to experience the region’s magnificent landscape.
Big Mountain Heli Tours CEO Patric Douglas is partnering with Leading Edge Aviation Inc. President Brad Fraley to increase the helicopter sightseeing service Leading Edge has offered for years on a limited basis.
“It’s been just a filler, more a service to Central Oregon than a part of our business,” Fraley said. “The tour business has always been the stepchild.”
That will change starting this winter as Big Mountain Heli undertakes a full schedule of flight offerings including the Cascade Range, Lava Lands, Smith Rock State Park and other iconic places. Douglas hopes to book flights to wineries and fly fishing spots, possibly picking up resort guests and transporting them to and from adventures of their own choosing.
He has spent months studying the potential market and is excited about luring some of the estimated 3.1 million visitors who come to Bend each year. Douglas believes there’s a gulf between many of those visitors — the kind who mountain bike, climb or raft — and less physically capable people. The latter provide the niche he wants to fill.
“Leading Edge will take the program and run it,” Douglas said. “My job is to bring people to that place. I’m very familiar with the think-big tourist possibilities.”
He added that the partnership will create “a Bend product” that works with other businesses rather than competing against them.
“We are working with resorts and existing tour companies,” Fraley agreed.
He sees added success ahead, saying Douglas “brings an awesome amount of knowledge” from 30 years in adventure tourism. That includes having pioneered cage diving in shark waters off the Mexico coast.
Douglas has film and TV production skills, and was a production consultant in 2014 for Discovery Channel’s Shark Week. He received gold, silver and bronze medals at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity from 2012 to 2014.
Douglas has a special feeling for helicopters because he proposed to his wife during a helicopter flight in Hawaii.
Leading Edge has a fleet of 18 helicopters and six airplanes. Bend residents are probably familiar with the green four-seat helicopters that provide 15-minute tours above Bend for clients more interested in manmade infrastructure that rock and ice.
Fraley bought the company in 2005 and has grown it to 80 employees today. Leading Edge installs and services avionics equipment, contracts for fire suppression flights, and sells new and used helicopters. The firm’s charter services include cargo transportation, air taxi service, aerial photography, aerial surveys, and search and rescue missions.
However, airplane and helicopter flight training accounts for the biggest chunk of Leading Edge’s business, with more than 100 students currently enrolled. The company partners with Central Oregon Community College for those training courses, and has enjoyed growth of 5 percent to 20 percent annually in the flight training program.
Safety is a hallmark of the Leading Edge program and will continue under partnership with Big Mountain Heli Tours. “We have a vibrant safety program here,” said Fraley, whose company website is www.flybend.com.
Meanwhile, Big Mountain Heli Tours’ website at www.flycascades.com went online in late November.
While the sightseeing tours will give close-up glimpses of such things as mountain glaciers and ridge-top views known only to climbers, Douglas and Fraley emphasize they do not want to invade sensitive areas with excessive buzzing of airplanes or helicopters. Fraley said being considerate of other people, including the solitude they seek in wilderness, has been part of the company culture from the beginning.
“Our machines are flying all day, every day,” he said of training classes. “We’ve had to be concerned about effects on the community. We want to be a good steward of Central Oregon.”
Fraley noted that flight tours stay at least 2,000 feet above the ground over wilderness areas.
Marti Fraley, marketing manager for Leading Edge, said the company has grown through building community relationships with local schools, Mount Bachelor and other groups.
Douglas wants Big Mountain Heli Tours to show sustainable growth over the next five years. He’s glad to be partnering with Leading Edge because the company “has recognition in the community that those are good people.”
Prices for helicopter tours are $499 for three people for 30 minutes or $750 for three people for an hour. Other packages are available, too.
The ultimate goal, Douglas said, is to provide helicopter service to backcountry ski locations. Popular in other mountain regions, heli-skiing requires jumping through more rigorous permit hoops than mere sight-seeing, Fraley said.
He and Douglas met in 2014 after a 19-year-old student pilot noticed a fire during a midnight training flight. The student and his Leading Edge instructor flew their helicopter close to Douglas’ neighborhood south of the Old Mill District, where the fire appeared to be headed. The circling aircraft alerted neighbors, including Douglas, who later called Leading Edge to thank them for the warning.
“This guy was super low, in one of their green birds,” Douglas said, calling the student pilot a hero.
Once Douglas met Fraley, the wheels began turning in Douglas’ head about a possible partnership. He’s the sole employee of Big Mountain Heli Tours now, but foresees having a staff of five by next summer.
“I look at these helicopters and say ‘what if?'” Douglas said. “I want to change the way people experience Central Oregon.”
Big Mountain Heli Tours
550 SW Industrial Way, Bend, OR, 97701, 541-668-7670
CEO: Patric Douglas
Number of employees: 1
Product/Service: Helicopter sightseeing tours.
Hot News: Company website went live the end of November 2016.
Outlook for Growth: “Unlimited,” according to Douglas, who says the company will have a staff of five by next summer.
Leading Edge Aviation Inc.
Bend Municipal Airport, 63048 Powell Butte Highway, Bend, OR 97701, 541-383-8825
President: Brad Fraley.
Number of Employees: 80
Product/Service: Avionics installation and renovation; airplane and helicopter flight classes; new and used helicopter sales; sightseeing tours.
Hot News: Recently expanded into fixed-wing aircraft avionics at the company’s Redmond location in addition to a website update.
Outlook for Growth: Excellent with the new flight tour partnership. Leading Edge anticipates continued growth of 5 percent to 20 percent annually in its flight instruction program, which now has more than 100 students enrolled.
1 Comment
I know a bunch of folks here in Bend who are thrilled with this! GREAT Idea!