Tag Archives: careers

Helicopter Career Advice Sought…and Provided

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I answer another request for “my insights” submitted via e-mail.

This morning, I got another e-mail message today from someone interested in starting a career as a helicopter pilot. Here’s the content, with identifying information XXXed out:

I ran across an article about you and Flying M Air in this years Az. Highways and thought you might be able to offer some advice when you had some free time (though reading about all of what you do on the job, I’m thinking you don’t have much free time).

I am currently a director for a large multi-national XXX company in XXX doing global IT security operations, as I have done for other fortune 500 companies for the past 8+ years. I foresee another 2-4 years in the industry as I try and setup my exit strategy from corporate America. The deeper I get into the business side of things (finishing my MBA at XXX in May) and coupled with what I already know from doing IT security for large corps, the less I like the idea of spending the next 20 years behind a desk working for a corporation.

I’ve always loved helicopters as far back as I can remember. Tried to get a guaranteed shot at them in the Army but they wanted me to be in the infantry first so I entered the Air Force as an EOD tech (not helo’s but still fun). I did get to partake in several rides in Blackhawks getting air dropped into zones for work and training. Had a blast, even in the back of helo.

You seem to have escaped the corporate trap and entered the world of helicopters so I am hoping you can share some tips/pointers on how to enter the field. My current research and plan has me thinking I go to XXX helicopters to start training in 2010/1 and start to work my way up to get commercial to instructor tickets while working corporate job. Then I am not sure how to make the break from corporate America into aviation. I am really interested in medevac jobs as well as other jobs around XXX (versus long range/extended travel as I have a family based in XXX).

So in an attempt to wrap up what has become a long winded email, any insights, pointers, advice you might be able to share when/if you have some free cycles would be greatly appreciated.

First, I want to say that it was a pleasure to receive an e-mail like this from someone who was actually literate and could explain himself clearly. I suspect this guy can succeed at whatever he puts his mind to.

In formulating a response to him, I realized that although this blog has lots of posts containing my thoughts and opinions and experience on the topic, there isn’t one post that links to all of it. So I composed a response to him that collected the links and offered some additional words of advice. I’m repeating that response here for the benefit of folks looking for the same kind of information. In the future, I’ll simply link to this.

Thanks for writing.

I need to clarify something: I didn’t escape corporate America for a job as a pilot. I escaped for a freelance career as a writer. That’s where I make my money. If I had to depend on flying income and my flying business to cover all helicopter costs AND pay me enough to cover my mortgage and other living expenses, I’d be broke.

I’ve written about helicopter pilot careers extensively in my blog and that’s probably the best place to get my insights. Here are some specific posts to get you started:

And, for a lighter look, check out the video in this post: The Truth about Flying Helicopters

My biggest piece of advice is to NOT sign up for any “program” that takes you through the process of getting your ratings if that program requires an up-front commitment. You’ll understand why if you read the “Broken Promises” link above.

Don’t be lured by promises of a high-paying job as a helicopter pilot. It will likely take at least 5-10 years to quality for such a job and right now, the helicopter pilot job market is absolutely overflowing with low-time pilots competing for the entry level jobs needed to move forward in a career. If an employer has a choice between a 25-year-old career pilot and a 40-year-old on his second career, who do you think he’ll choose? Hint: inexperienced kids are willing to take all kinds of crap from employers because they simply don’t know any better.

Be a pilot because you love to fly — and be prepared to sink a LOT of money into flying before you see any money in return.

On that dismal note, good luck.

One more word of advice: if you want to be a helicopter pilot, subscribe to publications about helicopters, such as Vertical (excellent), Rotor & Wing (so-so but free), and HelNews (Australia-based but excellent). If you’re going to participate in helicopter forums, take every comment with a grain of salt and try to block out the comments by the trolls. I don’t think forums are worth the time, but I have limited time and patience; if you have more, give them a try. Immerse yourself in the helicopter pilot/flying community before making a career decision and spending a lot of money on training.

Two Ways NOT to Ask for a [Pilot] Job

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More real stories from my e-mail in box and blog.

I was away for four days, completely off the grid. Even my cell phone didn’t work where I was. I had a lot of catching up to do when I got home Sunday night. This included my e-mail in box and comments on my blog. Both yielded fodder for this blog post.

The post is really about job hunting and two things you shouldn’t do when trying to find a job as a pilot. In this case, it’s a helicopter pilot job, but it could be any kind of pilot job. In fact, it could be just about any kind of job at all.

