If you want it bad enough....

The view of Manhattan from the Empire State Building, kicking around downtown after my AW139 check ride, caught some museums, centre orchestra front row seats for Phantom of the Opera with scalped tickets (at less than 1/4 full price), some cool jazz (Arturo O'Farrill & The Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra)....

I recently received an email from a blog reader (thank you by the way); should I invest the massive amount of cash required for a helicopter pilot's licence for a career of flying helicopters?  Is it worth the risk?  In my case, most definitely, but for anyone else?   It's obviously not overly difficult as you need only to kick over a rock to find a leather jacket and Ray-Ban wearing helicopter pilot, but it's not an easy ride.  My best advice is if you really, really, really want it, go for it.  I think attitude, work ethic and dedication is the key.

You might get lucky once you've figured out how to pay for the licence, slip right into the perfect job and start racking up the hours, but be prepared to put up with a great deal of crap, possibly for quite a few years, before becoming "established".  Generally getting those first one thousand hours of helicopter flying under your belt is the trick, as that's when most company's insurance brokers will let you fly their helicopters.  But that first job is the struggle.  Sure you could take the military route, as over half the guys I fly with are ex-military pilots from all over the place; Canadian, American, British, French, Irish, German, Italian, Spanish, etc. and I doubt you'll get better training or experience anywhere, but I took the commercial bush pilot route, so the only advice I could give would be how to break into the civi market.

I was only eighteen and was quite content to sleep in my folk's old Ford Escort and wash up in gas station washrooms as I travelled around the North looking for that first job.  Nobody wanted a one hundred hour pilot, but one guy did need some drywall done, and of course I said I was a pro.  I wasn't.  I had to go to the local library and read up on what was involved.  I washed and waxed the owner's ATVs when he got back from long trips in the bush with his family, I pumped and hauled fuel and parts all over the Canadian North chasing crews that needed whatever they needed.  I gave everything and didn't complain, and when they needed an old Bell 47 ferried back to base, there I was.  Those ferry trips became more common, and short charters were sometimes passed along to me if the customer wasn't overly important.  One thing led to another and I think my lack of complaining and putting up with most anything with a smile on my face saw me score job after job and actually getting some customers to request me.  I replaced one arrogant fellow who took some leave on a very large contract.  He was known to wear his flight suit, scarf (no kidding) and sunglasses to the bars in town on the weekends, and his strut just pissed off everyone.   His erratic cowboy flying didn't win many fans amongst guys just trying to get to work, some who really hated flying.  This was Northern Quebec and I barely spoke the language (French) at the time but damn if I wasn't trying.  I was just being me but they liked me, despite my lack of experience.  They didn't want the other guy back and I ended up getting his spot on a very high flying contract.  I went for every flight I could get my hands on.  Lucky?  Perhaps.  I soon had one thousand hours of flying helicopters, and I wasn't even twenty yet......

My buddy Joe, one of my best friends, just broke five thousand hours.  He was in his late thirties, established in another industry with a wife, two kids and a mortgage, taking a HUGE financial risk, when he elected to start training to be a helicopter pilot, but he stuck to it.  He's touring in the Philippines now on AW139s.  He made it happen.
If you want it bad enough, go for it.