FYR,
You may think that Florida is all blue skies and surfing but believe me there are alot of dirt kicking moments from May-Sept when the Tropical storms and TS roll through. Gets beyond a joke when only 4 hours in the morning is useable to fly before the CBs show up.
Winter is lovely though! How have you found conditions at EHC?
LZ
Well, (and I'm not on the payroll at EHC), so far its really great! The buildings are 3-4 years old, the machines are in most cases pretty new, and the instructors are great at what they do, both in theory and practical teaching.
Accomodation is pretty good as well, in my class of 10, 9 of us stay at the school, which serves for a bit of socializing and studying in the evenings as well. The school is half inside and half outside the terminal area; access to the hangar and apron requires an accesscard, but thats about it. -If i sit in my room and want to go sit in a helicopter, its down a flight of stairs and through a door, 24h.
Also, theres a cheap direct flight from the airport to Copenhagen, not courtesy of EHC, but its nice in the weekends.
Norway is not exactly known for its fair weather, but I figured that harsh weather might make for more challenging and thus rewarding training, plus the mountain and bush course is included in the package. It all counts.
As i said, Im not on the payroll at EHC, but so far I've had few reasons to complain.
It might be, that some day I'll find out that it was a mistake doing this, its an uncertainty to be sure.
What is certain however, is that I was miserable doing what I did, and I had a pretty good career going with cake on thursdays and everything.
Perhaps its a case of "the neighbours' grass is greener" syndrome, but I think it goes both ways; I doubt most lifetime-pilots' expectations about "the safe life" the "normal" people live, would actually be what they found to be what they imagined.
I figured theres less strain on your neck looking down from above, than standing down there looking up.
I've met a lot of negative pilots, and I've met a lot of positive ones as well, who is right? I guess I'll know in a few years...
I dont know if this works... Im not a girl, nor a lawyer, but its basically how i felt when i finally made my decision to quit the "safe life"
Oh, and my girlfriend's a lawyer, so its not directed at them either, she loves what she does and only seldomly find need to elbowdrop me