Cattle raisers, gentlemen cowboys, Old West vaqueros, New West wranglers, range cooks, big expanse owners and small spread cattle growers everywhere will relate — and fanaticize — as they read and view “The Adventures of a Helicopter Cowboy,” a one-of-a-kind “coffee-table book.”

Pilots, too, are sure to sense the thrill of pushin’ and pullin’ the stick as airborne cowpoke/author Jimmie Tiller coaxes wild steers and bulls from their hideouts in the thick brush of the Texas range.

Jimmie Tiller’s initial goal in life was to be a teacher — to educate young people and equip them with intellectual skills that would serve them a lifetime. From the classroom and the principal’s desk, the deeply devout teacher’s eventual destiny was something no one could foresee on the horizon.

In 1973, at the unlikely age of 47, Tiller’s view changed from the front of the schoolroom to the bubble of a Bell 47 helicopter hovering and darting just a few feet above the rugged range. Cowboying was nothing new to the respected educator, but it had come from years in the traditional seat of a saddle. He was not a “chopper jockey” trained by the military, nor was he chasing the recognition of a “top gun.” Instead, he was an astute cowman who recognized that South Texas cattle raisers faced economic crisis from a screwworm outbreak.

Tiller resigned as school principal in Alice, Texas, and placed an order for a new Bell 47 G-5A helicopter. He had been flying fixed-wing aircraft for 16 years, but he had never even been in a helicopter. Perhaps as an irony to his age, his was the last Model 47 produced by the Bell Helicopter Company. It was delivered June 29, 1973. His first lesson came the next day and in just 21 days he became an FAA-licensed commercial helicopter pilot.

Tiller’s plan to fly 100 hours before accepting his first job was shelved 16 days later when, with 52 hours of helicopter flying time, he accepted a call to gather cattle on a ranch at Aguilares. Tiller Helicopter Service was in business.

Over the next 23 years, the company would grow to as many as five choppers at one time, with a full complement of on-the-ground cowboys, horses, trailers and support crew. Three of the founder’s four sons would join their dad as licensed helicopter pilots, the fourth would become chief airborne spotter and photographer. Tiller was never far away from his own camera, and captured his new vocation on film that would one day provide the dramatic photographs for his book.

Until he sold his helicopter company in 1996, Tiller never strayed from his mission to help cattle raisers. From screwworms to brucellosis to fever ticks, from drought to flood, from open range to brush so thick no horse could penetrate it, Jimmie Tiller was the cow grower’s friend. More than once, he was the option that saved the cattleman from financial ruin. From the air, he gathered more cattle in an hour than a bunkhouse full of mounted cowboys could round up in a day. With his “eye in the sky,” he spotted and wrangled wild steers and wily bulls many cattlemen did not even suspect roamed their pastures.

When he returned full time to the ground, Tiller reflected on his experiences and marveled at the stories [which] his years of photos could tell. Thus was born “The Adventures of a Helicopter Cowboy,” a 176-page, hard-cover, over-sized book anyone with a western heritage or interest will be proud to display atop the end table in the den or the coffee table in the living room.

“Helicopter Cowboy” is told in Jimmie Tiller’s own style, not as interpreted by a professional wordsmith. From the seasoned commercial airline pilot who “froze” in Tiller’s chopper bubble, to the skillful vaqueros who could throw a smallest of loops in the densest mesquite brush, to the savvy chute sorters who never tired, the author tells his story in words real cowboys and “wannabes” alike can visualize.

Roy Robinson is a veteran newspaperman who is currently publisher and vice president of Graham Newspapers, Inc., which publishes seven community newspapers and operates four radio stations in North Central Texas.

GRAHAM NEWSPAPERS, INC.
Phone: (940)549-7800
e-mail gnipub@grahamleader.com
www.grahamleader.com
LAKE COUNTRY NEWSPAPERS
Breckenridge American
The Graham Leader
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The Jack County Herald
Lake Country Sun
Lake Country Senior Times
Lake Country Shopper
The Olney Enterprise
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KLXK-FM / Breckenridge
KROO-AM / Breckenridge
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The Adventures of a Helicopter Cowboy

• Text and Photography by William J. “Jimmie” Tiller
• Forward by Jane Pattie
• Introduction by Elmer Kelton
• Produced by Wilma Russell’s Western Classic
• Arts and Graphics by Elena Ellis
• First Edition Printed in 2003

All text and images © Copyright 2003, Tiller & Associates (DBA Corral Press)
Duplication, use or distribution without permission is prohibited.
 

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