Looking at starting a career as a chopper pilot, help needed

Mud Ducks (Coasties) do their initial helo training with the Navy and Marines.

 

15 year Captain working 12 days a month at FEDEX at 250k a year is not bad+ another 75k for being in the training dept.

This November there is a big raise coming as well. They will be over $300 an hour on 777. This will be the beginning of bidding wars for union negotiations with all carriers circa United and Delta at $345 an hour pre 911. Huge pilot shortage just around the corner. Fedex is losing upwards of 10 a day to retirement, same with many other airlines.

With the new work rules, more pilots will be needed as well.

UPS aint a bad gig either!



Cheers
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May want to check your statistic.

Fed Ex has 4400 pilots according to ALPA.com. Losing 10 a day for a year would lose 3650 pilots... (~80%)

They may have lost 10 a day for a brief period,... but in no way is that a long term trend.

We fly small private charters to the bahamas frequently. Pilots for the last few years have been layed off from UPS...

 

First you'll like this blog; http://www.copterchick.blogspot.com/

Very busy rotor head thread; http://www.pprune.org/rotorheads-23/

http://www.helis.com/introduction/

 

I'm looking at the UPS Captain payscale; the first year you get 38, then the second year immediately jumps to 231. I'm looking at that and saying to myself, there must be a horrid route they give to all the newbies to see if they will even stick around within that year.

 

I doubt if UPS has any first year Captains!

 

YOUR RIGHT

losing upwards of 10 a week. Hiring in 2011.

 

How many years and how many flight hours are required to get hired as a FO with UPS/FedEx? If you go the civilian route, how much money was spent in flight education and certs? How many years were spent flying second seat in a regional jet or prop job at $35K? It would seem this is a critical part of the whole story.

I am also curious as to how many pilots UPS/FedEx employs? Meaning, what are the odds of a new pilot finding his/her way into that enviable 15-year Captain's chair?

Also, to what to do attribute your stated "huge pilot shortage just around the corner"? It would seem that with the airlines continuing to struggle and cutting routes coupled with the steady exodus of military fixed-wing pilots there would be plenty. What am I missing?

Just asking.

 

The age 65 rule had alot to do with it. The new rest rules for pilots will also affect the future demand for pilots. Asia and the Middle East are desperate for pilots. Direct entry captain jobs for those qualified can be very lucrative for those willing to move.

Cargo carriers are hiring again. Kalitta, ATI, Atlas, etc, etc are all hiring. Fedex will hire this year and have plans for major expansion with new bases in Europe and Asia.

http://news.yahoo.com/video/world-15749633/23581382



Cheers

 

thats the whole trick isnt it? years making 1500-1800 a month for the off chance that where you are striving to wind up is still in business. I couldnt do that. props to the guys that did make it because its seriously a long hard road getting there. But the OP wants to be a real pilot not a button mashing satellite chaser hehe.

 

This is worse yet. The increased demand for pilots globally has the potential to cause some serious problems. Flight safety is in jeopardy as less-qualified pilots are advanced to FO and Capt jobs in larger aircraft to meet demand, and corners may be cut in the industry in an attempt to reduce costs in an already struggling profit picture.

All this is telling me is that I'll be taking the Ferrari on nice long drives for vacation rather than playing Russian roulette in the skies. In the end, not such a bad deal.

 

As a Check Airmen I am not going to pass anyone that does not meet the minimum standards for a type rating or any other evaluation. I dont think any ethical and professional Check Airmen would. I dont know where you get your facts? but your clueless. Flight Safety is not in jeopardy. What a joke. The Airmen Records Act documents any failures or remedial training at any level in an airmen's career. I sit on a Captains Board and we dont hire anyone with "training issues" on their permanent records.

Soon all co-pilots will have to have a type rating for the jet aircraft they fly. This alone will weed out any weak pilots in the USA and abroad. A type ride is a much different event than a sic initial PC.

There are minimum hours to be PIC and SIC on large Tansport Category 121 jet aircraft. Instead of 12 or more year upgrades at the majors it will be 5 to 7 but they will have 6000+ hours in jets to be elgible to be PIC. The exception being ab-initio programs that some foreign carriers have. There is no "direct entry" ab-initio large transport category jet jobs in the USA. ALPA, Teamsters and the rest prevent that from happening.

Flight Safety is not in jeopardy. Hardly. The proposed new rules are going to make it safer actually!

 

The are regulations and then there are realities. Apparently, you are not familiar with the latter.

Watch the news or take ten seconds to Google "poorly trained pilots" and you will be rewarded with hundreds of stories of accidents and near misses attributes to poor training and pilots flying despite failing check rides.

