Tips To Get Your First Helicopter Flying Job
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 4 ก.ย. 2024
- Learning to fly is a challenge, but getting that first flying job can be even harder. This video gives you some tips on how you can get that first flying job and begin your professional flying career!
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If you are thinking of learning to fly ANY aircraft I highly recommend you check out 'Over 100 Ways to Save Money on Flight Training' at PilotTeacher.com
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Whether you are a student pilot, a pilot, or just an aviation enthusiast, this channel and the website are for you. Be sure to check out some great articles about helicopters and all aspects of aviation at PilotTeacher.com
My love of aviation began at a very young age and the fascination of everything that flies still lives to this day. This TH-cam channel is a mix of aircraft doing their thing or answering questions to some of the most commonly asked aviation questions.
My day job as a full-time helicopter pilot allows me to dive deep into the topics and bring you up close and personal with many aircraft and the more questions I get in the comments the more videos I can create for you to answer those questions.
Being able to fly is a real privilege and taking you along for the ride when I can is something that I love to do!
Enjoy!
Rick James
PilotTeacher.com
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This whole video is a huge knowledge bomb! I learned a lot of these tips from my dad, and they are super useful! Always bring good eats and/or cool drinks. People are really appreciative of that.
I start my heli training tomorrow. I'll be switching over from fixed wing. I'm pretty excited even to take people on tour flights once I get to that point in a couple years. This journey is going to be hard, but it'll also be a ton of fun! Here we gooooooo!
Have fun and fly safe buddy!
I like be remembered for good reasons. When I was in trancing for an Emergency Medical Technician, most of us were really cracking the books. And then there was the “A” Team, enough said.
Book smart lkds are not aways job smart kids!
If you don't want to go the military route I suggest getting a fixed wing private pilot license first then add a helicopter rating afterward. Then join a police department that has helicopters. Police pilot was one of the best jobs I ever had.
I would skip the fixed wing and go straight for the helicopter. Two very different aircraft to fly and those students who started fixed wing first never progressed any faster than those that started purely on helicopters.
Police can be fun, especially if you get in a big city!
Thanks Rick, I appreciate your content. I just finished my CHPL in Calgary and have been looking for a flying job for a few months now with very little success. The struggle is REAL
It sure is! Getting that first job is generally harder than learning to fly!
Did you ever end up finding anything?
Looking to do my CPL-H in YYC next year, any luck/advice?
spot on advice mate ! keep it up.
P.s I did same.. 2003 went to local airport club and cleaned all the planes.. the rest is history !
BOOM!!! Thats what I’m talking about!!!
This is something I'm already doing and still have to start my PPL 🤣 I'm trying to know as many people as I can, talking with companies and so on, now as an aviation photographer but I always mention I'm saving money to get my ATPL-H, showing myself as best as I can to the companies, always being safe, responsible and trying to deliver the best photos I can. Really hoping it'll help me somehow in the future.
QUICK EDIT: I'm from Italy and under EASA regulations it's even harder to get a flying job as a new pilot... even flying tours requires 500hrs so the available jobs are less, and there are not a lot of companies like in the US, same thing if you count the whole Europe but then while I can speak italian and english (even if it's not as perfect as I'd like) they still want you to know the local language
Thats why I moved to the US!
@@PilotTeacher sounds good! where are you from if you don't mind me asking?
@@bertadaniel96 the UK originally.
Just wanna say love your channel, Super informative. Thank you for all the helpfull tips & tricks over the years.
Glad I could help!! Enjoy
Ik I've been bugging your comment box with you flying days but , sir thank you so so much for this amazing video I will only try as much as I can to put these advises into action . Everytime you show the machines, i hear angels singing hallelujah in the background🤣🤣. Thank you so much for this amazing advise SPECTACULAR GENUINE ADVICES THANK YOU AGAIN🙏🏽
Anytime Nixon!
You're probably the only youtuber addressing things like hey it's not easy to get a job because insurance companies are requiring more hours ...it's the hard truth and I respect that you deliver the message to the point you know really kudos sir
Thanks man, you keep young pilots motivated .. fly safe
Thanks, you too!
