Any kid who watched TV in the 1980s remembers Magnum P.I and, more specifically, the striking Hughes 500 that dominated so much of the show’s screen time. Older now and arguably wiser, we know that there were several helicopters that appeared during the show’s long run and many stories to go with them. Charles Verax does the walk down memory lane.

Oh the 80’s

The fantastic decade that was the 1980s gave us a lot of helicopter-centric movies and TV shows, with awesome cinematography and spectacular aerial sequences. These films include ‘Deadly Encounter’, ‘Blue Thunder’, ‘Magnum P. I.’, ‘The A-Team’, ‘Riptide’ and my personal favorite, ‘Airwolf’. As a kid I rarely got to watch Magnum P. I. but when I did, I tuned in to see Roger Mosely’s character, Theodore Calvin or ‘T. C.’, flying his awesome looking Hughes 500D (369D) painted in the D4 bands scheme. A lot of today’s pilots who grew up in the 1980s were inspired to become helicopter pilots because of T. C.'s character. Mr. Mosely liked his character’s role so much that he took flying lessons and did actually obtain his private helicopter license.

Magnum P.I.

‘Magnum, P. I.’ premiered on 11 December 1980, created by Donald P. Bellisario and Glen A. Larson. Bellisario was a Marine veteran with an obvious affinity for helicopters as they played a key role in some of his most popular TV series. During his time as executive producer of the TV series ‘Airwolf’, Bellisario bought a Bell 206L LongRanger and trained with his aerial coordinator, legendary Hollywood stunt pilot and fellow Marine J. David Jones to earn his private helicopter certificate.

The Magnum P. I. backstory revealed in season four, episode twenty – ‘Dream a Little Dream’ – that T. C.'s first job after Vietnam was flying the Hughes 500C N9267F for Ken Enderlin Charters, whose cheesy tagline was ‘We'll fly you to the End-erlin of the rainbow’, along with a big rainbow. T. C. saved for a long time until he could buy his own Hughes 500 to open his own helicopter charter service, which he named ‘Island Hoppers’. Today, N9267F - the supposed Ken Enderlin machine - is still looking good and flying in Hilo, Hawaii, operated by David Okita at Volcano Helicopters on search and rescue, law enforcement and work for the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).

The D4 diagonal bands color scheme was a very popular factory paint job from Hughes Helicopters in the late 1970s and early ’80s, available in a wide range of color combinations. The writers of the show, however, took poetic license by saying that T. C. had his ‘chopper’ and Volkswagen Vanagon custom painted with orange, yellow and brown diagonal bands to replicate a rainbow and thus pay homage to the rainbow theme of Enderlin’s company. This is also why T. C. often wore rainbow-colored suspenders.

Over the course of Magnum P. I.’s eight seasons, four different flying Hughes 500s depicted T. C.’s iconic ‘chopper’, three 500Ds and one peel-painted 500C. There was also one non-flying replica at the Diamond Head Studios soundstage. This replica consisted of the forward fuselage section of a decommissioned 500, mounted on a wheeled wooden cart. This enabled the producers of the show to safely film the actors in the static helicopter’s cockpit on the ground and then edit in stock footage of flying sequences without having to fly the helicopter, helping cut production costs for many episodes. Throughout the series’ eight-year run they utilized a mix of stock flying footage of N58243, N1095A and the 500C, even after N4943T took over at the beginning of season seven, so there is no rhyme or reason to the helicopters seen during the show’s run. The producers even utilized crashed airframes to depict T. C.’s machine when it crashed onto the jungle floor in one episode and was depicted on the bottom of the ocean in another.

To add drama and adventure to the flying sequences, T. C.'s helicopter was typically flown very low over the ocean and near rock walls, with crashing waves exploding into the air in the background. The cinematographer would sometimes film at a slower frame rate so that when played back at normal speed, the helicopter appeared to be flying much faster than it actually was, adding to the excitement of the scenes. The main pilots for Magnum P.I. were Robert Sanders, Marc Wolff, Steve Kux (aerial coordinator), Peter McKernan Sr. and J. David Jones.
 

