Jan Becker - Pilot Trainer
“I think it is one of the most exciting times in aviation history. There has never been a time like this ever. Everything’s cyclic, and if they ever wanted to get into helicopters, but now the time to shine,” says Jan Becker, pilot and manager of Becker Helicopters, a helicopter school in Queensland.
 “My dad was a pilot, aviation was in my blood.” Jan explains how she got into the industry. “Mike, who I married, trained to be a helicopter pilot, so I travelled around the world with him. He wanted to start a helicopter school, because there wasn’t any young dedicated teachers. He saw that as an opportunity.”
Jan manages Becker Helicopters, although, she does fly in her spare time. Her role is to coordinate different aspects of the school.
“It’s a helicopter training facility. So we train pilots from all over the world.” 85% of the students are international students. Jan’s role involves the marketing, aspects of the licences and the financial controlling. “It’s a very dynamic and exciting world. Sometimes in an office you work with the same people day in and day out. Here it is a constant flow of students from different walks of life. The atmosphere is great!”
At the school, there are between 30 and 60 students a year. There are 40 full timers, and 40 doing alternative study, like night training, or basic short courses. The entire course takes between nine and thirteen months.
“I also manage many other aspects, like the husbandry of students, the care, the housing, all round general management.”
On a day-to-day basis, she looks after the management of the school. “It would be I come in and I check out what’s happening in the flight roster, which students are in what flight. Then I would be involved in email and following up marketing, then I sit in the financial chair and do finances, financial management.” Jan says. “And then everything else that takes to run a business, and always seeking the opportunities to expand the business. It’s very hands on, onto flight ops, I’m kind of the glue between different divisions, I’m seeing the hangar and the engines, the chief engineers and chief ground instructors, I’m not the boss, I’m just the connection between the management teams, which is a great place to be.”
To be a pilot, you just need to be able to pass a pilot medical and have a desire to learn, Jan says. “You don’t need high school maths or have good eye coordination.” The average age of helicopter training is 33-40 years of age.
“All the ex-Vietnam pilots are retiring, so there’s never been a better time to be a pilot. There’s an increase in helicopter use, being used by fire-fighters, medics, mining and to fight terrorism. The use of helicopters is increasing. They haven’t trained pilots as they need. The best time to be a pilot. And airlines have aircraft on the ground because they don’t have the pilots.”
But Jan shares that being a pilot isn’t something you wake up one morning and become. “It’s 2-3 year plan. It’s not idea of the month. It’s hard work, and you have to be very tenacious, to get the good jobs. You have to have an attitude of can-do. Be multitasking.”
If you have a bad day at the office as an accountant, nobody dies, she says. If you don’t work out your fuel calculations, somebody may die. “You can’t be a sloppy person and be a pilot. ‘There are no old bold pilots’ is an saying in the industry. If you’re always the cowboy, you will die. If you push the weather, the weight, you crash. You have to maintain professional vigilance and have high standards.”
But Jan also teaches classes at the Helicopter school. She does ground training, and teaches the medical aspects, like human factors and human limitations.
And, surprisingly, Jan also works one day a week in the medical industry. “I was a registered nurse and mid wife first, then I was working with Medivac in New Guinea.“ Then she met her husband and became involved in helicopters.
“But I do like the same challenges and level of responsibly in medicine and flying.” Jan explains. “They do mix very well.”
But having a medical background has all the more benefit when she’s teaching pilots about the limits of the human body in flight. “When I teach human factors, it’s a medical role, and the psychology of being a pilot. I have an understanding of both sides.”
“Flying helicopters is exciting, but it’s hard work.” Jan says. “ You need to overcome your demons, get beyond that. You’re in this metal contraption that every day is trying to kill you. You need to do air exercises, we do a hover land in a pattern, Do that for hours. You need to be able to do it well. Some people get frustrated. You need to keep going and not give up.”
Jan shares her goal of making Becker Helicopters to the next level. They aim to be the international flight training school of choice, internationally. An Industry leader in new initiatives. “We’re about to train with night vision goggles.” Says Jan.
The best part of the job?
The diversity of the students and the teams that I work with, because it’s very dynamic. So I really enjoy that.
The hardest part of the job?
People management. Meeting the distance between expectation and delivery. When a student flies a helicopter, they’re full of very high highs and very lows lows – they fly solo and they’re high, but might not go so well in navigation, and added to the pressure of being away from home, and they’re very low.
What personal qualities are needed for the job?
Professionalism, airmanship and professionalism. It’s not enough to want to fly, The qualities that you need are the tenacity to remain professional, to take the training and the job seriously. The most important thing Mike would say is that attitude of professional, safety, can-do. You have to be personable, too. You can’t be slack with your pre-flight routine. You can’t pull out of the side of the road if you get a flat tire.
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