Helicopter Pilot
 

Looking for some feedback and guidance ... my 18 year old granddaughter whom I have (or used to have) guardianship of is seriously thinking she needs to be a helicopter pilot. She's very bright, level headed but adventuress - advance open water scuba and wreck diver, ate up a couple of driving courses, etc.

military versus commercial schools, best commercial schools and training, job prognosis, state of the state of things helicopterish are some of the topics I need to explore.

Thanks for any and all help.

Tom

I just flew with someone who's significant other is a commercial helicopter pilot. I fly fixed wing for the airlines so I was of course curious how the whirlybird side does it.

He started at a commercial flight school and moved his way up to being a flight instructor. Through advancement he became the manager of the flight school and that translated into a job flying helicopters commercially. He currently is all over the US doing Fire Service contracts, forestry, and various commercial drops (putting HVAC units on buildings).

Apparently he makes good money but it is a long road to get there. The way of life is very different with things like camping in the middle of nowhere while doing forestry or Forest Service work.

Personally I love flying helicopters and would do it for a job if I felt it was viable. I fly with a lot of former military helicopter people that have come over to fixed wing. Quite a few airlines won't give credit for any helicopter time.

Maybe there would be an opportunity for that New York helicopter service in the future?

Where is that seahawk guy when you really need him.....

Going through military flight training right now. I have to make a decision very soon as to if I want to go fixed wing or rotary wing. I am torn.

The only advice I can give is that the military will probably lead to better training and better flying. Downsides and bullets flying at you......

Good luck.

If she really wants to do it right. go Military. Its training that no one can afford and experience that you get no where else in the world.

A helicopter school opened up at my local airport. Started advertising heavily that school was free- No need to pay until you get a job, and they would help with job placement, since the skills are in such high demand.

What really happened?

They would help get student loans for the entire course, but quickly wash out those with no aptitude for flying, leaving them thousands in debt.

Anybody who did a quick Google search about them found out how many complaints/lawsuits had been filed against them.

The FBI came in one day and shut them down.

The moral of the story, don't pay thousands of dollars to scumbags!

Cool; I'd encourage her.
Sounds like the military is the way to go?
I'm sure Hawk will chime in with some great info; He may even offer to train her himself? :eek:

My last whirlybird flight:
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1231491278.jpg
I'd sure like to have one of these parked in my front yard. The pilot said they ran about $400K. :p

Our son started out flying helicopters after he completed all his fixed wing ratings, he flew for UTC for a number of years, got his ATP rating and changed jobs to another company and now flies a Falcon 2000. He's has his ATP rating in fixed wing as well. I believe he now spends about 10 days every six months at Flight Safety for recurrent training. He loves what he does and enjoys helicopters as well as fixed wing.

She should start on training now and get a private fixed wing license at least to see if she likes it up there.

As Joe say, military is the way to go, since the govt pays the bill. Helicopter training hours are expensive compared to fixed wing.

I have 23hrs in a R-22. Had to stop, it got too expensive. It was around $245 an hour at the time.

Your granddaughter is obviously exceptional in every way:)

I had a lot of fun and amazing experiences when I was a helicopter pilot in the navy but the military is, of course, not for everyone.

On the civilian side a very good friend of mine is the chief pilot for a large life flight/utility helicopter company in Denver. If you'd like, PM me your contact info and I'll pass it along to him. He is a retired Marine pilot and the finest kind...we flew together when I was the Chief Test Pilot at the Sikorsky factory in CT. He could answer any questions you have on civilian opportunities, challenges, etc.

She has a few options if she decides to go military.

- Warrant Officer in the Army. No college required. Very competitive selection process.

- Other services: College mandatory. Extremely competitive selection process for any of the academies, ROTC or Officer Candidate programs leading to flight school. She also needs to be aware that there is a minimum obligated service requirement once she graduates from flight school and gets her, "wings". I'm not sure what it is now, but when I got my wings it was five years.

IMHO pursuing a ROTC scholarship is the best path...school is paid for and if she decides the military is not for her, she can opt out after two years of college, no muss, no fuss.

PM me if you want more details.

All the best.

Seahawk....

"we flew together when I was the Chief Test Pilot at the Sikorsky factory in CT. He could answer any questions you have on civilian opportunities, challenges, etc."

Did you know any of the pilots at Associated Aircraft Group out of POU or were they not part of UTC when you were there. Todd B. (our son) flew S-76's for a number of years there. He actually met John Agor (owner of AAG) at DXR when they were headquartered there. John and I were stationed at the same Kaserne in Germany back n the late 60's.

Small world?

I, unfortunately for me I'm sure, did not have any dealings with AAG. The Sikorsky test pilots were all great folks...I'm still friends with a bunch of them.

Thanks for the reply, our son was there for 9 years, started w AAG before they were acquired by UTC.

+1 - military would be my recommendation too. Absolutely, positively DO NOT use Silver State Helicopters. If they're even still in business (which they're probably not). They ran a very large helicopter training operation for a while but it was essentially a big Ponzi scheme. They used to have one of their offices right next door to my (former) office - then they just sorta' mysteriously disappeared one night - almost literally overnight. Lots of people have been by since including a lot of (angry) students who paid a lot of money and got nothing, federal investigators, etc. Something very fishy going on with those guys...

let her know ..
you don't fly Helo's..
you keep them in the air..

Rika

Two words.
Tuna Spotter.

-or- PHI or Air Logistics if you don't mind "offshore"....Good $$$, high pucker factor.

They are both good companies, but very hard to get on with PHI or AirLog without a lot of flight time in a helo.

Again the military is your best option as you simply cannot get experience like that elsewhere.

You wont get on with PHI/Air Ambulance, etc.. or anybody like that without ALOT of turbine time. You feasibly cannot get that anywhere except the military. The private route will cost in upwards of @$80,000 minimum to get your commercial piston rating. And from that point, you simoly cant go 'rent' a turbine to build time.
As Blue sky mentioned, we have alot of military guys at the airlines who switched to fixed wing because of the limited jobs and working conditions of helos. These were guys with a few thousand hours and were not competitive for jobs. You have MANY more options with fixed wing.

That being said, go military.. Get her helo fix, then go fixed wing.

pucker factor? our fab shop was across the river and down a bit from PHI and directly across from marathon oil. used to watch them load up way too many men and their bags, struggle to get off the ground, skim the water all the way across and barely miss the trees on our side. that thing was filled up like a clown car, don't know where they put everything. pHi guys would hover over the river behind our shop about 25-30 ft high for a while, kill the engine and just drop right into the water. thought I was going to have to swim out and rescue someone the first couple times they did that until i realized they were practicing/training. strange sight to see