Have you ever complained about the sound of a helicopter’s blades disturbing your peace as they ‘pass Go’ more than 400 times a minute?
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Pilots of the craft are a rarer breed than plane pilots as it is, but the only way any become qualified to operate emergency choppers is to get 2000 flying hours under their belt.
Air ambulances, water bombers and rescue helicopters are all operated by skilled pilots who’ve steadfastly honed their craft to be able to help people in dire need, usually to save them from near-certain death.
So, maybe you spat a little coffee while reading The News at your breakfast table when your roof vibrated as Kialla’s James Briggs flew his R44 overhead one morning, but one day he could potentially be the pilot who saves your life.
Mr Briggs is one of only around eight helicopter pilots in the Shepparton area.
He started his chopper-flying journey in 2017 with Melbourne Helicopters.
He chose a city-based facility so he could learn to fly in a controlled air space and get experience dealing with air traffic control — something you don’t get above a rural aerodrome — to make it less daunting navigating the skies once he was able to fly solo.
One needs 52 hours of flying time to obtain a private helicopter pilot’s licence.
Mr Briggs said how long it took to achieve depended on how knowledgable the trainee was, what their study habits were like and how quickly they picked it up.
“For every hour of flying, there’s four hours of theory,” Mr Briggs said.
“They say it takes at least five hours just to learn how to hover.”
It’s not a matter of just operating the machine and learning all the switches and gauges either; there are weights, wind speeds, temperatures and air density to calculate.
Mr Briggs fully embraced his training in 2017, nurturing his knack, and nine months later was baptised a qualified pilot who, like a baby emerging from the womb after the same duration, tapped into a whole new world.
“It’s like getting your car licence and taking off in your ute for the first time on steroids; it’s the ultimate freedom,” Mr Briggs said.
“It really is a magic carpet that you sort of fly around.
“Fly sideways; fly backwards.”
He said doing such wasn’t so much an answer to his inner daredevilish voice’s call as it was, ironically, a measure towards safety.
Practising tricky manoeuvres helps to keep his muscle memory sharp and his body and mind calm under pressure to allow him to correct any problems if the craft ever got into a weird angle, which it has in the past.
“I had a drive-train failure down near Sorrento-Queenscliff area and had to auto rotate down to a paddock with no engine power,” Mr Briggs said.
“I had a passenger with me who was yelling and screaming while I was trying to focus.”
While concentrating hard to save their lives, Mr Briggs also had to allay his passenger’s fears by trying to convince him the worst case scenario would be a couple of broken legs.
Adversities at height don’t spook him from returning to the skies though.
Instead they boost his confidence.
“I’m a real pilot now, I can deal with it,” Mr Briggs said, with a laugh.
On a more serious note, he says that it proved to him if he found himself in future emergency situations, he would be able to execute the skills he’s been taught first and deal with his emotions afterwards.
The adrenaline junkie has been skydiving for 15 years, since he was 21, and has performed around 500 jumps, not all of which have been smooth.
“I’ve had a couple of parachute failures, so I’ve dealt with those as well,” he said.
“Time does slow down when you’re doing 300km/h and you’re plummeting at the ground and your parachute doesn’t come out or it comes out in a twisted bowtie and you’ve got a few seconds to deal with it.
“You just calm yourself down, assess what you’re going to do, and not hesitate.”
One of five kids in a family that grew up in Tatura, Mr Briggs didn’t know anyone into aviation as a child but was always fascinated by it.
As a young adult, he got sponsored to take part in Parachute 4 Poverty to skydive for orphanages.
He was instantly hooked on the sport.
“In some ways it was safer than playing footy, and my mum wouldn’t let me play footy, so I took up skydiving,” Mr Briggs said.
He said meeting pilots and hanging around in hangars came with the skydiving territory.
He became more interested in the aerodynamics of the planes, but decided that helicopters were “much cooler”.
While he has done half his plane pilot’s course, he joked that it was “pretty boring”.
“It’s good doing aerobatics and flying upside down and getting places fast, and if you want to take a lot of weight or a lot of people,” Mr Briggs said.
“But helicopters are just so much more fun.”
