Siegfried ‚Blacky‘ Schwarz

Former chief pilot & helicopter aerobatics pilot

Story

One thing is certain: without Blacky’s vision and passion for aviation, the Flying Bulls would not be flying helicopters in the way they do.

As Austria’s first trainee civil helicopter pilot, the man from Styria had to fight hard for his place in the cockpit. Since then he has influenced flying as few others have – first as an aerial photographer, and later as training manager and chief pilot for Heli Air and the Christophorus emergency helicopters association. Yet it would be a fateful encounter with one Dietrich Mateschitz that would change his life for good. The rest will go down in history. Today, Blacky is a two-time gold medal winner at the Helicopter Freestyle Championships, and a celebrated guest at many air shows despite having retired.

Interview

Blacky, you were one of the first civil helicopter pilots in Austria. How did you get into flying?

SS: I was an aircraft mechanic on the Saab 105 for the Armed Forces, which gave me the chance to extend my professional training in any direction. At some point, the military approved financing for us to train as commercial pilots, subject to the minimum number of hours. This incredibly ambitious flight instructor from the Armed Forces put us in in the cockpit of a Hughes 300, alone, with just seven or eight hours’ flying time behind us. It was in icy cold, snowy conditions, that would be unthinkable today. There weren’t many jobs around at the time, so after that I spent three years driving a taxi in Graz. Eventually I decided to go for it. My licence had expired in Austria, so I took it again in the USA. Then I landed my first job as an aerial photography pilot.

That was not your last job, though?

SS: No. In 1987, I joined Heli Air in Innsbruck. I spent most of my time there flying a Lama, carrying out transport jobs. To this day, I’ve no idea how I did it without a mobile phone. We would leave on Monday and come back on Friday. We had to land near telephone boxes. That was a great job, we could run riot and it was all above board. Later on, the ÖAMTC, which is the Austrian Automobile, Motorcycle and Touring Club, became one of our customers and chartered helicopters from us, including the crews.

You were instrumental in bringing helicopters to the Flying Bulls. How did that happen?

SS: The key personality was Sigi Angerer, who was the chief pilot for fixed wings at Tyrolean Jet Service, myself helicopter chief pilot. Sigi was a good friend of Didi Mateschitz, and the two of them came up with the idea that I could help Didi take his helicopter licence. He was highly delighted because it meant he could go to events by helicopter. The Flying Bulls had no intention of using helicopters, it all happened by chance. For example, we found something about the Cobra in a book and I happened to mention that I’d like to fly something like that. The next day, the boss asked me if I was serious. Another time, an ex-student of mine told me that he had performed a couple of loops in a BO 105 with a certain Rainer Wilke in Germany. I didn’t believe him, but I called him up anyway, and that was the start of the helicopter aerobatics.

How does normal helicopter flying differ from helicopter aerobatics?

SS: The two things are worlds apart. For the first 30 years of my flying career, I flew very gently, moving the controls by millimetres only. When I climbed in with Rainer Wilke, I had to bring my seat forward so that I could press the stick forward as far as it would go. You wouldn’t dare to try that in a ‘normal’ helicopter – you have to force a helicopter to perform aerobatics, and it will resist. You can hear the machine complaining, but it does what you want.

You now fly all of the Flying Bulls helicopters. Are they all unique in their own way?

SS: People are always asking me about my favourite helicopter, but I like them all. A lot depends on your reason for taking to the air. If you are travelling, the EC135 is the best choice. For aerobatics, of course, it has to be the BO 105. It’s like an English sports car that follows the Bavarian purity law – powerful, with not a lot of electronics. If you are looking to impress someone, take the Cobra, and if you want to show someone the beauty of flying, the Bell 47. The Sycamore is as vintage as it gets, with its wooden rotor blades. It’s very difficult to fly.

Blacky, what is the best thing about flying?

SS: The flying itself, of course, but also the whole mystique that surrounds aviation. As a child, I once saw a captain with 20 stewardesses at Vienna Airport. I was entranced, it looked fantastic. Even now, I love taking off in a helicopter. What better job could there be?