Thanks Rick! Very good video! You're right, everything is ATTITUDE!
So long as its the right attitude!!
Thanks for your good advice! Especially the one about being remembered for the right reasons, not the wrong ones 😉👍 keep it up please.
Thank you! Will do!
im 63,i currently earn £45k a year driving trucks in the uk.my advice to 20+ wanna be pilots is join the military,give 6+ years of your life to be trained by the best with matching equipment, potential employers have to pay insurance for their pilots and "very generous with doughnuts"means nothing.military trained pilots win all the good aviation posts hands down.my cfi was an arse,tried to make me feel like a "trespasser" as i knew he was only building hours and i already owned a rotorway. beware of dreamsellers.your channel is cool though.
I'm unable to join due to having to use corrective lenses. Is it really realistic for me to consider chasing the dream at 29yrs old? your CFI experience really makes me think I'm going to spend 80k and end up unemployable after all that.
really cool video, i also have a company on the airfield in my city and i have also helped them and yes next time they fly and have a space available they will take me with them
Do it!!!! You will love it!!
Please keep making great videos for us student pilots! Safe flying
I was a student once. Just keep taking those steps!
Great story on the two kids. Question, I had a few activities that required check lists. I know that you have a few checklists in the aviation industry. Do you just use the required checklists per your company and aircraft manufacturer or have you created your own checklist which include the manufacture, company and “Your to do” checklists. I have done my customized checklists because they flow better in my mind.
It depends on the company. Some will use the manufacturers lists then add company specific items to them. While others just completely create their own.
Usually Two-Pilot operations require mandatory list usage as per the SOP’s but in single pilot a ‘Flow’ will develop in the cockpit allowing completion from memory without mandatory list usage.
Each has its place
how about owning your a machine, maybe with a under rotor quality carry hook & cables, and perhaps a fire bucket heard we need hours for fires though, so jobs pay for the upkeep of an aircraft and fuel ?
I hear military helicopter hours cannot be used for civil ?, this was my way in to rotary flying
In Europe you cant get a job bellow 2500-3000 hours. I get to fly 80h/year, doing tour flights, or as a flight instructor (if I'm lucky). But luck is not really on my side. My first job was crop spraying. After one week, aerial spraying was banned in the EU. Then, I made my living as an administrator at a flight school. And sometimes I managed to arrange some helicopter tours. But we were not payed for flying, but payed by flying. When I got enough of the low hours and the 500$ monthly salary, I moved on to mosquito control, and I got even less. My license did not came trough due to bureaucratic reasons, since in the EU each helicopter requires a type rating, and the type I was about to fly had no instructors in Europe. I ended up driving a fuel truck for two years while the CAA and my boss made me believe, that I get my type rating in few months. When finally my license got trough we had a dry summer, with just a few hours of flying. Next year the company was sold and the new crew already have had their numbers. Now I'm gonna try to get a job on a tuna boat, because after 15 years I managed to gain 1200 hours, and I'm running out of options. I can't go to the US or Canada because I don't have a green card. Same goes for Australia or New Zealand. So if you have any advice for pilots without access to the kind of jobs you mentioned then I'm all ears.
Ouch that sounds like a tough road you have had Kristov!
Ive said many times the hardest part is getting the first real time flying job and alot of it comes down to persistance and luck.
I know of pilots that have come out of flight school and walked straight into a job and I also know pilots who tried for years and got nowhere.
I would say to keep on looking, calling, knocking on doors and see what you can find. 1200 hours is a good amount of hours but spread over 15 years might be the thorn in the side.
You may have to look at moving further away and try some new companies. Europe is tough to get started that was one of the primary reasons I left the UK.
Keep trying and all you need is that one door to open and you will be off to the races!
@@PilotTeacher Yeah. I came too far, to give up. Thanks for the motivation!
@@kristofnagy5829 thats what I wanted to hear!!
Great advice!
Glad you think so!
