Name: Edward John Murphy
Date of birth/place of birth: September 15, 1956, Brooklyn, New York
Native city: Mix between Ellenville, NY (early years) and Ridgewood, NJ (adolescence)
Parent names: John Edward Murphy and Janet Elizabeth Murphy
Married? Yes: 31 wonderful years
Names of spouse/children: Jane Ellen Murphy / John Edward Murphy 28, James Patrick Murphy 25
Education: high school, college, degrees and such: I attended and graduated from the 74th Class of the New York Military Academy, after which I attended Valley Forge Military Junior College and graduated with an Associate of Criminal Justice degree in the 76th Class. To complete my college education, I attended to Elmira College in New York and graduated Cum Laude. with a Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice in the winter of ’77.
Military experience: Dates, places, jobs: The entire total spent 21 years on active duty;
Jan 1978 entered service as a 2nd Lieutenant through ROTC at Valley Forge.
May 1979 Attended flight school at Fort Rucker Al. At the end of flight school he stayed for an additional 3 months and attended the AH-1 Cobra helicopter qualification course.
May 1980-March 1983 – Stationed at Fulda, Germany, assigned to 11 ACR as 1st Lt. Cobra Section Leader, then Platoon Leader. I spent all my time flying frontier missions and was very lucky to keep flying my entire tour. This was very unusual for a commissioned guy in those days.
May 1983-Sep 1985 – Return to Fort Rucker, Al. Cobra Hall (AH-1 qualification course) as instructor pilot. After 18 months, I was selected as a flight commander to run the instructor pilot course as their senior standardization instructor pilot in charge of all initial AH-1 instructor pilot training for Fort Rucker and line units.
July 1986-March 1999: Served as an instructor pilot for the NYARNG Active Guard and Reserve (AGR) on Long Island, New York, giving instruction on UH-1H, OH-6A, AH-1S, UH- 60A. During the period between 1986 and 1989, I was proud to be the troop commander of Troop C 101 Cavalry Squadron flying OH-6A and AH-1S aircraft, when the Squadron was converted from all ground troops to a combination of ground troops and aerial. .
April 1989-December 1995 – Served as Aviation Brigade Standardization Instructor Pilot, working directly for the Brigade Commander and Brigade S3 regarding Airman training requirements and assisting the unit instructor with their training programs.
December 1995-March 1999 – Served as State Aviation Liaison Officer/Supervisor of Instructor Pilots, serving in this position until retirement. During this period, the state reorganized to UH60 aircraft by retiring its UH1 and AH-1 aircraft. It was during this period that he developed a UH-60 systems manual to help the field pilot better understand his aircraft’s systems. In total he produced several hundred copies which were copied locally and are still in use today. My biggest compliment was when Sikorsky used it as a companion guild for their international Blackhawk training programs.
Combat experience: when, where, hours, awards (Air Medals/DFC/Purple Heart, etc.) – None
Licenses/Classifications:
FAA
Airline Transport Pilot – Rotorcraft Helicopter
Type – BH-204 / SK-92
Commercial Privileges – Single Engine/Multi Engine Land Aircraft
airplane instruments
Flight Instructor – Rotorcraft Helicopter
instrument helicopter
Examiner Pilot – SK-92
JAA
Type Rating Instructor – SK-92
Type Rating Examiner – SK-92
simulator flight instructor
simulator flight examiner
Hours: 7145 hours RW, 480 hours FW
Aircraft you have flown: Military and Civil. Which of each did you enjoy flying the most and why?
UH-1H, OH-6A, OH-58A, AH-1S, UH-60A, U-21A, T-42A, C-172, PA-22, SK-70, SK-92
Which one have I enjoyed more is a difficult question. It would be a tie between the AH-1 and the SK-92. The AH-1 because it was my first job as an instructor pilot, and all the instructors remember their first flight as an instructor with a rookie pilot in the other seat. However, I’d say it’s the SK-92 that wins my keys because of its diverse mission capability: offshore or VIP passengers, SAR, and external payloads capability, not to mention almost all-weather launch capability. The SK-92 has forced me to stay vigilant in both my VFR and IFR skills.
Current Job: Please describe this in detail. You enjoy it? Satisfaction? I am currently the Lead SK-92 Pilot Instructor/Examiner at FlightSafety’s West Palm Beach Learning Center, located in Florida. As a lead instructor, I help the S-92 Program Manager monitor the training of new instructors. As one of the aircraft flight instructors, I conduct both simulator and aircraft flight instruction for the pilots, operating under part 91 and 135 operations. I also work with the Sikorsky Aircraft flight test center. as the S-92’s liaison with FlightSafety to collect new aircraft information to develop training programs as new systems are added to the SK-92. As a link, this allows me to regularly fly with the test pilots on the pre-production versions of the SK-92, during the final stages of testing the new system just prior to certification.
Regarding the question, do I enjoy it? This period of my aviation career has been the most enjoyable experience of my life. As a pilot/instructor, I owe a lot to FlightSafety, because I was given the opportunity to experience a wonderful opportunity that very few can enjoy. That’s the opportunity to get on the ground floor of a new aircraft still in development and work alongside test pilots and engineers who learn how systems work directly from the engineer in charge of designing that system. Then fly the plane with the test pilots years before it was certified. Do I enjoy my work? I went from enjoyment and straight to ecstasy several years ago and it has never changed. I can’t help but hope that this same enthusiasm/passion spills over into my teaching my clients/pilots here at the Learning Center. So for this opportunity, I thank FlightSafety and Sikorsky for making this ordinary pilot’s dream come true.
Hobbies: Driving diving, sailing, camping in Lake George NY, spending family time with my children and grandchildren.
Most memorable flight: My last flight in the army as an instructor pilot. It was a multi-ship troop-lifting operation. During the flight, unbeknownst to me, one of the planes was videotaping the mission along with still photos of me and my crew. During my retirement party, the crews from that training mission presented me with an introduction video from that day. One of the aircraft commanders on that flight was a CW2 pilot I mentored and sent to flight school who had been a young crew chief on UH-1H helicopters when I started with the unit 12 years earlier. That video and the memories of that day remind me that the mentoring program is very much alive and well in aviation both past and present.
Instructor Pilot who made the biggest difference and why: Coming out of the active military in 1985 for the first time, I joined the New York Army National Guard as a part-time pilot. I met a full-time instructor pilot who saw potential in my instructional skills and placed me on the UH-1, training me to be a UH-1 instructor. At the end of the training program, I quit my civilian job and joined the unit as a full-time instructor under his command. This employment relationship lasted 9 years. This individual showed me the importance of never stopping striving to learn and that aviation self-improvement is a daily practice, not something you study for on a regular basis. So, he guided me in many ways. He retired in 1995 and I had the privilege of replacing him as Supervisor of Instructor Pilots for the last 3 years before retiring.
“If I could share one little piece of advice for a new pilot, it would be…. For pilots, never stop learning, today’s aviation is constantly changing and is based more on technical knowledge and less on practice. It’s not about how well you can fly the plane, but how well you can configure and use the information the plane gives you. For fellow instructors, my advice would be that newer pilots want to learn, they all have a thirst for knowledge. Thus, as a wise instructor in my early years once taught me. that if the pilot couldn’t learn, it was us, the instructors, who couldn’t find a way to teach them.