Provider profile: Black Wolf Helicopters
Oliver Cuenca talks to Chris Sharpe, Chief Aircrewman at Black Wolf Helicopters, about flying in Guatemala, and his company’s work in helicopter safety training
Black Wolf Helicopters is a helicopter operations training and consultancy firm based in Guatemala. Initially founded in 2017 to provide training to the Guatemalan military, the company has since expanded to offer a broader range of training and services to clients further afield.
“We then officially became a licensed company in 2019 – that was around the same time that I won the HAI Salute to Excellence Aerospace Safety Award,” said Chris Sharpe, Chief Aircrewman at Black Wolf Helicopters. “Initially we did the survival, underwater egress, and medical training. And then, once Black Wolf was properly formed, we started to train all our pilots in human external cargo (HEC).”
This expansion was further accelerated after he wrote a survival guide for helicopter emergency medical services (HEMS), which brought Black Wolf to the attention of an international audience.
“Then I wrote a book – which was a random thing to do – and that took off really well in the USA, so now we get a lot of students coming down from the USA – especially in the HEMS industry,” Sharpe continued. “So now they come down and we teach them survival, we short-haul them on a helicopter, we let them rappel, and we show them essentially that ‘this is what helicopters can do’.”
The benefits of bilingual training
Sharpe explained that Black Wolf serves a number of clients, primarily located in Central and South America – the company’s popularity is in part driven by its ability to teach in both Spanish and English.
“And plus, we’re down here [in Guatemala], so the cost is less of an issue – so we’re already cost-beneficial because we’re in the region,” he added.
However, despite the company’s bilingual focus – or perhaps because of it – Sharpe noted that many of its clients are “very receptive to learning in English most of the time”.
He explained: “So the technical aspects, I will teach in English and then try to translate it. The idea is that the team that we’re teaching get the terminology that they understand and that they want to use.”
Black Wolf will personalize the training course and standard operating procedures (SOP) around the client’s specific language needs
He added that when working with a specific client, Black Wolf will personalize the training course and standard operating procedures (SOP) around the client’s specific language needs. As well as translating between English and Spanish, the company also has to take into account the various Spanish dialects found across South America.
Sharpe said: “Obviously we’re in Guatemala – the Spanish here is different to how it is in Mexico, it’s different in Colombia. So, the idea is to try and empower the company and crew to make it ‘their’ SOP that they understand and they’re familiar with. Because if you’re doing a dynamic hoist or a short haul in a confined space, you don’t have time to think of what the correct word is. Whereas if you’ve been part of the process to develop that checklist, it’s natural.”
Conforming to international safety standards
Safety standards, explained Sharpe, were the highest priority for Black Wolf when carrying out training operations. While the company is based in Guatemala, it tends to follow rules set by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) – “because we’re on their side of the planet,” he said. This is particularly true for the company’s HEC and hoist training, which conforms to FAA Part 133 rules.
However, Sharpe added that while Black Wolf largely builds its curriculum and in particular the “essential safety elements” to “whatever the US standard is”, it will subsequently adapt the core structure specifically to the legislation that the individual clients will be following. One reason for this flexibility, he explained, is the fluid nature of how helicopter operations are conducted in the regions Black Wolf tends to serve.
Sharpe noted that “a lot of the standards” developed by agencies such as the FAA are designed with “purpose-built aircraft in mind”. He continued: “Whereas, for a lot of the companies we work with, they’ll fly VIP one minute, then they’ll fly air medical the next, and then they’ll fly external cargo.”
A lot of the standards developed by agencies such as the FAA are designed with purpose-built aircraft in mind
Additionally, unlike in more advanced economies, “down here, most of the aircraft are very old – they’re still rappelling out of Hueys with a system that was designed for the Vietnam war. So while yes, it works, we make a point to highlight the potential of what could go wrong.”
The joys and challenges of working in Guatemala
Guatemala’s unique geography and location offer Black Wolf’s staff and trainees a range of unique experiences and challenges, said Sharpe.
You always have to bear in mind that if you fly five minutes, that’s like three weeks’ walk
“I came here originally to project-manage an air ambulance – it was HeliSOS – and it’s amazing to fly here,” said Sharpe. “We’ve got jungles, we’ve got mountains – and we do get some snow on the top of them. There’s some restrictions, such as around the international airports, but there’s such freedom to fly as well.”
However, he added that while it’s “a beautiful country”, it’s also “very challenging” in terms of planning. “You always have to bear in mind that if you fly five minutes, that’s like three weeks’ walk – and that’s if anyone’s going to come and look for you in the first place! So you always have to take that into account in the mission planning phase.”
Additionally, Guatemala’s location and high taxes can present challenges for Black Wolf’s ability to import specialist equipment. Despite this, Sharpe explained that the company has managed to work around this challenge.
“For underwater egress, I built the chair that we use, because the problem we have is the cost of getting things here … it very quickly becomes expensive,” he said. “The cost of a shallow water egress chair was about $8,000 – and in reality by the time we got that here that would work out to about $25,000. So, in the end, I went to a hardware store and I just built one.”
Consulting and operational support
In addition to providing helicopter training, Black Wolf Helicopters provides consulting support for a range of special operations missions across Central America – particularly in the field of cross-border
law enforcement.
“We do support missions and extraction plans for anti-human-trafficking with various organizations,” Sharpe explained. “So we’ll develop the extraction plans – not so much for the victims, but predominantly for the team. If it gets really bad, they have to get out.”
He continued: “We’ll sit down, look at the location, and work out what assets we need to get the team out. Because obviously we’re dealing with criminal organizations, so if the team had to get out quickly, then obviously there’s no passport control or anything – they’re just getting out.”
In this aspect, Sharpe said that he views his company’s work as being to bring “recent Special Forces knowledge” to countries in the region that have not previously had it, or who may have only picked up knowledge of these skills online.
They will typically work with fellow Guatemalan firm Helicópteros de Guatemala because of their exemplary standards of safety
While Black Wolf Helicopters does not maintain a helicopter fleet of its own, it does maintain an operational flight capability of various crewmembers who can be deployed as needed. “We’ve got seven guys. It’s not just me,” Sharpe explained. “We’ve got two aircrewmen and a couple of rescue guys – they’re all trained to search, they’ve all got the correct equipment.”
When an aircraft is needed, Sharpe said they will typically work with fellow Guatemalan firm Helicópteros de Guatemala, “because of their exemplary standards of safety”.
He explained that most of Black Wolf’s operational services cater to international clients – such as the families of lost tourists – rather than domestic. “We do get a couple of local ones,” he noted, “but this is limited due to the various costs involved, and the lack of a formal air rescue infrastructure.”