Vinnie is a character who makes a one-time appearance in the Season 1 episode titled One Way Express.
Biography[]
Vinnie is a stunt pilot employed by film director Simon Sayes for a difficult film stunt involving landing of a chopper on the top of a moving truck. He doesn't do it successfully and crashes the chopper and tells Sayes that it cannot be done. Watching nearby, Philip Maurice tells Sayes he wants a better pilot. Sayes tells Maurice that Vinnie is one of the best in the industry but Maurice wants the best.
Of course, what Maurice and Sayes are actually planning is an elaborate scheme to rob a gold truck. The film stunt is merely a cover. Maurice and Sayes contract Dominic and later Hawke to fly the stunt without revealing its true purpose. The day for the stunt arrives and Hawke flies Sayes and a group of men dressed in camouflaged fatigues including Maurice, Miller and Vinnie to the supposed scene of the stunt which Hawke supposes to be a train.
In the air, Maurice draws a gun and holds Hawke at gunpoint and forces him to divert and land on a truck carrying gold. Once the chopper has landed, Hawke, knowing he might be killed, seizes the opportunity to jump off the chopper. Vinnie moves up to the controls to take over and the rest of the gang gets on with the hijacking, cutting open the roof of the truck with a blow torch and passing up bars of gold. The greedy Maurice now asks Vinnie how much Sayes and Miller weigh. Vinnie tells him it would be about eight to ten bars of gold. Maurice wants those extra bars so he loads up and orders Vinnie to lift off, abandoning Sayes and Miller.
Hawke had, of course, been alerted to the background of Philip Maurice by Archangel and knew that the film stunt was a cover for something sinister. So he had arranged for Dominic to follow and pick him up in Airwolf. They tear off in pursuit of Vinnie's chopper. Overtaking it, Hawke buzzes Vinnie with a couple of near collisions. Vinnie decides he has had enough and lands somewhere in the desert. Vinnie and Maurice try to run away but Hawke uses his machine guns to force them to stay put. Hawke then blows up their chopper with a rocket and calls for Archangel to pick them up.
Vinnie in camouflaged fatigues for the robbery.
Portrayed By[]
Vinnie is played by David Cadiente.[1] He also has an uncredited appearance as a "heavy" working for Jason Darius in Season 2's Sins of The Past (episode).