I learned through the military. After returning to civilian life, I easily obtained my commercial license. In the states many students first get their fixed wing license because it is much cheaper to rent a small fixed wing airplane compared to a small piston helicopter. Then they transition to rotary wing helicopters where the obvious major differences are take offs and landings.
Also schedule a lesson at least 5 times a week because you will be lucky to have three actual lessons during to weather, instructor not available, aircraft not available, and you not being available for some reason. It is extremely important to keep a strong schedule because you will forget much of what you learned if you so not keep up. Students who fly infrequently often have to take many more lessons - costing them more money and time - and then become demoralized and quit.
I'm amazed that at just 4 months and only 100 hours you guys can find work. Down here in the States a 100 hour career minded pilot is still a student in training, and a 150 hour commercial pilot can't even get a job washing a helicopter let alone fly one. You need 200 hours with IR, CFI and CFII just to even think about trying to find work! Though if you have enough money up front you can get that all done in just 6 months.
Yes it's very different here in Canada for sure. Our students are also being trained by pilots with thousands of hours which makes a huge impact on how they get trained.
The situation is certainly radically different from the 70s and 80s. Back then Canada was awash in american Vietnam vets coming north to fly, and a local guy getting a job after paying out $15-20,000 1978 dollars, the price of two cars then as it is now at 50-60k, was generally considered a hopeless waste of money. Kept me out of it for sure. Another major difference in Canada vs the US is the nature of the work. Most helicopter flying in Canada is still in remote areas which means bush camp life. The number of flying jobs in civilization is better than it once was, but still nothing like in the US. I know at least 3 individuals who are ex pilots because they grew weary of the in and out of the bush lifestyle which makes it very hard to have a normal life outside of flying. I do hope that situation is improving.
I'm a Flight Nurse Practitioner with the New Jersey State Police on a 7 tonne (7000kg) AgustaWestland AW139 with two great State Police pilots with 4000+ hours, and a Flight Paramedic that I'd trust with my life. In the United States, EMS pilots can't get near a job without a FAA Commercial Helicopter Certificate with Instrument Helicopter Rating, a BA or BS degree is preferred, 2500 hours helicopter (VFR assignment) with at least 1000 hours turbine and 100+ hours of unaided (non-NVG) night flights in helicopters. I'd love to hear the differences, if any, in Canada. Here's my question. How many hours do you THINK it would take to get into an entry level EMS pilot position IN CANADA? Even though I'm in the back with the patient, I absolutely love your channel. Keep up the great work !!!
Can you talk about how to get from the minimum license hours (200 in the USA), to the hireable amount, around 1000? It seems very difficult to get a job out of training to get up to those hours.
I'm trying to get a student loan and I'm struggling. It's a program with an AAS that is $90k. I completed the Associate's section. I just need $50k for the rest 😶
Love your vids man!! keep it up they are WICKED! Dead keen to get my PPL here in New Zealand next year. Transferable to Canada? love your country, would live there in a heartbeat. Also more vids of that stunning country please! 👍
Hey Man, that's awesome to hear. I bet you can't wait to get the PPL done. I'm sure you will love it in New Zealand. We'd love to have you over here some say as well. I'll keep the shots of the country side coming.
Lots of money. Alternative; military like I did. They actually paid me to fly 7 million dollar aircraft. Sometimes not in very friendly areas. If I was rich, I would get a loach. I got to fly one in Georgia for about an hour. Good luck in getting your rotary wing rating.
Hi i got a question i am 28 and thinkin of becoming helicopter pilot i am highschool graduate do i need to go to college for 2 years and then flight school can you break it down everyrhing you have to do after highschool to be helicopter pilot.
I also wanna be a helicopter pilot, from your flight school. Actually I'm from india but my sister is living there. So I would love to be part of your academy which is in canada.
Can you do the classroom part first? Then find a school for the actual flight portion of the schooling needed? Another words is it possible to reduce the cost by finishing classroom before ever entering the either 100-150 hours needed to schedule your test flight?
Hi, my name is Miguel Parra. I've been looking into getting a commercial helicopter pilots license as a career option. I've been going through your videos and love the work you've put into them, they have been very informative. I'm wondering if I could swing by BC Helicopters sometime next week as it is one of the flight schools that I am considering attending. Not ideal with covid times but with social distancing and a mask would it be possible? Hope to hear back from you, Mig's
Hi, great videos! Have you got any advice for a 2000 + hours commercial pilot with bell206, as350, as355 and h135 experience, to find employment in Canada ? (Uk and Eu passport)
Hopefully I could get some insight into this. I am curious as to how much does wearing glasses would affect my chances of being a pilot? Any insight would be welcome
Hey man, i have been a fan of your channel for ages now and its kept me motivated on looking at the bigger picture. Money situation has changed over the last year and i have been saving hard. Had my first lesson the other day and i am so so so so happy about it. Thanks for everything that you post, would be sweet if you could check my first lesson video out on my youtube!!
A mate I got a question for you ... I want to fly ships to fight wildland fire with .. I have fought fire for the last six years and want to make this move any suggestions on a good school to get my license as well as fire oriented ????
