A Question for Newbies

[heligirl03]

Butters, most pilots WANT to talk about flying...with anyone but If you have half a clue what one is saying, that just makes it easier. Just don't be oblivious to their work responsibilities if you can see at any point that they need to break away from the conversation. Most pilots are MORE than happy to show you all around their aircraft, inside out and upside down. All you have to do is express interest! It kind of sounds like you are asking for a crash course in basic conversation? If you are concerned about it you might want to practice for awhile on people who you care less about making an impression on. Find someone who is clearly good at it, listen to how they work a crowd (or an individual), then take it home with you, put it into practice and see how ya do It's definitely a natural skill for some people, but that doesn't mean you can't learn. The thing is, you will need to learn it to take the next steps.

 

Chitchatting is not just for networking. Anyone with plans in the tour industry MUST be highly sociable and good at making small talk, entertaining, and getting a read on people before you've even shaken hands if you want to be successful at it (read: make tips and therefore a decent total income). I'd recommend jobs like food service, bartending and other tourism based situations to get experience. If you even walk in the door to speak with someone at any of the big tour operators they will size you up for your personal presentation and people skills before anything else as they already assume you can fly or you wouldn't be there. It's really similar to teaching but while you might be able to sneak by as a CFI, you won't get very far with tours unless you hone your skills first.

 

If you don't want to or think you can't, I guess I'd head towards Boatpix followed by the GOM. Neither of those require nearly the level of personal interaction for success.

 

To answer the OPs question, I got into flying having done a lot of firsthand research. It helped that I was working with a helicopter tour company and had access to a lot of pilots for information. I understood the state of the industry and was prepared to work within those parameters. I weighed the risks and felt that my background, skills and experience would put me in as good a position as anyone to succeed. I absolutely LOVED teaching and I LOVE tours. It's all a heck of a lot of work but I have fun every day and I have no plans to go anywhere anytime soon. Life is good.

 

HG03

[Oil Pilot]

If you don't want to or think you can't, I guess I'd head towards Boatpix followed by the GOM. Neither of those require nearly the level of personal interaction for success.

 

Not being able to interact with the passengers in the GOM will get you run off a contract pretty quick. Granted, we don't depend on our ability to BS and act like we care for tips, but still. Utility work is more along the lines of less interaction required in my opinion. Flying is almost always the easy part of any pilot job; you need to be able to interact with customers in some way no matter where you are.

[heligirl03]

Not being able to interact with the passengers in the GOM will get you run off a contract pretty quick. Granted, we don't depend on our ability to BS and act like we care for tips, but still. Utility work is more along the lines of less interaction required in my opinion. Flying is almost always the easy part of any pilot job; you need to be able to interact with customers in some way no matter where you are.

 

I guess I was referring specifically to intro turbine jobs, getting in the door of the industry. Utility is a great, mostly solo gig but it's not where you're gonna go with a grand, right? For sure the level of interpersonal skill required on any job is all relative (GOM vs. Tours), but Oil Pilot makes a good point in that ANYWHERE you go you'll have to keep the customers happy whether they are European tourists, boudreauxs, or corporate barons. The further you get the more you realize that flying is only half the job no matter where you are!

[r22butters]

Thanks for the advice. I'm not really worried about talking to customers, or clients. Making "small talk" , on the job, is easy.

 

Its approaching stangers with the intent of starting a conversation (without it being obvious that I'm just another starving "low-timer", hoping to "network" his way into a job), that I struggle with.

 

I suppose the best way to practice, would be to hang out at bars, and talk to strange women(without the intent of "hooking up").

[heligirl03]

Pretty much! Don't look at talking to other pilots as networking. You're just making friends and learning as you go. The networking for jobs comes later, if you've established your quality as a person and friend and someone truly believes it's worth THEIR reputation to recommend you. If you talk to people purely for the purpose of hoping they will help you find a job, they'll see through that act pretty quick anyway. Be genuine and make friends with no expectations - it's worth it whether or not you ever get a job out of it.

[MadbomberEOD]

Pretty much! Don't look at talking to other pilots as networking. You're just making friends and learning as you go. The networking for jobs comes later, if you've established your quality as a person and friend and someone truly believes it's worth THEIR reputation to recommend you. If you talk to people purely for the purpose of hoping they will help you find a job, they'll see through that act pretty quick anyway. Be genuine and make friends with no expectations - it's worth it whether or not you ever get a job out of it.

