A well-trained pilot
Consumed with pursuing flight
By Sheila Harris
The passports of Stephen and Heather Rider’s children, all three under 10 years old, are filled with names of destinations most people will never see in a lifetime. In a family with a foot in two worlds, it’s not unexpected.
For his sixteenth birthday, Stephen Rider received an introductory helicopter flight with Sky Helicopters, near his home in Plano, Texas.
From that first helicopter ride, Rider said, he became consumed with flight.
“I started taking ground school instruction,” Rider said, “and began helicopter flight lessons in high school, although my goal, then, was to become a commercial airline pilot. When 9/11 happened after I graduated, I decided to pursue a rotor-wing path instead.”
Rider moved to Titusville, Florida, where he accumulated flight hours with Helicopter Adventures, then flight instructed for two years at Air Orlando while obtaining an aeronautics degree from Embry-Riddle in Daytona Beach. While there, he obtained most of his certificates and type ratings for fixed-wing and rotary-wing aircraft.
After college, he returned to Texas and taught flight instruction at Summit Helicopters in Addison, while continuing to accumulate flight hours.
“I liked being a flight instructor, so I had to decide whether to stick with instruction or go into some other field,” Rider said.
In 2006, he landed a job with the Houston-based Bristow Group, which provides helicopter support for the Gulf’s gas and oil industries.
“At Bristow, I flew the Bell 206, the Bell 407, and the Sikorsky S–76,” Rider said.
During his 10-year stint with Bristow, Rider went back to school for his MBA, was upgraded to captain of the S–76 (one of the youngest pilots to be so appointed), and again served as a flight instructor, where he taught in the simulator and was designated a check airman.
Stephen and Heather were married in 2012.
When he received a call from Saudi Arabia-based Aramco in 2016, asking him if he would interview with them, he gave it some thought, but not for long.
“Heather and I were ready for what we knew would be an adventure,” Rider said.
Rider accepted the offer Aramco extended, sold the Piper Aztec he’d owned for two years and prepared to move overseas.
The Riders now live in a gated company compound near Ras Tanura, in the eastern province of Saudi Arabia.
“It’s a city unto itself,” said Rider, although he and his family often venture into surrounding areas.
Initially a line pilot for Aramco, Rider gravitated again into flight instruction, where he now heads the company’s helicopter pilot training department.
The best asset a company can have is a well-trained pilot, Rider believes. He’s glad he can help make that happen.
Sheila Harris is a writer from Missouri.
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