Kenny Keller (Coffee with Kenny) answers a viewer asking whether buying a helicopter and hiring a private CFI to train in that aircraft would be cheaper than training at a flight school. He argues that ownership is typically far more expensive than renting — citing recurring annual costs (insurance, maintenance, hangar) and unpredictable repair bills — and recommends renting and training at a flight school unless the buyer has disposable income and has thoroughly researched true ownership costs.
Chapters
All right. Day 258, right? Yeah, it's recording. My daughter just flipped on the hit the record button for me. Coffee with Kenny. Day 258. Maybe it's 259. I don't remember. I'll have to check after I upload. Anyway, real short and to the point for a ground school member who's looking at buying a helicopter. And I've talked a lot about buying helicopters in the past, and even in the Coffee with Kenny videos, I've talked about it, and I want to hit his specific question. He first emailed, wondering if I knew someone in his area that could teach him in his own helicopter. And for his specific area, I said, no, I don't know anyone in that area. I said, just reach out to a local flight school or local flight schools and see if you can find somebody would want to train you. And he said. He emailed back and said, good morning. Is what I'm thinking an odd question. I was thinking that it would cut some of the cost in getting my private pilot license. I would be buying a helicopter anyway. I don't really understand, and I'm not being mean here, but I don't understand why a person would think that hiring a private CFI and buying your own aircraft would be cheaper than just going and getting your license at a flight school. And I want to make this really simple, short and simple, and to the point, not drag the story out. Okay. I know a private individual owns a helicopter after owning it for many years. He said, kenny, if that helicopter does not even fly, it cost me $32,000 a year. If it doesn't even fly, that's for his insurance. That's for his average maintenance, and that's for his hangar fees and any other odds and ends that go along with his helicopter ownership. You could go somewhere and get a private pilot license in a year, somewhere around the $20,000 figure, maybe more, you know, maybe 30,000, depending on where you go and how much time you spend. There's a lot of reasons why the cost could be different. But if you're going to go after purchasing a helicopter for yourself, having the attitude of, well, can I just save money by hiring an instructor? Ultimately doesn't even really make any sense. Okay. And let me explain this very simply. The maintenance, the insurance, hangar fees, unexpected repairs that are always going to happen if you fly a helicopter, I don't think is ever going to be cost effective versus renting. There might be some extreme cases. Extreme cases where that's the. Where that's the case, but it's not normally going to happen. Right? And I've said this many times, and I'll say it again, there's nothing wrong with helicopter ownership if you have disposable income. If the money that you have appropriated to spend for owning an aircraft and you can afford it, and that's great, do it. But make sure you do your research and understand what it's really going to cost you. What a manufacturer says is going to cost you per hour, double it. Call the insurance companies and get a cost quote on what insurance is going to cost you at your experience level as a private pilot with probably 50 or 100 hours or a couple hundred hours. Do that research and you're very quickly going to figure out helicopter ownership. For a small piston powered helicopter, it's going to cost you per year, some in somewhere in the area of 20 grand a year, 30 grand a year, could be more, could be less, but there's a substantial amount of money you're going to be spending every year to maintain that aircraft, whether it flies or not. If you think about when you're renting, it's expensive, but you drive to the airport, you rent, you pay the bill and you go home. When that aircraft breaks, the guy that owns it or the flight school that owns it, they're the ones that have to foot the bill to pay for that maintenance. They're the ones responsible for paying for that fuel. It's their problem, not yours. So to very simply answer this question, I think under most circumstances you're better off renting. Go pay a flight school to get your rating. Hopefully they'll rent to you. Go rent and fly when you want. When you're busy and you don't have time to fly, you don't have an aircraft burning up your checkbook. Now if you've got the money and it doesn't matter, then that's fine too. But anytime you're going to go into the idea of buying a helicopter, well, what's going to be cheapest? It leads me to believe that, you know, how do I say this? Just like all the times I get emails about, well, hey, what about a mosquito? Or what about this? You know, everybody's looking to save money and I get that, I totally get it, right? We all try to save money, we want to do things the cheapest as possible. But when it comes to helicopters, they're freaking, hands down expensive. Maintenance is high, insurance is high, they're expensive to buy. And people all the time will say, oh, I saw this helicopter for sale. And it's only, you know, $55,000. Sounds cheap. Yeah, if it's $55,000 advertised, it's probably 200 hours away from an engine or a main rotor gearbox or some rotor blades. There's some big item coming up that you're not seeing. The aircraft that I owned got clear purchased that clear back in like 2008. I don't know, whenever it was, it was $150,000 helicopter and it was really nice helicopter but I was like 300 hours away from an engine in my mind. Oh, I'll save the money. I'll be prepared for that engine when it comes up. And in theory, sitting down, doing the math, yeah, it all looks good. But I also expended planned on that helicopter making a certain amount of money. I wasn't intending on this or wasn't prepared for the breakdowns that happen that you're not prepared for. You know, you can have, you know what your annual maintenance is going to cost you, but what about when you have a head problem out of the blue, you, engine starts missing, you take it in. Oh, sorry, you got a bad cylinder head. It's six grand for a new cylinder head or whatever. Right. It's those unexpected maintenance items I think is what kills a person. I really do. Yes, you can have a payment if you got to have it financed, you can get that insurance. You can know per month what that insurance is going to cost you. Your annual. You can get a pretty good idea what an annual is going to be as long as things go well. But on that annual, what if they find more or throughout the year what's going to break? It's those unexpected things that pop up. And I've said this many times, throttle cable, it's nothing more than a damn PTO cable. Like on a frickin wrecker, a tow truck. It's a $50 $100 cable, but if it's aircraft certified, oh gee, that cable's eighteen hundred dollars. And I've done it firsthand because I ran tow trucks. I bought PTO cables, what's technically a mixture cable. I know what they're made of and I know the one I had to buy from a helicopter was the same damn thing. It was no different than a PTO cable on my truck. And that $100 cable for my helicopter was $1800. So sorry to be negative Nancy, but I want to put it out there again. We've talked about in the past, buy a helicopter if you've got disposable income and it's not going to hurt you. Be prepared for lots of expenses. They're going to pop up along the way. So to answer this member's question, with the kind of money you're going to be spending to buy an aircraft, whether you're paying an instructor to flight school, he's coming to your house to, you know, train you at home because you keep your helicopter at home, it's still going to be expensive. And that, and that cost of paying an instructor is literally a drop in the bucket. It's a drop in the bucket to what you're going to be spending. So it's really not a relevant figure, I don't think. I mean, I just. I just don't see it. All right, I'm going to wrap it up again. I think it's 2:58 anyway. I'll know when I upload. All right, it's Sunday. Time to go get supper with my daughter. Like, subscribe. Leave your comments down below and see you the next coffee with Kenny.
