When Darren McLean first stepped onto a Cayman Islands tour helicopter as a teenager he dreamt of one day flying a chopper; now he’s on the cusp of turning that dream into reality.
The RCIPS auxiliary constable leaves later this month for the final leg of his training in Trinidad and Tobago to become the first Caymanian pilot in the Royal Cayman Islands Police Service Air Operations Unit (AOU).
“It means a lot, not for me, but a lot more for other Caymanians coming up behind me. My goal was to make a way for someone else after me. I will be the first, but I do not want to be the last Caymanian to actually fly this [police] helicopter,” McLean said during a recent interview with the Cayman Compass at the AOU headquarters ahead of his departure.
McLean joined the unit in 2017 and is a certified tactical flight officer on the crew of the police helicopter. He is also a first officer with National Helicopter Services Limited in Trinidad and Tobago.
By year’s end, the 29-year-old Savannah resident is expected to complete his training and return to Cayman as a captain on the AOU team, after which he will eventually take the pilot’s chair on the H145 chopper.
Childhood dream
McLean said that his love of flying started as far back as he could remember, but his aspiration to become a helicopter pilot for the police came after that island tour.
“I was drawing planes from the age of five in primary school. I initially wanted to fly planes and my dream… was to fly for Cayman Airways, that was my goal. But when I took a tour in the.. touring helicopter here in Grand Cayman, back in 2011, I just had a new love for helicopters and it was something that I wanted to pursue full on,” he said.
A recent police profile on McLean said he had already obtained a commercial pilot’s licence for rotorcraft, “but he would need further training in order to meet the requirements to fly for the RCIPS”.
Over the past three years, according to the profile, McLean had the opportunity to obtain this training through a unique arrangement between the RCIPS, Cayman Islands government, and National Helicopter Services.
McLean said he was grateful for the opportunity and the support he has received since embarking on this journey in 2019.
He said it has shown him that anything is possible, and he would like fellow young Caymanians to see that.
“The helicopter came here [and] initially there was no intention to start a programme like what is going on now, but as you can see now it does work. We can do something where we train a young person from the ground up to become a pilot here in the Cayman islands for the RCIPS and to serve their country,” he said.
Reflecting on his first time in the pilot’s seat, McLean recounted that everything happened quickly back in 2019.
He said he was called by the Trinidad company and was told it needed him for an evaluation flight the following week.
“I was a bit nervous because I hadn’t flown in a few years. But when I entered the helicopter, everything started to come back naturally and I did impress the trainer at the time evidently [as] they hired me as the first officer,” he said.
A new chapter
Undaunted by the delays in his training due to COVID-19, McLean said he is looking forward to what lies ahead.
“The journey with the RCIPS has been from 2017, but my journey as a pilot has been from 2012. It’s the ending of a chapter, but the beginning of a new one for me where I’ve finally made it to my ultimate goal of flying here in the Cayman Islands, which I call my home. It’s an overwhelming experience to know that the journey is almost ending for one part and beginning for a next,” he said.
In the Cayman Islands, he said, the main passion is flying fixed-wing aircraft because the national flag carrier has a training programme for young pilots coming home to work their way up in ‘the aviation world’.
“My goal and dream is to [create] a structured programme after I’m finished [so] that we can say, ‘OK, well, this is the way to go if you want to fly for the RCIPS Air Ops Unit,'” he said.
Taking the pilot’s seat
He added he has received “overwhelming support” from the RCIPS and Cayman as a whole.
“It’s a bit surreal knowing that in the coming months or maybe the next year I will be in the [pilot’s] seat actually flying the machine that I have been working on for so long… sitting in the front still trying to learn things that I can to prepare myself for when I come back. It’s surreal and it’s almost a dream [that] sometimes I feel like I need to wake up,” McLean said.
He added he is driven to make his compatriots proud and never felt pressured in his pioneering pursuit.
“It was never a burden. It was always a goal I wanted to achieve… not for myself, but [for] others coming up behind me. I don’t want to let myself down, but I especially don’t want to let other Caymanians down… other people that are looking up to me. People always say you never know who [is] watching you and it could be someone out there watching me, hoping I succeed so that they can follow in my footsteps,” McLean said.
Through his training he gets to see “amazing views” in Trinidad and work in the oil industry, but there is no place like home for him.
McLean said he hopes his story would reach another young Caymanian “and I will spark an interest; if it’s just one person, I’ll spark an interest and they will pursue this career”.
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