Flight School Inquiry

[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.

[dpseadvr]

If you want to fly join the Military they will get you eye surg and you'll be able to fly my brother in law is a Apache longbow pilot and he loves it.

I would go Army if you don't have a 4yr degree they are the only service that has CWO flight rates as far as I know.

as far as crashing a helicopter I was the WSO Water Safety Officer at PAX River for a while and saw one fall out of the sky it was quite a site. Lucky for them we where conducting dive ops and got to them fast got them both out before it sank and brought one back on the RHIB enroute to meet the ambulance at the pier.
like the old saying goes
FLY NAVY DIVERS NEED THE WORK

[DTrain]

BB,
Don't mean to rain on the parade, but what can you do for a living as a commercial helicopter pilot? I mean, it sounds great and lots of fun but the job opportunities are limited. It looks like to me the following: Private pilot for corporate bigwigs, flying offshore workers to and from oil/gas platforms, flying medical casualties to hospitals. Seems like more opportunities available for fixed wing pilots.
Is this what you want to do FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE? Or maybe look into another career and take up flying as a hobby on the side.

I don't mean to offend, or dissuade, just offering a different opinion.

Upon rereading this post I sound like your parents "what are you gonna do with your life?"

[berserkbishop]

well, oddly enough, the military bug has crept back up into my noggin. I was ready to join the airforce when I was 17 but i needed a parents signature. Well, my daddy, the state of MO, wouldnt sign off. Social services felt that at 18 maybe 6 months later, I would change my mind. They were right, but only because of outside influences convinved me that I was wasting my brain entering the military. Now I sit looking for adventure, with no real sure idea of what I want to do, and the military is looking real good again.

BB

[The Wizard of BC]

BB,

I am not going to try to talk you out of letting the military teach you to fly. It was a great life for me. I just want you to know what you are in for and do it with your eyes open.

A Military Pilot is an Officer first. Even an Army Warrant Officer is still an Officer first. That is your official Job Description and what your annual Performance appraisal will be about. How good an Officer you are. If you have a job such as Maintenance Test Pilot or Instructor Pilot those will only be mentioned as a small part of your appraisal.

Your actual flying time will be measured in 2 or 4 hours a week. Unless you are in a Combat Zone and then there are other things to worry about. If in a Zone, and the chances right now are approaching 110% your stress level of trying to keep up with the flying schedule is enough to make anyone prematurely Gray. (See any photo of me, I'm actually only 28 but tell everyone I'm 56 because that's how old I look.)

But the Military will make you one of the best pilots in the world. You will have the opportunity to do things that the rest of the world will never believe.

In the Civilian world there are always jobs for a good, high time Pilot. You have to seek them out and be very competitive to get them though. I have friends who have racked up thousands of hours flying pipelines. Others who fly Medical Evacuation, Traffic control and TV and Radio traffic reporting. There is always the logging industry, Fire Fighting, Heli-tourism, and fish spotting.

True, there are a lot fewer Helicopters than their are fixed wing but there are also fewer good pilots.

One thing I have noticed about the good pilots and the ones that get all the good jobs is they are the ones who would be hanging out at the airport even if they didn't fly. They are the ones who flying is their whole life. What they do, what they dream about at night, what they breath in and out. If that is you them nothing will stop you. Not me, not advice, not lack of a job or even lack of food.

If you are not that sort of person then perhaps a rethink may be in order. Remember that in this day and age the average person will have between 5 and 15 careers in their lifetime. The days of working 30 years and getting the gold watch are gone. If you don't yet have an all consuming passion for something yet, don't worry, It will come.

[Sciuropterus]

A lot of flight schools in MN went out of business in the last several years, 9-11 hit civil aviation hard. I have a private and am half way to my commercial license, I have not been making much progress lately- I lost interest for several years after flying became inconvenient for me. Hope to log a lot of hours in 2008. I would love to finish my commercial license just to say I did it, but I have no desire to work as a commercial pilot, so I don't have much incentive, it's not cheap...

[dpseadvr]

I don't believe the AF has enlisted pilots if you don't have a 4 YR Degree as much as it pains me to say Army will be the way to go you will be as Steve said a CWO but an O none the less. Plus you can do 20 and retire by 40 and still be able to fly as a part time job or hobby.
As far as wasting your brain in the Military that is crazy I have 2 degree's thanks to the Military and when I get out I can become a PA in a year with all the training I have.
I tell all of my guys diving is not for ever get a degree you can get it online in the Navy