HAI Announces Recipient of the 2009 AgustaWestland Community Service Award

HAI is proud to announce the 2009 AgustaWestland Community Service Award recipient, David B. Nichols M.D.; Owner, President, Managing Director; White Stone Family Practice, White Stone, Virginia.

Affectionately known as “Dr. Copter,” Nichols graduated from McGill University School of Medicine in Montreal, Canada in 1976, completing his residency in Newport News through Virginia Commonwealth University’s Medical College of Virginia. He is certified by the American Board of Family Medicine, a member of the Virginia Academy of Family Practice, and a fellow of the American Academy of Family Practice. Nichols has been appointed Clinical Associate Professor of Family Practice at MCV.

When Nichols was a high school senior he took an occupational aptitude test on which he scored highest in aviation and medicine! At age 49, he took his first flight in a helicopter. Eight months later he received his helicopter pilot license at Hampton Roads Executive Airport in Chesapeake. He has logged more than 1,000 flight hours and currently flies a fuel-injected Robinson R44 Raven II. Nichols has served as a Senior Aviation Medical Examiner for 29 years.

Nichols first visited Tangier Island in the Chesapeake Bay with his father while still in medical school, promising to one day return to help the isolated community. In the fall of 1979, a few months after setting up a family practice in White Stone, Virginia, Nichols began flying first his own plane, and then his helicopter to Tangier to take care of the island’s more than 600 residents. Nichols and his colleagues have been doing so every Thursday and every other Monday since. A part of the Tangier “family,” he cares deeply about not only the physical, but the emotional and spiritual problems of the islanders as well.

Nichols was awarded Staff Care’s 2006 Country Doctor of the Year Award, for which he received congratulations from President George W. Bush; the Commonwealth of Virginia House of Delegates; and Governor of Virginia, Tim Kaine. He has been mentioned in numerous publications including USA Today, The Washington Post, The Richmond Times Dispatch, The Virginian-Pilot, and in the fall 2007 ROTOR magazine. On January 19, 2007, he was ABC “News Person of the Week.” As President Bush said in his letter to Nichols, “Your efforts bring hope to those in need and help make America stronger.”

All winners will be recognized at HELI-EXPO 2009’s annual “Salute to Excellence” Awards Banquet on February 23, 2009 at 8:00 p.m. in Anaheim, California. For more information about the 2009 “Salute to Excellence” Awards Banquet, contact HAI’s Communications Department at 703-683-4646, fax: 703-683-4745, or email: rotor@rotor.com. For more information on HELI-EXPO 2009, visit www.heliexpo.com.