Doug Sheffer: A Quiet Hero, Behind The Scenes

Doug Sheffer’s death in a helicopter crash yesterday sent shock waves through Westport and the Rocky Mountains. The 1968 Staples grad — son of longtime Westporter civic volunteers Ralph and Betty Sheffer, brother of Westport activist Ann Sheffer and noted musician Jonathan Sheffer — was well known for his wilderness spirit, love of the outdoors, and concern for others.

He owned DBS Helicopter Service, and served as its chief pilot. The company works in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming with ranchers, fishermen, golfing and hunting resorts, utility companies, local, state, regional and federal agencies, surveyors, photographers, videographers, filmmakers, ski resorts, realtors, outfitters, private individuals, search and rescue agencies, sheriff, police and other emergency services providers, extreme and adventure race organizations, telecommunications companies, technicians and reclamation operations — to name just a few.

Doug Sheffer

Doug had 22 years and over 8000 hours of experience in mountains above 8000 feet. He completed 10 BELL Helicopter Training Academy Initial and Refresher courses, plus an Advanced Flying Skills course geared to accident prevention. He was a graduate of the Mountain Flying and Vertical Reference courses with Canadian Helicopter, and regularly trained on emergency procedures.

In October 2012 the Goat Blog — a Rocky Mountain publication — posted this story and interview with Doug. It was a fitting tribute to him in life — and a perfect epitaph for his untimely death.

Something about helicopter pilots chasing bank robbers, busting spies and saving castaways impressed 6-year-old Doug Sheffer. The Whirlybirds television episodes, over 50 years ago, were heroic and exciting and everything he seemed born to do. While his father tried to waylay those childish ambitions, it wasn’t too many decades before Sheffer had owned his own fleet of choppers, a crew of pilots and a backlog of dangerous jobs throughout western Colorado.

A few weeks ago Sheffer, now owner and sole pilot of DBS Helicopters based out of Grand Junction, Colorado, received a call from a Gunnison County sheriff about a hiker found below Snowmass Peak in the West Elk Mountains of western Colorado. Jeff Lodico, separated from his party, took a bad fall and spent the night out in the cold. When wilderness responders from West Elk Mountain Rescue and Western State Colorado mountain rescue team found him, he had broken all the fingers on one hand, his wrist, his arm, all of his ribs and a lower leg. He had a punctured lung and his skull was fractured. Sheffer rescued him.

Sheffer honed his helicopter skills by taking helicopter aircrew training system courses in British Columbia from flight instructors who train Chinook and Blackhawk pilots for the most sophisticated military missions, including navigating unique wind currents along sheer mountainsides. He’d need all that training to rescue Lodico.

I spoke with Sheffer about the rescue and about his work last week. He doesn’t drink. He’s not crazy, and he speaks with a level of calculation and continuity I’ve only heard in aviators.

Doug Sheffer, doing what he loved. (Photo/Matt Hobbs for Vital Films)

Sheffer: It’s like reading a river, really, water is a fluid just like air is a fluid. Rafters can read the eddies, the boulders, the rapids cause they can see it. I have to just imagine it. All the same things work the same way a rafting guide comes down a river. And you have to respond or else you’re going to tip over.

The Goat: How do you assess whether you can make the rescue or not?

Sheffer: It starts with geography of the land. You do a reconnaissance. Light knots usually aren’t too big of a factor especially if you don’t have too many people on board. But the helicopter becomes the data collector. It bends toward the wind like a weather vane. You’ll see drift if you’re holding a straight course down a ridgeline. Then you can compare that to going into the wind, like paddling up or down a stream.

The Goat: So the first principle of first responders is to do no harm. How did you accept this mission in light of the risk to the other rescuers?”

Sheffer: We do risk assessment all the time, because crashing is not an option. You don’t want to crash because you were stupid or fearless. But ‘do no harm’ also comes into looking at the condition of patient. He was sitting there overnight and in a world of hurt. He was not going to be wanting to spend another night out there, so you have to decide on expediency. This is it. We got to do something now. I don’t think what we did was a risk to anybody down there.”

Another day, another helicopter ride for Doug Sheffer.

The Goat: How did you actually make that landing? Were you on just one skid?

Sheffer: I just set down and nudged into the boulders, and it was tilted 20 degrees. The back skid was on a slight slope and holding. I had full spin on the blades and 25% of the helicopter weight let down. So I was almost hovering. I would never let down 100 percent pressure.

The Goat: And then what’s it like when you lift off into the air with that patient? What’s that feel like?

Sheffer: I was ready for it. You just have to be ready. You feel it. The moment you take off, that’s a wonderful feeling. I know how far I am from Aspen – very close. You always want it to be easier and safer than people thought it was going to be and get the job done.

Lodico is recovering at home. He’s an experienced 14,000-foot mountain climber, and his compatriots have rallied around him.

Sheffer wants to give a nod to all commercial helicopter pilots – 90 percent of their work goes to public benefit, he said.

“Helicopters above all save lives. They are the most amazing vehicle that man’s ever invented,” Sheffer said.

Here’s a video shot with DBS Helicopters for the freeski movie “Days To Come.”  For more DBS videos, click here.