Flight School Inquiry

[McGurk]

As riverkilt says, choppers are inherently more dangerous.
Turn the engine on in a aeroplane, and the thing just wants to fly,
Turn the engine on in a helicopter, and the thing just wants to fly apart.

But then, its a trade off, in your chopper you can go anywhere hover and land where you please! (having said that, there are planes that can do just about the same!)

[KiltedPilot]

As riverkilt says, choppers are inherently more dangerous.
Turn the engine on in a aeroplane, and the thing just wants to fly,
Turn the engine on in a helicopter, and the thing just wants to fly apart.

When I did my fixed wing (aeroplane) training, the instructors would look out of the windows and remark how dangerous helicopters where. Then, when I did my helicopter training, I was surprised how many of the helicopter instructors looked out and remarked how dangerous aeroplanes were. Huh?

Then I started to gradually understand their viewpoint.

An engine failure in a light aeroplane requires locating a flat field with no obstacles close to 1500' long in order to land safely. In some parts of the country this is common, but in many it's very rare. A helicopter needs a tennis court.

I read recently that statistically a helicopter pilot is 4 times more likely than a light aeroplane pilot to walk away from an engine failure.

An emergency might not require a forced landing, just a precautionary landing away from the airfield -- say, due to unexpected adverse weather, running out of fuel, or mechanical failure. I've never come across a fixed wing instructor who has done an off airport (i.e. off runway) landing in a typical scenario (I know some who land on beaches). In my helicopter training I did hundreds of bush landings - it was routine.

When the wind rose, all the training aeroplanes were chained down, and their rudders locked. At the helicopter school, this was the time we practised power off landings to the ground. 25 gusting 35 was stuff of nightmares for light aeroplane pilots (many can fly slower than that, with flaps down), but it's great training weather for helicopter pilots. A great number of fixed wing accidents occur due to lose of control on landing because of wind.

Likewise, when flying fixed wing I'd break out in a sweat if I saw low cloud, or rain, or snow, or other features that might cause me to lose visibility. In mountainous terrain this is a frequent cause of accidents for fixed wing pilots. But in a helicopter training, I often flew below low cloud, in heavy rain, and with less than a mile visibility, or down valleys obscured with cloud -- it's just so easy to stop and turn around in a helicopter, or even land and wait for it to clear.

Helicopter are 10,000 moving parts all trying to do you harm, but when something goes wrong you often have more options to save yourself than when flying fixed wing.

KP

[berserkbishop]

When I did my fixed wing (aeroplane) training, the instructors would look out of the windows and remark how dangerous helicopters where. Then, when I did my helicopter training, I was surprised how many of the helicopter instructors looked out and remarked how dangerous aeroplanes were. Huh?

Then I started to gradually understand their viewpoint.

An engine failure in a light aeroplane requires locating a flat field with no obstacles close to 1500' long in order to land safely. In some parts of the country this is common, but in many it's very rare. A helicopter needs a tennis court.

I read recently that statistically a helicopter pilot is 4 times more likely than a light aeroplane pilot to walk away from an engine failure.

An emergency might not require a forced landing, just a precautionary landing away from the airfield -- say, due to unexpected adverse weather, running out of fuel, or mechanical failure. I've never come across a fixed wing instructor who has done an off airport (i.e. off runway) landing in a typical scenario (I know some who land on beaches). In my helicopter training I did hundreds of bush landings - it was routine.

When the wind rose, all the training aeroplanes were chained down, and their rudders locked. At the helicopter school, this was the time we practised power off landings to the ground. 25 gusting 35 was stuff of nightmares for light aeroplane pilots (many can fly slower than that, with flaps down), but it's great training weather for helicopter pilots. A great number of fixed wing accidents occur due to lose of control on landing because of wind.

Likewise, when flying fixed wing I'd break out in a sweat if I saw low cloud, or rain, or snow, or other features that might cause me to lose visibility. In mountainous terrain this is a frequent cause of accidents for fixed wing pilots. But in a helicopter training, I often flew below low cloud, in heavy rain, and with less than a mile visibility, or down valleys obscured with cloud -- it's just so easy to stop and turn around in a helicopter, or even land and wait for it to clear.

Helicopter are 10,000 moving parts all trying to do you harm, but when something goes wrong you often have more options to save yourself than when flying fixed wing.

KP

That is my understanding as well. I saw a guy cut his engines in a heli and drop a thousand feet and land. (or it seemed like a thousand feet). Very cool. I do want to learn to fly both, and with my options and all I am acutally considering University of North Dakotas fixed wing flight program. I could get my Bachelors in avation, commercial pilots lisence, and then use my flight hours toward my heli lisence as well. Best part is that I can also get a large part of my training on the governments dime.

