Does anyone fly a helicopter for a living?

Isn't that a life flight helicopter? I don't see any company decals though. Why is it horrible?
 
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Most of the helicopters near me are piloted by military pilots. We have the largest navy base in the world, and the navy keeps lots of helicopters. There are also Coast Guard helicopters, army helicopters, and Marine Corps helicopters occasionally.

Most level one trauma centers will have a medevac helicopter. These jobs are extraordinarily hard to get and it’s not something that you pick up and then walk into with a few hundred hours, to be competitive for most of those jobs you have to have thousands of hours, and the former Army, Coast Guard, Marine, or Navy helicopter pilots are the kind of guy they’re looking for.

However, we do have traffic and news helicopters in the local area - the Norfolk area is a bit over 1 million people, those jobs abound, but they are known for their odd hours, demanding schedules, and low pay.

You can learn to be a pilot at your own pace, but that pace is gonna take many years. Because if you’re not available to fly when the weather is good, it’s gonna take you a very long time to build the hours necessary to get a commercial pilots license, you need at least 250 hours to get a commercial.

To be very honest, helicopter pilots don’t make a lot of money. There’s a lot better money in commercial aviation, but it’s gonna take you years, and over $100,00, to get started on that path, and another decade after that to get to where the good money is.
Can you be a pilot for someone's personal helicoptor? It seemed like a heliptor didn't need as many hours where a commercial airline pilot needs thousands of hours.
 
I remember when all of the tv news stations used to have a helicopter
for traffic reports and breaking news stories. I live in the Minneapolis area, and I think they all stopped using them around 2000 or so.

I know news helicopters are still common in the big cities like NY, Chicago, and LA, but I'm guessing not anywhere else?
They probably use drones now
 
Can you be a pilot for someone's personal helicoptor?
Sure, but you'd need to live pretty close to that person or their helipad. Next, you'd need to be on call 24/7/365 and able to drop whatever you're doing when they get decide they want to go somewhere, in addition to planned trips or usage. And unless this person is extremely wealthy, the pay probably won't be worth it.
 
Sure, but you'd need to live pretty close to that person or their helipad. Next, you'd need to be on call 24/7/365 and able to drop whatever you're doing when they get decide they want to go somewhere, in addition to planned trips or usage. And unless this person is extremely wealthy, the pay probably won't be worth it.
Yeah, that's what I thought. Be at someone's beck and call 24-7
 
Yeah, that's what I thought. Be at someone's beck and call 24-7
An old friend of mine was a corporate pilot for a very large clothing company based in Columbus OH. He was paid a really nice annual salary but said it was practically a part-time job when it came to "working". He was on call M-F, 8a-6p, though their schedules were normally planned out well in advance. He said in 5+ years, he was paged just two times on a weekend for last-minute flights.
 
What does it take to get a commercial helicopters license? Can you go to school for it at your own pace while you still keep your current day job? What is the work/personal life balance like?
I have flown small aircraft like Cessna 152s and have about 40ish hours and would like to go back and get my license. However I'm part of an eaa chapter and a couple of members have a helicopter (endorsement/certification). Anything commercial for helicopters will be turbine so that's additional expense. Two do you have a plan on why what you'd be doing if you go down this path? Are you thinking of flying for sight seeking tours, or maybe medivac, police, or as a news traffic reporter? Hows your health, and do you take any medication for various health reasons? If so that could derail your chances as a pilot. Just something to think about before spending alot of money.
 
