Welcome to RotorPedia and the history of a website.

In 1996, my three-year-old son, Alec, developed a deep fascination with the Geisinger Life Flight helicopters. Every evening as we drove through town, a visit to the Life Flight hangar became a mandatory part of our routine. Around this same time, the World Wide Web was just beginning to emerge. Inspired to combine my son’s passion with this new technology, I bought a book on web development, took some photos at Geisinger, and launched “Roger and Alec Buck’s Guide to Emergency Helicopters.”

The initial website began simply as a photo gallery featuring about a dozen images of our Danville-based Geisinger Life Flight program. However, just days after launching, we received an email from Dr. Jon Martin in Australia. Dr. Martin shared a photo of a Bell 412 aircraft he had flown on and asked if we would host it for others to see. This single international interaction sparked the core concept behind the expansive website we run today.

Our first website was hosted on ProLog, which provided complimentary server space as part of its internet service subscription. We later transitioned to AOL Pages, where a local newspaper featured our platform as the “Cool Site of the Week.” As the site continued to expand, we migrated to GeoCities, a highly popular web hosting community at the time. However, our rapid traffic growth and expanding content library eventually required a dedicated, independent platform. This led to the official launch of www.alecbuck.com, rebranded as “Alec Buck’s EMS Helicopters.”

As website growth exploded in the early 2000s, our reach expanded to cover the entire United States. Then, just before Labor Day in 2004, a pivotal email arrived from Joseph Phillips, a UH-60 Black Hawk Instructor Pilot with the Eastern Army National Guard at Fort Indiantown Gap.

This message led to an incredible opportunity: Alec and his younger brother, Bryce, received a VIP introduction to a Black Hawk helicopter at the Elysburg All Home Days celebration. That initial exchange laid the foundation for a professional alliance and personal friendship that endures today.

By 2005, when Alec turned 10, the platform had evolved into one of the most visited aviation websites in the world. This success caught the attention of UPMC STAT MedEvac, who invited Alec to attend the 2005 Air Medical Conference in Cincinnati, Ohio. Alec spent three days at the convention, where he was celebrated by the community and signed hundreds of autographed photos for attendees.

The photos below were from the photo shoot a few months prior to the Air Medical Conference. These were taken at the Dubois STAT MedEvac base with aircraft N915ME.

In the early 2000s, just after Keystone Helicopters brought a University MedEvac S76 to Geisinger in Danville for a  demonstration, Alec caught the eye of Daniel Rymond, who was the Business Development Manager for University MedEvac. Daniel, representing the joint air medical program between Hahnemann University Hospital in Philadelphia and Lehigh Valley Hospital (LVH) in Allentown, reached out to compliment Alec on his outstanding website.

That initial message—much like a similar exchange with Joe Phillips—laid the foundation for a professional relationship and personal friendship that continues to this day. As Alec progressed through middle school, visits to LVH MedEvac bases became a regular occurrence. These formative experiences and ongoing relationships ultimately led to myself (Roger) joining the MedEvac team as a Business Development consultant.

The photos below highlight a just one of the visits, this one was a 2009 visit to the MedEvac 4 base in Carbon County. In the photos, left to right. Photo 1 is Alec and Bryce; Photo 2 is Alec in the left front seat of N814LV on a PR flight; Photo 3 is Daniel Rymond (L) and myself (Roger) (R).

By the time Alec entered high school, his career aspirations began to evolve. While his early passion suggested a future piloting aircraft for regional programs like Geisinger Life Flight, LVHN MedEvac, or Penn State Life Lion, his focus shifted toward healthcare finance. He decided to attend Penn State University to major in Finance, famously sharing that instead of flying the helicopters, his goal at the time was to manage the aviation program—or ultimately, run the entire hospital network.

Over time, the platform experienced exponential growth, evolving from a localized directory of hometown medical helicopters into a global resource. The site expanded its coverage across the United States, Canada, Europe, South Africa, and Australia, fueled by a global network of dedicated contributors. Key international partners, including Oscar Bernardi in Italy, regularly provided critical photographic and informational updates for their respective regions, alongside many other contributors in the UK, SA, Europe, and Australia.
 
A turning point arrived when Alec transitioned to college, prompting a strategic evaluation of the website’s future. Rather than decommissioning the platform or transferring ownership, the decision was made to restructure the content into a high-density regional format. To ensure comprehensive coverage—including cross-border medical transports entering Pennsylvania—the final scope was drawn to encompass the Mid-Atlantic and surrounding regions, currently spanning from Maine to Virginia and Ohio.
 

For the past 12 years following our last major restructuring, this website has stayed true to its original scope and vision. However, as Alec continues to advance his career in healthcare finance, we decided it was time to transition away from the childhood domain name, alecbuck.com. To better reflect our mission and the community we serve, we are proud to officially rebrand as RotorPedia.com.

Launched in May 2026, RotorPedia introduces a more industry-relevant identity for the future. We extend our deepest gratitude to everyone who has contributed to making this website an incredible resource for the air medical community over the years. Your kindness to my son, Alec, will always be remembered. The air medical community is truly an amazing group, and I am deeply humbled that we have been able to contribute to it for so long.