A building apprentice at age 14 and now the owner of his own construction company — JMB Modular Buildings — his chopper and licence have opened more doors for business growth, too.
From business meetings in Melbourne, site checks in one of the four states he’s now registered to build in, or chauffeuring clients through the skies to “schmooze” them, it’s been a handy addition to his toolkit.
“I had 23 guys working for me in my business and we had worked all across NSW and Victoria, I needed to get around quickly,” Mr Briggs said.
“For a good year, I’d do a week’s worth of work in a day, but mentally I wasn’t switching off, I wasn’t sleeping properly because I was just so active.
“I was enjoying it, but ultimately it was a fast-track to burnout.
“I ended up in hospital, had some back surgeries, so I got into helicopters as a back-up career, so if I get out of building and end up flying for Air Ambulance or something, it’s a skill I can build on.”
He said for now, building remained his passion and his career, and aviation was his side hobby.
“On a Saturday afternoon if we’re not doing anything, we’ll just jump in and fly over to Mitchelton, get a coffee, or over to Tocumwal, there’s a café around there,” he said.
He said once he bought his aircraft, there was nothing apart from financial restrictions that could stop him from going anywhere he wanted to in Australia for the weekend.
He’s touched down in the middle of the Nullarbor to camp for a night on his own, nervously refuelling the chopper on his own with the extra fuel he had to carry for the lengthy trip.
He’s been stuck in the Flinders Ranges without reception or a satellite phone and an expiring ‘SAR’ (search and rescue time), which resulted in a rescue jet being deployed, which dropped him a survival pack.
“I flew over near Adelaide and then I followed the coastline all the way around The Bite, you know flying low level, I saw everything,” Mr Briggs said.
“You’re flying through the desert, you see bulls, wild horses; you’re flying along the coast, I saw 35 whales, massive turtles; you don’t see that when you’re just driving along or on a plane because you’re too high.
“You can pull up and hover and take it all in in a helicopter.
“To fly in your local town is cool, too. The first time I flew here I got a different perspective of my home town.”
Like his wife, he’s not fond of the stigma that flying helicopters is a pastime reserved for VIPs and rich people.
“For me, I don’t care about any of that,” Mr Briggs said.
“Yes, it’s expensive to maintain, but I’ve been able to buy one, lease it back to the flight school, lease it to Land Survey and with my aviation career I’ve basically broken even, so I’ve managed to fly up to about 850 hours and it hasn’t really cost me anything through smart business techniques.
“I just have a passion for aviation — it’s just like someone who plays basketball or soccer, I just love doing it and I’ve found a way to make it happen.”
His two children, aged 5 and 7, don’t see it as a novelty either, as it’s something they’ve always known Dad to do.
“My son has probably done 250 flights, it’s so normal for him,” Mr Briggs said.
“You know, you don’t want him to be a spoilt little brat, but then if he can develop the right skills and show enough interest, then maybe one day he can fly for Air Ambulance or Westpac and save people’s lives.
“That’s what I tie it all back to. It might be annoying for some people, but that’s how heroes can do their jobs.
“When people are drowning in the bay, it’s the police helicopter that will fish them out with a winch, or people are stuck on cliffs and the Westpac helicopter will go in, or you go into cardiac arrest riding your motorbike somewhere remote it’s the Air Ambulance that will come and save your life.”
A fixed wing aircraft can get you close to the city and in a road ambulance to the hospital through the streets, but a helicopter can land on a hospital’s roof, meaning you could be inside the facility’s emergency department within 30 minutes of taking off from the Goulburn Valley.
Mr Briggs says it’s not always easy to tell if spectators on the ground armed with cameras are thrilled aviation enthusiasts themselves or disgusted by the commotion.
He does his best to change perspectives, taking neighbours and other random people (such as journalists and their aviation-obsessed sons) flying from time to time in the name of education.
He said whether it was because they did or didn’t like it, everyone was interested in his helicopter and happy to discuss it.
“I reckon I’ve taken 150 people for a flight,” Mr Briggs said.
“It brings the joy back to me again.
“I still love it, of course, but the shine’s come off a little bit, so to introduce people to it for the first time, people who just love it, it just makes it all a bit more exciting again.”
Senior journalist