Kenny Keller (Helicopter Online Ground School) answers a question from a transitioning military pilot about EMS hiring recency. He explains that EMS employers vary—some require recent commercial hours (examples cited: 100–200 hours in the last 12 months, 24 months commercial recency)—and strongly recommends staying current by seeking part-time CFI or other commercial flying to accumulate hours during any civilian hiring gap.
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All right, day 235. Coffee with Kenny. I'm Kenny Keller, creator of Helicopter Online Ground School, author of the Amazon number one bestsellers helicopter checkride and top 10 checkride tips. Did this with 2018 flight instructor of the Year, Dan Taz Chrisman. We'll put those links down below for a free PDF or you can get either one of those books for just shipping and handling. So I have an awesome question today and it's about a gentleman that wants to go for an EMS career and the short of his email, basically he's coming out of the military, only have 3200 hours helicopter time in the military. He's got CFI, CFI 2, commercial instrument all turbine time. So he is set up awesome for an EMS career. And basically in the email he said, I know some of the providers look for 24 months recency flying commercially. So I will be retiring from the military and waiting two years before applying for a civilian pilot position. And he did mention that he wants to go for the ems. Would you recommend just trying to go up with a CFI once every couple months just to say somewhat current flying or just wait until a few months before I'm wanting to start working and do 10 to 20 hours right then or recommend neither? This is an awesome question for anybody wanting to get into the EMS field or, or any field. Yes, the different companies have different requirements on recency of experience. And I got the picture of the BK117 up today when we were at Heli Expo a few years ago. This is one of the helicopters we were looking at. There's Brian Rutledge, our operations manager and I love the BK117, that's what I flew for five years in EMS. Well, for half that five years I flew BK117. And that company that I worked for, I just did a video the other day where I talked about how they wanted a thousand turbine time but they took my 350. I remember them hiring a pilot who was a Navy guy who hadn't flown in many years. So there are companies that may not require you have recency. Right. But I have also seen, you know, the hundred hour flying requirement in the past 12 months or the 200 hour requirement in the last 12 months. For this specific question I would say get researching what EMS companies you think you're going to want to work for. Bottom line, I would get flying. I wouldn't take the chance that you want to go for an EMS career with all your experience and then they go oh well, sorry you got 20 hours in the last year, we need 100 or we need 200, then you're going to be a little bit devastated and you're going to be behind the game. So I would first research what companies are you going to try to go to work for. But I say the more time you could get under your belt, the better. And with your experience, I would get a part time CFI job somewhere if you could and try to build, you know, 100 or a couple hundred hours a year during that two years you're waiting to start applying for jobs may not be what you want to do. You've got a commercial, you've got all that military time and turbine time. Try to get yourself doing something with the turbine job, some kind of a flying job part time. I would recommend get as many hours as you can and be as current as you can because you want to sell yourself to those EMS companies, right? And we know that they're hurting for pilots. But I wouldn't count on that as being the reason why you're going to get hired, right? You always want to put your best foot forward. You always want to show up as prepared as possible. I refresh my knowledge and if I was you, I'd part time see, you know, do a CFI gig because it's going to help you keep your knowledge fresh. I've just recently talked about in these videos how it's a problem in the EMS industry where a lot of pilots don't stay fresh. So to make yourself marketable, man, I would be, I'd get the CFI or you have the cfi. I would find me a job doing some CFI work would be my number one choice. Number two choice, find you a job doing some, you know, helicopter rides in a jet Ranger or something you can do commercially because with your amount of hours that you have and your turbine time, you shouldn't have that much trouble getting some kind of a part time gig. So that, that's my advice. Thanks. Just looking for some guidance, suggestions Asher. So thanks for the question, Asher. I think it's a great, I like that question. It's a great question. Again, depends on the company you're looking for. But my advice, I'd get flying, man. I would stay flying, be as current as possible. I wouldn't just try to do 10 or 20 hours or just, you know, fly once every few months with a cfi. That's not really good recency of experience. I don't think good recency is going to be out there actually working, doing commercial work. Or doing CFI work, whichever one that might work for you in your area. Thanks for the question, I appreciate that very much. Hi I'm Kenny Keller creator of Helicopter Land Ground School. You can go below to check out our courses private commercial, CFI and instrument links down below where you can check out all those courses, take them for a 24 hour test flight, be build nothing, decide it's not right for you, you remove your credit card before the end of the 24 hours and be build nothing or keep the training and go monthly and those come with a 30 day money back no hassle guarantee. So give us a thumbs up if you want to be a punk. Give us a thumbs down if you want to and make a comment down below. Make sure you subscribe to the channel. When you subscribe click that little bell so you'll be notified of the daily video. We'll see you in day 236. Peace out.
