Advanced Certificate in Aviation

Skiv Devescovi enjoys helping the people he pilots for. Picture / Graeme Sedal

THE QUALIFICATION
Advanced Certificate in Aviation
Instructor Rating (Helicopter)
Approximately 105 hours
Heli-flight (NZ) Ltd
Ph: 09 299 1104
Expected salary: $35,000-$120,000
Cost: $56,654

The dream of being able to fly a helicopter becomes a reality for many people but not without a lot of work and a financial commitment. Anyone who wants to fly should go on a trial flight which is available for around $125.

After the first 50 hours or so of training, students can qualify for a Private Pilot's Licence. This will enable you to fly friends and family but not for hire.

The next step is gaining the Commercial Pilot's Licence which comes after about 150 hours of flying time. The total cost to reach this stage is around $67,500 and licences you to fly for hire.

Obtaining an Instructor Rating will further improve employment prospects. The course requires a commitment of 50 hours a week to flying and study to be a successful professional pilot. The course covers commercial navigation, human factors, helicopter handling and helicopter performance. The course is divided into two semesters of approximately 18 weeks each. It costs $56,654 and is offered by Heli-flight.

THE GRADUATE
Skiv Devescovi
Operations manager
North Shore Helicopters

Being a pilot was something I always wanted to do. And once trained I wanted to progress into the bigger helicopters. I saw the potential of moving from the training side to the commercial side.

The course was good, and well structured with set goals. They let you move at your own pace. I finished the course quite a bit quicker than I should have - did it in about six months and it's usually a year-long course. I was pretty motivated.

The course is practical and ideal for someone who hasn't got a university education because it's more a practical application - not sitting down and working out multiplication and division.

It's more putting things into a practical sense where you're working out headings for navigation. You have to be good at maths but obviously it's a lot easier when you're applying it to something more practical.

I've moved to being an operations manager of a quite a large company and am at the pinnacle of my career.

I'm flying charters. We have a lot of private owners who own their own twin engine helicopters and most of my work is flying them around. They prefer to fly with professional pilots to make sure they get where they're going.

I fly the BK117 which is exactly like the Westpac rescue helicopter and also the EC130 which is one of the newest helicopters in New Zealand.

If I had an instrument rating, I could fly offshore on the rigs and such. But I'm very happy where I am. I've got a wide variety of helicopters to fly and good people that we do the jobs for. I'm really enjoying it.

To be a commercial pilot you have to be a pretty rounded character and interested in helicopters. But you've got to be an outgoing person because obviously you're dealing with the public a lot and you have to get along with a wide variety of people - from your basic Kiwi guy who wants to go heli-fishing to someone who owns a $7.5 million helicopter that you fly.

THE EMPLOYER
Larry Bennett
Chief pilot and director
North Shore Helicopters

I hired Skiv mainly because of his personality. We were after a people person as much as a flying person really. We were after a pilot with the right attitude.

We look for honesty and reliability. In our game there also needs to be a bit of humbleness so that if something is wrong, you actually say that it's wrong, even if you stuffed up which not what everybody likes to do.

We have younger part-time pilots that come through that we allow to fly on a job-by-job basis. Starting at $50 a flying hour and as they advance through to bigger helicopters they get paid more. But the major money is to be made out of the city. For corporate pilots we're looking for that special person with the right attitude really.

It is a business that you wouldn't enter unless you had a love of flying and so it's more a passion. I think most employers are looking for someone who's going to put the hard work in and is capable of advancing. And certainly I don't know of anyone that wants a cowboy.