In The Beginning
Columbia Helicopters, Inc. chairman and founder Wes Lematta, who passed away in 2009, learned to fly after World War II using the G.I. Bill.
In 1954, he paid for helicopter training, not yet realizing his future was to someday own a helicopter company.
In 1957, with the help of his brother Eddie, he was able to purchase a used Hiller 12B, and so started Columbia Helicopters. Establishing the company at Troutdale Airport outside Portland, Oregon, Wes found business slow at first.
He gave rides at county fairs in between occasional construction projects to help meet his obligations.
In the fall of 1957, Wes gained national recognition when he rescued 15 seamen from a sinking dredge off Coos Bay, Oregon with his Hiller 12B. That recognition helped bring more customers to his door and soon business was improving dramatically.
Columbia purchased a second helicopter in 1959, a new Bell 47-G2. A third aircraft was added to the fleet in 1960, a new Hiller 12E.
During this year Columbia was contracted by Wilson Construction Company of Portland to transport and place some wood poles for a power transmission line near the Columbia River at Umatilla.
This contract provided the opportunity for Wes to try out a new method of external load placement using a long attachment line and leaning out the left side of the helicopter to look directly at the load and placement site.
This technique, which proved successful, was dubbed the Direct Visual Operational Control or DVOC method and has become the method used by the world's best external load pilots for safe, precision placement of cargo by helicopter. 
In 1962, Columbia moved from Troutdale to Swan Island, near the downtown Portland area. Its line of business of basic helicopter charter and contract services had by this time been expanded to include flight training.
During the 1960s, Columbia grew in size and the increased business enabled it to purchase larger helicopters such as the Sikorsky S-58 and S-61. But in the late 1960s, a new era was about to emerge.
Columbia Helicopters was on the verge of rapid growth and worldwide recognition with the purchase of a fleet of tandem rotor heavy-lift helicopters.
Vertol History Began With A Twist
It is ironic that Columbia's initial involvement with the Boeing Vertol 107 came at the suggestion of a Sikorsky Helicopters marketing director. Sikorsky was looking for a buyer for New York Airways' (NYA) fleet of BV-107s, which were to be replaced by new Sikorsky S-61s.
NYA operated seven Boeing Vertol 107s in the 1960s to serve as commuter transportation between metropolitan airports in the New York area. Pan Am subsidized the commuter operations and owned three of the Vertols. NYA owned the other four.
Columbia bought the three Pan Am 107s in April 1969, and in January 1972, Columbia acquired the remaining four helicopters from NYA.
107
The Boeing Vertol designed BV107 was first certified for commercial service in the United States in 1962. Boeing built a limited number of 107s before licensing Kawasaki of Japan to build the helicopter in 1965.
Kawasaki has built nearly 100 KV-107s since then. CHI's present fleet consists of ten BV and five KV 107s. Columbia acquired the Type Certificate for the BV 107 from Boeing in December 2006 and the Production Certificate for the model in September 2009.
As of December 31, 2009, the now designated Columbia 107 and the remaining KV 107s have amassed a total flight time of over 674,000 hours. One of Columbia's high time 107 helicopters, N6674D has over 70,000 hours of flight time and a second, N188CH has over 62000 hours. As with all of Columbia's fleet, both are as good as they were the day they were built.
234
The 234 is also a Boeing designed and built aircraft. The civilian Chinook was certified for commercial service in 1981. Columbia also acquired the TC and PC for this type from Boeing on the same dates as the BV 107.
Columbia has used the 234 for offshore support, onshore rig moves, construction, mining support and logging, and has now flown over 99,400 flight hours in this heavy lift machine.
A Variety Of Applications
Early work with the Boeing fleet included projects on Alaska's North Slope, in the development of the Prudhoe Bay oil facilities and in ski lift and powerline construction.
For Columbia's first big overseas project in 1971, two BV-107s were airlifted to Papua New Guinea for oil rig move and support work, first for Texaco and then for Australasian Petroleum Company.