Fishing with Comments

The first was a comment on one of my blog posts. The post in question was from June, 2008. That’s over a year ago. I’d written about my upcoming work drying cherries in Washington State. The post had gotten a few comments — over a year ago. But this weekend’s comment came out of the blue and had very little to do with the post content:

Do you hire any pilots of have any pilots that help you out with flying?

Knowing the number of out-of-work helicopter pilots are out there, I automatically jumped to the conclusion that this person was fishing around for job openings. I wasn’t kind to him. (I really can be a bitch sometimes.) My response was:

If this is the extent of your job-hunting capabilities — posting comments on old blog posts — you may as well give up on finding any job. Sorry to be so blunt, but you asked for it.

After posting this snippy response, I considered that maybe he wasn’t looking for a job. Maybe he was just curious to know whether I hired other pilots to help me — but didn’t necessarily want to be one of those pilots.

But my first instinct was probably right.

The One-Paragraph Resume by E-Mail

The second poor job hunting attempt arrived in my Flying M Air e-mail in box. Keep in mind that unless you have my Flying M Air e-mail address, which I no longer publish anywhere, you can only e-mail me by filling in a form on Flying M Air’s Web site. The same page that includes the form also includes my phone number. Yet this person chose to use e-mail to inquire about job openings. Here’s what he wrote; I XXXed out the identifying info to protect this guy from personal ridicule:

Maria Langer/Chief Pilot:

My name is XXX and I am a commercial helicopter pilot. I am inquiring about whether there is an available pilot position within Flying M Air. I have a little over 200 hours total time, which consist of 120 hours in the R-22, R-44 pilot in command endorsement, 70(+)hours in the Hughes 300, and the Robinson safety course in 2008. In addition, I will be receiving my Associates in Applied Science degree-Flight Technology in December 2009. If you have any questions or would like to schedule an interview I can be reached at XXX-XXX-XXXX or emailed at XXX@XXX.com.

This is wrong on so many levels:

  • This guy has only 200 hours. What helicopter charter company would even consider hiring a pilot with barely enough flight time to qualify for a commercial certificate?
  • This guy has only 10 hours of time in the aircraft my company owns and operates: an R44. (Do the math.)
  • How much of this guy’s flight time is solo or other PIC? (Remember, he said total time.) I’m guessing less than 25 hours solo and only 100-125 PIC.
  • Does this guy really think that an AS degree is worth anything to an employer looking for a pilot? (Or, with apologies to those of you who place significant value on a 2-year degree, any employer?)
  • Is this the extent of this guy’s resume?
  • Does this guy really think that an employer would call him for an interview after receiving a paragraph about him via e-mail?

Although I wanted to reply with any combinations of these thoughts that ran through my mind, I didn’t. Instead, I wrote:

Sorry, we don’t have any jobs available at this time.

Good luck.

And that brings up the real problem with this lame attempt at job-hunting: my reply e-mail bounced back. He’d entered the wrong e-mail address in the form.

FAIL.

Think of What You’re Asking For

When you ask for job, you’re asking for a responsibility.

For a pilot job, you’re responsible for your employer’s paying passengers or cargo. That means other lives or possibly valuable merchandise. Do you honestly think someone would consider hiring you when the best you can do is fish for a job online via blog comments or e-mail? When the ink is barely dry on your commercial pilot certificate? When you can’t even type in the correct e-mail address to get a response from the person you’re querying?

The helicopter job market is tight — especially for low-time pilots. The economy has tourism down — and tourism jobs are the entry level jobs most pilots wind up with. The other jobs are being filled by the out-of-work tour pilots who have just enough turbine time to give them added value to an employer. Silver State and the copycat flight schools that still exist are pumping out helicopter pilots after feeding them healthy doses of optimism and lies about the job market and taking their money — much of it acquired through loans.

The truth is, I don’t know of any employer who will hire a pilot with fewer than 500 hours of flight time. If they say they will, read the fine print. Are they really hiring and paying as a pilot? Or is it just a scam for them to get free pilots while suckers build flight time?

I get at least one contact per week from a helicopter pilot looking for a job. I’m not hiring. But I know that I wouldn’t hire the vast majority of the folks who contact me. They just don’t understand what it is that employers want and what they’re asking us to give them.

“I Want to Fly”

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E-mail from a reader.

