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I am thinking about trying to get my helicopter pilot license so that I can fly for recreational purposes. When I started looking up schools, there were a lot of options. What should I look for in a school to help make my decision? Thanks in advance.
Ive only done fixed wing training, but 90% of the experience is determined by your instructor. Schedule an intro flight and go from there. Dont be afraid to change instructors if you dont like yours. Other than that all i can say is avoid schools that require you to put down 10s of thousands of dollars up front. They will generally try to scam you out of it. Not to be confused with legitimate schools that offer a discount for putting money in an account. Just be wary of the ones that require full payment for your license up front.
I guess it all depends on what state/area of the country you're usually in.
I'm looking at getting my private helicopter nailed down first and then seeing whether or not to continue with the time/money to go for the commercial ratings.
But to me, it seems as though the highest concentration of helicopter-specific flight schools are all clustered in either the Southeast(many in Florida), or the Pacific NW(a great many in Oregon/Washington for whatever reason).
We've got one in Albuquerque, but I think it would be nice to personally check out other individual schools and see how well they'll accommodate someone shoe-stringing their budget.
from what I've seen in the Aviation training biz, it's not a productive use of your time/money to be behind the curve in having the funds available to proceed with your training at a reasonable pace.
Most folk build upon their skills with a steady pace of training and frequency of flying. Having a break of even a couple weeks can really set your training back, and your next flight hours are refreshers just to bring you back to where you were.
Perhaps you'll want to ask the flight school(s) what they recommend for a consistent path to learning ... hours/week and frequency of flying, and what that means for your cash flow and time needed.
Of course, any flight school/instructor will be happy to string your training along for as long as you want, but this can be a very expensive way to get to that check-ride day.
As always, flight training can be a very personalized experience, and you may find some instructors style something that doesn't agree with your learning processes. If you're not enjoying the time with a given instructor and the learning is becoming a chore, it's time to seek out another instructor that you're more compatible with. This may change through the course of your learning curve, too ... an instructor may only be good for you for certain elements and then you need to move on. OTOH, you may find an instructor from the ab initio training that is a gem for you ....
from what I've seen in the Aviation training biz, it's not a productive use of your time/money to be behind the curve in having the funds available to proceed with your training at a reasonable pace.
Most folk build upon their skills with a steady pace of training and frequency of flying. Having a break of even a couple weeks can really set your training back, and your next flight hours are refreshers just to bring you back to where you were.
Perhaps you'll want to ask the flight school(s) what they recommend for a consistent path to learning ... hours/week and frequency of flying, and what that means for your cash flow and time needed.
Of course, any flight school/instructor will be happy to string your training along for as long as you want, but this can be a very expensive way to get to that check-ride day.
As always, flight training can be a very personalized experience, and you may find some instructors style something that doesn't agree with your learning processes. If you're not enjoying the time with a given instructor and the learning is becoming a chore, it's time to seek out another instructor that you're more compatible with. This may change through the course of your learning curve, too ... an instructor may only be good for you for certain elements and then you need to move on. OTOH, you may find an instructor from the ab initio training that is a gem for you ....
So, what do you suggest?
Saving up money until I hit a specific goal?
Investing?
Most programs I've come across at various locations all seem to be around the same price.
$300-$500/hour for either the R22 or R44, $50/hour for ground school, and $100/hour or so for any required simulator time they make you take on.
Just for the PPL alone, it usually goes up to between $20,000 and $30,000+ easily.
Looking at those numbers for such a pursuit does really make one want to hit the bottle hard in some cases.
The savings thing is a chore within itself and to me, requires a great deal of sacrifice in order to make things happen.
I've got a pretty high, pickup truck payment that's taking a good chunk of money every month.(about the same as what gets deducted in taxes.)
I haven't made any real commitments to anything else yet.
I see paying off the truck, perhaps selling it, and then using the proceeds along with some saved money to allocate to a one-shot, training program in the near future.
Not really a car-person, and this helicopter flight thing has been on my mind for quite some time.
So, guess I'm just going to have to buckle down, go back into a-hole/a-social mode, and just work/save until I hit the intended goal for what's needed.
This way, even if I do just go for the PPL alone and that's it, I could at least look back and say I tried.
Or strive for a different job/set of education that will actually overcome the earnings ceiling I feel I've hit in the field I'm currently in.
I am thinking about trying to get my helicopter pilot license so that I can fly for recreational purposes. When I started looking up schools, there were a lot of options. What should I look for in a school to help make my decision? Thanks in advance.
Learning to fly a helicopter? The first step is to start off with.....
You can do a combination of fixed wing and helicopter, do your basic learning in a fixed wing, navigation is navigation does not matter if there is a prop in the front or on top.
On the other hand, I really feel the helicopter flight school in Albuquerque I checked out is "taking me for a ride".
Weight wise, I could see the need to use the R44 for both myself and the instructor, along with consideration for the density altitude and such.
But they kept pushing that I'll probably need an instructor with me at all times "due to the mountainous terrain".
With the 22 going for $300/hour, and the 44 going for $500/hour, it's all just a business game in the end.
They just want more money from that 44.
Guess I'll have to go on the Christian Bale "The Machinist" diet in order to throw the weight off even quicker.
And possibly relocate and find another flight school that doesn't beat around the bush.
This whole thing is all the more dismal when pilots to talk to about this sort of thing are hard to find.
Spot, before you dive into rotary wing training you ought to consider the reality of the endeavor. Can you comfortably afford to spend something north of 30 thou for a license to fly an R-22? Even with such a license, will the folks who trained you even rent out the machine to you once you have your ticket?
Don't even think about buying a small helicopter unless you have a lot of spare cash on hand. And making a kit-built machine is another road to disaster (financially and in regard your personal safety).
I love helicopters. But they ain't for the faint of heart.
Rich
(NYPD Aviation/ Bell 206B and UH-1B)
World Trade Center heliport, early 1980s. This heliport was eventually closed down and a newer, better heliport, was built on the East River around Wall Street.
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