� By Tommi R. Gatlin - Daily World Writer Central Park resident Paul Bryant, son of the late Dr. Howard Bryant, died early Friday when the helicopter he was piloting in a logging operation crashed in some trees just south of Clark Fork, Idaho.

Bryant, 44, who had worked for Northwest Helicopters of Olympia "on and off since 1990," according to the company's president, Brian Reynolds, was flying logs out of a site on private property in a mountainous area of Idaho's panhandle.

The Huey helicopter Bryant was flying by himself plunged into some trees shortly after 5 a.m. and broke apart. He died instantly, Reynolds said this morning.

Bryant had been in the air about 15 minutes, Reynolds said. "Preliminary information is the aircraft had some kind of tail rotor failure," Reynolds said, adding that the aircraft are checked out daily by a mechanic. "This is the first time in our 20 - year history we've had this happen."

Apparently, it was "some kind of internal part ... that failed," Reynolds said.

"Everything's been recovered and put in a salvage area, a controlled yard."

Bryant was piloting the rugged Huey to lift freshly cut logs to a landing site about 1,000 feet away, Reynolds said. The company had been working in the area for two or three weeks, said Reynolds, who called Bryant "a great pilot, probably one of the best I've ever seen."

Bryant, who had been in radio contact with the ground earlier in the flight, did not indicate he was having trouble, Reynolds said, adding that the copter did not carry a "black box," such as those aboard airliners.

Sgt. Bob Howard of the Bonner County Sheriff's Department also said he was not aware of a voice recording that could be recovered.

The Federal Aviation Association and the National Transportation Safety Board "were there that afternoon," Howard said, and likely would be following up on the initial report.

Reynolds characterized Bryant as "a great person, always having fun, always enjoying life."

Bryant was working "two weeks on and two weeks off over there, and he just went back last Sunday," said Dick Rasmussen of Hoquiam, who also works for Helicopters Northwest and called Bryant his best friend.

"He got me the job here about a year ago," said Rasmussen, a fueler and truck driver for the company.

Rasmussen said he'd met Bryant in the 1970s when they both drove log trucks for Fred Moe. "Before that, he'd worked for Hoquiam Plywood," Rasmussen said. "A lot of people over there knew him."

Rasmussen described Bryant as "an awesome person. He'd help anybody who needed help; he was there for you anyway he could be.

"He would call me once a week with the joke of the week," his friend said. "He was a funny guy. He was a character."

Bryant, whose mother Lily lives in Hoquiam, also has a brother and two sisters on the Harbor, in addition to a son, Kyle, in Montesano. He "really, really stayed involved with his family," Rasmussen said.

He recently took a trip to California with his mother, and brother and his sister - in - law, Scott and Diane Bryant of Aberdeen. While Bryant's mom visited friends, the others went to Disneyland, Rasmussen said.

"He was just a beautiful person, inside and out," Diane Bryant said this morning.

"He was the kind of person (who) could walk in a room and just instantly light it up," she said, her voice full of tears. Bryant was "the kind of person if you needed something, he'd give you the shirt off his back."

Bryant was born in Aberdeen and grew up in Hoquiam.

"He really loved helicopters," Rasmussen said. He also enjoyed skydiving, an activity he did "regularly out of Toledo," his friend said.

Bryant "started flying fixed wing aircraft when he was about 16," Rasmussen said. "He always hung around airports, always wanted to fly helicopters."

He became a licensed helicopter pilot in the mid - 1980s, Rasmussen said, "and he's been flying helicopters ever since."

He is also survived by two sisters, Carol Rockwell of Montesano and Linda Cozad of Hoquiam, and a grandson. His father, a longtime Hoquiam family practice physician, died in 1996.

Arrangements are pending through the Coleman Mortuary in Hoquiam.