Promote your company to the global vertical aviation industry through the VAI Member Spotlight, a free benefit for VAI member companies. Want to be featured? If you’re not already enjoying the many benefits our members receive, join VAI today! VAI Member Spotlight: VyClimb Consulting, Colorado, USA Consulting firm provides assessments and other services to help helicopter operators increase safety and efficiency. By Jen Boyer After investigating fatal air ambulance accidents for years, former US Army helicopter pilot turned air medical pilot, investigator, and safety compliance director Michael Benton began to see a pattern. More importantly, he saw a way to break it. “In one of my jobs, every time there was a fatal accident, I helped investigate it with the NTSB [US National Transportation Safety Board], and I started getting frustrated, seeing what caused them and how preventable many were,” he says. “I felt I could have a bigger impact in our industry by preventing problems before they happen.” Designed to Climb Benton left his position with a large air medical helicopter operator and ventured out on his own, founding VyClimb Consulting, which celebrates 10 years in business this year. He chose the name from aviation industry vernacular to best represent VyClimb’s mission. “Vy” denotes the speed for the best rate of climb, highlighting the company’s mission to maximize safety and performance while helping operators, their teams, and their organizations reach new heights. VyClimb Consulting founder Michael Benton. Benton uses his close to 30 years of experience as a helicopter pilot, flight instructor, examiner, aircraft accident investigator, safety system management manager, auditor, and operational control specialist to help operators with a variety of services. This includes a full operational assessment, which Benton is quick to emphasize is not an audit. The service instead involves a detailed, in-depth assessment of the organization’s policies, procedures, operations, and culture, including one-on-one interviews with as many staff members as possible. “We’re not just looking at paperwork,” he says. “We’re talking to people, understanding how they really work—not just how they’re supposed to work. It gives us a real understanding of the culture, which can itself have a very strong impact on safety.” Following an assessment, the company compiles results in a report that points out areas where the operator can improve, as well as areas that are going well. VyClimb also provides a series of recommended actions to the operator. Beyond Recommendations VyClimb can help implement its recommendations through its safety, operations, planning, and leadership services. In one case, the company helped transform a struggling operation that was almost uninsurable into a top-performing organization over the course of 12 months, according to Benton. The secret, he says, is not only highlighting concerns, but helping companies resolve them. “We’re not here to criticize,” he explains. “We’re here to help companies become better, safer, and more efficient.” Benton, who also serves as a board member of the Commission on Accreditation of Medical Transport Systems, is deliberately keeping VyClimb small. He prefers to work with a few key companies so his team can focus on them every step of the way, he says. While its primary clientele is in the air medical sector, VyClimb works with a variety of aviation operators across the industry who share the same goal—increased safety and performance. Jen Boyer is a journalist and marketing communicator specializing in aviation. She holds commercial, instrument, flight instructor, and instrument instructor ratings in helicopters and a private rating in airplanes.