Enjoy the first of many examples to be found:

Fallout from Buffalo Flight 3407 plane crash: Ground any pilots with poor training, NTSB urges
BY RICHARD SISK
DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU

Wednesday, February 3rd 2010, 4:00 AM

RELATED NEWS
NTSB head: FAA failed to act on 'scores' of recs on shared air space
Flight 3407 families demand air safety upgrades
Pilot error? Crashed plane was on autopilot
If feds don't do something more will die
Pilots who overshot airport blame air traffic controllers
Regulate Hudson River air space: NTSB
WASHINGTON - Federal probers on Tuesday cited the inept crew in last year's Buffalo commuter plane crash in asking Congress to bar poorly trained pilots from the cockpit.

National Transportation Safety Board Chairwoman Debbie Hersman and families of the crash victims said they were fed up with the Federal Aviation Administration and the airline industry for routinely ignoring safety guidelines.

"We have made recommendations time after time after time," Hersman said. "They haven't been heeded by the FAA."

In its "probable cause" findings, the NTSB said that a series of air crew errors sent the Colgan Air twin turboprop into a stall on a Newark-to-Buffalo flight last Feb.12. The plane crashed 5miles short of the Buffalo runway, killing all 49 aboard and one person on the ground.

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said he will press for requiring pilots to log 1,500 hours of flight time to get a commercial pilot's license. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) said she will sponsor a Flight 3407 Memorial Act to make NTSB safety recommendations mandatory.

 

I think TurboQV is quite familiar with the "realities."

Your odds of dying in an accident on any US certified part 121 air carrier are miniscule. Is it possible? Sure, but so are lots of other things. You could die in an earthquake, for instance.

Is it getting more likely that you will die in an airline accident on a US certified airline? That is not what the statistics show.

 

Sorry to threadjack back to original post ....

I spent about 15k on my rotorcraft private back in 2005 with the intent of going commercial. There is a process to do it being a civilian , But, it is not easy or more importantly... cheap. I have to say that I would not recc. a flight school (with the notable exception of the armed forces). You end the school with about 150hrs and a commercial license but, most of the companies I talked to back then wanted to know that you spent more than 2 months flying before they even looked at you for a job role. Then there was the cost of the schools ( in Florida at that time it cost about 45k to go to one of their "stay on-site" schools. ) I ended up finding a instructor at a local airport, I feel like I learned alot more from one-on-one than in the classroom setting(and it was considerably cheaper).

Now here's where I fell off the track.... After getting your private license(15kish) You are supposed to immediatley move to instrument rating and then on to Instructor rating (this should cost about 10K assuming you are using the rental helo). I simply ran out of credit and money... used a 7500.00 student loan and maxed a Credit card to get the Private lic. Anyways, Once you get the Instructor Rating, You are supposed to begin training other new pilots...This should get you your hours without costing you much if any money.

For most reputable companies in the US, They want at least 500 hours to get a job on a oil platform hauling personnel and supplies to and from port. I talked to the local medflight ppl and they were looking for 2000 hours to apply to fly for them....same was true for local law enforcement.

All this combines to make it very difficult, but, not impossible to get a job as a commercial Helo Pilot. I still want to get back to it myself , But the rates for rentals now are way higher than they were in 2005. Best bet is if you have the ability....Buy a little HU269 or HU300 (bout 70-80K) then all you have to pay for is the instructors time and fuel.

Hope some of this helps...

 

I agree with this. I've taken many check rides and many trips to Flight Safety in Wichita (Sim School) and I've never had an instructor that let me off the hook for anything. They are all personally responsible for any foolish decisions you may make as a pilot.

 

At the end of the day "**** happens".

Both of these pilots had multiple instructors and sign offs over the course of years of training to get themselves into the position of flying that airplane. All those people are not in cahoots..

Weather was the culprit in this accident. However, weather is almost always the culprit.

 

Good advice, but don't forget about the maintenance-- there is a reason why helicopters cost so much to rent! There is a lot of moving parts in there, and they all need to be inspected and replaced on a schedule...

 

Thanks for all of the advice guys, I'll keep you posted once I decide what road to go down.

 

Even though I'm a Zoomie ('84), I mostly concur with the Grunt. If you want to fly helicopters for a living, go Army. The Army graduates more helo pilots annually than the Air Force graduates pilots period. Also, half of them are Warrants, who don't have to have college degrees, can get into Rucker younger, fly their whole careers, and retire younger. Most commissioned officers who are rated helo pilots (in any Service) are lucky to log 2,500 hours in a 20 year career. Most Army Warrant Officers can rack up 5,000 hours in 20 years, with a few logging over 10,000 hours. Also, the best Army Aviators can fly for the 160th SOAR, which is probably the most rewarding flying on the planet, for those who can handle the OPTEMPO. Although, I strongly doubt I will ever do anything else in my life as rewarding as some rescue missions I have flown, and knowing the lives I have saved.

Being an Army Warrant will also pre-condition you for the civilian pay scales for helo pilots. They aren't pretty, and almost none of my USAF contemporaries are flying helo's as civilians. Their skills are just more valuable elsewhere.

 

Very good advice and well said.

 

+1, thanks Bob