“Just say no to saying no.”
Armed with this philosophy, Newburgh”™s spirited Heather Howley soldiered on to become a helicopter pilot despite misgivings of others. It didn”™t stop there. She next became an instructor, then owner of Independent Helicopters LLC at Stewart International Airport in New Windsor and Saratoga County Airport and is now spreading her wings with planned expansion into South Carolina in 2017.
There is no typical day for Howley, who oversees operation and maintenance of the firm”™s five helicopters and one simulator. She might be instructing an aspiring pilot, ferrying an aerial photographer, taking a utility company representative on an inspection tour of wires or transporting an executive to a Manhttan office.
Raised in upstate Niskayuna, she completed studies at Hudson Valley Community College in Troy.
“I originally planned to be a veterinarian, but I spent two months traversing Europe and was bitten by the travel bug,” she said. Selling everything, she moved to California, planning to enter a school for pilots. “A female instructor told me about helicopters. She convinced me that they have more stable jobs and make more money.”
The ensuing 20-month education, financed by student loans, cost $70,000. Upon completion of training, she received six job offers. Initially, she did not plan to go into her own business. “The school where I worked went out of business and I took on the students,” she said. At age 25 she leased her first helicopter, a smallish Robinson R22, valued at $170,000.
“An instructor”™s license requires a minimum of 200 flight hours,” Howley said, “but most employers require 1,000 hours.”
Howley”™s students start their training on a flight simulater. However, it was not a simulator, but the real thing, when a student reached in error for the fuel and air mixer which introduces fuel to the engine. An alert Howley intercepted the move. “The student had fingernail scars as a souvenir of the near mishap,” she said of her quick intervention.
One memorable flight was in transporting an aerial photographer around the Times Square area on a Fourth of July at sunset, waiting for lights to come on and watching the city come alive, she recalled.
Her flight school is approved for veterans, who can tap into their GI bill benefits, Howley said. “Even pilots who flew military helicopters need transitional training.”
Howley partners with SUNY Dutchess Community College, which already had an aviation program, supplementing their classroom instruction with hands-on lessons in the flight simulator and the choppers. The college offers an associate degree in aviation science.
“What girls need are role models to show them all that piloting has to offer,” Howley said. She was startled to get a visit from a 5-year-old attired in a bomber jacket all ready to go, “because her grandfather was a pilot.”
Howley became a young widow when her husband of a year and a half, Marius Ivascu, a pilot and skydiver, was killed in an air crash in August 2014 in Saratoga County. “We met during the sky diving competition at the Nu Cavu Restaurant in Wallkill,” she said. For their wedding, which was held at the Rhinebeck Aerodrome, Howley piloted the helicopter from which her husband parachuted from to the wedding party below.
“In his memory I raise funds to make scholarship donations annually: $1,000 to a man and $1,000 to a woman toward an aviation career.”
Howley is an active promoter of drawing visitors to Stewart Airport for other than hopping on a plane. At a Stewart Airport Commission meeting in September, she spoke of her vision of a “campus” featuring restaurants and stores.
She is a member of Women in Aviation International, Whirly-Girls and The Ninety-Nines Inc., both nonprofit groups dedicated to supporting female helicopter pilots.
Howley also partners with Girl Scouts to help them earn their aviation badges, adding “Individuals can begin helicopter pilot training at age 17.”
Challenging Careers focuses on the exciting and unusual business lives of Hudson Valley residents. Comments or suggestions may be emailed to Catherine Portman-Laux at cplaux@optonline.net.
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