Meet Aurelien Chico, Pilot of the French Alps
Aurelien has the sun-kissed, happy face of a man who has spent his whole life somewhere beautiful. During our interview, he sits in his kitchen, in the light jacket of someone who is used to the cold. You can almost see the little kid grinning through his smile when he talks about flying. He has the wild, pure happiness of someone who has found their calling.
Aurelien grew up in the southeast of France and would visit his grandmother during the holidays at the base of the French Alps. When he was little, he remembers the planes that would fly over her home. From a very young age, he was fascinated by planes and flying.
“Since I was pretty much two, maybe three,” he says when I ask him when he knew he wanted to be a pilot. “My parents always told me anyway. They say they always knew this is what I would do.”
The little boy that stood outside and stared at the sky has become a daredevil of the skies. He cuts a bold path through the captivating landscape he calls his home, soaring through valleys along mountainsides. Experience has seasoned him to the treacherous winds up the French Alps.
Training wheels for pilots: learning to fly with motorless gliders
Aurelien has been flying for 11 years now, three of those years in a motorless glider.
“It is very common over here, I think it started in Germany. We learn to fly the glider first. The thinking is that it makes us better prepared for flying a plane if something should go wrong.”
Aurelien started his pilot’s journey by putting in his hours on the glider. It was easier and cheaper to learn than flying, and helped him build the instincts necessary to be a pilot who could react well to the unexpected.
Now he flies a plane.
Finding freedom in the skies
Since his motorless glider days, Aurelien has graduated to being a licensed pilot and is now licensed to fly commercial jets. But he says he’s not sure where he wants to go — because all of that opportunity comes at a cost.
“Here, where I am now in the Alps, there is no control tower, nobody to tell me I can’t — I don’t know — fly upside down. This is real freedom. And right now, the money is not as important to me. It’s more important that I can do what I want, and live somewhere really nice.”
Like most pilots, the freedom of flight is a huge draw for Aurelien. He didn’t work this hard and dream of flying as a little boy because he wanted a boss and a 9 to 5.
The dilemma is real, but there’s a strategy at play here.
“With my license, I can fly more planes to more places. I can do more because I can fly these planes now.”
Now, Aurelien is keeping his eyes open for the perfect job — not too restrictive, but the kind that will allow him to see the world, and establish a home base in a part of the world that’s as perfect as where he’s coming from.
It’s a tall order, but it’s everything he ever dreamed of. And so far, Aurelien’s dreams seem to be coming true.
