Ali’s AV-venture – From hospitality to helicopters

Although it had been a childhood dream, for me flying helicopters began at 36 when I decided to make a career change from hospitality to aviation specifically helicopters. I wasn’t happy with the progression within the hospitality sector so after forecasting the opportunities, I decided to go for a CPL(H), giving myself a target of 10 years to achieve it.

My family and friends weren’t keen on the idea, felt sure it was a doomed project. So without much support or financial backup, I put every penny into starting my PPLH course, basing my future in helis on positive hopes and dreams and confident I would achieve – NO SECOND THOUGHTS AT ALL.

I chose to learn to fly the Robinson R22 purely it was the most cost effective option for me. My initial lessons started well, I think my previous knowledge flying RC Helicopters helped me a lot, but, learning to hover a real helicopter was a big challenge. This is often the most challenging part of the course and with a few hours under my belt and some serious hard work I managed to achieve a decent hover, take off and landings. During that time I discovered the BBC series Flying Soldiers which focussed on the Army Air Corps Pilot training program. In that series the target to candidates for going solo was 11 – 15 hours and I was sort of trying to match it.

My FIRST SOLO took a little longer than that at 27 hrs due a combination of ability and CAA regulations. The solo itself was full of different emotions. On one hand there was the apprehension of being the only person in control of the helicopter with no one in the cockpit to help out and on the other hand the desire to achieve this milestone was even higher hence the focus was 100% on making it a success. The will to succeed helped me a lot, the biggest challenge is to overcome the fear of being on your own in a tiny wobbly helicopter. I managed to keep calm, be cautious and have the confidence to complete my solos.

Confidence was gradually building alongside my hours my knowledge of the local area was growing for my next challenge… Navigation! I was, for the most part hitting my course markers, a few mistakes occasionally – one time I could not find my destination on the OS map – but I was increasingly conscious to learn from my mistakes so I kept plugging the holes in my prep to aid my success in each exercise with minimum spend. Amazing how a little financial pressure can focus the mind especially as I was only managing to fly around 2 or 3 hours in a month.

I had started my PPL(H) training in April 2012 and as I neared the end of the course I had the an opportunity of enrolling in the Middlesex University Degree program which included funding and I was able to skills test in May 2015.

Find out what happened next in Ali’s AV-venture SOON!