Is this normal?

[JaredYoung]

Ok guys, you all know my feelings on flying. Well I wanted to see if anyone else experience what I did today. While I was at work I heard a helicopter so I ran outside the shop and looked up and flying over(not too high) were too big army helicopters. I'm not sure what they were but anyway, just as they flew over I got this weird feeling in my stomach. I think it's the feeling that I want to fly so bad I just don't know if it's the right thing to do or go back to college. Did anyone else experience this weird feeling in their stomach before they became a pilot? Thanks again!

[RDRickster]

Whadya mean, "before" we became pilots. I STILL feel that way when I see a formation of slicks flying along. :ok:

Back to reality, if you were passing the grades in college... go back and finish. Even if you become a pilot, it will help. Also, if you lose your medical or can't fly anymore, you'll need other skills.

[JaredYoung]

That's true about that. As far as grades, I was barely passing. I got a 2.55 gpa the first semester and a 1.90 the second and I failed calculus. Not to mention I was miserable. I'm so confused! I wish life was easier!!!! What would be an age cut off to become a commercial pilot? I will be almost 22 when I graduate college if I stay.

[roundwego]

Ok guys, you all know my feelings on flying

Do we? Are we psychic?



Yes we do.
No we're not.
We read Jared's earlier posts in another thread.

Heliport

[gomexjr]

Jared -

Maybe some of the older fellas can help with when you stop feeling confused and so forth. I am looking at turning 30 and I am still confused and don't know what I want to be when I grow up. I am in the final stage of my instrument and hope to have my commercial completed by end of summer. I don't think that I am too old as I still have (with the grace of God) a good 30-35 years of work left in me. I can tell you that I have had a lot of other real life experiences in other career fields and don't regret any of them. On the flip side of the coin I have wanted to fly since I was able to walk, but allowed my father to talk me out of it on several occasions. Since he was doing it for a living I assumed he knew best. Funny thing is that feeling never goes away and you won't be happy until you chase your dreams. I'm happy to say that Dad is on board and about as proud of me as I can ever remember. I just hope he is as proud when I take this big pay cut to fly professional and ask for some $$$ assistance :-)

Moral of the story - Chase your dream and you can't go wrong.

As mentioned above you should always have a back up plan in case you lose your medical. College never hurt anyone and a degree has helped several people beat me out in an interview where I had more experience. Again, I'm sure some of the older guys will have some better advice and I can't wait to see if Dear Old Dad writes his usual "You don't want to be a pilot" speech.

[simfly]

Jared,

I think you should decide for sure whether it is because you are desperate to fly. If so, then go for it while you have that passion. If you can raise the cash, then maybe college might not need to come into it, okay, it may help, but at the end of the day the right licenses and reports will be most important. I wish I could get that passion back again, I'd give anything for it. I used to love flying, and did so in various forms (f-wing, gliding, helis) Unfortunately while I was doing my training (fulltime CPL course) I had a traumatic time due to compassionate reasons, and this has left a psycological scar, I'm too emotional just getting into a cockpit, let alone getting airborne, and was unable to complete the course. The thought of flying is great, but doing it causes me unexplained trauma. So I think that if you have "the bug" then go achieve your aim as soon as you can. Make a plan and commit yourself if it's wat you want to do, but be 100% sure, and as said before, have a back up plan. Hope you make the right choice and best of luck.

[tripletach]

Jared

First of all ,22yrs is still young to be a pilot. Most guy's in Oz are older than that when they start. My first copilot job I was 23 and that was 5 yrs younger than any of the other 10 there at the time.

Another thought is if college isn't working out, maybe go and work for an aircraft maintenance firm for a while. It can give you cash for flying, valuable experience, and an A&P license will give you job security if you go that far. If you find the right company you might get some flying as well.

Just a thought because it is what I did. It can put you ahead of much more experinced pilots if you can save them some dollars in maintenance costs. (I was a mulit eng captain 2 1/2 years after passing my commercial license.) These days I just fly but the engineering license still comes in handy.

cheers

Tripletach

[[email protected]]

If you liked the idea of Army helicopters then why not stop poncing about and get down to the recruiting office. The military will pay you to learn to fly providing you have sufficiently high grades to join.

