Originally Posted by
Montjuic
@muermel
I have over 10 years experience in government business consulting acquiring European Uunion funding for companies in many different countries so this is a total career change.
- Bachelor Masters degrees in economics, European Integration
- Native English speaker fluent in Spanish, Catalan and French
Massive general interest in aviation attracted to the idea of being a heli pilot due to its flexibility workwise, fascination with the machine etc more than by planes
So a wider role apart from flying on the business sales end of things I would be well able for also - I am quite flexible.
Lucky you getting an EC120 rating paid for. Congrats - bonded how does that work?
@Montjuic
So that's good news that you have some marketable skills apart from eventuallly being able to fly a helicopter, good :-) Also your language skills will open some doors or marktets for you. I wish I had your language skills, I'd be in South America or Africa for a couple of years.
If you can keep the "normal" job while doing the training and maybe starting to work for a local company, flying the R44 on local tours or something like that on the weekends, that might work. Problem is you're not building many hours, lousy pay and long hours for lousy pay :-) Your family and you WILL suffer for some time and you don't know how long that time will be.
The thing is that I was prepared to leave my girlfriend of 3,5 years behind and brake up with her (which I did!), move abroad if I had to (didn't have to do that!), give up a lot of things to get that first job (which I did and still do!). You will be competing with people who are willing to give up A LOT OF THINGS (like me) to get that important first job and there's no guarenty that it will happen within a year, or two or even three.......
Or that a company might consider you for a job, but it's in Africa, Asia or in your case South America or somewhere else. And they expect you to decide within days and move within a month or so.
I'm not saying you can't or shouldn't do it. But it will take a toll on you and your family. I think it's bloody tough.
Just be aware that it's not going to be easy at all. The hard part starts after getting the licence, which isn't worth much without at least a R44 rating for some entry level commercial work on it. Don't waste your money on a turbine rating initially, nobody will give you a turbine to fool around with after just 5 or 10 hours on it. If you break it you might ruin the company, simple as that. So owners are careful to give the machines away to pilots with no experience.
I will fly at least another 10 - 20 hours with the boss or a more experienced pilot after my EC 120 rating until I will be allowed to fly it on my own. But by that time I will have flown the 44 for close to 100 hours for the company and worked for my boss for 5 months, so he knows and trusts me by that time.
I will be bonded for the training costs for the 120 rating, should I leave before I have worked a certain amount of time after I got the rating, I will have to pay back some or all of the training costs.
Ciao