Sky’s the limit for Heather as new flying business takes off
It’s been a journey disrupted by events beyond her control, but finally Heather Nicholds’s new business has taken off — literally.
Saturday marked the inaugural flight for Blue Sky Flights Bermuda with Ms Nicholds at the controls of her Cessna 172 as she flew passengers on an aerial tour of the island.
“This operation is exactly what I want to do in aviation and I really love it. I love taking people up for that first experience in a small plane.
“I love flying and this is really what I want to do, so it is not about building towards bigger ambitions.”
Ms Nicholds, who is originally from Canada, added: “I am really excited about the possibility that Bermuda has an opportunity for younger people that I had in Canada.
“Having that available to young people here really excites me because that gives them that first opportunity to fall in love or maybe, also, find that it is not for them. There are so many young people here who are interested in aviation as a career.”
Encouraged by her father, Ms Nicholds, 41, started flying at the age of 16 and later attended Western University in Ontario, where she studied aviation management. She got her pilot’s licence when she was 18.
“I was looking at university programmes, thinking of going into business and I thought that business by itself was probably not interesting enough to keep me going and I found this programme that was combined with aviation,” she said.
“I started flying as a flight instructor in Canada and eventually branched off into other careers but always kept flying as a hobby.
“My best friend from university is Bermudian, so I would come to visit her occasionally and at some point there was someone trying to start an operation who needed a pilot so it worked out just perfectly.
“When that aircraft was no longer in service, I tried to restart the business. I tried a lot of different avenues. The previous owners, for lots of different reasons, were not able to continue with it but eventually the way to make it happen was to do it myself,” said Ms Nicholds, who has logged more than 900 hours of flying time.
Doing it herself presented a few hurdles.
Ms Nicholds bought a Cessna in February 2020 for $300,000, but owing to delays because of Covid-19, it was flown over in April 2022 from the United States by a ferry pilot who normally flies Boeing 737s.
“He flew over from New Jersey. It was about a six-hour flight. He flew about 10,000ft. This aircraft has a diesel engine which is different from most aircraft in North America, which fly gasoline.
“It is very, very fuel-efficient. It took six hours and burnt about 26 gallons of fuel. The tank holds about 47 gallons,” Ms Nicholds said.
Asked what had happened since the aircraft arrived, she said: “I have been getting the required operating permission.
“I was planning to operate it under another commercial operator but eventually it became clear that it made sense to start up a new operation just for this aircraft, so starting a brand-new operation under the Bermuda Civil Aviation Authority requirements.
“There was company registration, then also aviation regulation, manuals to write and systems to set up.“
In a post on its LinkedIn page, the Bermuda Civil Aviation Authority said it “would like to applaud Blue Sky Flights Bermuda in their achievement of becoming Bermuda’s first AOC (air operator certificate) issued under OTAR 135 (Overseas Territories Aviation Requirements)”.
It said that although the aircraft was small, the work undertaken was significant and required the completion of the International Civil Aviation Organisation’s five phases for certification.
“Blue Sky Flights Bermuda is now certified to conduct sightseeing tours and aerial work around the island. This occasion represents the presence of two commercial air operators now established in Bermuda.
“In support of the local aviation industry, we wish Heather, the owner of Blue Sky Flights, safe operations in Bermuda,” the authority said.
Heather Nicholds said the Cessna being used is maintained to the highest commercial standards.
She said that “part of the significance of this AOC is that this aircraft has to meet all the international standards for any air operator, and has my full attention and dedication to being operated in accordance with all of Bermuda's Overseas Territories Aviation Requirements, in particular safety being my top priority”.
The Cessna will be operated from the airport primarily for sightseeing tours around the island but will also be available for qualified pilots, who are local, to rent.
She added: “The focus for the business right now is hiring the plane for sightseeing but in the future I might look to do training with qualified pilots.
“Bermuda is too small to do the necessary training to get a pilot's licence, it is not big enough for things like proper navigation training, which is a big piece of a flight test.”
Asked if she ever got tired of seeing the island, Ms Nicholds said: “Never. People often ask me that and the island always looks a little bit different and it is always beautiful.”
• To contact Blue Sky Flights, call 516-3305 or e-mail hello@blueskybermuda.com
Heather Nicholds was the pilot when a Cessna used by a previous operation crashed at LF Wade International Airport in 2018.
“The plane had just been in for pretty major maintenance and there was something technical that was not correct with the aircraft,” she said.
“The trim tab on the elevator, the cables were reversed. That meant that as I was flying there was a tendency for the nose to pitch down so it was very difficult to maintain the altitude of the aircraft and as I reduced power to come in to land that became more and more difficult.
“As I was coming in to land, I was not able to flare the plane. Normally when you land, you flare the nose up, slowing the plane down.”
The plane was travelling at about 70 knots, 80mph, when it landed.
“As I could see the tendency of the nose to pitch down I knew that I needed to get down safely, so I was running through all the things a pilot does for controlling the air speed.”
Asked if she managed to stay calm, Ms Nicholds, who suffered minor injuries, said: “Oh yeah. That is what we are trained to do.”
On whether it had crossed her mind that that was the end of her flying career, she said “No.”
She added: “I love flying too much and I knew that that was a very specific thing that happened that really should not have happened and that if everything is done in the normal process it would never happen again.”
“That won’t happen again, absolutely,” she added.
“From my perspective, what I took away from that most was the huge amount of support I had from the community of pilots on the island and the aviation community in general. It was really humbling to come away with something like that and just feel grateful for everyone.”
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