[PPRUNE FAN#1]

Jared wrote:While I was at work I heard a helicopter so I ran outside the shop and looked up and flying over(not too high) were too big army helicopters. I'm not sure what they were but anyway, just as they flew over I got this weird feeling in my stomach.Yes Jared, I too get a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach when I see a flight of military helicopters go over- especially if they're Huey's. Good Lord, something might fly off of one of them at any time, injuring countless on the ground! Or if they're -47s, the torrential downpour of all the hydraulic fluid is enough to poison crops all along their flight path.

You obviously have "the bug" for flying. Fine. Well do something about it, man! I agree with Crab: stop mincing about like a Sheila and join the Army. ...Unless that mincing about like a Sheila is for real, in which case the Army probably wouldn't take you despite that "don't ask/don't tell" farce your military puts on.

I do not agree with tripletach. If you start off in mechanic training with the stated *real* intention of becoming a pilot, mechanics will consider you to be a poseur, a fake...someone who is not serious about mechanicking. You will be unmercifully ridiculed behind your back and possibly to your face. "Oh, not good enough to *just* be a mechanic?" they'll say out loud or just think to themselves. Mechanics/engineers are fiercely proud of their skills and ratings. Justifiably, too. Not everyone can be a good mechanic. I certainly cannot- I can barely figure out which end of a screwsaw to hold. Mechanics keep sending me out for another gallon of rotor wash. My safety wire pattern looks like a normal "S"- okay, maybe that last one's a little too esoteric. Point being, I'm no mechanic.

Finally, check out the report of the missing helicopter in the Gulf of Mexico. Just disappeared. Coast Guard sent out search aircraft- no trace yet found. The chances that the 206 is sitting on a little mound of marsh with it's crew enjoying a nice picnic lunch while waiting for the Coast Guard to find them are disappointingly slim. The chances that the 206 went right to the bottom are increasingly high.

Many pilots say to themselves (and others), "The risk of death does not bother me." They say this quite convincingly, and I'm sure they're sincere, just as I was at the start of my career. Not so anymore. Now the risk of death bothers me greatly. I find myself letting the more junior pilots take the riskier flights. I find myself opting for the twin when I have the choice even though "statistically" it's no safer than a single. Hey- I've made it this far without dying, why push my luck?

When I hear about fatal helicopter accidents I get a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. Because I know that for as long as I've been in this business...for as many times as I've done the same type of thing that the guy who crashed was doing...it could easily have been me that I'm reading about. (Wait, I probably wouldn't be reading about my own accident...oh nevermind.)

I used to think that dying in a helicopter crash would be noble or some bull****. Yes, I would die "doing something he loved" and my family would understand and accept it. Bollocks! I've grown up, see. I don't want to die in a helicopter crash anymore. But the risk is always there. Always. We minimize it or ignore it or pretend it doesn't exist. But it does. It might not be *the* deciding factor in your career choice, but it ought to be one of them.

[Delta Julliet Golf]

If you want to go commercial, 22 years old won't be a problem. Life however is "never easy" in this market. I would recommend to finish college and then start your quest to become a helicopterpilot.

This way you'll have a Plan B if finding work to become a pilot with an operator is difficult....

DJG

[Devil 49]

"IS this normal?"

AS others have posted, I still do it. I've always done it, as long as I can remember. I've been flying since '68...

Question- Have you always been interested in flying helos? Could it be you're simply having a bad stretch at school? That'd be the deciding factor- if it's escape, it's one thing, but if it's an interest of long standing, that's something else.
Next- Did you remark they were military helicopters because that's what interested you, or is it all helos?

My immediate suggestion is to encourage you to finish what you've started, especially the calculus. It's one thing to delay finishing and quite another to be beaten and flunk out of school.
If you're that interested in flying helicopters, I'd go and take an hour or so of instruction. It's not "easy" and life isn't any "easier" as a helicopter pilot.