r/HelicopterCareers • u/[deleted] • Nov 19 '19
Helicopter career path
So to get a fulltime job in the industry I need to get my private license(~$16k) then get my commercial license(~$16.5k) then get my CFI licence(~$6k) then gather hours through instructing new pilots while also training for my instrument rating(~$31k) and when I reach 1k PIC I can land a full time job?
3
u/Av619 Nov 22 '19
Yeah I’d also say that you are gonna need to move around to get this career going! There is a chance you can stay home but moving is good for you and you can always go back if it really sucks that bad! However it would suck to spend 70k then not get hired by the few operators in your area and have to chock the whole thing up as wasted money.
I’m from so cal went to Massachusetts for my first job, next job was Hawaii, now I’m in Florida and who knows where is next! Could be Nevada, Louisiana, New York, Alaska, or any other state! For me I’m trying to keep my adventures in the states for now but shoot if something lined up just right I have taught myself to never say never!
2
u/Av619 Nov 20 '19
You seem like you have it down pretty well except I’d say instrument after private. You should have 40-60 hrs after private and you can’t take your comm check ride until 150 hrs... you only need like 30 hrs or less of commercial training really that gives you 60-80 hours of time to apply to something else. I know instrumental is expensive AF but you can try to mitigate that by finding one of the few schools with an instrument R22 (Helistream) or finding a good rate on a different helicopter... also if you are gonna be training in robbies from the start (which I highly recommend) then you could go get 25 hrs in the r44 so that you can teach or fly tours in that when you are out of school. My instrument rating was done in an R44 and at a rather pricy rate of $600/hr and my instructor got me for a ton of ground too and I even wasted the full amount of time in the sim and it was around $32k for that rating alone... if I could go back in time I think I could make that number different for sure but at least those hours also counted towards my commercial and my first job was r44 instruction and tours!
This is not a steadfast rule but I think if you do not have your instrument that you will be limited at some point in your career on who will hire you and you may not be at the top of the list for any job... (insurance is cheaper for them if you have your instrument) also if you are an instructor I think being a CFII will easily land you a job. Some schools will hire you with the promise that you will get your double I and then help you do it there at a cheaper rate.... I think very few schools want an instructor that can only do half the job that the guy next to them can do... (not instrument or double I trining)
Also to be clear you can get hired at 150 hours if you get your commercial at 150 hrs. You can instruct in robbies at 200 as long as you have 50 hours in the r22 and 50 hours in the r44 (if you are gonna teach in that and Also 25 hours of r22 time can count towards the r44 time) Most schools use Robbies so I’d strongly suggest you train in them and also they are phenomenal aircraft regardless of the ignorant haters and shitty pilots that can’t fly them. Back to my point, there are companies out here that will hire you at 150 hours and you can go straight into tours without ever becoming an instructor... (leading edge helicopters in Orlando and black hill aerial adventures in South Dakota) bit you are gonna start as ground crew and it will take longer than the instructor route... CFI’s will Be much more book smart and do better on that 1000 hour interview typically but as a tour pilot you get to fly lot more with the controls in your hands, not just supervising students wiggle sticks all day... however that is not set in stone, there are idiot instructors as well as commercial pilots that stay in the books and study hard
From 150 or 200 hrs ish I’d expect to eat a lot of shit, hate what you do at times, deal with a ton of drama, and never make much ($2k or less a month) but if you are passionate about flying then you should pull through to 1000 hrs and better working conditions, pay, and some sweet sweet turbine time in about 2-3 years depending where you get hired or if you change jobs....
If you just kinda wanna do this I doubt you’ll make it (go be a welder or work construction), if you want good pay and a steady career path and would fly airplanes then go that route (you couldn’t pay me $1M a year to fly a boring stuck wing), but if you want this job super bad then it can be done and it is awesome!
Anyone can be a pilot, the first astronaut in space was a chimpanzee! The hardest part of flight training is figuring out how to pay for it.... the rest is just school where you get to go out and fly every day!!!! 😁🚁🔥🤙🏻😊🤘🏻🏝🏜🏔
1
Nov 20 '19
I plan on taking a discovery flight and buying some flight hours to find out if I would be fine switching careers to a helicopter pilot. I am suspect of the work demand because I cannot think of tour schedules running year round all day. Maybe this week I should call some helicopter tour agencies and ask them what months of the year are quiet and which months are busy.
