My name is Jean-François Daigle and I am from the Montreal region. When I decided to take my professional helicopter pilot training at Passport Hélico; I was barely 19 years old. It took me about 10 months of training to complete this license.

In 2012, jobs in the helicopter industry were more difficult to find. I quickly turned to another area; so I went back to university in business administration. I spent four wonderful years at the University of Quebec in Trois-Rivières. Immediately with the diploma in hand, I was about to embark on a master’s degree when I decided to seek employment in the field that was most dear to me: helicopter pilot.

In the spring of 2018, I therefore returned to Passport Hélico in order to take news and check the needs on the piloting side. I have been hired by Passport Hélico as a commercial pilot for over a year and a half.

The adventure begins with a very complete training to obtain the rights to operate commercially. Subsequently, I was assigned to a summer contract in Baie-St-Catherine, near Tadoussac. This contract consisted in carrying out tourist tours of the region. This experience allowed me to double my flight hours. When I returned, I was lucky to be assigned to another contract, which took place in winter in Piedmont in the Laurentians. We did sightseeing tours from this place for a period of 3 months. These two experiences have allowed me to reach more than 350 hours in less than a year.

Once the winter contract ended, I had the opportunity to work in the maintenance department for Passport Hélico since I already had skills in this area. I worked full time in this department, which allowed me to deepen my knowledge from a mechanical helicopter point of view. By being full time at the base in Mascouche, this allowed me to continue to increase my flying hours.

In order to perfect my journey, Passport Hélico put me in contact with Héli-Explore. This company was looking for ground staff, but for work in remote areas, for a short time. This work experience consisted of going to the James Bay region for the Goosebreak. I worked, as a ground staff member, which allowed me to see the kind of work to be done in northern Ontario. This staff exchange between Passport Hélico and Heli-Explore allowed me to accumulate a few hours on the EC30, which was a big advancement for my career. When I returned to Mascouche, I received complete training on EC30 to obtain the annotation. To date, I have accumulated more than 400 hours of flight time and I hold a full-time pilot position for Passport Hélico.