Getting Helo ratings...

[MarineGrunt]

How difficult is it to get all/most your helicopter ratings if you already have all your fixed wing ratings? Big expense? Lots of time? etc...?

 

[avbug]

Same amount of time it took you to get your fixed wing ratings, but a lot more expensive. Figure about thirty grand if you just want to add on, and fifty if you want to fly enough to get employed instructing...especially if you are seeking a job in a Robinson.

 

[JB Bus Drvr]

If you hold a private or comm. airplane, it takes about 30-40 hrs. of training\flt. time. The cost is closer to $8K to 9K. (R22 @ $200/hr.) The rub is getting a helicopter job. Most operators want 1500 hrs. helicopter experience and if you're looking at a turbine job, close to 1000 turbine time. For somebody who wants the rating for fun, it's not a bad price. But if you're trying to eventually get a helicopter job, it's an extremely long and hard road if you're doing it in the civilian world. If you're serious about it PM me and I'll fill you in on details and schools you might want to consider.

 

[msw]

Fiexed wing to helo

Getting my helo add-on ratings was not difficult; I'd call it fun and challenging. The cost is another matter, as it IS expensive. But I also think AvBug is way off on the $30K for the Helo add-on ratings, if you are already a Comm F/W pilot. I've been a fixed wing guy for a long long time, and about 7 years ago, I did my PVT Helo add-on followed immediately by a COMM Helo add-on...... to the best of my aging recollection, my total cost (then) was a little under $11,000 including books and the two flight tests. I think the R22 was about $130/hr and another $35/hr for the instructor in those days, and it took me about 70 - 75 hours total helo time from the beginning to the point of passing the Comm checkride. I would not have done it except that I had a guaranteed job "improvement" (sort of a lateral transfer for me) lined up flying helos after I got the add-ons, with a $1000 a month pay raise; so my expenses were made up for in less than a year. If not for that, I would not have done it, as in most of the rest of helo world, AvBug is right on the mark: you'll spend a lot of time and money just getting to the point where you can instruct in an R22. I think the military trained helo pilots have a bigger employment advantage (because of their training and the turbine time they bring out of the service with them) over their fixed wing brethren.

 

[USMCmech]

if you are already a Comm F/W pilot .... I did my PVT Helo add-on followed immediately by a COMM Helo add-on.

My understanding is that if you already have your Comm, you can skip private and go straight to comercial.

But, I've been wrong before.

 

[avbug]

You are correct. You're not skipping anything, however. There is one pilot certificate. Not a private and a commercial. These are privileges that may be applied to ratings on your certiicate or to the certificate in general. However, if you're a commercial pilot, you're a commercial pilot, and you hold a commercial pilot certificate. If you add a helicopter category rating on to that certificate, you can add it with private privileges, or commercial privileges. That's up to you.

There exists no requirement to obtain private privileges when adding on rating; you can do it at a commercial level first.

As for the cost, avbug was not wrong.

A Robinson or a Schweitzer today will cost you about one hundred eighty an hour to two thirty an hour. Costs have gone up.

A typical private pilot add on will run about six grand, assuming you can knock it out in 40 hours. To do it as a commercial, if you can do it in the minimum time of 40 hours, about nine grand. Add an instrument rating for four thousand. Add on a flight instructor for six thousand and instrument flight instructor for another two, and you've hopped up another six or seven grand.

Now add in additional costs such as examiner fees, hotel and meals if you're going somewhere to start the training, and then of course additional flying if you can't get it done in the bare minimum number of hours (a lot of folks don't...not not in fixed wing, or helicopters), and the cost gets there very quickly.

The Robinson is used for more instruction than any other type; sensibly, if you're looking for a civillian instructing job, you're more likely to find work in a Robinson than any other type. To get enough flight experience to qualify to teach in a Robbie under the SFAR, you'll need to boost up to two hundred hours, and that is going to run you right up to nearly fifty grand by the time you're done.

Having said that, most helicopter places are only going to hire helicopter instructors who took their training there. Or more accurately, there are enough students coming through that want the job that they're unlikely to turn to outside help. Not all, but many. With that in mind, your most likely training mount will also be the one you instruct in...train in Schweitzer's and instruct in them...but at the same time you'll be unable to go somewhere else to instruct in a robinson if that need should arise. Or rent one, for that matter.

As far as Civillian helicopter pilots, you're seeing more and more of them in the workplace today. A lot more.

 

[nosehair]

To do it as a commercial, if you can do it in the minimum time of 40 hours.

FAR 61.129(c)(1)100 hours in powered aircraft, of which 50 must be in helicopters.

Avbug, how can you do it in 40?

 

[Crimson03]

FAR 61.129(c)(1)100 hours in powered aircraft, of which 50 must be in helicopters.

Avbug, how can you do it in 40?

Some schools have part 141 approval to do commercial helicopter add ons in 40 hours.

 

[avbug]

Under Part 141, 30 hours of training in rotorcraft are required for commercial certification with a rotorcraft category rating.

Add ten hours for solo, and you have the typical package that's sold as a "commercial add-on" rating.

Does this mean that with just 40 hours of helicopter time someone is good to go? Considering that a fixed wing private pilot typically takes more like 65 to eighty hours on the average, how much more do you suppose one might take in a helicopter. Minimums seldom mean the amount of time in which one will finish the program, only the smallest amount of time in which an applicant may finish the program.

In actual practice, the costs and times involved are higher, which is why I posted as I did.

 

[Checks]

Sure there are more jobs but the pay and benefits will never be anything like you can make flying fixed wing. If you arent a military trained helo pilot I would STRONGLY advise against getting your helicopter ratings in hopes of getting a job.