He may only be 22 years old, but Hollister native Robert DeLay
is no rookie when it comes to helicopters, and he’ll take you up
and teach you how to fly with the best of them.
He may only be 22 years old, but Hollister native Robert DeLay is no rookie when it comes to helicopters, and he’ll take you up and teach you how to fly with the best of them.
DeLay started his business, Hollister Helicopters, a little over three months ago to help him build flight time and just to try something different, he said.
His love of helicopters began when he was a child, watching people fly them on television. After going to San Jose and taking a one-hour flight almost four years ago, he was hooked, he said.
“The best thing is the freedom – you can go wherever you want and land wherever you want,” he said. “And it’s safer than a plane – if the engine fails you can land with zero air speed and glide it down… You have a lot better chance of not crashing.”
After receiving his commercial pilot’s license in 2001 from Salinas-based flight school, Verticare, the then 19-year-old took off to Hawaii for two years to gain more experience, he said.
“I heard about the (Mauna Loa Helicopter School) on the Internet, and the guy who owned the school liked me and hired me on after training,” DeLay said. “But I got sick of Hawaii.”
Although the sites were beautiful and plenty of people wanted to see them from the seat of a helicopter, there was only so much to cover on the small island of Kauai that DeLay was living on, he said.
“It’s only 25 miles in width… it’s fun flying around, but in a half-an-hour you can do the whole island,” he said. “And I wanted to come back to California. I’m glad I did – I’m happier here than there.”
When he returned to Hollister he promptly started his flight school business, and although he’s been busy and the endeavor is paying the bills for now, he conceded that finding students in Hollister isn’t as easy as he thought it would be.
“I lease the helicopter, so if the business falls through I can always give it back and find a job somewhere else,” he said. “I just wanted to try it out, and so far it’s been all right.”
The biggest problem he has noticed is people’s skepticism in his abilities because of his youthful looks.
“They see me and they think I’m 16 years old, but in Hawaii I looked like I was 13 and I was teaching there,” he said. “I just fly safe and tell them I haven’t crashed yet and don’t worry. I have over 1,000 hours of flight time and have never had any problems.”
He has clocked-in around 400 hours over the past few months between training students and offering photo flights in his $175,000 Robinson R22 helicopter. He chose the R22 because it’s one of the smallest models and is cost effective for training purposes, he said.
DeLay has three students who train with him off and on, but because of the steep prices for lessons it’s hard to keep a steady flow of patrons, he said.
One of his most faithful students, Patric Maillefer, trained with DeLay in Hawaii and followed him to Hollister when he moved.
Maillefer, from Geneva, Switzerland, went to Hawaii for helicopter training because he thought it was a ” pretty cool place to do it,” he said.
“When (DeLay) came here, he asked me if I wanted some more hours and experience, so I said why not, it’s like a vacation,” he said. “Rob’s a cool guy and he knows his stuff… He’s easy going but he’s very strict on things – he always plays by the rules and he’s good at it.”
DeLay hopes to keep his business going for at least a year. The stress-free nature of the business, the flexible schedule and his love for flying are all key elements that keep him grounded here in Hollister… at least for the time being, he said.
“I want to go back to Louisiana because there’s huge (helicopter) companies back there to work for,” he said. “If the business takes off, I’ll keep it and have somebody run it for me, and if not, that’s OK, too.”
DeLay doesn’t miss not going to college like some of his friends and plans to spend the rest of his life around helicopters. While he supports himself, his mother is a bit leery of his chosen profession, he said.
“My mom is scared to death half the time; I don’t think she trusts it,” he said. “But my dad is cool about it – I always take him up and he loves it.”