What country are you wanting to do you training in. I would suggest our school if you want to do it in Canada. You don't really get a fire rating right away. That is typically something that you work your way up to. We could however customize a longline training course for you so that you could be proficient in longlining. Let me know what your thoughts are.
Hi great video. I was wondering how easily it is for foreign students to enrol? And what the possibilities are of continuing to work in Canada after training, and if you are aware of any foreign students that have gone on to work in Canada? I am an Irish citizen. Thanks. Keagan.
Hey Keagan, Training here is really easy if you are from another country. You can come here as a visitor for up to 6 months. Since the course is only 4 months you are good to go. The hard part is finding work if you don't have a working visa. If you can apply for a working holiday visa back home before coming then you will be good to go. That's the main thing to be aware of. I would check with your embassy back home and see what they have to say. I'll be coming over to Ireland this summer to see your beautiful country. We are really looking forward to the trip.
Check out our website, www.bchelicopters.com and go to the courses page. If you look at the foreign conversion you will see the cost breakdown. It's a fairly easy process. Where are you converting your license from?
what kind of jobs could you do if you own a helicopter? so let's say i just happen to own a R44 what do you think i could do so i can fly and produce income?
It's not quite that easy unfortunately. You need to have a Air Operating Certificate approved by Transport Canada. This means that you need to have a Chief Pilot who has more than 500 hours of PIC flying time. Once you have that then you can start working with your helicopter. With an R44 you could provide tours, charters, aerial spraying, light utility long lining, flight training, and other operations that I'm not thinking of right now.
Hello, I would like to know why does your school provide a 4 months course and other school provides 8 months - 1 year course? Will this short course be acceptable once I’m looking for a job?
imtiaz mahmood we condense it into 4 months because you fly every day 5 days a week. Lots of school spread out the flights. This course is the preferred course by any employer.
Paweł Uniatowicz Yes we definitely teach foreigners. Our current class has people from Australia, Mexico City, and Switzerland. We would love to have you.
Thanks for the info Mischa. I want to know how much of an advantage it is to include R44/206 endorsements in your training which ultimately costs more. I assume the $55G cost doesn't cover this. How much of a deficit is it to be looking for work without the endorsements. What about long line/IFR etc?
Great questions. The R44 endorsement is included in that price and in the training. The bell 206 is extra. I would suggest holding off on the bell 206 endorsement until someone tells you that you need it. I think it's an extra cost that may not need to get spent. I think having the commercial license with the R44 rating makes you very employable to most companies. The long lining is always nice to get a little experience with but typically you won't be using that skill right away. Paying for extra hours on that costs a lot of money. I think that money would be better spent traveling around meeting companies and applying for a job in person. Same thing with the IFR rating unless you plan to go that route immediately. There aren't a lot of companies that I know if in Canada that hire low time guys for IFR work. The only one that I know of is Helijet in Vancouver. Hopefully that helps answer your questions. Let me know if you have more.
Assad Barakzai yes I can try to do a video on that. Yes there are jobs as a helicopter pilot. Like anything it takes some time and hard work to get into it but you can definitely do it.
The $56,000 approximately that it costs is for the commercial license. In Canada we don't do PPL first and then move on to CPL, we just go straight to CPL.
Just curious. Have you ever flown an RC helicopter model? It's becoming a dying hobby due to no skill multi-rotors(drones), but mainly because it takes high level of skill required to build/program/fly/repair those dangerous toys. I have crossed paths with some rc heli flyers who actually had commercial helicopter flying license. I was never impressed with their mental impediment of trying to "reason" through each step. When flying upside down and backwards it just takes a millisecond to lose focus and crash, the skill required is more like playing a musical instrument. Quick reflexes from thousands of hours practice(at field and computer simulator). I later considered flying a real helicopter, but then I realized that real helicopters would fall apart if I flew it the way I fly the models. Real helicopters are built for efficiency/economy not performance/robustness. Realizing this I lost interest. Have you got any words of inspiration?
Hi. I'm planing to start my helicopter course here in australia, but there's one thing I'm worried about. how important are mathematics? which kind of mathematics do you use? thanks :)
You need to know some pretty basic mathematics to be a helicopter pilot. You do things like adding times together to figure out ETA's, doing basic formulas, and multiplication. It's not that difficult. You'll be able to learn it. I haven't had anyone yet that I couldn't teach the material to. Some people just need to study a bit harder than others.
I know I'm going to piss a lot of people off but I'm going to say it anyway if some stupid rule came out that Robinson R22 could not be used in schools and training anymore 95% of the schools in the world would close. I exaggerated for effect. There's thousands of people who have a rotary Wing ticket today if it wasn't for an R22 they wouldn't have that ticket today. Just my opinion and everybody's entitled to it
This kind of videos piss me off, really. In order to become a pilot one just needs money, lots of it, that's it. Be lucky enough to have your parents pay the license, lucky enough to have a relative lend you money, be lucky enough that banks will gladly you give you 50-70k$, be lucky enough to win the lottery or be lucky enough to become an airforce/Navy pilot.