@Pilot Teacher Another great video! Have you posted your videos on the subreddit r/helicopters? There’s always people asking questions on how to start off as a pilot. Your videos would be great for them
To be honest I never use Reddit, but if you want to put a link on their to my channel that may help them.
For sure. Thank you
Great video
Thanks Steve!!
wow kenora looks busy!
It sure was! Refuellers were run ragged!!!
That's my life atm. 32yr old, not long finished my cplh, and have travelled over 16hrs 1 way to visit a couple of companies that might give me an opportunity to wash, refuel the heli for $15 per hour for atleast a year before I get to get back in a heli... after I just paid close to $100k for my licence. Not sure what to do now.. get my CFI rating? Keep spending more thousands driving around the countryside? At a bit of a loss atm.
Yeah its tough! By far the hardest part of getting started. If you can stretch to doing the CFI you will stand alot better chances at finding that first job.
@@PilotTeacher ok, so to be able to qualify for the instructor course I will need to get my low level rating and nvfr rating. Which is around $12k, was thinking of just working somewhere and banking as much money as soon as possible. Getting the ratings and doing cfi but not sure. My flight school have been no help, they just say "good luck".
@@Heli-Adventures which country are you in?
Sounds like its time to change flight school. They sound like a typical money squeezing factory!!
@@PilotTeacher I'm in Australia. I'm done with the flight school now tho. Finished my cpl with them. And them telling me there Is a pilot shortage and will get a job easy was the biggest load of shìiì, only realised now that I'm trying to get into the industry..
@@Heli-Adventures they all say that! They are in the business of making money and will tell you anything to get you to part with the cash.
Id send out your resume then get on the phone the next and call every company in your territory then the country and try and see if you can find something.
Oz is a big country to drive around!
Hey so I have a home school diploma would this be enough ?what was ur education level going into flight school for first time ?
The only thing flight schools need off you is money. Your academic schooling does not matter to them. All you need to be able to do is learn the theory to pass each pilot certificate and you are good to go!
@@PilotTeacher thank you so much
Hey mate, you should do a "top 10 craziest Helicopter stories" or "top 10 Greatest Pilots", if you want to be clickbate-y, make a "What Helicopter would Batman use/What would Batman Fly?" video
I like these nice advices, but yourself, do you hire fresh 120ish hours commercial pilots use your machine very regularly to let them build hours by dozen on your as350?
If you don't, that's hypocritical.
@@rocksquared it all depends on each companies insurance and customer requirements. Some companies can allow low timers to fly for them, others not.
Couple hundred hours to fly a million dollar plus helicopter? Lmao,...at almost 800 hours I couldn't even get a job flying a few hundred thousand dollar helicopter for less money than a Fedex delivery boy makes!
It takes a bit of luck for sure. Our junior pilot flies our two new H125’s.
Keep at it and you will get there!
@@PilotTeacher I don't know,...I was the only one to show up at the "open" interview. :(
@@lookingforwookiecopilot well thats great news for you! No other competition! Did you get the job?
@@PilotTeacher Nope
@@lookingforwookiecopilot dont give up. You will find the right opportunity!
That dream died 15 years ago.
Not everyone makes it. I know many who just couldn’t get that break they needed!
@@PilotTeacher Never could get the hours. No one ever hiring low time. Had friends who were in the right place at the right time. I never was. Money ran out. Its DCS for me now.
@@P90F55 I hear ya buddy! That right place at the right time can be an evil bitch if you never get that break!
I'm sad to read this as i haven't even enrolled yet, How many hours did you get before you decided to call it quits?
@@PilotTeacher Are you saying that people have paid all that money and to time to get their commercial license only to never even land a CFI job and build from there? Or they were unable to progress past a certain point?
This video is another Centre of the Universe Americana production.
All thru this vido, it assumes the USA is the only place on earth
and that by a pomme.
The reason why it is so US focused is that 98% of the people who watch my videos are in the US.
Too bad age 65 is retirement age.
It is but by 65 everyone should be taking it easy and enjoying retirement!