<p><img alt="Desiree Horton - WW 20150728 (Article)" src="/getasset/425209b8-5f34-438c-b6ee-15f2ea028d23/" style="width: 600px; height: 541px;" /></p>
<p>Having flown helicopters in all manner of capacities, from tour guide to covering the news, Desiree Horton’s full-time job for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection fulfils her love of getting up in the air.</p>
<p><strong>Where did the fascination with rotary-wing come from</strong></p>
<p>I really never had an interest in flying aircraft. My dad was a fixed-wing pilot, but somehow my interest was only in helicopters. I actually opened the yellow pages and looked for helicopter training and flight schools. This was 25 years ago, so the yellow pages was the way to find anything.</p>
<p><strong>Who first hired you?</strong></p>
<p>I started out flying tours over Los Angeles. I flew customers over all of the celebrity homes and famous places in Los Angeles. From there that led to traffic watch, then eventually news. I was able to fly news in the off-season outside of fire fighting. I also flew construction, charter, police contracts, movie production flights, seismic, heliski, frost patrol, and more.</p>
<p>There was always news work available and it allowed me to be close to home, whereas flying contract work I was out of state often living a very nomadic lifestyle. My goal was always to take jobs that would give me experience for my end goal, which was with a fire department.</p>
<p><strong>What’s contract firefighting like?</strong></p>
<p>Contract firefighting is seasonal, meaning that once the summer fire season ends, you are out of a job. The helicopter companies that I flew for maintained contracts with the United States Forest Service. I also flew on many different contracts outside of California in other states. I spent many years on a rappel contract where I flew rappellers into the fires.</p>
<p><strong>Full-time is better?</strong></p>
<p>Working for CalFire is my dream job that I have always wanted. My best description of it – it’s like winning the career lottery. These jobs are few and far between. I feel very fortunate that I have this job and all of my hard work and sacrifices paid off to get where I am today. Although we are not in our peak fire season during the winter months in southern California, we staff our helicopters in the south year round. </p>
<p>There is the potential for fires and once our new base gets up and running with our hoist programme, we will be doing hoist rescues year-round as well.</p>
<p><strong>What’s dangerous about your job? </strong></p>
<p>There are powerlines that you cannot see until you are very close or the sun hits them just right. I try not to dwell on the dangers of my job. I mitigate the risks as best I can and fly as safe as I can within the realm to get the job done, keep my crew safe, and bring them and myself home every night. I love this job, even with the inherent dangers.</p>
<p>There is a poem called The Helicopter is My Office. It’s something I relate to.</p>
<p><strong>What do you enjoy about it the most?</strong></p>
<p>Everything! I love my job. It is an honour and a privilege to work for CalFire and to wear a uniform every day at work that represents not only the department I work for but the pride I hold inside wearing my blues. I enjoy training and even just currency flights. We are required to stay current and that allows me the opportunity to get up in the skies and do what I love to do, which is fly. Just the other day, after days of rain here in southern California, I decided to do some mountain training and fly up to one of our higher peaks, Mt Baldy, where a few feet of fresh snow had covered the mountains in some areas. There were big white cotton ball-like clouds surrounding the snow-covered mountains. In all of my 25 years of flying, I have to say that was one of the most breathtakingly beautiful flights I have ever had.</p>
<p style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 0.8em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1999998092651px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 21.2799987792969px; color: rgb(77, 77, 77);"><em style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit;">Looking for vacancies with an airline? Check out our listings online by <a href="https://jobs.flightglobal.com/jobs/pilot/?intcmp=FGJOB-careers_hub-Desiree_Horton">CLICKING HERE</a>.</strong></em></p>
<p style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 0.8em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1999998092651px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 21.2799987792969px; color: rgb(77, 77, 77);">If you would like to feature in Working Week, or you know someone who does, email your pitch to <span style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.6;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit;"><a href="mailto:kate.sarsfield@flightglobal.com?subject=Working%20Week%20Submission">kate.sarsfield@flightglobal.com</a></strong>.</span></p>
