NICK SHEW - ENGLAND

I left Beckers almost immediately after getting my CPL in June 2005. The timing was perfect as the Glastonbury festival started just after I got over my jet lag and I was able to eat drink and be merry for 5 days in amongst 150,000 people, music and the most mud I have ever seen in my life!

My plan at the beginning was a five year plan that started out with getting to Australia and learning to fly helicopters. I reckoned that would take a year. Another 4 ought to be enough to work the rest out.

When I got back to the UK and cleaned all the Glastonbury mud of I took a 3 month IT contract to boost my bank balance. This was really useful to me in two ways. The first was obviously the money. The second, however, was a big surprise. I had given up IT to go traveling and find out what I wanted to do. One of the first people I bumped into in Thailand was a helicopter engineer and we got talking. He reminded me that I had always fancied flying helicopters. But like driving formula 1 cars and dating Elle McPherson I had put this along way to the back of my mind as something that would never happen.

Now though the spark had come back and 7 months later I find myself back in England at my sisters’ house seriously entertaining the idea. I looked at America, South Africa, New Zealand and Australia for my training, and Beckers came out top of the list. I think that training at Beckers was the right decision as Australia as very heliocentric so there’s lots of experience and the types of flying ie mountains and sling loading hones your skills and can only be a help in the future. It’s also great fun! Coming back to IT however made me wonder how on earth I had kept doing it for 15 years and reinforced my decision to pursue a career as a pilot.

I have now passed the 13 JAR ATPL(H) exams. (You think you have it bad with CASA, try being interested in the flight director system on a 737 or the North Atlantic Track System) I have also done the modular course and passed my CPL(H) skills test. I’m now the proud owner of a *very* expensive plastic wallet from the CAA that says I’m allowed to fly helicopters commercially in Europe.

The options now available to me seem a bit limited, and I’m just about to start putting my self about to see if anybody will employ a low hour pilot with a 22 endorsement. (The CAA won’t honor any type ratings on my Aussie license with less than 500 hours on type).

I have done very little flying since coming back from Australia which has been quite frustrating and it’s not always easy to keep focused on what it is I am trying to achieve. But taking it one step at a time and having faith in the decision I made 2 years ago has got me to a point that I’m actually looking for jobs!!

Last year my little sister got married, so I got myself current again and hired a 44. She and her now husband got married in an old priory out in the countryside and I managed to get the owner to mow out a landing pad in a field next to the priory. When they were inside the building I put the 44 down behind some trees so they didn’t notice it was there. After the ceremony everyone walked down to where the transport would be (we had to make up a story that the transport couldn’t turn around at the top of the lane). My sisters face was a peach at she saw the helicopter parked up. I also hadn’t realized (she is a skydiver) that neither her nor her husband had ever been in a helicopter before.

This flight had to be on par with my first solo for nerves though. I had my sister and her new husband in the back, all of my family were watching me for the first time, all my new family from Ians side were watching as were my friends. God I was nervous. To top it that day was my first solo in UK airspace.

I keep in touch with Sam Jenkins who is currently currently embroiled in the JAR exams (good luck), John Dignan and his wife Karen who I saw recently for Hogmany, Logan Bass and Shano. I have heard from Dan the man in Austria too. Unfortunately I don’t have much contact with Pete, Christine or Sandra but I wish them all the best. I am also in regular contact with David, Mara and Andrew Stott, Vitas family.

Well Maraina wanted to know what the best and worst flying experiences were… one of them I still have a t-shirt for: ‘Nick Shew; CPL; (Chopper of Plants and Leaves); Deforestation Expert; No Tree too tall, No Job too small; Using only the sharpest BELL 47 blades (Sorry Mike); Ask me for a quote – thanks John!

I keep thinking of more when I think of good moments. Probably the most memorable would have to be chasing a Kangaroo in the low flying area south of the airfield, and the tree chopping incident which was a very scary moment – also quite possibly the confined area Mike took me into afterwards to make sure I knew what I was supposed to be doing. Oh yes, and returning from a long nav with another student and running out of aft cyclic on the taxiway due to my passenger having a belly life jacket on. Lots of shouting and some quick reshuffling followed by a minor quick stop and taxiway D was ours for the taking!

In the UK, I have done my first solo night flight and flown the helilanes in London which is part of the Heathrow airspace. The latter was fun as one section must be flown at 750 feet over southwest London… I know that pub… and that one, and that one etc.
There are so many great flights, and also a few badduns from those days when you just can’t make the numbers fit. It’s at this point I run out of words to describe the experience of learning to fly a helicopter… it’s been emotional.

I feel I can’t talk about my learning experience without mentioning Lester and Vita. They were both integral in my learning of helicopters and shaped me as a pilot. I miss you both.

My advice to students?
Persevere. Do the ground work, it shows in your flying if you don’t. If you are thinking of turning your CASA CPL(H) into a JAR CPL(H) talk to me. I have had some rude awakenings and would like to pass them on so others don’t have to suffer them.

There’s loads more to tell, but I think I’ll save that for the tall story sessions over a beer