Hi, I’m Kirsten and I am an aerial optimist. I work as a commercial helicopter pilot, flight instructor and charter pilot. I often get asked why I fly, or what lead me to this career. Besides the fact that it encompasses every aspect of my interest, (which results in a simultaneous fulfilment and a fix, if you will.) I fly because of who I’ve become through it.

You’re constantly pushed to the edge of yourself until you’re forced to take the courageous leap from your present self to the next. Your weaknesses, so blatantly exposed thereby forcing you to confront yourself and work through them before you can advance. It goes against the grain of society, where we’re so distracted by the inconsequential and meaningless and never encouraged to awaken to our true selves. It’s with that awakening that we begin to fulfill our potential and serve a purpose beyond the surface obvious. It gives life a layered meaning and flying a higher function. It’s incredible how your present state is exposed through the controls, and how the way you make the helicopter move emulates the state of your mind. Flying is an art form, and just like the more conventional mediums of expression you can’t hide from yourself in what it is you create through your movement.

Similarly, your environment is forever changing and the landscape to which you work requires a response to that change. It’s ultimately our ability to respond to change, or adapt to change that determines our success in life. Being constantly exposed to this sense of dynamism, and mastering (or at least practicing) the ability to make instantaneous decisions by applying knowledge and experience is an active, and alive means to progression and a path void of stagnation. Everything is in a state of change, and flying allows you to become more perceptive to it, whether it be internal or external in the manifestation of season of the land over which you fly. Your “office” Is alive, and its in the company of life that you learn what it means to be living…

Qualifications: 

• ICAO CPL(H) , Single Engine instrument rating, Night rating, Grade II flight instructor rating
• EASA (Frozen ATPL) Multi Engine instrument rating
• RH22,RH44,RH66, Agusta 109e type rated