It’s A Pilot’s Life For Me
Bottom line: without a helicopter, there is still skiing. But without a good – really good – helicopter pilot, there is no heliskiing. That’s why we have guys like Joel Valentine from Access Helicopters fly our machines.
Joel has been flying with us since 1998, partly because he loves the challenge of precision flying, partly because he loves meeting amazing people from around the world and partly because he loves seeing the smiles on the faces of those people after he has flown them through what he calls the “most beautiful part of our country.”
There are quite a few characters that come through the doors of our lodges, and Joel has had the privilege of meeting a lot of them. But his most memorable moment is the story behind the naming of the run “Striptease” at Bell 2. He landed on the top of the run and everybody loaded out of the helicopter. Because the ground crew had been moving the helicopter in and out of the hangar, there were a couple of bolts sticking out from the skids. One of the guests had his back turned to the helicopter (which is a no-no), and was just a bit too close to the skids. As Joel lifted up, one of the bolts hooked the back of the guy’s jacket and started slowly lifting him up off of the ground…so he lifted his arms up and the helicopter slowly pulled the jacket over his head. The show was cut short when the guide radioed up to Joel, and he lowered the jacket back down so that the gentleman could put it back on…the ladies in the group: understandably disappointed. Thus, the run earned it’s name: “Striptease.”
Apart from occasionally undressing people with his helicopter, Joel focuses on the other aspects of precision flying that are necessary in flying for heliskiing. The weather is always changing, the operation is always moving and the machine is always going. But, as he says, the challenge is part of what makes it so interesting. “You have to know your machine and know your distances, because landing between people when snow is blowing and the visibility is bad isn’t a job we send a rookie up to do,” he says, “nobody is in danger because the set ups are done properly and the pilots are trained specifically for this kind of work.”
A typical day in the life of a pilot up at Last Frontier Heliskiing starts with a coffee in the crew house at 6 AM and Guides’ Meeting at 7:00, where the team goes over everything from weather, snow conditions, and the plan for the day. With a takeoff at 9, the pilot and lead guide will establish a pattern and program for the day, and the three groups go non-stop until lunchtime. Lunch happens in a place that is the most beautiful and most suitable for the weather that day. The helicopter flies until around 3:00 or 3:30 PM during the early season, but those days get longer later on in the season. Joel says that he is happy with a day “at the office” when he delivers his groups home safely and can meet them in the lounge for snacks to hear about the adventures of the day.
Joel hopes that this winter Mother Nature will be on our side again and give us another deep winter in which there are unforgettable turns in unbelievable terrain. We hope that everyone can keep their clothes on.
Check Access Helicopters out on Facebook here.