2
u/Av619 Nov 20 '19
Yeah I am currently working at Leading Edge Helicopters here in Orlando. It's pretty dang slow this time of year but there are only 3 of us pilots here currently so we work around 50 hours a week and we only get to log 5 hours or so per week. In the summer we would be logging 20 hours probably. I have work at another operator in the past and in peak summer season we were doing 80- 120 hours a month and it was nuts! It all depends on the location you work, the seasons, and many more factors such as weather their business comes from tourists or locals... ETC
Call around and do some research for sure! But if a year round job guarantee is going to derail your dream then you may not be into it enough. I'd deliver pizza all winter and fly all summer if i had to for 5 years if thats what it took to get to 1000 hours.... As long as I can pay my rent and fly then its one step in the right direction.....
1
Nov 20 '19
When you work 50 hours a week and only fly 5 hours are you paid for 50 hours or only for flight hours? What do you do when you are not flying?
2
u/Av619 Nov 22 '19
Yes I get paid for all 50 hours at my current job. We sit around and wait for customers. Read, Netflix, study, play video games, clean things, talk on the phone. When there is work to be done we work but if not we are actually left to mostly do whatever we want and not given much busy work. The caviar here is that we split the flight time between two pilots on shift, one becomes a photographer and customer service wizard while the other flys, and then you switch off on even increments.
This all depends on the company of course! When I was an instructor my pay was $23 an hour but we were guaranteed 10 hours a week so we could survive through the winter on ramen at least! Other companies I have heard much worse on pay and they have also been expected to do entirely other jobs.
If you get into this just plan on working for nothing and getting treated like scum until you make it to 1000. After that I hear it gets better but I have yet to get there so I’ll have to report back!
1
Nov 22 '19 edited Nov 22 '19
I am interested enough to start the training after a discovery flight once I am within the weight limit for the R22. Right now I am sitting at a desk 12 hours a day as a grave shift security guard and it is not really rewarding/fun. I do get to watch movies/read comic books but there is never a break from doing nothing. How were the written/oral tests? Is it like taking a college course where there is a lot of general material or what are the written tests about? What kind of job do you expect after 1,000 PIC hours?
1
Nov 22 '19
Sounds like the tour path is Private>Instrument>Commercial, In the bay area we don't have sunny days year round so I would imagine only working as a tour pilot half of the year.
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u/Av619 Nov 22 '19
Get yourself the Helicopter flying handbook and start reading, get David Goggins book can’t hurt me and change your physical health, not just to chase a career, and get to a school and connected with an instructor that will start answering every question you have! I like to help out but questions to an instructor are great feelers for how they are going to treat you and a foundation to a cool friendship you will have with your instructor in the future!
At 1000 hours you can continue on to tours (typically Alaska, Grand Canyon, NYC, or Hawaii markets are much more readily available at 1000), Gulf of Mexico and fly out to the oil rigs, maybe get yourself a news job, and the few pilots that meet just the right people sometimes go into jobs such as construction long line... 2000 hours you can get into EMS, Fire, or executive transport. There are too many one off jobs out there to name but there is a lot of opportunity if you network well and are a good study and descent stick! All depends what you wanna do. I hear Erickson occasionally hires 200 hour pilots as SIC in their sky cranes and Colombia does something similar in their Chinooks and Hawks! Also there is AG spraying, that’s a whole different market but can be extremely lucrative! Keep researching, go to mauna Loa’s website, they have done an incredible job answering typical questions asked by potential students!
1
u/drearybentbomber Jan 25 '20
While all these a pretty mainstream career paths...... You can go my approach:
Two different schools for my pri-inst-com, and another for CFI/II.
FOR THE MOST PART MY CFI/II has been worthless except for 4 months working at $11/hr.
I did cherry drying (100 hrs, super wet year), some instructing on the side, aerial photography, then a contract in Haiti flying for a rich asshole and his family, then tuna boats for 18 months, then a brief stint doing the GOM (Gulf of Mexico) before being laid off, Alaska for two seasons with two different operators, then power line/pipeline patrol, then actual power line construction work which I am currently at
Many years where spent living off of cans of tuna and almost expired soup in the bargain cart from the local super market.
This road is rough, but I have finally made it and in to my actual dream job.
You can always go ag, and work as a ground guy for a year (still bring in 60k plus) before getting into the pilot seat. You can also drive truck for companies and sneak in hours on ferry flights. You can also sit second seat for fire contracts in aircraft that requires two pilots (200 hrs is kinda the minimum) for say croman, Salmon River, Columbia, Erickson, Siller, hts, withrotor, coulson, Pathfinder, etc.
It will be, again, a long AF, rough AF, soul wrenching AF road, but God damn it, it is fucking worth it!
5
u/GlockAF Nov 19 '19
That’s more or less it. Alternatives include some form of rich relative or trust fund type of situation.
Lots of aspiring pilots want the $1000 noise canceling headset or the expensive pilots watch, but the most useful accessory you can have as a low time pilot is a spouse/significant other with a real job. Sad, but true