Found a company looking for ground crew, so I pestered the crew boss for a month straight till he hired me so I'd leave him alone.
Spent a year doing the ground crew thing, nearly got killed twice, learned a ton and had some fun.
Seeing as I wasn't quite in enough debt, I got another loan and proceeded with getting my Night and IFR ratings. My employer had a spot for me asap when I finished the IFR training. Sure enough the day after the IFR check-ride, I was co-pilot in an S76 flying in the soup.
A week after I started flying as co-pilot, a string of storms hit the area. Worst wind storms people had seen in 50 years. Lucky me got to fly in it every day, in the cloud, crapping my pants all the way haha. Remember getting home one night to find bruises on my shoulders and hips from the seat belt harness.
Fun times!
