An old friend of mine (about a year or two older, actually – so he’s pushing 60) has always wanted to be a Helicopter Pilot. My wife is a Commercial Pilot and flight instructor, familiar with the field and she advised caution. There are lots of reasons why aviation is a poor career choice at the moment and many more reasons why Helicopter Pilot is a bad career choice. She did 30 seconds of Googling and found out that Silver State Helicopters did not have such a good reputation and was in litigation for some of the problems it was having with its school.
My friend, however, listened to his heart rather than his head and went for achieving a life-long dream. He isn’t stupid, in fact he is one of the brighter people I know. He plopped down $70,000 and got a contract that promised that he would get a commercial Helicopter license. I don’t think that my friend ever got to solo before the company closed up shop and ran with the money.
When you hear about these things you wonder how someone could be so dumb. The thing is, my friend isn’t dumb. He’s smart, enthusiastic, involved with life and not afraid of jumping into something entirely new, difficult, dangerous and potentially rewarding. These are the characteristics that has made him my friend these last 25 years. His only mistake was taking a big chance with the possibility of a big payoff at the end. It’s not like he didn’t know the odds. He felt the reward was worth almost any risk.
I am reminded of my favorite little rhyme by the the poet Montrose:
or his deserts are small,
who dares not put it to the touch
to win or lose it all.
There’s a Google forum for Silver State Helicopters where students can share resources.