Meet the pilot with the best job in the world

When I was 12 years old, I watched Top Gun at the movies and began plotting a life as an elite US Navy jet pilot (like Tom Cruise’s Pete “Maverick” Mitchell). So what if I didn’t care for heights, threw up on rollercoasters and wasn’t American?

It never happened. The fantasy dwindled along with my other teenage objective – to become a bartender at a beach bar in Jamaica, so I could marry the actress, Elizabeth Shue (a dream inspired by 1988’s Cocktail, also starring Cruise).

But now, decades and decades later, I discover my life’s true calling. I want to become a helicopter pilot in Antarctica.

Pascale Fischer might not exude the bold cockiness that made me so desperate to be Maverick, but his job is way cooler. For Pascale Fischer flies helicopters right off the eighth floor of an expedition yacht in Antarctica.

“There’s nothing like flying in Antarctica,” he tells me. “Flying in Alaska, or the Alps or Greenland – well, Antarctica is like all these places, but on steroids. It’s the creme de le creme of flying.”

Our conversation about flying helicopters in Antarctica just happens to take place in a restaurant in Antarctica – on the fifth floor of the luxury expedition yacht, Scenic Eclipse. Scenic is one of only two cruise companies operating helicopter tours straight from their ship in Antarctica.

This morning, we’re off the Antarctic Peninsula for the first time. When I woke, I was surrounded by big, white mountains in every direction. There were glaciers below them, spilling into a blue ocean full of penguins and whales – more whales than there appeared to be empty patches of water.

And I’m struggling to absorb all this: the vastness of Antarctica. Nowhere I’ve been has prepared me for this. “And that’s why you need a helicopter,” Fischer tells me. “You see Antarctica from a third dimension, you’ll have 100 miles (161km) of visibility in every direction.”

We’re in Portal Point, on the north-east coast of Reclus Peninsula; and there’s not a cloud in the sky. Perfect flying weather, Fischer says. There are two helicopters on board, on a day like this the pilots might fly as many as 20 sightseeing flights of around 30-minutes each.

Fischer travels the world on this yacht, flying helicopters. But nowhere, he says, compares to the flying we’ll do today. And now the passenger loads are being announced for today’s flights, and I’m on the first ride. I’m in the lift to the eighth deck with my heart racing. On the back deck, Fischer is at the controls. These Airbus H130-T2 helicopters have bigger windows and wrap-around windscreens for extra visibility, but all the same, I’m ecstatic to find myself in the front seat.

And then we’re up and away and nothing looks the right way up. Below me, humpbacks glide through the water. I can see them roll, exposing their luminescent white bellies. Their pectoral fins look an otherworldly green-blue. There are actually mountains behind the mountains I saw from the ship, endless ranges of massive peaks covered in ice and snow. We fly in low over dark blue crevasses in glaciers. The driest continent on Earth has the most massive glacial valleys on the planet. And this part of the peninsula is an iceberg graveyard, known for gigantic, grounded icebergs that are slowly cracking and changing shape.

It’s impossible to understand the sheer scale of Antarctica because there’s no man-made structures. At least from here, I can use the yacht as reference. “This (flying) is the icing on the cake,” Fischer’s voice comes into my headphones. “You won’t get a better view of Antarctica.” There’s an orca below now, and a humpback whale and its calf. Days later, a biologist will tell us we’ve seen a record number of species of cetaceans on this voyage. I get that, for up here, the sea teems with creatures; there’s Weddell seals too, and Antarctic fur seals and gentoo penguins, specks below me.

I’m beaming, my face hurts from the effort of it. Then I look sideways and see Fischer’s face has the same wide smile as his passengers. “Never, ever gets old,” he says. “I have the greatest job on earth.” I wonder when they’re recruiting?

THE DETAILS

CRUISE
Scenic has a range of Antarctica voyages from the 14-day Antarctica in Depth to the 20-day Antarctica, South Georgia and Falkland Islands, and 24-day East Antarctica and Ross Sea voyages. The Antarctica, South Georgia and Falkland Islands departure costs from $44,245 a person, including a $9000 Super Earlybird saving and a 30-minute helicopter experience. See scenic.com.au

FLY
A chartered flight from Buenos Aires to Ushuaia is included in the cruise. Fly to Buenos Aires via Santiago return with LATAM from Sydney or Melbourne, from $2300. See latamairlines.com/au/en

MORE
See iaato.org

The writer travelled courtesy of Scenic Luxury Cruises & Tours