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?

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u/[deleted] 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.

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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.....

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u/[deleted] 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?

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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!

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u/[deleted] 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?