A local helicopter operator is the only one of its kind between Lewiston and Seattle, offering a range of diverse services such as cherry drying, flight instruction, photography tours and even Easter egg drops.

Precision Aircraft Solutions, owned by Darrin and Jeanna Graybill, leases a space from the Port of Benton at the Prosser Airport.

Darrin Graybill is the pilot and the couple owns a four-seat helicopter. Their business recently was honored with a Richland Rotary Entrepreneurial Award.

“Flying has always been my passion since I was about 6 or 7 years old,” he said. “I knew I wanted to become a helicopter pilot from an early, early age.”

Darrin Graybill said a lucrative job as a young man spraying weeds on railroad rights of way from a pickup truck helped secure his future flight career.

“That was a very good paying job for a young kid. I lived at home and pinched my pennies,” he said.

It allowed him to save for flight lessons. He then completed the 150 hours needed for a commercial operator’s license and 200 hours for his flight instructor rating to begin working in the aviation industry.

“If you want to get paid to fly, you have to have a commercial license,” he said. “It’s a very tough career to kind of break into because most places won’t hardly hire someone unless they have close to a 1,000 hours.”

Luckily for Darrin Graybill, his previous job in weed control set him up to clock those hours from the air.

“My very first commercial aviation job was spraying railroad rights of way out in Montana,” he said. “The only reason I was able to get that was because of my background doing it with trucks. If I hadn’t had that experience, I would have never got that job at that low of hours.”

After working for other helicopter operators, Graybill and his wife leased their first two-seater and opened Precision Aviation Solutions as a side job in 2018, mainly focused on flight training.

Fortuitously for them, the couple ended their helicopter lease just before the pandemic. Darrin focused on his full-time job as a welding fabricator while saving for a new aircraft, relaunching the business in 2023 with the larger chopper they now own.

Courtesy Precision Aviation Solutions

Cherry season

Cherry season is big business for Precision Aviation Solutions. It’s a two-month window where Darrin Graybill and subcontractors fly around the region helping growers protect their crops.

Cherry farmers use helicopters to blow rain off their fruit to prevent it from splitting. Darrin Graybill is also working to build up bookings for crop frost protection, a practice popular with table grapes in other parts of the world.

Public rides

Everyday folks can hire Darrin Graybill for a quick ride in the helicopter, checking off a bucket list item for $50 to take a quick ride at community events like the Great Prosser Balloon Rally in September or the Tri-City Water Follies in July.

He’s also been hired to drop smoke bombs for a dramatic gender reveal or a load of Easter eggs from local churches.

The Graybills are excited about a future partnership with American Cruise Lines, which docks in Richland’s Howard Amon Park, hoping to provide a premier excursion for passengers to take flights departing from Richland’s Goose Ridge Winery.

“We’re working with them to offer kind of a package deal from their tasting room where guests can come and do a helicopter tour around the area as well as a wine tasting and have a really neat spot to hang out while they do that,” he said. “Once we get that up and rolling, we will also offer that to the public from that location.”

Otherwise, tours are only available with a Prosser departure. It’s not cost effective to leave from places outside of where the helicopter is hangared, and the Federal Aviation Administration limits tour distances to 25 nautical miles, Darrin Graybill said.

Aerial photography work is less restrictive, and photographers or surveyors often climb aboard to take pictures, especially for commercial real estate and radio communication tower placement. Darrin Graybill said the helicopter offers a much wider vantage point than what can be done with a drone.

“Drones are limited to 400 feet – that’s as high as they’re allowed to fly in most areas. So, you’re going to be very limited on how wide of an angle you’re going to be able to get to shoot 50 to 100 acres of land. You’re not going to be able to get that in one shot,” he said.

In addition, Darrin Graybill said most commercial photographers will need to shoot at multiple locations throughout the region. “To do that with a drone, that’s going to take you a whole day of heading around to different areas and setting up and flying and getting your shot and then moving to the next location and doing that again. I can do that in 30 minutes to an hour of flight time.”

Courtesy Precision Aviation Solutions

Flight training and more

The most time in the air for Precision Aviation Solutions comes from flight training.

“Probably 50% of our hours in the year is doing flight training. It’s just a fairly low margin for us,” Graybill said. “We’ve had quite a few different students get their licenses through our flight school.”

The company also has been hired for large corporate events where customers pay a block rate for two to three hours and can take multiple people up for short rides during that window.

He estimates those usually cost about $850 per hour. Typical tours are $400 for a 20- to 25-minute ride carrying two people. A third person can go for a discounted rate of an additional $150.

Bookings can be made online at precisionaviationsolutions.com.