Helicopter Private Pilot Syllabus and Lesson Plans by Philip Greenspun in March 2006 Site Home : Flying : Helicopter Syllabus

Summary of Requirements

• 40 hours of flight time of which 20 must be dual instruction, 10 must be solo, and 10 may be either (or may be in an airplane; i.e., the minimum required time to log in a helicopter is 30 hours if you already hold a pilot certificate)
• 3 hours cross-country training (a landing more than 25 n.m. from the departure airport)
• 3 hours night training, including 10 takeoffs, patterns, and landings at an airport and one cross-country flight (at least 25 n.m. away and then back)
• a three-leg solo of at least 75 n.m., with one segment being at least 25 n.m.

As a practical matter, you will probably need 40-50 hours for an add-on rating and 50-60 hours for an ab initio rating. If you have a Commercial pilot certificate, you will still want to get the Private helicopter rating first so that you can log the remainder of your training flights as pilot-in-command time. Otherwise, you will need to fly an additional 25 hours of solo to get to the 35 hours of required PIC time to take the Commercial practical test.

Lesson Plans

1. Bad Weather Ground: SFAR 73 Awareness Training, Aerodynamics, and Extensive Preflight
2. Good Weather Intro: SFAR 73 Awareness Training, Quick Preflight, Intro Flight

   Cycle among the following until student is hovering reliably

3. Minuteman and Back
4. Norwood and Back
5. Nashua and Back

   Student can hover now...

6. Patterns and Hovering at Bedford (repeat until proficient)
7. Steep Approaches
8. Different Approach Angles
9. Plum Island and Back
10. Introduction to Autorotations (and quick stops)
11. Autorotations
12. Autorotations and Introduction to Slope Operations
13. .... more to come as my students progress ...

Other Stuff

• Questionnaire
• Lesson Plan Shell