Hi, I wanna become a helicopter pilot...
 

;) Don't worry, I've read the FAQ.

Just wanted to say hi and lose my PPRuNe post virginity.
In about three months I'm leaving Gothenburg/Sweden for Titusville, Florida and Bristow Academy. Unless you are bored senseless with noobs posting about their training here, I might write a line or two when there is something worth writing about.

I've been in IT for a decade and leaving a director position to pursue this romantic dream of flying helicopters. It remains to be seen how hard of a faceslap reality will be once I'm there. Sure it'll be great though :ok:

Cheers // Björn

Björn,

Welcome!

All the best with your training!! I can safely say, Bristow Academy and life in Florida was arguably the best time of my life.

Enjoy!!

2pb

Mmmm ...

Well your obviously insane (leaving a good well paying job proves this) enough to really enjoy your new career choice ;)

All I can do is wish you well and welcome you into this 'Band of Nutters' that is the Helicopter Industry. :D

Good luck ... Be careful .... ENJOY yourself ;)

Haha, thanks guys for the support ;)

There have been many late nights of thinking about the things I give up and leave behind, but I want to do this way more than I've wanted to do anything so it'll have to happen. Head/heart dilemma; to quote the late Steve Jobs - "stay hungy, stay foolish" :p

Have a cracking time. Enjoy it. :ok::ok::ok:

Have you considered medication to assist in overcoming the irrational urge to leave a productive and rewarding career to play with loud, dangerous toys?

Welcome on board and no doubt i will be meeting you shortly.

Try and get around, Titusville isnt exactly an exciting place. But you will have fun.

LZ

"Have you considered medication to assist in overcoming the irrational urge to leave a productive and rewarding career to play with loud, dangerous toys?"

Haha, Well... you know... good pay, city centre offices, lots of travel, fancy hotels, gourmet dinners, parties, ladies... Not what you want from life is it? I'm miserable and need to get out of this! ;)

On a serious note, while some of the above is somewhat true, when I should be sitting at night working with strategic management and reading about the latest in server deployment solutions, instead I'm watching 10 minute long, detailed youtube clip on how to start an MD500 helicopter. And then I watch it again. And I find it miles more interesting and motivating than anything at work for the last year or so. Heavy weekend drinking doesn't help - I have to give this up and go for a new career in playing with loud, dangerous toys :O


"Welcome on board and no doubt i will be meeting you shortly.
Try and get around, Titusville isnt exactly an exciting place. But you will have fun."

Sounds great - looking forward to it. I visited Titusville in January, and yes, it does seem to score badly on excitement. But I'm pretty sure that my very first winter that is not cold and miserable along with heli flying and motorcycle riding should keep a big grin on my face! :ok:

Are you studying/teaching/working there now? For how much longer?

Welcome to the club, I was doing the same thing in Copenhagen not six months ago. Well paying job, carte blanche on the company mastercard (within reason), apartment and job in the centre of Copenhagen, could ride the bike to work. Yet still, while i should be scheming on marketing techniques, I somehow always landed on youtube, helicrew.dk or this place.

Im in Norway at EHC now, and even though Im a bit older than the other guys, its friggin' awesome!! I know it'll be rough getting out on the other side, getting your first job and all, but im 100% committed, and so is the gf, so I guess I have as good a shot as anyone.

Have a great time over there, the weather should by all means be better than here :D

Martin in Norway (from Denmark)

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

"Aim high and never mistake temporary defeat for failure"

Bjorn,

Good luck with your career change. No other job comes close for me!

Regards

MF26

Just a quick reality check though.

If you ever manage to get into this insane industry after starry eyed syndrome has receded, have you given thought to where the future may take you? I possibly have your dream helicopter job and I wish I was earning your well paid income. I am very fortunate to be in a job where I am home with the monsters 99 out of 100 nights, but this is rarely a profession that is family friendly. There is also the extreme risk associated with going to work every day too. The guys on this forum who promote the keep your job and fly for fun idea may be onto something. All I am trying to relay to you is consider the long term picture and do whatever it takes to keep your current career up to date and ready to slide back to. You may have to do this to keep those bills paid.

Why so many negative comments?

It's his dream, I say go for it, we only get one life.

The adage of the older you get, the quicker time passes is SO true, if you have a passion, pursue it while you have time to do so.

And you hit the nail on the head casino, WE only get one life. When there is a family involved, you have multiple lives to consider, not just your own pursuits to manage and I reiterate, this is not a family friendly career choice. That was the experience point I wished to convey. :ok:

point noted SK, i only made my comments based on personal experience, being past the age now where i can realistically change my life, I'm always keen for the younger generation to pursue their dreams and go for it.

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" ;)


https://dl.dropbox.com/u/41520910/5449835_460s_v1.jpg


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 ;)

Again, thanks for your comments and I appreciate your honesty Sir Korsky.

There is no doubt I am very naive. I'm naive when I think that training will be mainly a load of fun, and that afterwards landing a rather well paid job with good condition will be fairly easy. I'm aware of this. But I don't confuse "easy" with "it won't take a big effort". I just believe that it will work out alright. I've had this approach before and it's been going rather well so far. And thinking that it won't anymore is not going to make me happy. Such a thought would nail me to my desk where I sit.
I am determined to make this work. Sad as it may be, I cannot get myself to appreciate what I have, because right now the thought of staying in the IT industry for the rest of my life makes me want to puke. And to be honest I've never really enjoyed either the many years of studying or the work very much. I've dug in and tried to do my best and I'm happy with what I've accomplished, but I'm not happy. I'm getting close to the age where a big change will be very difficult (32) and for the first time I have found something that I passionately want to do. (Not counting fighter pilot dreams after watching Top Gun for the first time, and not counting the years when I thought I could, and tried, to become a professional motorcycle racer. Now THAT was difficult and any chance of success very slim! ;)

So many people I have talked to say "ohhh, I would want to do that too, but.. but.. but.." or "I wish I did that when I had the chance but... but... but.." and they give all the rational reasons and obstacles in the world. They may be right, but I'll try to prove them wrong :)
However, it should also be said that it is not a complete banzai move. I'll keep my apartment and should this not work out I think I would be welcome back to my old job (probably not the same position though, but still) ;). And if that happens I'm sure I will appreciate the good things with the IT jobs much more than I do now.

FYR - wonderful!! We are SO much on the same page here. Superbly written text that just about sums it all up! :ok:

The cartoon is brilliant btw!

it's like reading my own story here :).