Steve Uzzell, continued from page 19
On one occasion Uzzell covered a
medical expedition in Venezuela,
where he was covering a community inhabited by 30,000 people who
have Huntington’s disease. One of
the accompanying doctors offered to
take Uzzell on his plane to a destination off Lake Maracaibo. Based on
Uzzell’s experience with planes, he
noticed that the plane didn’t have a
whole lot of fuel in one of the tanks.
The doctor/pilot looked at it and said
they’d “be fine.”
Uzzell recalls, “And I thought to
myself, ‘well this could come back to
bite us….BIG time.’ And, it did.”
Uzzell and the doctor made one
pass over the village and then tried
another one. When they banked to
make a second pass, their engine
sputtered at 500 feet. The doctor was
dazed and confused. The engine then
died. Fortunately, Uzzell had enough
experience to know where and how
to flip to the second landing attempt.
The doctor hit the starter button and
the engine re-started at 100 feet. At
five feet above the lake, the doctor
regained control of the plane.
The doctor had enough composure to
muster, “So, would you like to take
another pass?” Uzzell declined the offer. They flew 45 minutes back to the
airport and the second engine died
after they taxied into the hangar. To
add insult, the canopy to the plane
jammed and they spent an additional 45 minutes, in “baking, hot sun,”
attempting to figure out how to open
it so that they could crawl out.
Uzzell has had other close calls in
helicopters, where he’s experienced
LTE – Loss of Tail Rotor Effectiveness. That will turn a “flying machine
into a rock,” according to Uzzell.
“And, really the only way to come out
of it is to take the stick and point it
right, straight into the ground -so
you’re screaming towards the ground
and you’re going over 100 miles per
hour and trying desperately not to
panic. Then, gradually you regain
control, sometimes about 50 feet
above the ground.”
Due to his close calls (he’s been in
five LTE’s), he prefers to fly with
experienced helicopter pilots, in
some cases, Vietnam vets. Uzzell
claims that combat pilots can have
the “daredevil” aspects rooted out of
them from combat, so they like to fly
safely. Additionally, they take steps
to check and know their aircraft.
20
Uzzell recalls, “And I
thought to myself, ‘well this
could come back to bite
us….BIG time.’ And, it did.”
Shortly after one of his friends was
killed in a helicopter crash, the first
pilot Uzzell flew with was a military
pilot named Charles “Bub” Lewis.
Bub got his flying and mechanics
license at 16. He flew timber 7-10
hours a day. And, at the time, Bub
had logged over 43,000 hours in the
air making him the world’s most
experienced pilot.
One day, Uzzell asked Bub if it might
be a good idea for Bub to teach him
how to be a helicopter pilot. And,
Bub spun around with his piercing
blue eyes, grabbed Uzzell by the
shoulders and sternly replied, (paraphrasing here), “Look jerk, you have
to promise me right here and right
now one thing: If you’re not going to
promise me right here that you’re
going to fly for 30 hours a month
every month for as long as you have
your license, do all of us who fly favor, and get out of my sky!” Bub then
turned around and walked away.
That experience is part of why Uzzell
believes what he does about practice and emergency preparedness.
“In an emergency, what most people
don’t think about is how their own
brain is going to respond when it’s a
genuine emergency and time is of the
essence,” according to Uzzell. “And,
your very first reaction to those situations is to literally tell yourself to
‘calm down’ and go through all that
stuff you have been trained to do.”
Opportunity Knocks in the City by
the Bay
As a big believer in being prepared
for good shots, good opportunities and good fortune, Uzzell has
numerous stories about how he
matches his skill with his creativity. This craftiness is necessary to
work around the world in a variety
of environments with a multitude of
different people. In 1981, for example, Uzzell began a series of beautiful “truckscapes” for Yellow Freight
Trucking.
The Yellow Freight photo series
helped make them the #1 trucking
company in the country. But, it was
more difficult than imagined according to Uzzell. There were prep phone
calls, calls to Parks Departments and
road closures. Most of the time, they
were able to get permission. There
were times where there just wasn’t
time to go through the “rituals” of
securing clearance and they improvised. An overlook in San Francisco,
called “Twin Peaks” offered one such
opportunity, given its amazing view
of the City.
Uzzell knew it’d be difficult to get
permission to take the photos in San
Francisco, but they proceeded anyway to coordinate the shoot as quickly as possible. The truck drivers were
prepped the day before and they
used radios to communicate. During
With a combination of fortune and preparation, Uzzell was able to take
unprecedented commercial photos of the Bay Area (as exemplified by a tourist
above).
TASBO REPORT | FEBRUARY 2015