Taking Independent Helicopters to New Heights

By Jennifer L. Warren

NEW WINDSOR – The odds were almost all stacked against her. It was a male-dominated field. Her mother was against it. It was a risky venture. And that’s for starters.

Despite, the continual roadblocks, Heather Howley refused to cower. After all, the native New Yorker, who has lived in California and Colorado, is defined by many as determined and independent. It was those qualities, coupled with some good timing, that enabled the fiery Howley to officially make her business vision, Independent Helicopters, a reality on September 15, 2008.

Reflecting back, Howley is quick to cite traveling as the initial catalyst for her flying passion, something she has been actively engaged in for the past 13 years. In addition to her flight school credentials, she is also a pilot examiner, enabling her to not only teach people to fly both airplanes and helicopters, but also grant them licenses. Making these achievements even more remarkable is the blaring statistic that only six percent of all pilots are women.

However, that fact has never wavered Howley from pursuing her love affair with flying.

“If I walk into a room with pilots, I can expect to see a lot of men,” said Howley. “This is something that we are trying really hard to change, but it’s very hard.”

One step Howley took in that direction of change early on in her career was securing a position at a flight school at Stewart International Airport, hoping to draw students from both genders. Unfortunately, that company went bankrupt, forcing Howley to work for another flight school on the Stewart Base.

“I wanted to help the students from the other school, so thought about starting my own company, and what happened was the company I worked for said that if I resigned, I could help do just that by partnering up with them and then funneling my students into our new place,” recalled Howley

Taking all she was told on face value, Howley paid the needed $25 to secure a DBA (Doing Business As) as well as a lone, leased helicopter. Nothing could have prepared her for what was to follow. She soon learned the company she had supposedly “partnered with” had disappeared. Making matters worse, none of her students could afford the price tag of the training. Rather than relinquish her dream, Howley revealed her independent and determined nature.

“At this point, I fully realized, I had no choice but to make it work on my own,” recalled Howley. And make it work she did. Able to find one student who had the money to prepay for 10 months of flight school training, she was able to make good on her helicopter loan.

Equipped with a single laptop and an immeasurable amount of will and foresight, Howley initially had no office. However, she did have that one helicopter and sole student, enough to evolve her business into what it is today. Flash forward eight years and there are now two Independent Helicopter locations – the other is at Saratoga Airport. Those two locales are operated with the assistance of five employees, six helicopters and one simulator. Offering charters, tours, aerial photography, flight instruction, utility inspection and much more, the community and charity work focused company has been involved with stints at professional football and baseball games, the Belmont Horse Race, and most locally and recently at the Stewart International Airport Air Show this past weekend.

Although Howley has made incredible strides with the company over the years, the journey continues to be difficult at times. Funding a business that is so insurance heavy can be quite challenging, and most pressingly, there is a need for awareness: getting businesses, schools and the general populace to buy into the many beautiful benefits connected to the flying sphere can be quite challenging, especially in a world whose perceptions are still laden with stereotypes.

“When I first told my mom about wanting to go to flight school, she didn’t want me to do it, but I said I was going to do it regardless of whether she co-signed my loan which she eventually did,” said Howley. “She was actually my very first passenger, and although she was very scared, she ended up really loving it.”

For Howley, that exhilarating, positive reaction by those who board her helicopters, is what it’s all about, and why those in this area are so fortunate to have the convenient opportunity to experience it.

“We are the only helicopter flight school in the area, and to have what most people would consider a luxury item right here in the Hudson Valley, shows what value we place on our location,” pointed out Howley. “Most tourist destinations have helicopter rides; the Hudson Valley is an incredible place to visit year round, and the best way to see it all is from the air.”