Allowing someone to manage your aircraft transaction takes a tremendous amount of trust. So, let me facilitate that relationship by sharing a bit about my background.
Prior to my 15 years in aviation, my career path was anything but typical. In high school, I was never satisfied to work at the local grocery store like my friends — I needed more variety and better return for my time. That led to some interesting work, from answering the ESPN on-screen “Comments and Questions” line to roaming festivals in a giant Kool-Aid Man costume. Admittedly, these jobs required varying amounts of professionalism, until I took a position as Front Desk Manager at the St. Regis Residences in Aspen, Colorado. Rooms here rented for $10,000+ a night, and it was my job to ensure guests had a flawless stay and enjoyed every staff interaction. It was there that I learned that the highest level of customer service is about developing and fostering genuine relationships. All of these jobs put me on a winding path to aviation, where I knew my career would be dynamic and always keep me on my toes.
On my journey to becoming a helicopter professional, one job that truly prepared me was my experience as a whitewater river guide. There are a lot of tasks associated with successfully running a river. You do extensive planning and research on the route. You analyze the river conditions, where the most significant challenges lie, your equipment, and the group dynamics of your paddlers. You practice to perform under pressure.
Once on the river, your primary responsibility as a guide is the safety of everyone in your boat. There are often multiple ways to navigate a whitewater rapid, but you evaluate and choose the safest path to make sure everyone comes out the other side unscathed. When encountering a rapid with significant complexity, you pause to “scout” it, much like the recon performed before landing a helicopter off-airport.
It’s not hard to see the parallels between river guiding and piloting a helicopter — there are many similarities. Of course, there are a few differences, too — like the helicopter equipment being worth roughly 1000 times more than the raft, and your chances of survival being slightly better if you fall out of the boat!
What I took from all this is how to keep my priorities in line. On the river, the passengers don’t truly “need” to travel downstream; in fact, they immediately get in a shuttle right back to where they started. The primary reasons they enlist a guide are:
- To keep them safe and protected from harm on the journey, and
- To have a great experience.
Despite the fact that my aviation clients often do need to get somewhere or get something done (like an aircraft sale), those underlying priorities hold true. This perspective has shaped my entire philosophy. The world we navigate is incredibly complex, and hazards are everywhere. My number one priority is ensuring the financial, mental, and physical well-being of my clients, not just getting them to their destination. And, you can always expect Five Star service standards and a trustworthy relationship along the way.
Written by: Dave Dziura, Sales Director
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