Day 1 of My Quest to be a Whirly Girl

Today was orientation day at Bristow Academy in Titusville, Florida. I am one of 12 students in the professional pilot course class of September 2009. I wish I had gotten a picture of all the books, manuals, and paperwork at each of our seats when we entered the classroom. Overwhelming is an understatement.

The 12 students include:

• 4 men from China
• 2 men and 1 woman from Norway
• 1 man from Trinidad / Tobago
• 2 men and 2 women (myself included) from the USA

It is quite ironic that Bristow has 3 females in this class of 12. Typically, there is only 1 female student every other month, so to have 3 female students all in the same class is very rare.

Promptly at 0800 hrs, Alan Olden, Chief Ground Instructor, took us through most of our orientation day from 8 - 11 am, with additional segments presented by:

Francois Ganswyk, Chief Flight Instructor (VFR)

Nick Mayhew, General Mgr & JAA Examiner

Anisha Hopkinson, Student Services Manager

Gregory Popp, Business Development Manager

Mike Stettner, Assistant Chief Flight Instructor

Key themes for the day were:

• Target Zero: Safety is the number one priority for students, staff, customers, and anyone on site.
• Unlike college where you can usually forget what you learned last semester and still do well the following semester, everything we learn from minute one on site is critical to our future success as a helicopter pilot. These building blocks are the foundation for our entire career, and we should remember all that is taught and continue to build on that knowledge each day.
• Never stop learning.
• Be courageous and speak out if you see anything remotely unsafe.
• My full time job is to LEARN, LEARN, LEARN... and then, LEARN some more.
• Look for the fun to get through the hard work.
• Be the BEST you can be!

After the first 3 hours of orientation and safety information, the flight instructors came in to have us complete some more paperwork. The 3 of us ladies are assigned to flight instructor Philipp Wynands, originally from Germany. Once we completed our paperwork, we were dismissed for an hour for lunch, then we were to meet back at Flight Operations at 1300 hrs.

In our paperwork, we had a list of required books which were waiting for us on arrival with an additional list of recommended books. In addition to the expected tuition of $15,340 for the Professional Pilot course, I spent about $260 in the Bristow flight store on recommended books and supplies.

Another big ticket item I still have yet to acquire is an aviation headset which will last for my entire flight career. The one many pilots recommend is the Bose Aviation Headset X which runs about $995. I am a huge fan of Bose products, and as a very satisfied customer of their noise canceling stereo headphones, I expect great things from the Bose Aviation Headset X as well.

At 1300 hrs, the 3 ladies met Philipp at Flight Operations for a tour of the facility, some more paperwork, and a more private get to know each other ground session. Since all of us expect to work our way through to the Commercial Flight Instructor with Instrument rating, we will be together for the next 9-11 months.

Somehow, one aspect of training that I completely misunderstood was in relation to when we would begin flying. I understood that we would have 7 full weeks of ground school before we could begin the flight portion of our instruction. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that, as soon as Bristow gets our student accounts opened, we can begin flying, possibly as early as tomorrow. Wow - that is such great news!

My schedule for weeks 1 through 4 will be ground school from 0800-1200 hrs. Weeks 5 through 7 will be from 1200-1600 hrs. Tests will be on September 30, October 8, and October 28 with a final written test on November 2.

Week one consists of systems and components coursework, approximately 9 chapters in 4 days / 16 hours of ground school. As it stands, I may not fly tomorrow, but it is still a possibility. Apparently, the first 5 flights or so will feel very overwhelming before we finally relax and feel like we are retaining the overload of information being thrown at us so quickly.

It is rewarding to learn that an education at Bristow is by far the best possible helicopter education in the USA. Students come from far and wide to train at this school, and I am honored to have been selected to be part of this class. I know these 9-11 months will go by very quickly.

For those that have connected on Facebook, pictures from today are posted at:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=110666&id=661278493&l=616257c591

Stay safe!