Flying over New York in a helicopter is a dream for many people. Jacqueline Sellmann does this several times a day. The young woman from Hamburg is a helicopter pilot in the US metropolis
–
–
It all started with a gift. For her 18th birthday, Jacqueline Sellmann received a voucher for a twenty-minute helicopter trial flight from her mother.
«After the flight I was tied up. That was what I wanted to do, »says the native of Hamburg. “I registered for the private pilot license at the flight school next week.”
At sunset it is most beautiful
The 30-year-old later trained as a professional helicopter pilot in Hawaii – and now works in what is probably the most exciting airspace in the world, directly above Manhattan. Sellmann flies groups of around six tourists around New York up to 25 times a day. Depending on the tour booked, 12, 17 or 25 minutes long, always with Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty on the program, on the longest tour straight from Staten Island in the south to the north in the Bronx.
For many passengers, these tours, which cost around $200, are a lifetime dream and the highlight of their New York visit. For Sellmann, however, they are now routine. “The first year I flew here was really nice. It’s still very nice, too, but it’s not really that wow moment anymore. Sometimes when the sun goes down it’s still like, ‘Wow, that’s really nice. But it gets very dry at some point, and you’re very used to it.”
During the flights, Sellmann is the pilot and tourist guide, who explains to her passengers what they see down there on the ground. “You have to report that, because all buildings look different from the air.” She likes to do this at sunset. “If you fly south again, you can see the sun reflecting off all the buildings – orange, red, that looks really nice.”
The most complicated airspace in the USA
Recently she was even able to take her cousin and his fiancee with her. “It was the first visit from Germany in two years because of the corona pandemic. They didn’t have to pay and they could just come on the flight and it really had been so long since you could do anything with the family, which was really nice.”
At the same time, of course, she has to keep an eye on her surroundings and communicate with all the responsible authorities – and that, as Sellmann says, in the busiest and most complicated airspace in the country next to Los Angeles.
“When they showed me the flight ticket during the interview, I almost ran out. I came from Hawaii, where there is an airport on every island and almost no communications at all. You can basically fly where you want to go. The first few months in New York I was really overwhelmed, just because there’s so much communication on the radio and there’s all the different airspaces – from LaGuardia airport, John F. Kennedy airport and Newark airport, and they’re all overlapping. But now it’s not so bad. You just have to get used to it and know who to talk to.”
Luckily nothing has ever happened. “There have been a few situations where you thought maybe I shouldn’t do that again. But nothing worse than this thought has happened yet.”
Countless airplanes and helicopters populate the sky over New York every day – and the noise of the helicopters in particular, whether they are used by the police, to transport business people or for sightseeing flights for tourists, repeatedly causes complaints from residents. According to the city authorities, thousands of calls are received every year.
Sellmann is aware of the problem. “You try to fly over water so you don’t disturb the people who are at home because there’s really a lot of helicopter traffic over New York. They are really very loud, especially when they fly over houses,” says the Hamburg resident. “Sometimes you have to fly over houses because there’s no other route, but the tours try to keep them over the Hudson River to avoid houses as much as possible.”
She herself wears noise-cancelling headphones against the noise – in the helicopter anyway, but often outside as well. “You have to try to protect your ears as much as possible because otherwise you will have problems sooner or later. That comes with the job.”
The world of pilots in the US is “100 percent a man’s world,” says Sellmann. “I’ve been told time and time again that only one percent of all pilots in America are women. At the beginning you have to assert yourself a little more, show a little more that you can really fly. Because people write you off that you’ve only gotten this far because you’re a woman.”
She doesn’t want to be a passenger
Flying gives her a “very liberating feeling,” says Sellmann. Planes would also appeal to her, but at the moment she prefers the helicopter. “Of course it’s much smaller and you don’t get that far. But an airplane isn’t quite as flexible either. With the helicopter you can circle around the Statue of Liberty, circle around the Freedom Tower, you can slow down a bit, you can land anywhere, there’s just a lot more options.” And also “a lot more fun”, as the pilot adds.
In addition, there are many different career opportunities in the industry that she could well imagine for the future, says Sellmann, who is also trained as a paramedic: rescue pilot, for example, control oil platforms, fly police helicopters or bring their employees to larger airports on behalf of companies.
Only one thing excludes Sellmann: passenger. “I feel better when I fly myself. I don’t like flying with other people, it’s like driving a car, I’m not a good passenger. When I fly myself, I know that if anything goes wrong, it’s my fault.”
–
