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Helicopter Trainingat East Coast Aero Club; updated March 2009 |
What about a job as a helicopter pilot? It beats flying a desk, that's for sure! We bought our first R44 helicopter from a guy who was a successful lawyer in Boston before he found out how much more fun it was to be up in the sky every day. After flying sightseeing tours in Alaska and Manhattan, he started his own sightseeing tour company and also a dealership for new Robinson helicopters. Most people would be happier if they did jobs that they thought would be fun when they were 10 years old. No 10-year-old wants to be an accountant or a computer programmer.
Can you earn a living doing a job that you love? Absolutely... as long as people drive SUVs to the 7-11. The bulk of demand for helicopter services comes from the oil industry. Most of the oil that is easily tapped has been exploited. The world's new oil fields are offshore and getting farther offshore. The only way for a person or a drill bit to get on or off an offshore oil rig is by helicopter.
You can live anywhere in the U.S. and fly to the oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico. You work one week on/one week off or two weeks on/two weeks off. When you're off, the company gets you a ticket back to wherever you happen to live (one of my former instructors lives in Manchester, New Hampshire and flies out of Texas). Starting salary is around $50,000 per year, rising to close to $100,000 per year, which can go pretty far because you can choose to live in a part of the U.S. with a low cost of living.
Another entry-level helicopter job is sightseeing, notably in Alaska. Pilots move up to Juneau in the spring and work through the summer season flying jet-powered over some of the world's most beautiful scenery.
If you are adventurous, you can work off the west coast of Africa and earn over $100,000 per year, working two months on/one month off, with a plane ticket anywhere in the world for your vacation time. These jobs almost all go to Americans, Australians, English, and Europeans; the Nigerians know how to have fun, but there are very few Nigerians that an oil or insurance company will trust as the pilot in command of a $10 million helicopter.
The pharmaceutical companies in New Jersey pay $130,000+/year for experienced pilots to fly their executives in magnificent Sikorsky S-76 helicopters. They lift from the front lawn of the suburban office building and travel up and down the East Coast for meetings.
Long-line operations are some of the most difficult and best-paid. Logging companies use helicopters to lift valuable trees out of forests rather than cut roads. Air conditioners are lifted onto the roofs of buildings that are too tall to make it practical to bring in a crane. These jobs can pay more than $200,000 per year.
Medevac is a good steady job for someone who has already built jet-powered helicopter time flying sightseeing tours in Alaska or flying to the oil rigs. The pay is reasonable, the mission is noble, the pilots are excellent, the helicopters are beautiful. It would not be my first choice of job because of the large amount of waiting-around time.
You're not going to get rich as a professional helicopter pilot, but you won't be bored, you will earn a comfortable salary, and you will have a wide choice of jobs in a variety of locations.
How long does it take? You pay for your first 200-300 hours of flight time, during which you earn a Commercial license, instrument rating, and instructor ratings. You instruct until you have 500-1000 hours, getting paid minimal dollars, but logging time while the students pay for the helicopter. After that, you are employable in a traditional sightseeing or oil rig transport job. An alternative career path is to learn in the Robinson R44 and, at 200+ hours, take a job flying sightseeing tours at one of the growing number of R44 operators nationwide. Budget for 1.5-2 years of training and starvation wages before you can get a $50,000/year job.
The view from your new office...
We currently operate three heliopters, all of which were purchased factory-new:
Ready for your checkride? Great! We have an on-staff FAA Designated Examiner.
Working on a helicopter instrument rating? Our instructors have a significant amount of time in actual instrument conditions, both in airplanes and IFR-certified helicopters.
You will do much of your helicopter training at our home airport, Hanscom Field (KBED), 15 miles northwest of Boston, Massachusetts. This is one of the Northeast U.S.'s busiest airports with a mix of single-engine airplane trainers, business jets, U.S. Air Force planes, helicopter training, and flights from the two medevac helicopters based on the airport (our hangar is next to theirs if you want to walk over and learn about careers in EMS). It is a great airport for learning to hover because of the massive amount of open space. You'll learn precise radio communications; most of the pilots on the frequency are professional jet pilots and, by the end of your helicopter training, you too will be talking on the radio like an airline pilot and that will help during your turbine job interview.