Also in 1971, Columbia proved the feasibility of logging with helicopters using a Sikorsky S-61. In 1972, following completion of the Papua New Guinea contract, Columbia began helilogging with its Vertols.
The company has since become the leader in the industry, harvesting more timber per year than any other helilogging company. Over 2.9 billion board feet of timber have been yarded to date by the Vertol fleet.
A single 107 helicopter can yard up to 200,000 board feet per day, which translates to over 2 million pounds, or approximately 40 log truck loads. 
In 1976, Columbia purchased four Kawasaki Vertol 107s from the Government of Thailand. Helilogging was then booming and these helicopters were also put to use in the woods of the Pacific Northwest.
Columbia's Vertols have been active in worldwide oil exploration since 1971, having carried out rig moves and drilling support in Papua New Guinea, Sudan, Peru, Burma, Ecuador, Indonesia, and in the United States.
In 1989, while contracted to Chevron in Papua New Guinea, three Vertols flew a total of 8429.8 hours during that year, an average daily utilization of 7.7 hours per aircraft.
In Saudi Arabia two of its Vertols provided fire suppression and search and rescue service during the 1977 Hadj, the annual Muslem pilgrimage to Mecca.
In 1985, three 107s were flown to Sudan by Lockheed C5 Galaxy for famine relief duty under contract to the Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance, a part of the Agency for International Development.
Although thousands of tons of grain were shipped from the U.S. to Sudan, there was no way for it to reach remote villages because the rains, which had finally come that summer, had made roads impassible.
Columbia's 107s provided this transport, moving over 8 million pounds of food and medicine thus saving many thousands of Sudanese from starvation. In 100 days of operation the three BV-107s flew 2,598 hours, a world record for helicopter utilization, with 100% aircraft availability and mission completion.
Columbia's heavy-lift Boeing 234 "Chinook" experience began in 1983 when it provided flight crews to ARCO Alaska for its two leased helicopters. ARCO/Columbia operated these helicopters from Nome, Alaska to ARCO's Navarin Basin Cost #1 well some 400 nm into the Bering Sea.
Following that first use of Boeing 234s in American service, Columbia became the first U.S. company to purchase the Chinook when it took delivery of two used Boeing 234s late in 1984.
Columbia went on to operate one of these aircraft for Amoco Production Company in 1985 on its Navarin Basin leases in the Bering Sea. In six months of operation from St. Paul Island to drilling rigs located as far as 320 nm from shore, Columbia flew 439 hours of mostly actual IFR support and did so while maintaining 100 percent mission availability.
In November of 1988, CHI completed modification of the 234 to the utility configuration which is now certified for a 28,000 pound maximum payload.
As far as it can be determined, the 234 is the only helicopter in the world that can lift and transport more than 125% of its own weight. In February 1989, Columbia purchased three more 234s from British International Helicopters, in January 1991, it acquired two more from Trump Airways, and in September 1995, it acquired two more from Helikopter Services of Norway, bringing the total 234 fleet to nine and making Columbia the largest commercial operator of Chinooks in the world.
Innovations
The fleet is often called upon to perform highly unique projects. At Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, in 1982, a Columbia 107 towed a hover barge over 50 miles of broken ice to an offshore drilling island.
The barge was then loaded with equipment bringing its total weight to 220 tons, and towed back to shore. The 107 was able to tow the hover barge with a 600-foot longline with speeds up to 10 knots proving a new method of equipment transport.
Another unusual project in Alaska required the unloading of 9,000 tons of gravel from a barge. The gravel was needed to build a new road from the airport to the native village. Because of shallow water, the barge could not be moved closer than a half mile from shore.
A large bucket, designed and built by Columbia's engineers, allowed the pilot to deposit the gravel on shore and speed back for another load. The project was completed in less than ten days.