I have flown small aircraft like Cessna 152s and have about 40ish hours and would like to go back and get my license. However I'm part of an eaa chapter and a couple of members have a helicopter (endorsement/certification). Anything commercial for helicopters will be turbine so that's additional expense. Two do you have a plan on why what you'd be doing if you go down this path? Are you thinking of flying for sight seeking tours, or maybe medivac, police, or as a news traffic reporter? Hows your health, and do you take any medication for various health reasons? If so that could derail your chances as a pilot. Just something to think about before spending alot of money.
I'm 35 so nothing wrong healthwise. I do have mild asthma, that's controlled with a maintenance inhaler I use once a day whether it's needed or not. That's kind of why I started this thread is to see what all they had for jobs, how much traveling etc. This is one of the reasons I'm self employed. A lot of people work jobs that seem to consume their whole life, you have no idea when your next day off is and then when they do give you a day off, they change their mind and make you come in anyways.
 
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This link has interesting info regarding the claimed job placement rate. https://flyhaa.com/helicopter/


Cost are below

https://flyhaa.com/helicopter-rates/
There was a guy on YouTube who said he paid for 52hrs of flight time and that along with the ground school it ended being about 35,000. He actually did more than the required 40hrs before taking his test. Looks like I can just just pay a flight school to take me up in one for an hour and see if I even like it before going to ground school and wasting a bunch of money and then you hop in a helicopter and realize you're afraid for your life. Lol
 
What does it take to get a commercial helicopters license? Can you go to school for it at your own pace while you still keep your current day job? What is the work/personal life balance like?
You could try joining the military. My cousin is married to an instructor pilot at Fort Rucker and he has over 10,000 hours of rotary wing experience.
And no, the Army won’t let you bring your dog with you, just in case you were considering this avenue.😀
 
You could try joining the military. My cousin is married to an instructor pilot at Fort Rucker and he has over 10,000 hours of rotary wing experience.
And no, the Army won’t let you bring your dog with you, just in case you were considering this avenue.😀
Should have never gotten a dog. Dumbest thing I ever did
 
My best friend's brother is a helicopter pilot.
I'm sure that if you wanted to call him somettime to talk, he wouldn't mind.
Let me know if you do, I'll get you his phone number.
Really nice guy, been doing it for 13 or 14 years.
 
Isn't that a life flight helicopter? I don't see any company decals though. Why is it horrible?
Our heli was simply a wealthy man's toy. Horrible because it was amazingly unreliable and stunningly expensive to operate. North of $4,500 per hour. One engine literally blew up, 255 hours since new, while in the South Bahamas. Leaving us stranded on a postage stamp of an island. In the end, the Kapton covered wiring was deteriorating. Leading to an near catastrophic electrical fire and a lot of downtime.

The video below my picture is that of a heli landing incident. The rotor blades actually moved beyond their limits and broke off the wire strike kit. All blades ruined. Maybe the rotor mast too. You might have to click on it, copy and paste the link.

zq3PdEi.jpg
 
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Like who employs helicopter pilots? I don't really want to move for a job. We have a hanger just 10 minutes up the road from me and another small airfield 45 minutes the other direction. Then I have a dog too. Looks like some of these jobs you do 14 days on, 14 days off, can you bring your dog along too?
Fresh out of school you're going to be an instructor, dusting crops, and flying tourist-trap tours to build hours, switching to nicer and nicer gigs until you're flying H-EMS or Exec.
 
I'm 35 so nothing wrong healthwise. I do have mild asthma, that's controlled with a maintenance inhaler I use once a day whether it's needed or not. That's kind of why I started this thread is to see what all they had for jobs, how much traveling etc. This is one of the reasons I'm self employed. A lot of people work jobs that seem to consume their whole life, you have no idea when your next day off is and then when they do give you a day off, they change their mind and make you come in anyways.
One of the key tasks of researching if you are a match to be a commercial rotary wing pilot is likely a flight physical.

A flight physical is about testing for many things, vision is one of the key medical items tested. Depth perception, color scales, etc. Every year thousands of men and woman that have passed a military physical with no medical issues and/ or no medical waivers and in excellent health, are unable to pass a flight physical.

I am sure @Astro14 and @Just a civilian pilot can provide ample information of testing requirements by a licensed medical professional to see if one is medically qualified to be a commercial aviation pilot.
 
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