Pressed for time, I hopped around the island via Greenlandair, the state airline, which serves 22 towns, half with fixed wing planes, half by helicopter.
Mr. Di Prima is past president and chief flight instructor of the Meroke Radio Control Club, a group of model hobbyists who are among the 500 licensed "pilots" who fly their aircraft at this miniaturized version of Kennedy International Airport every day of the year, starting with helicopters from 8too 9 a.m., followed by fixed wing planes until dusk.
Depending on the geographical location, the pre-hospital transport modalities range from volunteer community members who drive patients by private car or motorcycle, horseback in remote mountainous locations, or canoe in areas accessible only by water, to critical care transport units, including ambulances and fixed wing planes.
The V-22 Osprey is supposed to lift off and land like a helicopter and cruise like a fixed-wing plane.
That was the case last Saturday, when a fixed-wing plane caught up with a helicopter while both flew south over the Hudson near the New Jersey shore.
The Osprey, an aircraft that takes off and lands like a helicopter but flies like a fixed-wing plane, may well qualify for cancellation.
The props, loaded into a brown nylon duffel bag and then into the passenger seat of the fixed-wing plane, must stand in for Dr. Bierenbaum's petite former wife, whose body has never been found.
The city is using three leased helicopters for the operation - and officials last night were arranging for a fixed-wing plane that can handle the spraying faster than the helicopters.
The Osprey's builders -- Boeing, Bell Textron and Allison Engine -- have described it as particularly well suited to evacuation missions, since it has a range that is characteristic of a fixed-wing plane but does not need a runway.
The hexacopter and the fixed-wing plane in the video, both belonging to Prof. Benjamin Trapnell of the University of North Dakota, have a maximum flight time of about 15 minutes, and run on electric power.