Nearly Didn’t Happen

N58243 (C/N 1080349D) – the first helicopter to depict T. C.'s original ‘chopper’ – was to my eyes the best looking because it had extended, high-clearance skids equipped with emergency pop out floats on top, giving it a taller, more rugged look. Unfortunately, this helicopter only survived through the filming of six episodes. On 19 November 1980, tragedy struck while filming the sixth episode titled ‘Skin Deep’ when N58243, piloted by Vietnam veteran Robert Sanders, was hit by a large wave during a low flying sequence and it violently crashed into the ocean. Sanders survived the accident with serious injuries, but cameraman Robert Van Der Kar was sitting in the right front seat as a stand in for Tom Selleck and wasn’t wearing his seatbelt. He was ejected up into the spinning rotor blades and killed instantly. Despite the loss of N58243 during the first season, stock footage of this machine appeared in random episodes throughout the series’ eight seasons, and it also appeared in every opening theme song sequence for the show’s entire run.

Bellisario and crew were devastated by the crash that claimed the life of 34-year-old Van Der Kar and they feared that CBS would cancel the show before it could premiere, with such a horrific accident happening so early into the production of a brand-new series. Fortunately, it was decided that the show would continue but that left the problem of quickly finding a Hughes 500 with the unique D4 bands paint job. Hollywood utilizes a specialized paint known as peel-paint, that can be sprayed onto a vehicle or aircraft to temporarily change its paint job. After filming is completed, the peel-paint can be peeled and easily washed off without damaging the original paint job, so the interim solution was to temporarily peel-paint a local 500C in the familiar D4 bands pattern to impersonate the original machine. It was even given the fake registration ‘N58243’ of the crashed bird.

This C-model was utilized to complete the filming of the ‘Skin Deep’ episode and also appeared two episodes later in ‘The Ugliest Dog in Hawaii’. T. C.’s ‘chopper’ was then noticeable absent for the next three episodes until the D-model N1095A (C/N 500701D) made its first appearance in episode twelve, titled ‘Thicker Than Blood’. California-based Jetcopters Inc. contracted with Universal Studios to make N1095A the permanent replacement ‘chopper’ for the next six seasons. N1095A ended up being the most prolifically used MD500D on the show, appearing from season one, episode twelve, until the end of season six. This contract ended in 1986, however, so with N1095A gone, T. C.’s character needed a new ‘chopper’. The studio reached out to Greg Mattson at Cherry Helicopters on Oahu, in the hopes of finding a replacement for seasons seven and eight. Although Mattson didn’t have any 500D’s in the D4 bands pattern, he did have a really nice white example, N4943T (C/N 1190614D).

 

Cherry Helicopters’ mechanic worked relentlessly outside on the ramp to prep and paint N4943T and within a couple of days it was an accurately painted replica of T. C.’s ‘chopper’. The fresh paint had barely dried by the time filming began and from season seven on, N4943T became T.C.’s helicopter for the remainder of the TV series. N4943T differed slightly in appearance from the original two aircraft. Its registration number was on the tail boom in large white lettering, instead of the upper cowling with smaller lettering and its rear door windows' sliding vents were still painted white due to the rushed paint job. 

Another One

Just under two weeks after the Magnum P. I. show ended, tragedy very nearly struck again. On Friday 13 May 1988, former Magnum stunt pilot Steve ‘Injun’ Kux was flying N4943T on utility work for Hawaiian Electric Company, in Waialua in the center of the Island of Oahu. 41-year-old Kux was another former Marine pilot, who had also worked for the Honolulu Fire Department and was the operations director for Cherry Helicopters. During the job, Kux reported over the radio to the ground crew that he had a runaway trim servo on his cyclic and that he needed to return to the staging area to make a precautionary landing. As his skids were about to touch the ground the helicopter suddenly lunged into the air in a hard-left bank and crashed violently into a drainage ditch on its left side, seriously injuring Kux, who was trapped, unconscious under about three feet of water.

The nearby electric company workers rushed over to rescue Kux from the wreckage. However, Kux's left arm was stuck and his feet were tangled in the pedals. Amazingly, Vietnam Veteran Warren ‘Tiny’ Amaral found sufficient adrenaline-fueled strength to rock and lift the helicopter enough for his co-workers to free Kux's arm and feet, extricating him in time to save his life. Amaral's heroic actions and amazing strength undeniably saved Kux’s life that day but his left arm was so severely injured that he was never able to return to flying helicopters. As Kux was recovering from his injuries, his buddies jokingly gave him a hard time, pointing out that even though he was literally in the middle of the island, as far away from the ocean and any rivers as possible, he still somehow managed to end up under water when he crashed.

