For Frustrated Pilots

I didn’t grow up wanting to be a pilot. There aren’t any other pilots in my family. I didn’t step foot on a passenger jet until I was 15. But when I was thirty-something (let’s not get too specific here), I became a private helicopter pilot. Two years later, I was a commercial helicopter pilot.

How the heck did THAT happen?

It’s hard to explain. First, you need to know that the first time I ever flew, I was about 8 years old and the flight was in an old Bell 47 (which probably wasn’t so old at the time) on a family vacation. The 5-minute ride I took with my father (and the pilot, of course) was $5 per person — about the limit of discretionary spending for my lower-middle class family. It stuck in my mind. I decided then that if I ever did learn to fly, I’d learn to fly a helicopter.

But keep in mind here that I never dreamed of being a pilot.

Time went by. Lots of time. (Too much time, in my opinion.) I started in one career, succeeded, then started over in another. The second career came with flexible time and, after a while, a good paycheck. Time and money are a dangerous combination.

I started thinking about flying. Helicopters. After a lot of hours and a ton of money, I had my license.

Flying is addictive — at least it is to me. The more I flew, the more I wanted to fly. Trouble is, I had to drive 90 miles (each way) to rent a helicopter. So I bought one.

Now I needed a way to turn my love of flying into a new career so I could spend more time doing it. So I went back to flight school and became a commercial pilot. Now I do rides and tours in my town and at special events throughout the state. I still have to work at my “day job” (those books I keep spitting out), but I’m on the verge of landing a job with a helicopter tour company for the summer.

If you’ve been waiting for the advice part of this narrative, hang in there a little longer. It’s coming.

The way I see it, if you’ve always wanted to be a pilot, you must be more motivated than I was. With all that motivation, what’s holding you back?

Don’t tell me it’s time or money or family obligations. If you want something bad enough, you can make it happen. You can make the time. You can save the money (or borrow it if you have to). You might even qualify for a scholarship — do some research! As for the family, they should understand if it’s that important to you. And imagine how much fun it would be to take a family trip with you at the controls!

Here’s the advice.

Make a plan and stick to it. For example, if you think you’ll need 50 hours of flight time and 20 hours of ground time to get the job done, set up a schedule with the flight school and do it. Don’t let vacations or “busy seasons” or excessive heat (can you say “Arizona summer”?) stall you. The more time you take between lessons, the more lessons you’ll need. Take it from me — I know. I did my training part time over an 18-month period with six months off in the middle. Every lesson after a long break started with a refresher. What a waste of time! I could have knocked it off in three months if I’d just come up with a better plan.

Learn to fly what you want to fly. I wanted to fly a helicopter, so that’s what I learned to fly. You might want to learn to fly single engine airplanes or taildraggers or float planes or sail planes (gliders) or ultralights or gyroplanes or hot air balloons. Learn it! Don’t think you have to learn something else before you learn to fly what you want. The only exception is probably single-engine airplanes before twins or jets.

Make your family and friends understand how important it is to you. Tell them. Show them. Make them understand. And if they don’t get it and continue to give you grief, don’t tell them anything else about it. Once you’re a pilot and having all that fun, they’ll get jealous and want to come along. You’ll see.

Don’t let the naysayers convince you that it’s dangerous. Talk to your flight instructor if you have any doubts. Then tell the naysayers what you learned. If you’re lucky, you’ll be able to convince them and shut them up. (And remind me one day to blog about helicopter misconceptions like the falling brick syndrome.)

Don’t give up. Don’t give up. Don’t give up.

There’s no reason to be a frustrated pilot. If you have the desire to succeed and you stop making excuses, you can make it happen.