As a volunteer command pilot and chief mentor pilot for Angel Flight West (AFW) Colorado Wing for the past five years, Embry-Riddle alumnus Phil Rosnik (’86) has flown numerous children and adults with serious medical conditions across Colorado and its neighboring states on non-emergency flights.
Now, during the coronavirus pandemic, the Denver resident is transporting life-saving medical supplies — including hand sanitizer and surgical masks and gowns — to rural Colorado hospitals in farming and mountain communities.
“The small hospitals in Colorado are running out of equipment,” he says. “Now, ventilators are showing up on the list of what we are going to be transporting.”
On a March 30 flight, Rosnik took off in his Cessna TR182 from Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport to deliver medical supplies to the Wray Community District Hospital. The grateful hospital’s CEO met Rosnik at the airport with his personal pickup truck, which he loaded with the 85 pounds of hand sanitizer and other supplies that Rosnik brought.
“It’s a really great experience — of course you can only do an elbow bump and everybody is wearing a face mask, so it’s a different time,” Rosnik says. “But it’s a nice moment when you know you’re actually making an impact.”
Rosnik’s flight was part of a statewide effort by the Colorado Hospital Association (CHA) to get urgently needed supplies to the state’s rural hospitals.
“Forty-three percent of Colorado’s hospitals are rural,” said CHA Vice President Julie Lonborg in a recent press release. “[This] can present challenges when trying to restock vital supplies quickly. Colorado Hospital Association is incredibly grateful to Angel Flight West and its volunteer pilots for making their service available as we work to provide critical supplies to our rural hospitals.”
Rosnik, who retired after 35 years as a senior executive in aerospace manufacturing, is one of about 1,800 volunteer pilots across Colorado and 11 other western states for AFW, a nonprofit charitable organization.
Also a member of Embry-Riddle’s Prescott Campus Board of Visitors, Rosnik says AFW has allowed him to combine his love of flying with helping others, whether it’s assisting an individual or an entire community.
“It’s just a fantastic way to be useful in a crisis, while using your skills and your aircraft to do something you love to do,” he says.
Editor’s Note: Rosnik earned a B.S. in Aviation Business Administration from Embry-Riddle and an M.S. in International Management from Purdue University. He is a board member for the Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport and president of Swiss Select Property Management Inc.