The Adventures of Chopper Chick!

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PHPA / Professional Helicopter Pilots Association

Promoting safety and
understanding among
helicopter pilots, the PHPA
continues its mission
contributing to the critical
operations maintaining safe
helicopter missions and
acting as a liaison with the
community.

Coordinating efforts towards improving communications, methods of operation within the airspace system, or any other area that will contribute to the safety and education of all pilots;
Provide a forum for identifying and seeking resolution to local problems of interest to the membership;
Promote community relations between the public and the helicopter industry.

The PHPA is a national
organization with the
corporate office in
Los Angeles, California.

Become a member and help
support your helicopter
community.

Go to:
http://www.phpa.org/

Board of Directors
Executive Officers & Board of Directors
Robert Butler - President
Alan Frawert - Vice President
Tom White - Secretary
James Paules - Treasurer

Board of Directors
Morris Cohen
Guillaume Maillet
Ed Story
Desiree Horton
Gary Hollbrook

Pat Carey

Leonard Maughan

Board of Advisors
Ricarda Bennett Esq - Legal Advisor
Alex Calder - Web Administrator

How I got started..........

For those of you who are looking at a life of flying helicopters or just curious how I started and got where I am today, read on.......................

I have been flying helicopters for over 18 years and mostly here in Los Angeles until recently in 2005 when I started fighting fire as a contract pilot all over the U.S. during the summer and in the off season on occasion. Currently I fly for about six different companies as a free lance contract pilot. My main company that I work for is Heli-Flite/Aris Helicopters in Riverside, CA, where I do Aerial Construction flying, fly for Corona Police Department, and fly fires during fire season. In the off months outside of fire season I fly some news and photo and movie production flights for various other companies which some of them I have been working with for over ten years. Since I have received many emails in regards to how does one become a helicopter pilot.....I am giving a little insight to those of you who ask how I got started and how much it costs to become a pilot, well it's a long story and everyone has a different story as to how they got their start. Some people had it easy, some people had it tough, some joined the military, others did the civilian route. There are so many different ways to do it and no one has the same story. As far as cost, well it was alot less 18 years ago, so you will have to check with a flight school on that one. I started flying when I was 19 years old and at the time I couldn't get a loan, so I worked two jobs 7 days a week and after two years, finally got my private. If you can get loan, it will not take you that long as I could only afford a couple of lessons a month. I never got my CFI as I found other ways to build time. Even 18 years ago being a CFI did not pay the bills, so I worked other jobs and flew part time over the years to build my time. I washed helicopters in exchange for flight time. I even paid for left seat time for quite some time to build hours. I jumped on any chance I could get for free flight time riding along with other pilots in an empty seat. I made lots of sacrafices and had no time to myself. It was all about flying, kinda how it still is today. hahaha. Anyway, I started a dba and made brochures and brought myself my own flight business doing tours and photo flights out of a Hughes 269 and an R22. Eventually I had some money to put myself through Bell Factory School which enabled me to fly a Jetranger early in my career with very little time. Back then insurance companies did not require massive amounts of flight time. With just 300 hours and factory school, I now had a jetranger to run my tours in. It eventually led to flying for other companies. Sending myself to Bell school opened up opportunities and possibilities for me. It was also my reputation that opened doors. Attitude is everything. You will not suceed in this business with a poor attitude. Keep that in mind. Trust me, I'm not perfect. We all don't have perfect attitudes, but you know what I mean. My job offers took off from there. I was doing tours for various small tour companies and flight schools and then started flying traffic watch, then soon I was flying news in a 206 which later led to an astar. When I got into fire, I sent myself to long line and mountain flying school. Sometimes if you want something, you will have to pay for it to get ahead and open doors for yourself. I found a company that hired me with no fire experience. With my training I had paid for and experience from flying over the years I was on my way to do what I had always dreamed of doing, fighting fire from a helicopter. I was patient as it took time to get where I am today. You have to be patient sometimes. I still get impatient on occasion and want it all now, but it just doesn't work that way. So my advice to up and coming pilots who ask how to do it? Find a good school, find some money, stick with it, don't ever stop, don't make excuses, don't let others discourage you as that will happen your entire career, and you will suceed and get what you want eventually. Good luck!

By the way, some pilots never stop paying their dues. Sometimes if you want certain things to happen in your career you will find yourself making the same sacrafices later on, but the sacrafices seem even greater because with time, comes more responsibility and more to lose when sacrafices are made. But sometimes the gain is worth it!

HELICOPTER PILOT JOB DESCRIPTIONS

-Grand Canyon Tour: get up at 430am, drive 90 miles to the ditch, have 5th cup of coffee,preflight,pee,get in start up,load up the midwestern beefeaters,fly for 30 minutes,fly for 30 minutes,fly for 30 minutes,fly for an hour,fly for 30 minutes,fly for an hour,Can I have a break? no ok,fly for 30 minutes,fly for 30 minutes,fly for 30 minutes,fly for 30 minutes,fly for 30 minutes,fly for 30 minutes,fly for an hour,get out tie down,PEE, drive 90 miles home, eat sleep repeat.

-Hawaii Tour, see above but get to wear funky hawaii shirt and shorts

-Offshore Oil, see above but the tourists smell bad and the river is a lot bigger.

-Tuna Boat. see above but you get to chant where da fish, where da fish.

-Powerline Patrol see above but you get to say tower one, tower two,tower three,tower four,tower five.......tower 496,tower 497 etc

-Pipeline Patrol see above but you get to say, yup its a pipeline,yup its a pipeline,yup its a pipeline,yup its a pipeline,yup its a pipeline,yup its a pipeline,.......sh!# theres a wire ok,yup its a pipeline,yup its a pipeline,yup its a pipeline,yup its a pipeline,yup its a pipeline

-EMS get to work, have 7th cup of coffee,preflight,pee,news at 6, eat,sleep,eat,sleep,eat,sleep,eat,sleep, BEEP BEEP BEEP, Motorcycle vrs a big rig, fly 20 minutes, load patient, Yuuuuuuuko that looks like it hurts, fly 20 minutes, offload, debrief, eat sleep eat sleep eat sleep. go home.

-Logging: get up at 5, have 3rd cup of coffee, preflight, comin up, log, log,log,log,log,log,log,log,log,log,log,log,log,log,log,log,log, Wipe up CP's puke, log, log,log,log,log,log, ect shut down go home drink massive amounts of beer with Hookers.

-Fire: get up at 4am drive an hour, have 9th cup of coffee, mission plan, you want to WHAT? put on bucket go to fire oh big fire, up down turn around fetch a pail of water. repeat 160 times. shut down wait until 14 hours is over. Out of duty time find tent eat at base camp, visit little blue room, sleep up again at 5am. repeat

-CFI get in at 9am, have 10 cups of coffee three cigs and wait for no shows, Non english speaking student shows up, preflight, flight SCREAM I HAVE THE CONTROLS, repeat 20 times, After hour flight clean shorts, repeat 5 times, go home knowing your the pilot god that saved the R22 from the clutches of the student pilot, get on PC and type resume' yup getting there 252.4 hours, look for way to get turbine job with out flight time, go to sleep thinking how great it would be to be working as a real pilot!