Pioneer 3TV helicopter reporter’s final flight around the Phoenix sky

King of the wild blue sky Jerry Foster has been enjoying retirement. Currently, he's a hospice patient and wants to take to the skies one more time.
Published: Jan. 26, 2023 at 3:41 PM MST

SCOTTSDALE, AZ (3TV/CBS 5) — For residents who lived through or grown up in the Valley since the 1970s, Jerry Foster should be a familiar name. Though he wasn’t the first helicopter reporter for a television station — that goes to John D. Silva flying for Los Angeles station KTLA in 1958 — Foster was the helicopter reporter who inspired other news stations nationwide to have their own in-the-sky coverage.

The retired pilot is currently a hospice patient and one of his wishes was to fly around the valley once again. Hospice of the Valley worked with a friend of his to make that wish come true for him, and Arizona’s Family was with Jerry out in Scottsdale before he took to the skies.