[McGurk]

When I did my fixed wing (aeroplane) training, the instructors would look out of the windows and remark how dangerous helicopters where. Then, when I did my helicopter training, I was surprised how many of the helicopter instructors looked out and remarked how dangerous aeroplanes were. Huh?

Then I started to gradually understand their viewpoint.

An engine failure in a light aeroplane requires locating a flat field with no obstacles close to 1500' long in order to land safely. In some parts of the country this is common, but in many it's very rare. A helicopter needs a tennis court.

I read recently that statistically a helicopter pilot is 4 times more likely than a light aeroplane pilot to walk away from an engine failure.

An emergency might not require a forced landing, just a precautionary landing away from the airfield -- say, due to unexpected adverse weather, running out of fuel, or mechanical failure. I've never come across a fixed wing instructor who has done an off airport (i.e. off runway) landing in a typical scenario (I know some who land on beaches). In my helicopter training I did hundreds of bush landings - it was routine.

When the wind rose, all the training aeroplanes were chained down, and their rudders locked. At the helicopter school, this was the time we practised power off landings to the ground. 25 gusting 35 was stuff of nightmares for light aeroplane pilots (many can fly slower than that, with flaps down), but it's great training weather for helicopter pilots. A great number of fixed wing accidents occur due to lose of control on landing because of wind.

Likewise, when flying fixed wing I'd break out in a sweat if I saw low cloud, or rain, or snow, or other features that might cause me to lose visibility. In mountainous terrain this is a frequent cause of accidents for fixed wing pilots. But in a helicopter training, I often flew below low cloud, in heavy rain, and with less than a mile visibility, or down valleys obscured with cloud -- it's just so easy to stop and turn around in a helicopter, or even land and wait for it to clear.

Helicopter are 10,000 moving parts all trying to do you harm, but when something goes wrong you often have more options to save yourself than when flying fixed wing.

KP

Oh, dont get me wrong, I was just throwing around catchy cliches I've heard.
I know know that safety isnt /really/ and issue, flying IS one of the safest hobbies there is. I also know theres more then what you've posted on the subject.

And most importantly of all, I know what Pilots are like and not one of them, know matter how much they think they are, could give an unbiased opinion!

I myself, am not a pilot... I ran out of money before I got my licence. If money had not been an option, I'd have been flying helicopters rather then planes.

[The Wizard of BC]

Most helicopter pilots learn in the Military. We all attended Emery Riddle at one time or another. Usually to get an additional degree for promotion reasons but it is still one of the largest and most respected schools in the US.

Please remember that a civilian Helicopter rating is very expensive. $45,000.00 to $65,000.00 on average. More if you add on Commercial, sling loading, instruments, and heavy lift to your ticket.

I took advantage of the offer to convert my military license to a full commercial, Rotary Wing, Instrument, Instructor ticket. It was free and just needed a day spent in a classroom taking written tests. I have only used it to contract myself back to the military as a Maintenance Test Pilot. You know, the guy stupid enough to take a 22 million dollar helicopter up to 10,000 ft. just after some other guy had removed both engines, re-built them and stuck them back on, just to make sure they would work again.

I loved my time flying, I started during Viet-Nam with CH-53's. Then after the war and a few years off went into the Army to fly everything in the inventory. Basically if it spun on top, I flew it. I ended up as a senior Test Pilot on AH-64 Apache's and fired the 3rd shot of Desert Storm.

Flying Helicopters is the most fun you can have with your pants on. I once scared the s**t out of a Blue Angle Pilot because he just wasn't used to going 200 mph while 6" off the ground.

All that said, I never even tried to fly in the strictly civilian world. It's boring, repetitive bus driver work most of the time. Helicopter pilots are the vertical taxi drivers of the aviation world. You spend a lot of time sitting around waiting for passengers to arrive, spend 30 mins. getting them to some incredibly small clearing in the woods or onto an equally small platform out at sea, then sit around with no facilities, no comforts, waiting for your passengers to finish their work and fly for 30 mins. to get them home. You then turn the bird over to the maintenance crew for about a million hours of inspections.

The only truly exciting and challenging job for a helicopter pilot is rescue work. Great if you can find the job.

In the long run you will be underpaid, under appreciated, and live a life that everyone else thinks is wonderful.

I don't want to disappoint you just to give you a little reality check.

And the whole thing about crashing a helicopter, Forget it. The reason we practice autorotations is because most of us started in the military and the chances of getting shot at are higher than when flying over the woods of Canada. (But not always)
So we practice, over and over, the technics of landing with no power, Hydraulic failures, missing pieces and parts, and just about any failure that has ever happened.
I have over 3500 first pilot hours in Helicopters (and that is a low time pilot) and the only time I have had to use emergency procedures is the three times people with guns decided to introduce lead particles into my finely tuned airframe.

Berserk Bishop, if there is anything else I can help or advise you on please feel free to PM me.