She is a pilot, she plays basketball. She is our guest today. 

Claire：Hello,everyone. Hot summer day, thunderstorm season. This is Claire. You arelistening to 5 Minutes with AOPA-China. Today, we have Zoe with us, she is ahelicopter pilot.

hey, It has been a long time. Thank you forjoining us.

Zoe：My pleasure.

Claire: We are alumni and we are basketball teammates.

Zoe: The good old days.

Claire:There are a few questions that Iwant to ask.

 Whatmakes you want to become a pilot?

Zoe: Well, simply put, I not a big fan ofstilettoes, and I happen to know you don’t have to wear those if you are apilot, especially when you are flying an aircraft. That’s what attracts me inthe first place. And when I dig into this profession, I find it challenging.And I sure know if I have to take a job, I definitely want to be challenged allthe time. And everyone loves to see the world in a bird view.

Claire: Why do you become a helicopterpilot instead of a fixed-wing one?

Zoe: Helicopter can take off and landvertically, so you don’t need a runway. This way, I could land on a mountaintop, a river bank, a school track field, a roof top and basically wherever youwant as long as there is a small pad.

Claire: Are you planning to get yourfixed-wing license?

Zoe: That will be a no.  Even though, best salaries I know are from bigairlines. I have a lot of friends who works for big airlines, I know the stressthey have. Most importantly, I really don’t want to work night schedule, and Ican’t avoid that if I work in large airlines.

Claire: do you know how many female pilotsin China? How many female general aircraft pilots in China? how many femalehelicopter pilots in China?

Zoe: I’ve heard it’s about hundreds, andthere will be more on the way. There are more than 60,000pilots in Chinaaccording to CAAC , and about 2% of them are female.

Claire:How many hours do you fly everyyear?

Zoe: It depends. Sometimes it’s more, andsometimes it’s less. But average is about 200 hours per year . General aviationpilots are not like airline pilots, we usually don’t have scheduled flights.

Claire: Did you find it difficult?

Z: Yeah, it’s a challenging job, I had topass medical exam, got a Class I certification, had to get my backgroundchecked, I had to pass written examination and practical examination. And afterall that, I still have to take one hour proficiency check on helicopter everyyear. There are always new relevant regulations I have to learn about.

Claire:Search and rescue is a big sector inpublic service. Are you involved with those operations?

Zoe: Those operations are usually moredangerous if done without extra caution. And I have been in search operation.Once I was given an instant notice that I had to start engine to fly around amountain,  to search a wild firelocation. And luckily we found it in time, so the fire was soon under controll.That kind of operation is what really gives me the joy. It makes me feel that Iam doing something for greater good.

Claire: You have opened a we chat officialaccount for helicopter flying right. What is it all about?

Zoe: As a helicopter pilot who graduatedwith English diploma, I have helped a lot of friends who has trouble in bothEnglish and piloting a helicopter. But there are so little about helicopterEnglish on the internet. My pilot friends asked me to explain about helicopterterminology all the time, and the same question was often brought uprepeatedly, so I thought, why don’t I sort the answers out and put them on ablog or something like that, so that they can check answers out by themselves. Iam still a rookie on this new form of sharing, so please subscribe and comment.You can get my sharing by scanning the QR code below. Let me know what do youwant to know.

Claire: Hey, guys. Check it out. Let usknow what do you think.

AOPA-China is working to connecting GA aircraftowners and pilots together. Welcome to our community, and we are family.