Jan 6, 2009 - They include former defence pilots with vast flying experience, who. An Academy official outlines the importance of helicopter training: our.
Helicopter Aviation Helicopter Piloting. How to learn to be a helicopter pilot.Training to become a Helicopter PilotIf you are thinking about getting your helicopter license, there are a fewthings you may want to know first. Most people who decide to get theirhelicopter license break down into one of two categories.
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Someone who holdsno pilot rating at all, or someone who holds some sort of fixed wing rating.Of course, there is the occasional balloon pilot, or other exotic, but theseare quite rare.People who currently do not posses any type of pilot certificateIf you hold no rating at all, you will need to take 20 hours of instructionand log 20 hours of solo practice. Generally, however, it will take you closerto 45 hours of dual instruction before you are ready for your checkride, givingyou closer to 65 hours total time in helicopters, if you are an averagestudent.Before you can take your checkride, you must pass a written exam. These daysthat pretty much means going to a computerised testing center. The test ismultiple choice, there are study guides available that give you the answers,and passing grade is a 70. Piece of cake.Assuming you pass your written test, and your flight instructor thinks youare ready for the checkride, you will be signed off to take a combinationoral and flight test with either an FAA examiner, or more likely a DesignatedExaminer who is a person who does not work for the FAA, but has been designatedas having enough experience to judge whether you make the grade or not.The length of the exams are pretty much up to the examiner.
Supposedly youwill only be tested on subjects called out in the 'Practical Test Standards'(which you should get a copy of)but in reality most examiners use that as a bare minimum and will ask youplenty of questions that are not in the PTS. One to two hours of oral examand an hour of flying is pretty typical for the designated examiner we sendmost of our student pilots to.People who currently hold an airplane certificateFirst of all, as you read the regulations you should realize that you arenot a 'student pilot'.
You are not even a 'student pilot inhelicopters'. You are a private or commercial or ATP pilot working onadding a category and class to your certificate. Thus any regulation thattalks about student pilots does not apply to you. Some peoplewant to interpret that they apply to you, but they don't.An example would be cross country flight.
As a non-student pilot, you haveto receive 3 hours of flight instruction in cross country flight beforeyou can take the checkride. However, you do not have to be 'signedoff' for cross country flight the way a student pilot does. Once you havebeen signed off for solo flight in a category and class, you can do justabout anything except carry passengers. You could technically fly crosscountry before receiving your 3 hours of dual cross country. I know itsounds weird, but you are a rated pilot and the FAA will let youget away with a lot that a student pilot cannot.In general, you should plan on spending 40 hours of dual and 15 hours ofsolo to get your helicopter add-on. Probably 98% of our add-on studentsdo it plus-or-minus 5 hours from that figure.How to pick a schoolThe first thing is to find all the schools, and visit each one.
Start withthe yellow pages. Some schools don't advertise. Find them by calling all theairplane schools and aircraft charter companies, and ask them who doeshelicopter training in the local area.To visit each school, call them up and make an appointment to meet with theowner/president. You will usually have an easier time getting an appointmentduring the week, rather than on the weekend. Tell them you'd like to meetthem to hear about the school, their training program, and why you mightwant to train with them.Meet with the owner/president, look the facilities over, look the aircraftover, get at least the following information:. Rate Sheets broken down by Dual Instruction, Solo, and Rental rates. How is time charged?
My hatred of flying was well known for years. The thought of getting into an aluminium tube, sidestepping into Row 28 and hurtling through the air at the mercy of an unknown pilot is one I’ve long found deeply unnerving. I’d grin and bear it for the sake of family holidays, but I’d never dreamed of setting foot in a helicopter or light aircraft.So it was, to put it mildly, a moment of extreme inner turmoil and desperation that drove me to Denham Aerodrome in Buckinghamshire one bright spring morning six years ago, aged 50.My husband of 26 years and the father of our three children had separated from me and our marriage had fallen apart. After finalising the divorce, and with our children grown up and installed at boarding school or university, I found myself alone with only the dog for company.
'Getting a helicopter pilot’s licence felt exhilarating, liberating and strangely grounding' Credit:TOM MCGUINNESSThere were two options: spend a fortune on a psychotherapist (I tried it but it wasn’t for me) or do something so out of my comfort zone that I’d be forced from the dark recesses of self-analysis and distracted from my impending personal crisis. Learning to fly appeared to be the solution, unorthodox though it sounds.My father piloted Spitfires during the Second World War and I had fond early memories of aerodromes, men in uniform and oily rags. So though terrifying, bizarre and – to friends and family – wholly bonkers, my decision to get a helicopter pilot’s licence felt exhilarating, liberating and strangely grounding. Proving I’d so dramatically moved on was an added bonus. What I could never have realised when I climbed into that Robinson R44 – a light four-seater helicopter – for the first time was how drastically it would change my life.
I can still recall the extraordinary sense of weightlessness on taking off and freedom as we breezed over fields, hedgerows and houses. Seeing everything from above was empowering. I was hooked.Learning to hover a helicopter, one of the first things you’re taught at flying school, is a mindfulness exercise more powerful than all the books and meditation clips you could ever read or watch – like trying to balance on a ball without slipping off.
All thoughts disappeared as I focused on the job in hand. It was the best sort of release as I realised how much more there was to life.
I also had to spend hours learning the principles of flight for theory exams on aviation law, navigation and the weather.The airfield can be a place for unexpected meetings. I’ve had an earnest discussion with the actor Tom Cruise on the subject of turbine lag while he was practising flight scenes for one of the Mission Impossible films, which was surreal. Just being in the hangar can mean you get asked to give people lifts. Paddy (my new husband, whom I married after bonding over heated debates about aviation risk management) has flown Made In Chelsea’s Georgia “Toff” Toffolo as a favour when they were stuck in traffic, and I’ve flown to the home of Jay Kay of Jamiroquai. A second-hand Robinson R44 will set you back £120,000 Credit:GettyA year after first stepping into a helicopter and with 70 hours of flying time, I was awarded a licence. Five years on, my life is unrecognisable.
I split my time between Holland Park in London and Suffolk, where I live with Paddy. We own a Robinson R44, bought second-hand for £120,000 (although a smaller two-seater Robinson R22 can cost as little as £60,000, the price of a Land Rover Discovery) and commute back and forth. It’s opened up the world. I’ve flown low over the Alps, above whales in the Mediterranean and sharks in the Bahamas.
If we want to have lunch in Bruges, we do. At weekends, we’ve had lunch in Suffolk, dinner in Oxford then flown to Scotland for the day.Together we’ve launched two companies – Helipaddy and Helisafari – with more in the pipeline including a potential commuter shuttle service from Dorset to London for those who don’t want to drive on a Friday night.