I get the occasional e-mail from readers who evidently think I can perform miracles for them — or perhaps take them by the hand and lead them to the life they dream about. Like this one, which I got today:

I’m 35 no wife or kids and no ties to anything or anyone and want to learn top fly I can get the money to go to a school I just want to change careers and I have learned to live on 35k a year no matter how much income I dont mind being away from home for 14-28 days as long as there is hot showers and the internet please get back to me as I would like to find out more directly from you as to what I should be doing I have looked around for schools and filled out my FAFSA for aid

To the person who wrote this — who I won’t embarrass by mentioning any names — what the hell do you expect me to do for you?

If you’re incapable of doing your own research to find a flight school in your area, you’re likely incapable of learning to fly or getting a job as a pilot, too. Stop whining and begging for help from strangers. You’re 35 years old! Get your fucking act together and make your future happen.

And for chrissake, if you’re going to contact people by e-mail, learn how to punctuate!

Sorry, folks, but this is the end of a long week for me, I have a splitting headache, and I’m spending the night at a Super 8 Motel inhabited by loud drug addicts. Whatever patience I usually have for e-mail crap like what’s quoted above is long gone.

Real Pilot Experience

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Not all flying hours are equal.

A fellow helicopter pilot and I often debate the merits of the current system of pilot experience building.

In the U.S., a pilot generally gets his (or her) private, commercial, and CFI ratings, often picking up an instrument rating along the way. He then spends the next 500 to 1000 hours as a flight instructor, teaching other people how to fly under the close supervision of a chief flight instructor. With the golden number of hours — 1,000, for most helicopter pilot jobs — logged, the pilot goes on to an entry level position in a company where he’s closely supervised by a chief pilot who calls all the shots. Through the logging of time in various aircraft, the pilot works his way up to better-paying, more challenging jobs.

Parked in an Orchard
My helicopter, parked beside a pond in an orchard, waiting for rain during cherry season.

My friend and I didn’t follow this typical career path. Instead, we learned to fly, bought our own helicopters, and started our own flying businesses, learning through more varied experiences in a much shorter time. We both worked closely with the FAA to get our Part 135 certificates and pass annual check rides and inspections. And we generally agree that the hours we’ve logged are “worth” more than those logged by a typical pilot on the typical career path.

Now I know that the mere idea that all logged hours are not the same will bother a bunch of readers who are pilots on that typical career path. So I’ve decided to provide a comparative list of experiences based on real-life pilots so you can objectively consider my argument.

I recently had the opportunity to fly with two relatively new helicopter pilots. And a year ago, I flew with another one. I spent more than 14 hours of flight time with all three of them. Here’s how their experience stacks up against mine.

ThemMe
All three of these guys had private, commercial, and certified flight instructor (CFI) endorsements. At least one also had an instrument rating and a CFII rating.I only went through Private and Commercial helicopter training. I never became a CFI and although I started work on an instrument rating back in the beginning of 2008, I haven’t finished it.
All three of these guys had right around 300 hours of flight time. The vast majority of that time was in Robinson R22 helicopters — although I think one of them might have had most of his training in Robinson R44s because of his size. (He wasn’t fat, but he was very tall and with height comes weight.) Virtually all of their flight time was built with a CFI in the seat beside them, flying within 50 miles of the airport where they learned to fly.I have about 2,100 hours of flight time these days, built in Robinson R22, Robinson R44, and Bell 206L helicopters, with a tiny bit of stick time in a Hughes 500 and a Bell 47. I’ve flown in nine states, including Arizona, New Mexico, California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Oregon, Washington, and Idaho. I’ve flown over deserts, mountains, lakes, forests, canyons, and coastlines.
All three of these guys built their flight time in basic and more advanced training. That’s 300 hours of hovering, flying traffic patterns, practicing autorotations, and performing other textbook maneuvers to textbook standards. They flew mostly during the day in good weather, at or near sea level. When (or if) these guys get jobs as CFIs, they’ll build their next 700 hours of flight time sitting in a seat beside a variety of student pilots, handing the controls only until the student can perform basic maneuvers without assistance. Then they’ll keep the student pilot out of trouble by being ready to get on the controls while daydreaming about their next flying job — the one that might actually pay them enough money that they can afford to pay their rent.I built my flight time with about 200 hours of basic and advanced training followed by an enormous amount of cross-country flying — including far more solo flight time than the average pilot — and flights for hire. The for-hire flights include short rides, sightseeing tours, photo flights, aerial survey flights, video flights, air-taxi flights, wildlife survey flights, cattle spotting, and cherry drying. I’ve flown in perfectly clear daytime weather, under (and over) low clouds, around thunderstorms, through rain showers, and into the complete darkness of a remote desert night. I’ve landed on and off airports, from sea level to over 10,000 feet density altitude.
These guys have always flown under the close supervision of a CFI or chief flight instructor, following the rules laid down by their flight schools. Decision-making was likely limited to go/no go decisions that were likely based on conservative guidelines; in other words, if there’s a real go/no go decision to make, don’t go.About 1/4 of my flight time was flown under the close supervision of a CFI, chief flight instructor, or chief pilot. The rest of it was flown under my own supervision. I made all the decisions that needed making, from how much fuel to load and where to seat the passengers to what route to take and where to stop for fuel to how to find my way around the unforecasted thunderstorm in my path. And go/no go, of course.
All three of these guys are qualified to teach student pilots how to fly helicopters.I’m not.

