Kenny Keller asks if airlines are actually hiring helicopter pilots for fixed-wing jobs. He's seen transition programs pop up online over the past three years but doesn't know anyone who's made the jump, and wants viewers to share real examples and data.
Kenny with Helicopter Line Ground School. Got a question for you. The followers today drinking coffee out of a cup sent to me by one of our members who left the police department actually to pursue his helicopter career. Haven't heard from him for a while. Hopefully he's watching. He'll let us know how he's doing. So anyway, I want your help with this question today. I'm going to give you my take on it. Question from Jerry in San Diego. He said, Kenny, questions I'd love for you to cover coffee with Kenny. Number one, what have you seen with the industry with regard to rotary to fixed wing transitions, particularly with the major regional airlines? I've heard about what's going on. I don't know anybody personally that's made this transition, but I know I sure hear it and see it a lot. But we see it on social media. So how much is this really going on? I'd like to know in the comments below what your thoughts are, if you're one of those pilots who has made this transition and is as great as what everybody's telling us. Another question, given how much the entire industry fixed in rotary is in trouble with needing more pilots, are you seeing a lot more rotary wing folks getting scooped up by the airlines? There are a lot more transition programs now that have popped up in the last three years that of course I've seen. I mean this was unheard of as far as I know, three years ago. So now we know we're seeing it pop up, right? We're seeing it on social media, we're seeing things post. We're hearing this. But again, I don't know anybody personally that's done this. I'd love to hear below if you've made the transition from rotary wing to the airlines because this is a great topic. Do you think the rotary wing pilot industry will boost their compensation packages to compete and be more competitive than the airline industry? I would love to see that happen. What's my gut say? No, that's my gut feeling. When I went into EMS and I believe 2006, I started at like 46,000 a year. Five years later when I left, I was making $56,000 a year. When I tell people that today, they go, are you kidding me? You know, people about fall out of their chair. That's the way it was then I just saw a social media post about, you know, becoming a helicopter pilot. And you know, the average salary for an EMS pilot is $97,000. It could be if you're going from low end to the guy that's been flying EMS for 20, 30 years. Maybe that number is right. All I know is what I experienced and I thought that pay was awfully darn low. You know, the newer entry level jobs are the company's gonna be able to afford to pay more money. I doubt it. I mean flight schools most generally are just trying to pay the bill. So they're gonna have a ton of money to raise their salaries for employees. I doubt it. And then they've got the other industries tour and so on. So I would love to hear your feedback on this again because this is a great topic and all these questions are great questions but to me it is all kind of hearsay at this point because I don't know anyone personally that has made this transition. So put your comments down below, let us know what you're seeing, what you're hearing. Have you made this transition? Are you a rotary wing pilot that got scooped up by the airlines? I would love, absolutely love to hear about it or if anybody has any hard data, you know, share that with us as well. So I got to get to the airport. I'm Kenny with helicopter Line Ground School. Please subscribe to the channel, click the subscribe and click the bell so you can be notified of our daily videos. We have private commercial CFI and instrument courses online. Getting ready to celebrate seven years. Our birthday's coming up March 1, 2017. We're will be seven years online. We're gonna have a big blowout. I don't know what we're gonna do yet, but all of our courses. You can go to helicopterground.com below to check out our courses. Oh, I wanted to add the helicopter pilot job shortage. I did that video a few weeks ago that I feel a little more passionate about what I've seen and heard with that. So I'll put that down below too because that kind of ties into this discussion. But anyway, please let us know down below, what are you seeing? What are you hearing? What? What are you all. What of all you followers and friends and helicopter line ground school members, what are you seeing and hearing? So again, the private commercial CFI down below. Go to helicopterground.com you can do a 24 hour trial on the monthly or yearly membership. 24 hours. Check it out. If you're. If it's not right for you, just pull your credit card information or end your subscription and paypal. Then we have a professional pilot package. Private commercial cfi, instrument, one great big package all wrapped up into one that's unlimited. You can keep that doesn't expire. So subscribe the channel, click the bell and we will see you tomorrow.
