In September NTMA offered me the opportunity to train as a helicopter pilot in an almost new Robinson R-44 helicopter. This helicopter is on its way to Indonesia early 2008, but was available to be flown through the fall. In the past New Tribes has had trouble finding helicopter pilots who meet all of their requirements. They have decided that they now need to train their own.
New Tribes flies helicopters in parts of Papua New Guinea and Indonesia where the terrain is not suitable to build airstrips and during the initial move into remote locations before an airstrip is built.
I will finish my private and commercial helicopter licenses this fall. I have more helicopter time that I would need to build in order to meet their insurance requirements, but having the licenses would give me the opportunity to do this when they need a helicopter pilot down the road. They are only charging me the actual costs of operating the helicopter during this training, so it is relatively inexpensive (as far as flying a helicopter goes). After only three weeks of flying the helicopter I was able to fly it for the first time by myself. This was quite the experience. It took all of my concentration and I was so tense that I had leg cramps when the whole thing was over!
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