(Ironically, just a week before he stopped flying with Gold Air, Hoy had just achieved the minimum number of flight hours required to pilot Flexjet flights, and had flown his first charter mission for the program.) It was a big break, and more than two years later he is thriving in his new role, overseeing charter flights flown for Skyjet customers by some 50 operators throughout Europe, the Middle East and Asia. But he soon found it too frustrating to be booking flights for his former pilot colleagues and watching his friends do a job he had long dreamed of doing himself.Īfter attending–on Gold Air’s behalf–a meeting for operating partners of what was then Bombardier’s Flexjet block charter program, Hoy joined the Canadian manufacturer as director of operations for its relaunched Skyjet International program. Gold Air was sympathetic to Hoy’s plight and quickly offered him a job as commercial manager. Unable to be hired officially because he didn’t have a visa, Hoy was literally flying for food, but it gave him valuable experience in managing an aircraft. and Hong Kong.Ī few years earlier, while building hours in the U.S., he had been asked to help a wealthy American buy and operate a Learjet 25D. The young pilot had established his own company, with operations in the UK, U.S. While trying to get established as a working pilot during the somewhat depressed air transport market of the late 1990s, he had gotten involved surveying aircraft wrecks for insurance specialist Airclaims and trading in recovered aircraft parts–while still doing some freelance flying. Though he hadn’t had this eventuality in mind, Hoy was fortunate to have other strings to his bow. Just 32 years old, still tens of thousands of pounds in debt from his flight training, and with a young family and a mortgage, what was he to do? Fortunately, the loss-of-license insurance that came with his Gold Air contract relieved some of the pressure, but he faced the prospect of having to start a new career to span some 30 or more years. He confirmed the diagnosis to the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and, sure enough, that flight from Geneva proved to be his last as a professional pilot. But he didn’t respond to Type 2 medications and was soon getting a crash course in regulating his diabetes by injecting insulin. He hoped that tests would reveal that he had Type 2 diabetes, which would have allowed him to keep his pilot’s license (albeit flying in a multi-crew aircraft commercially under restricted conditions). Unlike most of us, Hoy knew something about diabetes because his brother has had the condition for more than 20 years. “I know,” said the doctor, rejecting Hoy’s plea that he return for further checks after completing the next day’s flight to Malaga, Spain. “I can’t have diabetes,” Hoy told the general practitioner. Hoy would have preferred a different diagnosis. After a particularly difficult and uncomfortable night flight from Geneva to the UK, he went to see his doctor, who quickly diagnosed the onset of diabetes. Diabetes had other ideas.įor several weeks in the winter of 2003, Hoy had been feeling extremely fatigued, suffering from occasional blurred vision and, increasingly, from an insatiable thirst. Finally settled as the captain of a Learjet 45 that he flew for UK charter operator Gold Air, he felt he had landed just where he belonged in the aviation industry and expected to go gray in the cockpit. In addition, Hoy invested four or five years of his life in completing the extensive training required for him to fly for a living. And his grandfather had chipped in more money when the bank could lend no more to complete a self-funded path to an airline transport pilot license. Quite apart from his wife and kids, his bank manager had approved loans of almost £100,000 ($190,000) to fund commercial flight training for both fixed-wing types and helicopters. Plenty of people had a lot riding on Andrew Hoy’s enjoying a long and prosperous career as a professional pilot.
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