<p>Having flown helicopters in all manner of capacities, from tour guide to covering the news, Desiree Horton’s full-time job for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection fulfils her love of getting up in the air.</p>
<p><strong>Where did the fascination with rotary-wing come from</strong></p>
<p>I really never had an interest in flying aircraft. My dad was a fixed-wing pilot, but somehow my interest was only in helicopters. I actually opened the yellow pages and looked for helicopter training and flight schools. This was 25 years ago, so the yellow pages was the way to find anything.</p>
<p><strong>Who first hired you?</strong></p>
<p>I started out flying tours over Los Angeles. I flew customers over all of the celebrity homes and famous places in Los Angeles. From there that led to traffic watch, then eventually news. I was able to fly news in the off-season outside of fire fighting. I also flew construction, charter, police contracts, movie production flights, seismic, heliski, frost patrol, and more.</p>
<p>There was always news work available and it allowed me to be close to home, whereas flying contract work I was out of state often living a very nomadic lifestyle. My goal was always to take jobs that would give me experience for my end goal, which was with a fire department.</p>
<p><strong>What’s contract firefighting like?</strong></p>
<p>Contract firefighting is seasonal, meaning that once the summer fire season ends, you are out of a job. The helicopter companies that I flew for maintained contracts with the United States Forest Service. I also flew on many different contracts outside of California in other states. I spent many years on a rappel contract where I flew rappellers into the fires.</p>
<p><strong>Full-time is better?</strong></p>
<p>Working for CalFire is my dream job that I have always wanted. My best description of it – it’s like winning the career lottery. These jobs are few and far between. I feel very fortunate that I have this job and all of my hard work and sacrifices paid off to get where I am today. Although we are not in our peak fire season during the winter months in southern California, we staff our helicopters in the south year round. </p>
<p>There is the potential for fires and once our new base gets up and running with our hoist programme, we will be doing hoist rescues year-round as well.</p>
<p><strong>What’s dangerous about your job? </strong></p>
<p>There are powerlines that you cannot see until you are very close or the sun hits them just right. I try not to dwell on the dangers of my job. I mitigate the risks as best I can and fly as safe as I can within the realm to get the job done, keep my crew safe, and bring them and myself home every night. I love this job, even with the inherent dangers.</p>
<p>There is a poem called The Helicopter is My Office. It’s something I relate to.</p>
<p><strong>What do you enjoy about it the most?</strong></p>
<p>Everything! I love my job. It is an honour and a privilege to work for CalFire and to wear a uniform every day at work that represents not only the department I work for but the pride I hold inside wearing my blues. I enjoy training and even just currency flights. We are required to stay current and that allows me the opportunity to get up in the skies and do what I love to do, which is fly. Just the other day, after days of rain here in southern California, I decided to do some mountain training and fly up to one of our higher peaks, Mt Baldy, where a few feet of fresh snow had covered the mountains in some areas. There were big white cotton ball-like clouds surrounding the snow-covered mountains. In all of my 25 years of flying, I have to say that was one of the most breathtakingly beautiful flights I have ever had.</p>
<p style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 0.8em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1999998092651px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 21.2799987792969px; color: rgb(77, 77, 77);"><em style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit;">Looking for vacancies with an airline? Check out our listings online by <a href="https://jobs.flightglobal.com/jobs/pilot/?intcmp=FGJOB-careers_hub-Desiree_Horton">CLICKING HERE</a>.</strong></em></p>
<p style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 0.8em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1999998092651px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 21.2799987792969px; color: rgb(77, 77, 77);">If you would like to feature in Working Week, or you know someone who does, email your pitch to <span style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.6;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit;"><a href="mailto:kate.sarsfield@flightglobal.com?subject=Working%20Week%20Submission">kate.sarsfield@flightglobal.com</a></strong>.</span></p>