The career of a helicopter pilot

Once you have finished the commercial course you are ready to look for a job. What can you do? Even with helicopters there are basically three paths that you can take depending on the qualifications you have obtained, but they are a little different than the fixed wing world.

Possible careers

First way

The first is that of the small aerial work companies. Don’t think that they will hire you with less than 200 flight hours to give you a helicopter and do aerial work in the mountains transporting material with the hook or to do firefighting. You will have to do a long apprenticeship first! How does it work?

Initially you will have to understand “from the bottom” how the operations work and then for a period you will follow the “flight assistants” in their job.

You will have to go around with the fuel and material van and you will start to prepare the nets to transport, organize the loads, manage the customers and then when you have enough knowledge of what is happening, you will perhaps start to do some transfer flights, some simpler flights, flying in dual command on some routes with expert commanders or checking the oil pipelines or power lines.

When the operations manager has understood that you are a serious, reliable, precise and punctual person, he will start to consider the fact that you can fly a helicopter. From that moment on, every hour of flight you do will be an achievement to reach new goals.

In small companies, you, as a person, are worth much more than your experience as a pilot. Try to make the most of every opportunity you have.

Shifts in these companies are not scheduled and you will have to be very available because the activity is managed based on requests, the season, and weather conditions: do not believe you have fixed shifts.

It is certainly the most difficult way to enter the world of work, however it is the one where you do not need an instrument flight qualification and therefore there is a good saving of money for your training. You must therefore compensate for this saving with apprenticeship and commitment!

Second way

The second way is to join an airline that provides public passenger transport with helicopters in a multi-crew: for this you definitely need a qualification on twin-engine helicopters, the IR and the MCC course, so you have the maximum expense, however you will start flying immediately as a co-pilot and you will learn to manage customers, organize flights, plan requests.

This is also a 360-degree job and very demanding, also economically, due to the expensive qualifications that you must have already acquired.

Third way

The third entry point refers to flight schools: at the end of your course you can decide to invest the last part of your budget in the qualification as a flight instructor and perhaps stay in your Academy to carry out this role.

It takes a lot of passion and a propensity for teaching but the satisfaction is certainly enormous when you follow a student from the first steps of his training until he becomes your colleague.

Advice

Service note: as soon as you receive your commercial pilot license, remember to register with the ENGA: “national body of air people” or the professional register of flight personnel. (Today the ENGA no longer formally exists, in fact all its functions are carried out by the National Civil Aviation Authority).

In Italy it is essential to be hired as a pilot.

Last piece of advice:

One last piece of advice also for rotary wing pilots. Even in this sector the market is very fluctuating: years in which they are looking for hundreds of pilots and years in which not even commanders with thousands of flight hours can find employment.

We recommend, in addition to looking for work as a pilot, to try to approach the aeronautical world in all directions.

Joining a company as an assistant or in the office or even just to sweep the hangar will give you the opportunity to understand this complex world from the inside.

As good as flight schools are at preparing you, you have to be on the ball to understand the particularities, make yourself known and continue to grow professionally by adding skills to your CV for when it lands on the right desk.

HOW MUCH DOES A PILOT EARN?

We imagine that the last answer you want at the end of all these tutorials is: “how much does a pilot earn”.

Don’t trust anyone who throws random numbers at you… there are many, too many variables to give a univocal idea: course costs, armament base, type of operations, tax office of the company…

No, we don’t feel like telling you 1000, 2000, 10000… we will give you information that is not correct! Remember that our mentoring service also serves to give you advice of this type.

If you have any questions or curiosities, fill out the information request form.