April 17, 2023
Media Advisory: Black Hawk helicopter to land on UArizona Mall Tuesday
- What: The Arizona Army National Guard will land a UH-60 Black Hawk on the UArizona Mall as part of a recruiting and public outreach event.
- When: Tuesday, April 18. The helicopter will land at 10:30 a.m. and take off at 3:30 p.m.
- Where: The helicopter will land on the grass at the east end of the Mall, north of McKale Center.
- Media availability: Lt. Col. Tim Woods, the pilot, will be available to speak to media from 10:30-11 a.m., and from noon to 1:30 p.m. Other members of the crew will be available to speak at other times during the visit.
TUCSON, Ariz. – An Arizona Army National Guard crew will land a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter on the University of Arizona Mall on Tuesday morning, and the aircraft will be available to the public for viewing for several hours as part of a recruiting and outreach event.
The 65-foot medivac helicopter will land at 10:30 a.m. on the grass at the east end of the Mall, between the Ina E. Gittings Building and Richard Jefferson Gymnasium, and will be open to the university community and the public to view, take photos and get inside, said Lt. Col. Tim Woods, the helicopter's pilot. The helicopter will take off at 3:30 p.m.
The closest available parking locations to the landing site are Cherry Avenue Garage, South Stadium Garage and curbside parking along East Enke Drive. Due to the wind generated from takeoffs and landings, the University of Arizona Police Department and Parking and Transportation Services will close East University Boulevard between North Cherry Avenue and North Campbell Avenue 20 minutes before landing and takeoff.
Woods said the visit, at the request of UArizona Army ROTC, is part of an officer professional development event, which will also involve a presentation by Woods to students about his 25 years as a Black Hawk pilot in the Arizona Army National Guard.
Woods, a UArizona alumnus, graduated in 2004 with a bachelor's degree in communication with a minor in sociology. Woods entered military service in 1998 and completed two combat tours during Operation Iraqi Freedom between 2005 and 2010, in addition to various peacetime operations.
The UH-60 Black Hawk is the U.S. Army's primary utility helicopter, and weighs about 6 tons, said Woods, who leads a crew of four – typically including a co-pilot, crew chief and medic – during Black Hawk flights.
In advance of the landing on Tuesday, a crew conducted an in-person safety survey at the site on the Mall, noting how large the site is and the recommended takeoff and landing directions. The crew, Woods said, will work to keep the helicopter's approach and departure directly above campus as much as possible to minimize disturbances to surrounding neighborhoods.
Media contacts:
University Communications
520-626-9422
media_requests@list.arizona.edu
Lt. Col. Tim Woods
Arizona Army National Guard
602-501-9597
The University of Arizona, a land-grant university with two independently accredited medical schools, is one of the nation's top 50 public universities, according to U.S. News & World Report. Established in 1885, the university is widely recognized as a student-centric university and has been designated as a Hispanic Serving Institution by the U.S. Department of Education. The university ranked in the top 20 in 2021 in research expenditures among all public universities, according to the National Science Foundation, and is a leading Research 1 institution with $770 million in annual research expenditures. The university advances the frontiers of interdisciplinary scholarship and entrepreneurial partnerships as a member of the Association of American Universities, the 66 leading public and private research universities in the U.S. It benefits the state with an estimated economic impact of $4.1 billion annually. For the latest on the University of Arizona response to the novel coronavirus, visit the university's COVID-19 webpage.