Kenny Keller breaks down the cost of a private helicopter pilot certificate in 2019. Expect to spend around $20,000 in the U.S., flying 60 to 70 hours at roughly $350 per hour, though the FAA minimum is just 40 hours. Keller himself needed 88 hours.
All right, day 169, coffee with Kenny. Don't you love charcoal grill? It is the best, but man, waiting on it is the problem. But I am doing a little trick here. While I'm waiting for him to get nice and and gray, I'm throwing on some baked potatoes. Figured they're already wrapped in foil, right? So smoke ain't gonna hurt them. Hey, had a question just came in from a member. Not a member. Well, looking to become a member police officer in a local area, looking at the dream of becoming a helicopter pilot. He said, hey, your video was a few years old that you did on the cost for private pilot. He goes, would it be different for 2019? And I am Kenny Keller, creator, helicopter line ground school, by the way. So I thought I'll just reshoot one here while I'm getting things ready to eat. This is actually a good question. He's right. The video I did was several years ago. So I just did some research, real day, and I came up with a number of 350 an hour versus the video I did those years ago. I said 250 an hour. And I said that was on the low side. So when you want to know how much is it going to cost to become a private pilot, you have to look at what school you're going to, what aircraft you're going to fly, because that's going to make a difference. I've always, I tell people, expect 20 grand. So if you very simply do the math, let's say at 350 an hour for an aircraft and instructor, which is probably for 2019, you're going to be in that range. You might be lower, you might be higher. It just depends on the aircraft. But if you take 350 out or $350 an hour towards the minimum of 40 hours that you have for the private pilot, there's $14,000 trick. Next trick is, average person gets it in 60 or 70. So it may take you 60, 70 hours. Took me 88 because I jumped around different aircraft because I failed my first checkride. So when somebody asked a question, what's it gonna cost me? It depends on your study habits, depends on your frequency of flying. It depends on what aircraft you're flying. So I say for 20, 19, you better spend, you know, you better figure 20 grand. And that video from a couple years ago, I know a lot of people in there going, well, that's ridiculous. It's 30 grand or it's 50 grand. And they got kind of crazy on their numbers. But again, it Depends. I mean if you're in another country, I've heard the other countries a lot of times are a lot more expensive. But in the US I'm thinking this, in this day and age, 2019, probably around $350 an hour is where you're going to be at for an aircraft instructor, probably even more. But even the R22s are probably getting close to that now. Again, depends on the company, depends on block time, which is a whole nother video. Nothing wrong with block time, but you got to be careful about your money. We've talked about that quite a bit just recently. So I'm saying for a private pilot in 2019, expect to spend 20 grand and probably more. So I also want to shoot this video real quick because yes, the one I did was several years old and I did it at 250 an hour and I figured, you know, put some different figures in there for checkrides and books and different things. But you know, as time goes by and we, we talk about these, these subjects, it really is more apparent. Now you can't, I can't give you, it's going to cost you any one person. I can't tell you what's going to cost you because we don't know how many hours it's going to take you. But there's a starting figure for let's say an average around the United States, somewhere in the area of $350, you're going to spend 14, 13,000 minimum. Okay? Because you got to have 40 hours for the add on. If you're fixed wing pilot, you're doing the add on, you got to have 30 hours. So again you take that times 30 hours. So for brand new off the street private pilot man, expect to expect to spend now 20 or more. It's just the way it is. So again, research the school where you're going, find out what their prices are, find out if there's block time. But that's what I'm saying. For 2019, expect to spend 14,000. So I'm gonna wrap this up because I'm getting everything ready to go to eat here. And it's a Sunday and summertime's here. We'll be back in hogs hanger tomorrow. Checkride again. We just called it off for tomorrow. We've had two beautiful days, Saturday and Sunday. Now they're talking crappy weather all day tomorrow. So we were scheduled last week, didn't go, now we're gonna go scheduled for Wednesday. Very typical. So we're going for time number three. For mark our add on guy. So we'll report back and let's see how it goes. So tomorrow I'll be back in the office, back in the hogs hangar and not sure exactly what we'll do but we'll come up with something. So thanks for checking in for day 169. 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You can do that yourself or we can do it for you. So I'm going to wrap this dude up and get ready to eat. We'll see you all tomorrow.