Today
Each year, Columbia Helicopters lifts more tonnage with its fleet of tandem rotor helicopters than any other helicopter operator in the world. Logging accounts for a good part of the company's work although the percentage of the fleet involved in logging has dropped significantly in recent years from the 80% figures of the 1980s and 1990s.
Although Columbia's primary operating area for logging is in the Western US including Oregon, Washington, California, Idaho, Montana, and Alaska, it has also logged extensively in the swamplands of the southeastern United States, as well as British Columbia through its lease of helicopters to Helifor Industries Ltd.
Columbia has also carried out logging operations in the tropical rain forests of Laos and Malaysia and in Chile, and New Zealand.
The reality of fewer and smaller timber sales, environmental restrictions and fluctuations in the price of lumber due to housing demand changes all forced Columbia to relook at its business model.
While logging is still an important part of CHI's helicopter operations business a greater emphasis is now being placed on Gas and Oil exploration support, Fire Fighting, Construction and Logistical support.
Columbia recently completed its 233rd petroleum exploration drilling rig move. In doing so, it brought into play a logistics support team which consisted of load coordinators who planned and supervised the rigging of material using Columbia's own specially designed slings and skids.
This team has evolved as a natural extension to Columbia's experienced helicopter drilling rig transport service which began in 1971. Today it is recognized as one of the best rig move services in the world.
Currently, three Chinooks and one 107 are operating in Papua New Guinea, and two Chinooks are operating in Peru.
The remainder of Columbia's fleet is dedicated to electric power transmission line construction, rooftop placement of heavy equipment, and fire fighting, although in many instances the overlapping of operations occurs, i.e., logging aircraft do occasional lift work, fight fires, etc.
Proven Design Backed By Superb Maintenance / EN/AS9110
Columbia Helicopters, Inc. found that aircraft maintenance and component repair and overhaul by the OEM were either too expensive or could not be done in a timely manner or both.
To ensure that the repairs and spare parts were affordable and available in a timely manner CHI developed its own Maintenance Repair Organization (MRO) which has grown into a world class entity. Columbia's outstanding record for high utilization and aircraft availability is the result of a superb maintenance facility and dedicated staff.
All 107 and most 234 maintenance is done in house at its headquarter facility at Aurora State Airport, 20 miles south of Portland. In 2011, Columbia's repair station achieved EN/AS9110 certification.
This quality system is the backbone of the support structure for all of its maintenance. Columbia's engine shop is approved for overhaul and repair of the GE CT-58, Allison 250 series, Lycoming 5512 turbo-shaft engines and T62 APU. Columbia has its own engine test cell to perform functional checks on these engines.
Hydraulic component overhaul is available for the following helicopter types: Bell, Boeing, Hiller, McDonnell-Douglas, Sikorsky, Agusta and Eurocopter.
For years CHI was the MRO's primary customer and that is still the case, outside customer support is becoming an important and growing part of the business enterprise.
Since 2003, Columbia's inspection, repair, & overhaul capabilities have been expanded to the servicing, repair and overhaul of our armed forces helicopters as well as friendly foreign military helicopters and components.
To date, Columbia has accomplished phase inspections on National Guard CH47Ds, overhaul of fuel control units on CH46Fs, skin repair and replacement on CH46Fs, brake repairs on KC135 tankers, and servo valve overhaul for F15 flight controls, as well as CH47s.
Columbia has successfully completed the qualification process and is capable of repair and overhaul of CH47 forward, aft, combining and engine transmissions, drive shafts, vertical shafts, forward and aft rotor heads.
Columbia has been awarded Army contracts to overhaul transmissions, rotor heads and drive shafts for numerous CH47 units within the US Army, National Guard and Foreign military customers.
The successful acquisition of the Type and Production Certificates of both models from Boeing provides significant growth opportunities and responsibilities for the company as it brings full control of both airframes in house.
This gives Columbia direct access to primary vendors for manufacture of components that will enhance Columbia's operations as well as help it provide better service to its military customers.