Our lead helicopter mechanic, Rob Brigham, has been working on Robinsons for more than 20 years and is one of the most experienced Robinson mechanics in the Northeast. We conduct our maintenance with a "spare no expenses" policy; Rob and the other mechanics have an unlimited budget to replace any parts that they deem necessary.
Finally, the school has been certified by the FAA under Part 141 of the federal aviation regulations. This means that detailed lesson plans outlining your training have been approved by the federal government. Our school has also been approved for VA benefits that pay roughly two-thirds of the cost of training for veterans.
Watch the video at right for an introduction to some of the people at East Coast Aero Club. Click on the "HD" icon in the lower right of the frame and then the "full screen" icon to get the best experience.
Get the FAA's Rotorcraft Flying Handbook, either
via free
download
or from
amazon.com
and Principles
of Helicopter Flight. Get a copy of the Robinson 22 or
Robinson R44 Pilot's Operating Handbook, either from the front desk
of East Coast Aero Club
(they can mail it out) or from
Robinson Helicopter.
Your first lesson will be less bewildering if you read the airport operations and radio communications chapters in the Aeronautical Information Manual, published by the FAA. This is most convenient in hardcopy, available at any flight school, but also available as an online PDF from http://www.faa.gov/library/manuals/aviation/.
To prepare for the FAA knowledge test, the only standalone book of which we are aware that includes the helicopter-specific questions is the ASA Private Pilot Test Prep. The King Schools DVDs and accompanying book also include the helicopter questions.
In order to encourage people to do their primary training in the Robinson R44, which is more forgiving and therefore safer than other training helicopters, we offer the world's lowest price on the R44 ($329/hour check/debit; compare to $400-500/hour at other schools).
The most efficient schedule for helicopter training is 3-4 scheduled
lessons per week, of which 2-3 will actually be flown, depending on the
weather. Our helicopters share a heated hangar with a Gulfstream G-IV;
flying throughout the winter is very practical. Robinson
helicopters are always warm inside due to the greenhouse bubble and the
powerful heater.
A typical lesson occupies a two-hour block of time. Expect to fly for 1-1.5 hours of that block, with the remainder of the time devoted to preflight inspection, pushing the helicopter around on the ramp, and discussion with your instructor. After your first lesson, you can book lessons 24 hours per day from a Web browser.
If you do some homework and fly 2-3 times per week, you should expect to finish a helicopter rating within three or four calendar months. The FAA requires 20 hours of dual flight (with an instructor) and 10 hours of solo, plus an additional 10 hours of either dual or solo if you are don't already have a certificate to fly airplanes.
Visit http://philip.greenspun.com/flying/helicopter-141/private/ to view our FAA-approved syllabus.
The above estimates reflect FAA minimums. People who stretch out their training over a period of months typically require some additional flight hours.
In all cases, earning a helicopter license is cheaper than buying the average new car. The helicopter license lasts for a lifetime and is a challenge that the vast majority of people are afraid to confront. Almost anyone can borrow the money to buy a new SUV; ask yourself how many of those SUV drivers would have the courage to take the controls of a helicopter. How many would have the grit to train themselves to the point that the FAA would allow them to exercise pilot-in-command responsibility for the lives of passengers? When you earn a pilot certificate, you have achieved something that is beyond the capabilities of most people and it provides a source of lasting pride for most pilots.
Sallie Mae student loans are available; call 781-274-6322 for details.
If your sole purpose for coming to the U.S. is flight training, you'll want to get a student visa. East Coast Aero Club can sponsor you for one starting in May 2009. Contact philg@mit.edu for details.
In addition to our helicopter IFR trainer, we have roughly 25 IFR-capable airplanes and an FAA-approved IFR flight training device (like a simulator, but without the motion).