NIGEL THOMAS - UNITED KINGDOM (NOW AUSTRALIAN)

When did you leave Beckers? in November 2004

What did you do after you trained with us? Spent a month or so in the left seat of Jetrangers with Heli-Aust (Bankstown) – chasing grasshoppers on behalf of the NSW Rural Lands Protection Board – got a feel for a real commercial helicopter operation and snuck in a few hours of stick time in the process !

Then spent a year with Ag operator in Ballarat – County Helicopters, working ground crew and doing all the ferrying / positioning flights (R22) – put on about 100 hours in that period, and worked on all sorts of missions, from crop spraying, to pasture improvement, fertilizing and orchard work all over Victoria and South Australia.

What are you doing now? Enjoying being a new father (and looking forward to wedding late September) – back in IT for as short a period as I can possibly manage (hating every moment of it, but need the dollars in the bub’s early years and like to be close to home for the time being). Plan is make use of the IT $$’s to buy up the remaining hours to be able to embark on an Instructors rating to a) Keep flying regularly, b) sharpen the skills and c) head towards the 500+ hours, study for IREX and maybe ATPL to be marketable to relatively stable big machine operators as a co-ie, offshore on a rotation to try to combine a bit of stability with the constant desire to be spending my days doing something I love.

How many hours have you flown? A smidge over 250

Do you still keep in touch with other students from Beckers? Aaah – they’re like slipping into an old pairs of slippers – very comfortable and always full of interesting updates – Shane-O, Monkey-boy, Sonic etc. It’s always fun !!!

Best or worst flying experience after Beckers? Best experience – passing CPL(H). Worst experience dummy CPL(H) !!!! Apart from that it was just the most satisfying and rewarding 9 months of my life – I would have loved it to continue for longer !!!

Advice to new students? Make sure you love it. Make absolutely sure that you’ve got the funds left at the end of your training to supplement your income if you’re lucky enough to get a ground floor, hangar rat kind of job, and the pay that goes with it. Aim for a year at least !!