Should I train in an airplane if I want to be a helicopter pilot?

Should I train in an Airplane if I want to be a helicopter pilot first?

If you wish to be a Helicopter pilot I would recommend the following. Do your training in both fixed wing aircraft and helicopter.

Advantages

1. Cost
• Helicopter only Training: A helicopter pilot will spend for 250 total hours approximately $65,000 for private, commercial, instrument, CFI and CFII ratings.
• Fixed Wing and Helicopter Training: A fixed wing pilot will spend for 250 hours approximately $40,000 to do a Single Engine (private, commercial, instrument, CFI and CFII) and an Airplane multi engine rating. That leaves you $25,000 extra cash to do you helicopter ratings. You will need at least 50 flight hours in a helicopter to do a commercial rating that will cost about $18,000 to complete. The remaining $7,000 can be used to get an instrument rating in a helicopter.

Commercial Airplane rating requires:
1. 250 total hours unless you are in a 141 school in which case it will be around 205 total hours flown.

Commercial Helicopter rating requires:

1. Requires a total of 150 hours flown in airplanes and helicopters
2. 50 Hours in a helicopter of which 35 hours must be solo or PIC.

Instrument Helicopter ad on rating:
1. Will require a minimum of 15 hours dual.

So ideally you would do your training in this order with approximately this much total flight time under FAR 61:
1. Private pilot Single Engine Airplane - 57 hrs
2. Instrument Pilot Single Engine Airplane - 110 hrs.
3. Commercial Pilot Helicopter 160 hrs.
4. Instrument Helicopter – 175 hrs.
5. Commercial Single Engine Airplane – 250 hrs.
6. (CFI) Certified Flight Instructor Single Engine Airplane – 253 hrs.
7. (CFII) Certified Flight Instructor Instrument Single Engine Airplane – 255 hrs.

2. Marketability of the Pilot

• The Helicopter only pilot will finish training with:
o Commercial Helicopter rating
o Instrument Helicopter rating
o CFI Helicopter
o CFII Helicopter ratings
o 250 Total flight Time



• The Fixed Wing and Helicopter Pilot will finish training with:
o Commercial Helicopter rating
o Instrument Helicopter rating
o Commercial Airplane Single Engine rating
o Instrument Airplane Single Engine rating
o Certified Flight Instructor Single Engine Airplane
o Certified Flight Instructor Instrument Airplane
o 65 hours helicopter
o 190 hours in an airplane
o 255 Total Flight Time.
o You could also be ready to take the Airplane Multi Engine rating if planned into flying schedule up to 250 total hours.

Note: For an additional 10 to 15 hours in a helicopter you should be able obtain a helicopter flight instructor rating for an additional $5,500


3. Corporate Advantage:

• The fact that you are qualified in both aircraft and Helicopter will open more doors sooner in the corporate would because you are dual qualified. In my best estimation about 10 % or less of the population of commercial rated pilots are commercially rated in a helicopter.

4. Economy:
• In bad economic times the pilot with the most in demand skills will stay employed. Over the last 10 years or so helicopters pilots have been in bigger demand. This will likely change with the economic times and you should try to stay as marketable as possible during your career.

Disadvantages:

1. Insurance: You will not have a lot of helicopter time to start out with and will need a good helicopter instruction job to build your time. Insurance will be an issue no matter what you do in aviation for many years after you start working. It seem what you have is never good enough. Even when you fly larger jets and have thousands of hours the insurance will want even more or specifically time in type of aircraft. So try to get in as many types of aircraft as you can. Turbine time for helicopters and aircraft will be hard to get. Pay for some training if it will get you into a turbine aircraft.

2. You will need to spend another $5,500 to get your helicopter CFI.


Final point

Plan ahead how you are going to do your training. In some cases a 141 flight school will make sense to do your training. However, you can partner up with someone and achieve a lot more experience, save money and achieve many of the ratings I have talked about here for even less. That of course will be another log so stay tuned for the next posting.

Robbie Johnson
Chief Pilot

http://www.aviationtraining.us