There has always been a desire for excitement with everything I do in my blood. I think that flying helicopters is incredible. You can simply rise into the air and go places and see things that normally you wouldn’t be able to. I can only imagine what it feels like to be in control of something so liberating and thrilling as flying a helicopter. I can see myself waking up every day and being more than happy to go fly helicopters, and make a pretty good living out of it.
Ever since I was little, I thought flying was really cool. I remember once while I was visiting my grandparents in New Hampshire, my grandpa brought me to his neighbor’s house to go for a ride in a helicopter. This guy flies helicopters right out of his back yard. I remember sitting in that helicopter, talking to my grandpa on my headset, and looking out at the great views of New Hampshire from a bird’s eye view. It was by far one of my favorite moments of my childhood. It definitely was something I will never forget.
What I wanted to know:
As I started thinking about what I wanted to do for a job when I was older, I couldn’t picture myself happier doing anything else but flying. At first I thought about flying planes, but after more careful thought, I felt that helicopters would be way cooler. I really wanted to research whether or not becoming a helicopter pilot would be a realistic goal for me to set or not. I wanted to find out what it takes to achieve such a goal if it seems reasonable, and how I could prepare myself for the future ahead of me.
There were several unanswered questions that I had to find out more about before I could really know if this is what I wanted to do. First off I needed to know the requirements that a pilot must meet in order to get their license. I also needed to find out how much pilots make, what their hours + schedule is like, what jobs are out there for pilots, how the job availability is, and lastly how I can become a pilot. Another thing I needed to consider in my research was how I could make it possible to get a college degree on top of becoming a pilot. Most importantly I wanted to know if becoming a Helicopter pilot would be a beneficial career for me and whether or not it would lead me to the life I dreamed about. After hard work researching everything I needed to know about helicopter pilots, I came to the conclusion that I am going to do whatever it takes to fly helicopters because it would lead me to a life full of excitement, gratification, wealth and happiness.
My Research:
I started my research by first, making use of my time in the library, and finding some books that have information on helicopters. I found a book called Helicopters & Autogyros of the World. This book had all kinds of information on the history of helicopters, different models, what they are used for, and specifications for each. I found out that "The first tandem-rotor helicopter to achieve sustained flight was made by this Russian-born engineer." (Lambermont, 3) This really wasn’t too much help for me. The information was definitely cool but didn’t have anything that would help me figure out what I needed to.
Next in my research process, I turned to online databases. I tried using info track to find an article on helicopter pilots but nothing had any relevance to my research. From here I went to Google.com and I searched under the broad key words, “Helicopter Pilots”. The first place this brought me to was autorotate.org. This was a great find. The website was backed by the Professional Helicopter Pilots Association (PHPA) and had so much useful information. I also found two other helpful sites, one with information written by a helicopter flight instructor and another about military helicopter pilots.
I had saved a resource of mine that I had until last. The resource was a person that a friend of a friend knows who trains Life Flight Helicopter pilots for a living. I wanted to know