What bothers me most is that limited experienced pilots are the ones teaching people how to fly. Then, after logging hour after hour of doing the same thing in the same basic conditions, they’re more qualified for a job than someone else with “better” experience but fewer hours.

Is there something wrong with this situation?

I’m not complaining about not being able to teach. I don’t want to. I like life far too much to put it into the hands of someone who doesn’t know how to fly. I just question the wisdom of using our least experienced certificated pilots to teach non-pilots how to fly.

Spraying with a Helicopter
An experienced agriculture pilot sprays wax on Apple trees from a JetRanger in Washington state.

When I was an 800-hour pilot, it bothered me that a typical 1,000-hour pilot on the typical career path was considered more experienced than I was. I was willing to prove that I was an as good — if not better — pilot than he was, but no one wanted to give me the opportunity. Sure, he can do autorotations better than I could — after all, he’d been doing them every day for much of his 1,000 hours of flight time. But how was he on off-airport landings? Planning cross-country flights? Landing at unfamiliar airports? Flying around or under or through weather? Managing power with a full load of full-sized passengers at high density altitude? Simply feeling the aircraft as an extension of his body that gave him the ability to fly?

That’s water under the bridge now. I’ve built my time and now qualify for a wide range of jobs. And if I get my CFI — which I expect to this winter — I could probably be a pretty good flight instructor.

But for now, I’ll just continue on my own career path. It may not be typical, but it’s challenging. And every flight offers the possibility of a real learning experience.

Diving Back In

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I get to work on my second book revision of the summer.

One of the drawbacks of being a freelancer is that you spend part of your time lining up work but have very little control over when that work needs to get done. As a result, your life can be a mixture of large blocks of time off with large blocks of time working your butt off.

This summer is a perfect storm of work. Not only did I manage to get nine weeks of contracted cherry drying work in Central Washington State, but three of my books came up for revision at almost the same time.

Fortunately, cherry drying is mostly a waiting game. Although I’d like to see more rain (and, hence, more work) in the area, the waiting time can be easily turned into working time for my book projects. Once I get motivated, that is.

I spent much of July working on the biggest of those three projects and got it off my plate right after starting my last contract of the season. When it was over, I was burned out. I couldn’t start the next project until I had beta software to write about anyway, so I took five days off.

Then the software came and I took another five days off.

I am a procrastination expert. I can find anything to do other than work when there’s work to do. Yesterday, I even paid my bills — that’s something I usually put off doing. You know you’re grasping when you start using the things you don’t want to do as procrastination tools.

But today, I get back to work.

Writer's Keyboard One of the tools of my trade.

While I’m not at liberty to discuss the software I’m writing about, I can say that the software revisions should make the project a bit more difficult than a straightforward revision. I’m expecting about a 25% change in the content of my book. I’m not doing layout, which is a good thing. But I do have to come up with plenty of fresh examples and hope I can get all features working properly in my limited setup here at the motel.

So I’m diving back in today and will keep myself productive by turning off Twitter and my e-mail client and my Web browser. I’ll set achievable goals for each day’s work and knock off chapters, one after the other. The book has 23 chapters. I’m here for the next 10 days. Two or three chapters a day and I’ll have the book done before I leave.

I probably won’t be blogging much while I’m on this crazed schedule. I’ve found that if I blog in the morning, it sucks away some of my best working time. (I’m a morning person.) And by afternoon, I’m too burned out from the day’s work to write any more. But we’ll see. This revision might just go better than I expect.