Kenny Keller (YouTube, 2013) explains what it takes to become a commercial helicopter pilot, emphasizing that ground knowledge comprises ~75% of the work and that 150 flight hours are required for the commercial rating. He outlines typical aircraft choices (Enstrom, Schweitzer, Robinson), describes dual and solo training structure (private then commercial), gives three illustrative cost examples using round hourly rates (a low-cost example ≈ $34,500; a higher-cost example ≈ $67,500; an anecdotal full pathway near $95,000), and mentions ways to reduce cost (news-reporting flights, ferry flights, rare employer-funded training).
Questions this video answers
150 hours
$34,500
$67,500
$95,000
Chapters
The truth is it depends on many different factors, one of the biggest being which helicopter you choose to fly. Most likely it's going to be one of three. Probably an Enstrom or a Schweitzer or probably a Robinson. It'd be one of those three. Most likely could be a different aircraft, but those are the most common. And where you live, what airports are in your area and what aircraft they have available, you may end up wanting to travel somewhere else, depending on where exactly what you're looking for. And another big factor is how willing are you to apply yourself. There's a lot of knowledge that goes along with the flying. The flying is 25% of the work. The ground knowledge is 75% of the work. So to become a commercial helicopter pilot, you're going to need 150 hours of flight experience. You're going to have to do your private first, and then you can do your commercial afterwards. During that flight time, you're going to need to have dual instruction in the helicopter with an instructor. And then you're also going to have some required solo flight time where you'll be in the aircraft by yourself, building time for both the private and commercial rating. So the big thing is, what's it going to cost? Tried to make this very simple and use some pretty round numbers. We know the 150 hours you're going to have to have. Let's say you're flying an aircraft at 200 per hour for 150 hours is $30,000. Let's say for your private and commercial, and you and you did 25 hours of dual in the helicopter for the private, 25 hours for the commercial, there's 50 hours of time you'd be paying for an instructor. And let's say that's at 30 an hour, there's 1,500. Then we're going to do another 50 hours of ground instruction. 25 for the ground knowledge portion of the private, 25 hours for the ground portion of the commercial. This could vary a lot depending on how you go about the study portion of all of this. Then we're going to throw another figure on there. Books, medical certificate, examiner fees, travel, gas. This number could be less or could be way more. It all again depends on where you're flying, how much travel are you doing? Lots of different things. So we're using a good round number of 1500. When you add that up, that comes to $34,500. Now let's move to an aircraft and instructor with higher fees. So for the next example, again, to Try to make it easy. I'm putting a helicopter at 400 an hour and instructor at 60 an hour. And these aren't totally out of the ballpark. There's places that charge this much and there's places that charge even more. I just used some round numbers for what you could actually pay somewhere. So 150 hours of 400 an hour, there's 60,000. 50 hours of dual flight with an instructor at 60 an hour, there's 3050 hours of ground school at 60 an hour, there's another 3000. We use the same miscellaneous figure of 1500. And there you are at 67,500. $500. So you can see the difference right off the bat from a less expensive helicopter per hour instructor versus a more expensive helicopter and instructor per hour. Again, this is just to give you an idea of where you could be. It could possibly be even more. I had a young guy that worked for me and his training from off the street to CFI 2. Sometimes we call, refer to him as a double. I means he's a certified flight instructor, but can also teach instruments in the helicopter for him to get his private pilot, his instrument pilot rating, his commercial pilot rating, his flight instructor rating, and then his instrument instructor rating. On top of that, with where he went to school and what he paid, his total grand total was $95,000. So you can see getting close to 100,000 is not totally out of the ballpark either. Again, depending on where you're flying and what aircraft you're flying now, is there any ways to save money? Yes, there are some ways to save money. One of them is news reporting flights. There are places where, say, you can go along in a helicopter, they're already out doing news reporting. They let you go along. You pay so much per hour to go with an instructor. They let you fly. You get to log the time. There's ferry flights where helicopters get moved across the country from point A to point B. Those flights are offered where you can get a discounted price to go build. You know, taking an aircraft from one side of the country to the other, you might be able to get 10 or 15 or 20 hours. And it helps the person trying to move the aircraft put some money in their pocket and get you a discounted rate. So there are some ways to save some money. There's another question. We get a lot. Will a helicopter company pay for your training? It does happen, but it's rare. We had one student that I referred to quite often. He got lucky enough, he got his private with us, started working on his commercial, found a company that said if you go to work for us and drive the truck and drag the cables and chains and help us set up and you do a good job, maybe we'll train you and put you in the pilot's seat. And they did. This young man has one of the coolest helicopter jobs on the planet. So yes, there are some ways to save money, but you really gotta search them out. Hopefully this video helps answer some of the questions. Please give us a like. Please leave your comments in the description box below. If you if you'd like some information on how to save some more money with our helicopter training all in ground school, please click the link below this video helicopterground.com and go to our website and check out what we have to offer. Thanks for stopping by and we'll see you later.
