The beginning of a helicopter dream!

In this blog I'll try to give my experiences on my helicopter education, up's and downs, and how my current and future situation will be like. (Hopefully :) I hope that others might benefit from my experiences and also contribute with feedback and experience.

It all started in the spring of 2007. After working for several airlines in Norway since 1999 and reaching the age of 31, I came to the point where I didn't feel like I was going anywhere in my life. I needed new challenges. My age taken into consideration I felt that there weren't many other jobs out there for me....or was it...?

I have always had a dream of flying helicopters. Since my father is a helicopter pilot in the Norwegian Airforce I have always had a big interest in helicopters, the different types, civilian and military. I could pretty much name the most common ones by the age of three since my father always bought the small "aircraft identifocation" books for me.

When I was in my early twenties I considered trying out for the air force academy. I was unsure though because I didn't feel mature enough. I knew it would be hard work and that only a fraction of the applicants actually get to the very end of the education. I also still had a urge to explore life and all the fun you could have at that age. So, I put it on ice and decided to come back to it later. Well, as I mentioned above I ended up in a job for several years were I didn't feel challenged enough.

Anyway, in the spring of 2007 I started looking into helicopter education. I now felt mature enough for the air force academy, but unfortunately I was too old. My only way to get to fly helicopters was through a civilian flightschool. As most of you already know, this education costs money, alot of money!!! So the first thing I had to do was to raise enough money for the education and living expenses. For many people that is were the dream stops. They just can't raise the money for the education. At first I called my bank to see if it was possible to borrow the money from them. Unfortunenately they weren't to excited about the idea, to say the least!

I owned a house which I didn't really want to sell. But the market for houses was good at the time so after some hard thinking and several conversations with my family, I decided to go ahead and sell the house. I made a good profit from the sale and was now able to start my education.

For most of the people wanting to pursue a helicopter career, you either have to be very well set money wise, or you need to get your parents or friends to co-sign a loan so you can start your education. It is absolutely doable to get a loan as long as you have a co-signer. If you own property you may also use that as a security for the education. Best thing to do is to talk to your bank first and see what they might advice you to do. It might be wise to look into several bank's to see what they might offer you. Interest is very different from bank to bank, so make sure that you check them all out.

The next blog will be about choosing schools and how you put them up against eachother to pick the right one.

Norflyer