Prayer One: Behind the scenes with Jeff Puckett and Denver's holiest helicopter

Our latest Westword feature article, "A Wing and a Prayer: Jeff Puckett's Helicopter Gets Denver Closer to God," tells the story of Prayer One, a helicopter ministry started by local businessman Jeff Puckett and his friends five years ago. Now, in this blog post, we bring you the story behind...

By Melanie Asmar

September 7, 2010

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Our latest Westword feature article, "A Wing and a Prayer: Jeff Puckett's Helicopter Gets Denver Closer to God," tells the story of Prayer One, a helicopter ministry started by local businessman Jeff Puckett and his friends five years ago. Now, in this blog post, we bring you the story behind the story -- or at least we bring you a note, a quote, a first-person observation and a ~~scandalous!~~ goofy photo from our flight over Denver that didn't make it into the story.

First, the note:

Puckett has a ton of super cool stuff in his well-appointed office in the swanky X Jet building at the Centennial Airport in Englewood: a big screen TV, funky aviation-themed artwork made by a local artist (one piece is an almost childlike rendering of the first-ever drawing of a "helicopter," by Leonardo da Vinci), a big wooden propeller propped in the corner, and a bobblehead wearing a pilot's headset that looks surprisingly like Puckett.

The quote:

"Don't go behind the helicopter or it'll give you a really bad haircut." -- Jude Del Hierro, Prayer One scheduler and co-founder of Confluence Ministries, issuing a warning about the helicopter's back propeller

The observation:

It's possible to get motion sick on a helicopter. Oh, boy. Yes indeed.

And now, last but not least, that photo!

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Melanie Asmar is a staff writer for Westword. She joined the paper in 2009 and has won awards for her stories about education, immigration and epic legal battles. Got a tip? She'd love to hear it.

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