 

Couldn't agree more! Start it off with small talk: sh*tty weather, Communist News Network etc. Progressively get a little further involved speaking with that person into what they do, where they're from, kids/family (try to get something in common with them) you get the point. One thing that will help ALOT(!!!!!!) is just to have a business card. You end up BS'ing with someone and have a good time, things went well, didn't even talk about a job, other than what he does/what you do. Hand them a card instead of a torn out piece of paper with your number. Even if you hand them a card and say lets meet up sometime and have a beer. Give me a call. A card is easier to keep hold of than the piece of paper he/she just stuffed in their pocket/purse. It shows more professionalism from the get-go and you can hand them out to the group of people you just ended up talking with because they were sitting around you and wanted to talk about flying.

 

Even if the card just says:

 

Joe Snuffy

Aviator/Instructor

PPL, CFI, CFII

Type of Aircraft

 

with a background picture of a helicopter/wings etc.

 

Who knows, that one card may get passed around to just the right person. Even if it is something trying to find out about flying, dissemination of a name knows no bounds if you are professional, courtious, and speak intelligently.

 

Just my $.02

[BigBird7]

I'm pursuing a career as a pilot simply because, I don't want to do anything else. I was never one to buy into the whole, "don't follow your dreams because there is a chance it won't workout, and you'll have wasted your time and money." I'm almost finished with my psychology degree and have come to realize, why am I not chasing my dream? I know I will be miserable doing a "regular" job. So I'm proud to say I am now pursuing that dream. I will finish my degree and jump into becoming a commercial pilot. I know the path is hard, many struggles will be thrown my way. But what's that saying, "Nothing worthwhile, is ever easy." It may take me years to get where I want to be. But I think it'll be so much sweeter when I finally do get that dream job, knowing I worked damn hard for it.

[r22butters]

Sometimes I think we put to much emphesis on what we "do" for a living. My father doesn't particulary like what he does, but he does love the free time and extra money it affords him, to travel and pursue his other interests in life.

[X-filer]

I'll try to put my thoughts together upon this question....

Some people just don't know what exactly they want to do in their lives...And they choose just to work, some of the are very successful at whatever they do and good for them....But when you talk to these people, you don't see any passion or adventure in their eyes....The other group of people has something it their heads, they've always wanted to do that money can't buy....

Some of my friends told me:"Are you freaking idiot? You're working your ass off,saving on everything just to go for helicopter profession and pay for your training in cash, realizing that your first job will pay only 1000 a month? You must be nuts! Why don't open your own company, become reach and buy your own helicopter"

But these people will never understand that you don't want to do something that makes you sick, no matter how much money it brings. You just don't want to dream anymore. Those people will never understand how attractive the process of building electric line towers with S-64 looks....and even though you work hard doing something that brings most of money legitimate way and become finally reach, you won't have time to fly your helicopter the way you want or as much as you want....Will you ever be able to fight fire in Bell 214 just for fun on sundays, just because you run a Law Firm on weekdays???... I doubt...

 

It's just been a compilation of my thoughts on current subject...Sorry, if I still didn't manage to deliver the main idea...

[mongo]

I always have loved flying and wanted to do it from the time I was a kid. The kicker that got the ball rolling was when a my best friend was shot 3 times in Afghanistan. The dust off came in and put down in a place that I never thought he could land. Loaded him up and was gone in under 3 min. If it was not for the pilot and his crew he would have not have made it. Thats when I made up my mind. I have 3 more months here and I will be out of the Army. I have started to line everything up so when I get out I will be able to transition in to flight school.

[HoverMatt]

Just reading this forum has been an eye opening experience as I prepare to embark on a pilot training program. I definitely lost my preconceptions that I would be able to simply train, become a great rookie pilot, and easily fall into a job.

 

I joined the forum a year ago when I finally decided I needed a big change in life and needed some information on how feasible the big change I chose was going to be. I learned a lot here (thank you all for that!) I have been getting my ducks in a row ever since. Yeah it's been a year and I haven't even started training yet... what can I say, I have a lot of ducks.

 

I do dream about flying helicopters for a living. I'm realistic enough to know that achieving that is a long term goal, not short term. I have a really good job in I.T. that is going to let me pay for my private without any loans, and then I'll see where it goes from there. No matter what, I'll be a pilot at that point, and will have achieved the first dream. Then I'll move on to the next one!

Edited July 26, 2011 by HoverMatt

[Spike]

Just reading this forum has been an eye opening experience as I prepare to embark on a pilot training program. I definitely lost my preconceptions that I would be able to simply train, become a great rookie pilot, and easily fall into a job.

 

I joined the forum a year ago when I finally decided I needed a big change in life and needed some information on how feasible the big change I chose was going to be. I learned a lot here (thank you all for that!) I have been getting my ducks in a row ever since. Yeah it's been a year and I haven't even started training yet... what can I say, I have a lot of ducks.

