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Angel City Air has established itself as an industry leader through the commitment, experience and competitive nature of its leadership. With President Larry Welk in command, Angel City Air management can meet your every need with creative methods to streamline your aerial operation.
Larry Welk - President
In 1996, Larry became chief pilot and reporter for KCAL Television news, a position he still holds to this day and has expanded as KCAL became a sister station of KCBS Television in LA. In 1998, Larry started his own company, Angel City Air, Inc. to facilitate purchasing his own helicopter to lease to the stations. Currently, Angel City Air leases Chopper 2 and Sky 9 to KCBS/KCAL as well as working on various freelance production jobs. His vast knowledge and skill, particularly over breaking-news events such as fires, natural disasters and car chases, as well as his years of experience in the Southern California aviation community, have earned him a reputation as a leader in the aerial ENG field. Larry has received many awards for his outstanding service, including two Emmy nominations, one Emmy award, a national Sports Emmy award, accolades from the National Broadcast Pilots Association, the Greater Los Angeles Press Club and many other media and aviation organizations.
Aldo Bentivegna - Chief Pilot/General Manager
Aldo was born and raised in Los Angeles. After completing his BA degree at California State University, Long Beach, he began his flight training. In 1990, Aldo obtained his Commercial and Instructor ratings. After several years of experience, he became Chief Pilot and Company Flight Instructor for several companies in the Los Angeles area. With over 8000 hours of flight time, his experience includes utility flying, production, radio and TV new gathering; as well as private and charter flying. Aldo has flown for Angel City Air since 2003. Along with his piloting duties, Aldo is the Operations Manager for Angel City Air.
Joyce Hinton - Accounting
Joyce brings over twenty years of office management experience to Angel City Air. For ten of those years, she was the controller to five interdependent companies based in Burbank providing supporting services. They included a production company for Honda and Toyota corporate training videos, a family entertainment production company producing for Animal Planet and others, commercial spots for Toyota Motor Sports, a distributor of ancillary products for the race crowds and a post facility serving numerous post production clients. Prior to her working in this area, she traveled and worked with a company that installed automatic assembly lines for factories in the US and mainland China. She has a degree from Ohio State University and a MA from California State University Northridge.
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Larry Welk
He's the successful President of Angel City Air, the popular Pilot/Reporter for CBS 2 and KCAL 9 News and the Grandson of the famous Bandleader, Lawrence Welk. But it's the little known trivia of Larry Welk's career that makes him stand out from his peers.
Larry started out in news, not as a pilot, but as a cameraman, convincing a local Los Angeles Pilot/Reporter to give him a shot at aerial photography - a position that allowed him to fly helicopters between news stories.
Larry is a hero, while covering a breaking news story in 1992 of a man caught in the torrents of the Los Angeles River; Larry leapt from his camera position in the news helicopter into the raging river and rescued the doomed victim.
Larry was on scene for the 1992 Los Angeles riots spawned by the Rodney King beating incident.
In 1994, when the earth shook in Northridge, CA, Larry broke the news from above of the devastating destruction to the city. Later that year, Larry was over the infamous OJ Simpson "White Bronco" slow-speed police chase that ushered in the era of police pursuit coverage.
In 2001, while covering the Academy Awards in Hollywood, Larry broke away from his duty to aid a fellow pilot with her crippled helicopter fly back to Van Nuys Airport - the helicopter crashed on a taxiway and Larry and his cameraman rescued the injured pilot and cameraman from the wreckage.
In 2003, Larry flew his "Sky 9" helicopter for the motion picture SWAT - in an early scene, Sky 9 can be seen hovering over a bank hold-up.
Larry Welk's notoriety as an industry icon has spread to other countries. From news articles to documentaries, foreign journalists from around the world turn to Angel City Air for the expertise and years of experience Larry offers. It's safe to say, there's nothing trivial about the amazing career of Larry Welk.
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