At some point while I was in high school I developed an interest in helicopters, I’m not sure why, but my best friend Ben and I would talk about them all the time. We’d go to the school library and research them, do small research projects on them and build models of them.
For pretty much the rest of my life that’s where my interest in them remained. Becoming a helicopter pilot seemed to be one of those things that was going to be too hard, too complicated and too expensive to pursue. To me it was a dream, and that’s all it would ever be.
There are two ways to go about becoming a helicopter pilot, you can either do really well at school, join the military and get paid all through your training or you can save your money and go through a civilian flight school. And I mean save, at a rough starting point I was looking at over $30,000.
One thing you may pick up throughout my blog posts is that I can be impatient, at times easily swayed in or out of something, and not very goal orientated. For most of my life I have been really bad at setting and reaching personal goals.
Over the space of a couple of years during school and college I had changed my mind backwards and forwards between; ship captain, policeman, fireman, helicopter pilot, helicopter observer, train driver, soldier with army transport- marine unit and Tug boat captain.
I had a flight simulator on my computer, nothing fancy it was the 90’s after all, and dad would occasionally stand over my shoulder just watching me play. One day while watching me he said, “If they ever fly helicopters with keyboards you would be an expert”.
At the point where I really wanted to join the navy as a helicopter pilot I had finished year 12 but not fully in the subjects required to apply to be a pilot. I was close but not close enough and got put off from the idea. Also I did have a bit of stuff going on in my life if you have read my Navigating Depression posts, so timing was really bad.
As life went on I eventually joined the navy as a Boatswains Mate where I ended up becoming best friends with Russ, who also had ambitions of becoming a helicopter pilot, we became friends and mutual helicopter enthusiasts.
One of the exciting and appealing parts of joining as a Boatswains Mate was training to fast rope out of helicopters. If I can’t fly one then I’ll be happy to get in one and jump out of it. I loved our training on the fast rope tower, it was exhilarating stepping off the platform and sliding down a rope and the only thing stopping you was your hand and foot grip on the rope. One of the other trainees and I used to have competitions to see who could lock off on the training rope the longest.
Occasionally a helicopter would fly down to HMAS Cerberus and if it coincided with training they would take a class for a flight then hover over the oval and let them slide down. Usually a class would get to have a few goes at varying heights wearing different equipment.
My class ended up going for a drive. We got put on a bus and drove from HMAS Cerberus up to HMAS Albatross, the naval air base. As we were driving up everyone was getting excited, we were going to stay at the base for a week and spend three days conducting intensive training, as well as flying out over the New South Wales Coast. There was only one of two types of helicopters we were going to train with and we all hoped it was going to be a Seahawk, and not an aging Sea King.
Sailors being sailors, while making our way up the highway between bases we got bored, so what should we do? At one point we put on our helmet and goggles, leaned out the windows and pretended to be paddling. We got some strange looks, and laughs, as we slowly passed other cars.
After getting to the base and setting up, we discovered there were no Seahawks available, so it was to be a Sea King. Over the next three days we sat at the base and waited while they conducted maintenance on the allocated Sea King. It wasn’t until the day we were meant to leave did we actually get to train. We had the bus packed and drove to an area at the end of the runway. All we were allowed to do was get in, the helicopter would then do a small circuit at the end of the runway; hover, then we would jump out. We had three turns each and then straight back on the bus to HMAS Cerberus.
So my very first time in a helicopter was an anticlimax. I didn’t get to fly out over the New South Wales coast, or even go very high in the air at all. I did like the idea of being able to say I had now jumped out of a helicopter three times.
For the next several years whenever I was at sea and we had a helicopter near us I longed to go for a joy ride but it never happened. I did manage to take some pretty cool photos though.
While living in Cairns for the second time and not having any substantial debt I thought it would be a good opportunity to pay for lessons with a flight school. I didn’t have much in savings but I could easily afford the lessons every fortnight. It would give me something to do in between patrols.
I started looking into it but was told Cairns were the most expensive place in the country to do lessons and I would be better off doing it in a cheaper location. So once again I easily gave up on the idea and didn’t pursue it for another couple of years.
In 2012 while living in Perth and going through a shit time in my life, I found out I could do a Trial Introductory Flight with a flight school just up the road, so I booked myself in. It cost me a couple of hundred dollars but it was worth it. I turned up, had a safety brief, a run though on the basics of the controls and then we headed out to the little two seater R22. I was nervous but also really excited.
The pilot talked me through what he was going to do, we would taxi out and head up and out towards the beaches; he would then hand over the controls to me one at a time.
As we started to climb and turn away from the airport he went through the process of handing over; I would take control of one and he made sure I was all good then hand over the next, and so on until I had control of the collective, cyclic and rudder pedals.
It was an amazing feeling being in control of a helicopter flying out over the beaches, back down the coast for a bit before heading back to land at the airport. He said he was very impressed at how smooth and in control I was.
Even though it was a fantastic experience I still kept doubting myself and talking myself out of something that I really wanted to do. It was just thoughts of bad timing; don’t really have the money, what if I can’t get a job after paying all that money? Lots of excuses and poor attitude, with some no self-confidence thrown in there as well.
In 2015 I was looking after our two year old while my wife was away at sea when I decided, “That’s it I’m going to do it this time”, I was going to get a Commercial Helicopter Pilots Licence. We had the money and I was determined. I got permission to leave work 30 minutes early on those particular days and worked out my travel times to and from the flight school twice a week, as well as getting someone to babysit Harrison. I enrolled in the course; I was finally going to do it.
I lasted two sessions.
The stress I was putting on myself to juggle work, travelling, house-work, studying, and looking after a two year old on my own was too much for me to handle at the time. Being a temporary single dad was a new and very trying experience for me, but that’s for another post.
I gave up on the idea and decided it was now going to be a retirement project. I’m still trying to convince my wife but when I retire I intend to get a Private Pilot’s Licence and buy my own helicopter. I now have plenty of time to save and plan for that goal.
While on a ship in 2018 the pilots from our flight crew embarked needed to to get their hours up, while also achieving certain training requirements. Over a few days a few of our crew got the opportunity to be winched up into the helicopter, taken for a quick trip circling the ship then lowered back down to the deck again. It was a fantastic experience that left me on a high for a while.
Over Christmas 2019 we had a family holiday to the Gold Coast and had a fantastic time. On our second last day there we went to Sea World for the second time but this time I surprised Harrison with a 15 minute helicopter joy flight out over the Gold Coast then back to Sea World. Although it wasn’t a very long flight, the reactions I got from my son were absolutely priceless.
We can’t always do all the things we would like to when we want to, but we try to make the most of what we can while making those experiences as memorable as possible for Harrison and ourselves.
Ben, Russ and I never ended up pursuing careers with helicopters but we are still fascinated with them.
Try not to hold back from doing the things that you really want to do.
Exercise Talisman Saber 2019. USAF AH-64E Apache conducts a simulated attack.
Sailing The Unknown 