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A Sense of Humor - and a Certain Sense of Paranoia

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We’ve all read the “Helicopter Pilots are Brooding Introverts” articles, but that certainly hasn’t been my experience. They say, “It makes perfect sense to be paranoid, when there are people out to get you.” We are products of the world we live in. Our environment shapes our personalities. Helicopter pilots are constantly trying to cope with circumstances that are beyond their control. Maybe an example would help illustrate the point. I was shuttling 12 Biologists from one isolated camp, 20 miles inland, 50 miles to another camp on the coast (my home camp), where they were being flown out by Twin Otter. I was taking three people at a time, and their gear. There was drum fuel at both ends. The weather was 3000’ overcast and 10 miles visibility when I left the camp on the coast to collect the first load. When I returned with the first three Biologists, the weather for the first 47 miles was fine, but quickly deteriorated to zero-zero in coastal fog during the last three. The Twin Otter circled, overhead, unable to land.  Mercifully, I had enough fuel to return the Biologists to their point of origin, but I ended up having to spend the night in their camp, with all MY gear in a cabin on the coast. Was I paranoid to carry enough fuel on each leg for a return flight? I have been burned too many times by coastal weather to take anything for granted. I would argue that I wasn’t paranoid, enough, to keep a change of clothes in the helicopter. A second important characteristic of a helicopter pilot is the ability for us to laugh at ourselves afterwards, learn from the experience, and recognize that occasionally, in spite of our best efforts, we will still occaisionally get tripped-up and have to make the best of it, overnight in a strange camp – or in the back of a helicopter. It can always be worse.

 

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