 

I do dream about flying helicopters for a living. I'm realistic enough to know that achieving that is a long term goal, not short term. I have a really good job in I.T. that is going to let me pay for my private without any loans, and then I'll see where it goes from there. No matter what, I'll be a pilot at that point, and will have achieved the first dream. Then I'll move on to the next one!

 

Welcome to the mad, mad, mad world of helicopters. From your description, it sounds like you have a good plan. However, you should be forewarned, when the bug bites, it usually bites hard. Meaning, since you’re already dreaming about it you’ll, more-then-likely, become addicted to flying and won’t want to do anything else but fly helicopters for a living. Once it’s in your blood, it’s extremely hard to get rid of. Therefore, keep your day job and continue to make money because you’ll need it throughout your endeavor… A lot of it…

 

In case you don’t already know, do not be mistaken with what is needed to become a professional pilot. That is, the end result of your training should be CFII with time in the R22 and S300. The most common entry level job when their available is a Flight Instructor job so the CFII is a must. It’s all about marketing. Attempting to become a professional helicopter pilot with anything less is not realistic. Not realistic in any shape or form………………….

[rollthbns]

 

In case you don’t already know, do not be mistaken with what is needed to become a professional pilot. That is, the end result of your training should be CFII with time in the R22 and S300. The most common entry level job when their available is a Flight Instructor job so the CFII is a must. It’s all about marketing. Attempting to become a professional helicopter pilot with anything less is not realistic. Not realistic in any shape or form………………….

 

Solid advice. I would go one step further and plan your instructing career to be certain you come out of the flight school gig with the requirements for your ATP in hand. If they ever come up with another rating, get that one too!

 

One caveat to add, never ever use a student to build YOUR logbook. Always remember who is paying the bill, and serve them. Good leadership begins with service in my humble opinion. If you help enough people get what they want, you will get what you want. That was a part of my plan from the beginning, and so far it has worked well.

 

Good luck, and if it is your dream, meticulously plan it out and then go execute the plan!

[HoverMatt]

Thank you guys for your advice. I train people as part of my I.T. job (and have been told I'm very good at it) so I'm hoping I'll be able to use a lot of those skills as a CFI/CFII. But of course that is a long way off and I'm taking it one step at a time - have to get the PPL first! I'm hoping to have my private completed by next summer if things go to plan, and then I'll map out what's next. You can be sure I'll be soliciting help and advice from all you guys here on VR when the time comes!

[Whiteshadow]

I am getting into it for a few reasons. I joined the Army with the hopes of going WOFT, but it didn't work out that way. Once the Post 9/11 GI Bill was approved for flight training (under the right circumstances), I knew I had found a way. I was ecstatic, and I signed up as soon as I could (start school August 22nd)!

 

There are people out there that can never do a "normal" job. My wife has been tested time and time again by my inability to have a "normal" career. She has given up on trying to convince me that I could find something 9-5, safe and to me...........BORING! I used to work on nukes in the Air Force. Worst time of my life! Can I do it? Of course, and I should be making almost 200k at Lockheed Martin. Not worth it to hate my job, and therefore hate my life.

 

One of these days, I will be at work and say, "I get paid to fly around Colorado all day long". THAT will be a most welcome feeling, and I know for a fact that it will finally be the fit I have been looking for.

 

Good luck to everyone out there. Where there's a will.....................

[coakle]

Well I can say that i am in the early stages of this. I have been LE for the past 15 years and will be able to retire in 5. I have always loved flying and am looking to find something that i can truley enjoy after retirement (@ 42 years old) that will not drive my wife crazy. If I can take that into a second career then great if not then a hobby that I can realy enjoy.

[gary-mike]

looking to find something that i can truley enjoy after retirement (@ 42 years old) that will not drive my wife crazy. If I can take that into a second career then great if not then a hobby that I can realy enjoy.

 

If you have the bug, there is probably no turning back.

 

As far as something that wont drive your wife crazy... Don't know if being a Professional Pilot will fit that. Chances are especialy at first there will be some moving about the country (maybe even outside the country). Also, you would be leaving one dangerous career into another, so I don't know if the stress level would go down much.

 

Either way, I agree it is probably a pretty enjoyable career/hobby. I am in pretty much the same situation as you, I have tried talking myself out of pursuing this but have not been able to. Instead I keep sinking in further, and chances are if I can't talk myself out of it no one else will either.

 

Thanks for your service, and good luck in the pursuit of your goals and dreams, and keep us posted on your progress.

[frosty]

20 years of dreaming to fly a machine with close to 30,000 moving parts! What could go wrong? Can't be any worse than welding on live natural gas pipelines for the past 20 years. 10 to go, then retired from gas and hoping to move into something that will make me happy, flying over the pipeline, other than laying under it.