Homage

Although Cherry Helicopters later brought C/N 400694D – a rebuilt MD500D – back into service and recycled the N4943T registration number from the crashed bird, this helicopter did not do any flying on Magnum P.I, which had already been cancelled by that time. In 2012, to pay homage to the show, Paradise Helicopters in Hawaii teamed up with Phoenix Heliparts in Arizona, to refurbish N5000N (C/N 410934D), a retired Honolulu Police Helicopter, as an exact replica of T. C.’s ‘chopper’ including the original N58243 registration. The new N58243 was proudly displayed at the HAI Expo in 2013, with Larry Manetti (Rick) and Roger E. Mosley (T.C.) at the event greeting fans and signing autographs. Roger Mosely autographed the nose of the helicopter. Manetti and Mosley also attended the June 3, 2013 meet-and-greet event at Turtle Bay Resort, where the new ‘chopper’ was proudly displayed alongside a red Ferrari 308 GTS, to greet fans & sign autographs. Mosely even got to fly the new ‘chopper’ from the right seat, with Ned Dawson taking aerial photos from another helicopter. Today, this beautiful new ‘chopper’ replica flies tours out of Turtle Bay, in O’ahu.

 
Survivor

Although two of the original Magnum P. I. helicopters were lost to crashes, N1095A is still flying today. In December 2022, Chesapeake Bay Helicopters in Virginia bought a used MD500D from Air 2, registered as N717MA. It was just a regular looking D-model in Air 2's classic green on white paint job, but rumors circulated that it had been used on Magnum P. I. Chesapeake pilot Andy ‘Chum’ Harmala read about the history of the Magnum P. I. helicopters on Quora and was elated when he discovered that N717MA was in fact originally N1095A, the sole surviving helicopter from the popular TV series.

During the summer of 2023, Chesapeake Bay Helicopters was planning to send N716CB off to be repainted with their company colors. When Harmala informed his bosses that their newly acquired MD500D was in fact T. C.’s ‘chopper’ from Magnum P. I, it did not take much lobbying to convince them to paint it in the classic D4 diagonal bands pattern, in their company colors of grey, blue and black. N1095A has had a multitude of different owners and a storied life over the 38 years since it last appeared onscreen on 10 April 1986. It is likely that some of her owners likely had no idea that they were flying T.C.’s iconic ‘chopper’. Its registration has been changed seven times since leaving its television career, from N1095A to N31AS, N700DG, N3TJ, N3NT, N503SH, N717MA and N716CB.

 

It is gratifying that Chesapeake Bay Helicopters not only know of N1095A’s famous Magnum P. I. heritage, but that they also went the extra mile to pay homage to its famous onscreen persona with its new D4 bands paint job. If N1095A (N716CB) is ever retired, I think that this famous aircraft deserves to be painted in its original orange, yellow and brown livery and put in a helicopter museum.


While T. C.’s story in Magnum, P.I. was fictitious, his character’s struggles and willingness to follow his dream has served to inspire an entire generation of helicopter pilots. Sadly, Roger Mosely passed away at the age of 83 in August 2022, after suffering injuries from a car crash. I think that if he was still with us today that he would be very happy to see that part of his Island Hoppers legacy continues to this day, with N1095A flying strong and looking good as N716CB. Fly safe. Mahalo!

 

In memory of Roger E. Mosely & Robert Van Der Kar.

SUMMARY: There were a total of three different Hughes 500D helicopters & one 500C that depicted T.C.’s helicopter, during Magnum P.I.’s eight seasons. 

 

Hughes 500D - N58243 (C/N 1080349D) - S1 (6 episodes) 


Hughes 500D - N1095A (C/N 500701D) - S1, S2, S3, S4, S5, S6 


Hughes 500D - N4943T (C/N 1190614D) - S7, S8 


Hughes 500C - Unknown - Peel painted in D4 diagonal bands, with fake 'N58243' registration number (possibly owned by Menehune Helicopters or Maui Helicopters.)


N9267F 500C (369HS) (C/N 1150778S) - S4 depicted T. C.'s helicopter at Ken Enderlin Charters in “Dream a Little Dream” (S4, episode 20) & it appeared in one other episode “Missing Melody” (S7, episode 11).