If you think that only guys can really get excited about flying helicopters, then you haven't met Marialaina Hoban. She is one of the few civilian-trained female helicopter CFIs actively teaching. In fact, that number is so small that the column on the AOPA Fact Card contains a dash. In 10 years as a helicopter CFI, I had only one female student who got her private ticket — and no female commercial or CFI students.
For Hoban, flying helicopters is the culmination of a life-long dream. One of her strongest memories is that of herself as a young girl, stopping whatever she was doing to look up and watch a helicopter fly overhead. When she was nine years old, her parents took her to Baltimore for a vacation. There they came across a company offering helicopter sightseeing rides, and she pleaded with them to let her go. Both of her parents were afraid to fly, so the whole idea didn't sit well with them. However, the young girl's persistence paid off and they let her go by herself. From that day on, she held a special passion for helicopters.
As soon as they got home Hoban wanted to take flying lessons. It took her two years to persuade her parents to allow her to take lessons in a Cessna 152. The airplane was fun, but it didn't produce the excitement she felt in a helicopter. In short order this resourceful girl found a Robinson R22 helicopter and started taking lessons. For years she looked forward to the day she would solo. On her sixteenth birthday her instructor gladly signed her student pilot certificate and she soloed the R22. Not wasting any time, she quickly got her private certificate; and on her eighteenth birthday she passed her commercial pilot checkride. Six months later, she had — you guessed it — her helicopter CFI. She has since earned a fixed-wing private pilot certificate and is currently working on her helicopter instrument and helicopter CFII.
With the ink not even dry on her CFI ticket, she got married. Flying took a backseat, but she hoped to stay with it part-time. However, as she puts it, her old-fashioned husband would not allow it. "I now know it was a mistake, but I was only 18 years old and I fell for his Italian accent," she says. Two years and a baby girl later, she ended her marriage and was anxious to start flying again.
Her first job was teaching ground school at Titan Helicopter Academy in Millville, New Jersey. Because she had not yet been to the Robinson factory school, the opportunities to fly were limited. However, Titan was affiliated with a local college and had a structured and complete ground school program. Working there allowed her to develop a remarkable knowledge of aviation. Eventually, she left Titan for what has turned out to be an opportunity of a lifetime.
Hoban and a partner now own Helicopter Flight Services (HFS), located at the South Jersey Regional Airport in Mount Holly, New Jersey. Their company is a small flight school and charter service that operates two Schweizer 300s, an R22, and a Bell JetRanger. Her partner is the FAA-designated examiner who administered her commercial checkride. He says that even then he was impressed by her ability and enthusiasm; several years later, when she stopped in for a visit, he offered her a job. She did such a great job that they became business partners. But, it doesn't stop there. He asked her to be his wife, and she said yes. His name is Bob Hoban.
She now regularly teaches in a Schweizer 300 and the R22. And every chance she gets, she flies as copilot in their JetRanger. One could see the excitement in her face when she said, "Soon I will solo it and get checked out as a Part 135 pilot." And, in fact, since then she has soloed the JetRanger. She remembers looking down during her first flight in the JetRanger and seeing a little boy looking up as she flew over. She said that she would never forget it, because it brought back such strong memories.
Her biggest problem has been getting some men to take her seriously. For example, at Titan, a male student refused to attend her class because she was a woman. When the school told him that he had to attend in order to graduate, he sat in class with his back to her. She said that it hurt her feelings; but she realized that it was his problem, and she treated him the same as the other students. She said that after some time he realized that she knew the material well, and he changed his attitude.
A more recent example was a police officer who was a student at HFS. He was going to ride along on a ferry flight in an R22 until he found out that she was the pilot. After some prodding he changed his mind and went. She said he was standoffish until she had to take the controls during a botched approach. After that incident he told her that she had gained his respect. "Now he will fly only with me," she says proudly.
She has one more goal — to be a corporate pilot flying a Sikorsky S76. She has talked to her business partner/husband, and they agree that when the right opportunity comes up, she will take it. He will continue to run the business and she will help out part- time.
Her dream is to live on a private airstrip when she retires, but not with a helicopter in the hangar. She wants to own a Piper J-3 Cub. Although at age 23 she's a long way from retirement, no one should doubt that she will make it happen.
