Kenny Keller advises Kevin from South Africa on whether to get an instrument rating in fixed-wing before switching to helicopters. If you're serious about helicopter flying, do it in helicopters. If you're tight on money, fixed-wing training with simulators works, though Kenny used a fixed-wing simulator for most of his own instrument training except the required helicopter hours.
Questions this video answers
Day 132
May 17, 2019
Taz Christman (coauthor, instrument video instructor, dual‑rated CFI, 2018 Flight Instructor of the Year) and Dan (coauthor; contributor to the instrument course).
Chapters
All right, welcome to Day 132 Coffee with Kenny and I've got a good question today. It won't take real long. I set the coffee down here so I can get to this member's question. And this is for Kevin. He's asked a question before. South Africa again, cool. How we connect with people all over the world. Oh yeah. I am Kenny Keller, creator of Helicopter Online Ground School and also author of the Amazon number one bestseller helicopter checkride and also top 10 checkride tips that I co authored with Taz Christman, 2018 flight instructor of the Year. Taz does our instrument videos in the instrument course, the majority of them, and I want to mention that because this is an instrument related question. So we do have a course available for people working on a helicopter specific instrument rating. So Kevin said, hey Kevin, again from South Africa. I'm looking to get my instrument rating, have my commercial and CFI and the next step towards ATP would be instrument. Is it a good idea to get your instrument rating on a fixed wing and convert it to heli afterwards? From my understanding, the cost is much less and there are much better simulators available for fixed wing as opposed to helicopters. I guess I would need to get my ppl fixed wing to be able to get my instrument rating. So it would be quite a lot of fixed wing flying. Kind regards, Kevin. Great question. This relates back to another Coffee with Kenny video that we did where the question comes up, should I do my fixed wing before helicopter rating because I can save money. I don't know how that really comes out. In the end, if you try to fly fixed wing first to save money for your helicopter rating, you're spending money you wouldn't have to spend if you weren't doing the fixed wing. So on that question, to me it's dependent on whether you're doing it for fun or you're going for a going for a career. If you're going for a career, I say just go helicopter, do it all. And I think kind of the same thinking for the instrument rating. Okay. Any one person, of course, it's what's right for you. I can't give a general blanket statement what's right for everyone. I think in general, if you are going for a career helicopter pilot rating and you can afford it, some people can. And you can just go through all the ratings and stick with helicopter specific. I think that's the number one way to go. With that being said, I understand when you're scrounging to get the money, like most all of us have and you're going through the ratings, you're always looking for those alternatives. And I know for my instrument rating, I did some of it in a simulator, and it was an airplane simulator, and it was available at a flight school that I worked at. It was a really reasonable price. So I did everything in fixed wing that I could, except for the required helicopter time. Okay. So I did it that way. And I did it that way because I was like the average person who doesn't just have money to just always go for the gusto. Right? And some people do, some people don't. So I think it really depends on the individual. If you can afford it, I say do it all helicopter. If you're going the professional pilot route and you want to get a job flying helicopters later, if you're just kind of doing it more for fun or you're not sure, absolutely do the fixed wing. I mean, fixed wing are less money, they're more available. So of course there's more simulators available for fixed wing. So I understand when someone wants to save some money, go the fixed wing route for either just getting your ratings or working towards that instrument rating. So that's my opinion. Again, any person is welcome to do whatever they want and take whatever route that they choose. And a lot of times it boils down to money. Most of the time it boils down to money. We know this. So my advice is, again, very simply, the best way to break it down. If you're going the career pilot route and you can afford to do all your ratings straight to the helicopter, I would do it. Because when you go to get the job, get a job later, all they care about is how much helicopter time do you have. Fixed wing can help a little, but in general, they care about helicopter time. So again, make the best choice for you. Do your research. There's nothing wrong with if you can save money and do part of these ratings in fixed wing, great, go for it. You know, it's nice to be dual rated. I did my fixed wing after I was a helicopter cfi. I just have fixed wing privileges for fun, just for private privileges. Glad I got the rating. I never pursued doing it as a career because I'm at heart a helicopter guy. But there are so many people out there that have dual ratings. Airplane, helicopter, and boy, that sure does make you marketable. I mean, to have both those ratings under your belt and the people who are like instructors in fixed wing and helicopters, that's a pretty. That's a pretty good deal on your resume. And that sure Makes you really marketable for a lot of positions out there where they're actually looking for dual rated CFIs for both fixed wing and airplane. So man, if you can swing it and you enjoy flying both, I recommend that as well. So gotta keep setting the coffee down. So back to the instrument rating, Dan. Taz Christman, amazing instructor. This book right here, Dan and I co authored that together again. Dan is in the instrument course. Instrument videos are amazing. We have a whole pile of these books. We bought them for you. I'm going to put the link down below. You just pay shipping and handling. We ship you the book. Amazon number one best seller again for the top ten checkride tips. This is a good book for any checkride. Even a lot of fixed wing guys like it because you know, taz puts his 20 years of experience in there. Tas is dual rated CFI airplanes and helicopters. So there's a bonus in this book where Taz went out and talked to examiners in the Las Vegas area and said, hey, what are people messing up in general? What are the biggest things that you're seeing as examiners? What are the problems when people show up for checkrides? So great book there. And again, just gotta plug the instrument rating or instrument course. I'll put that link down below. You can do the instrument course as a monthly option. I believe we still have a yearly option that's going to go away and that's month to month. You can keep it as long as you like. You can cancel anytime and it has a 24 hour test flight. You can go and check it out, see what you think. If it's not right for you, just remove your credit card before the end of 24 hours or end the subscription. PayPal, PayPal. Before the 24 hours is up, we part as friends. You're welcome back anytime. You can go month to month, keep it as long as you need it. You can always cancel and then or unsubscribe and you can always come back later. Let's say the instrument rating takes you a little longer than expected. You could always come back and join to refresh your memory. That's why we have the monthly memberships for all of our courses. It's just really nice for people to be able to come in, stay as long as they need to leave anytime. Always welcome to come back. So thanks for joining. One day 132 day 133 will be tomorrow. Don't know what I'm going to do for tomorrow because that's what I normally do. I have no idea until I get up in the morning what I'm going to do in a video. So like and subscribe. Do me a favor. Subscribe the channel. When you click the subscribe button, make sure you click the bell. That way you'll be notified of these daily videos that we do each day. Lots of tons of lots of content, tips, tricks, experiences, stories, all kinds of good helicopter training content. And this is. I still love it. Coffee with Kenny. All started as just kind of a joke. And here we are, 132 days later, still going. So like, subscribe, put your comments down below and we'll see you tomorrow in day 133.
