Her total commitment to aviation was made in 1936 when she became one of the first women pilots to receive an instructor's rating in England, and promptly returned to South Africa.

In 1939, she was appointed chief flying instructor at the Sheffield Aero Club, then journeyed to the United States to earn that country's commercial pilot's certificate.

Still upgrading her qualifications, she travelled to Hamilton, Ontario and earned her Canadian commercial pilot's license and class two instructor's rating.

In April 1935, according to a legal notice published in The Times, London, she was living at 33 Heathurst Road, Sanderstead, Surrey, when she renounced the surname Barnes and stated that she was to be known as Helen Marcelle Harrison.

[3] In 1943 she co-piloted a Mitchell bomber across the North Atlantic Ocean from Montreal, Quebec to Scotland, and until 1944 she delivered military aircraft within the United Kingdom.

In 1961, she earned a United States instructor's certificate and until her retirement in 1969, after 34 years as a pilot, she taught floatplane flying in Canada.

Aviation Council's Air Safety Trophy, after logging 14,000 hours as pilot-in-command of numerous aircraft types, without injury to passenger or crew.