Kenny Keller and Christopher Hauser break down the cost of a helicopter private pilot rating: roughly $20,000, though it ranges $15k to $25k depending on location and school. The FAA requires 40 flight hours minimum, but most students need more. Aircraft rental runs $250 to $369 per hour, instructor time is around $75 per hour, and Sweet Aviation in Indiana offers packages for $18k to $20k.
Questions this video answers
40 hours total (with regulatory minimums discussed as typically 20 hours dual and 10 hours solo).
$369 per hour (aircraft rental example used by Sweet Aviation).
About $250 per hour (R22 example).
$75 per hour (Sweet Aviation instructor rate mentioned).
Chapters
Hey, welcome to Helicopter Airline Ground School Daily Flight Brief. We're going to do a series of videos for you answering a lot of the frequently asked questions related to helicopter training and helicopter careers. I'm Kenny Keller, creator of Helicopter Online Ground School. Over here we have Christopher Hauser, one of my longtime students. Now been how long you been flying now in the industry full time?
Helicopter rating 12 years now, I think.
12 years flying in the industry. Chris FL, currently full time with Sweet Aviation. Give your company a little plug real quick.
Yes, sweet aviation.com out of Fort Wayne. Two locations, Fort Wayne. And we got the Gimpel in Goshen, Indiana also.
Awesome. All right, so we first want to tell you that these are our opinions. We want you to take it for what it's worth, but we want you to do your own research. We've already agreed people ask us questions all the time and that's great. And we're going to give you opinions, but you still have to do the research yourself to get your own, your own path, your own decision on how you're going to proceed with your training. So number one, and we get this question all the time, is what does it cost? I tell people, expect 20 grand. It might be 15, it might be 25. There's most generally not one single answer for what it's going to cost. What do you tell people, Chris, when they ask you what's it going to cost to be become a private pilot?
Well, because I fly the gimbal for a company, we are at a set cost. So we are, we're probably in the range of close to 18 to 20 grand to train at Sweet Aviation in the gimbals.
Sure. So, you know, people always ask, well, what's it going to take? It's going to take a minimum of 40 hours. Some of that's dual, some of that's solo. It's 20 hours minimum for the dual, 10 hours of solo. And the other hours could be, you.
Know, either or you have a combination.
So you take the aircraft, whatever school you're going to be going at and you know you're going to have that minimum 40 hours. Then you're going to have instructor time. You're going to have instructor time in the aircraft, which we call dual training. You're going to have dual time on the ground where instructors are working with you one on one. So you have those additional costs on top of the aircraft per hour. And then you have the cost of books, materials. There's some mandatory things you're gonna have to have like a FAR AIM manual and a logbook and an E6B flight computer. There's gonna be some tools of the trade that you're gonna have to purchase. So those are in addition to your flight time and your ground time.
Yeah, and I think a simple way of, you know, so our aircraft is $369 an hour. You already know that you're gonna need 40 hours. So you take 369 times 40, right there is 15 grand.
There you go.
Okay, now if you go and that's not including instructor time, that's not including books, that's not including exam, that's not including getting renters insurance, whatever. But right there you need FAA 40 hours. Take 40 times the aircraft rental 369 for us. You're almost at 15 right there. 15 grand. You know, you go to another place, let's say an R22, and they rent it for 250. You know, 250 times 40 out to be 10 grand, I think or something like that. So there's 10 grand right there. And again, that's not including the instructor fees. And each company is different with their instructor time also. You know, our Instructor time is 75 an hour. You might go somewhere where it's 90 an hour. You might go somewhere where it's 50 an hour. You know, just, you know, just times that by 40 also. And that will give you the bare bones, bare minimum of what it's going to, what it's going to cost to get your private rating. We're not talking about commercial instrument instructor, just straight up private rating, bare bones, bare minimum, 40 hours. And also realize, you know, very rare. Do I see a zero time pilot get their, get their private rating right at 40 hours. You know, sometimes they're 45, sometimes they're at 49, sometimes they're at 55. It just, it varies on several circumstances or whatever. But you know, so just know, bare bones, minimum, 40 hours, you know, and if you want to do the math, just you know, 40 times whatever the aircraft rental is and then take 40 times your hourly instruction rate of what that company is and that will give you bare bones very minimum of what it's going to cost.
Exactly right. Alright, so put your questions down below what you'd like to see in upcoming videos. We've got a whole list here. We're going to do some every day. So put your questions down below. Down below is also a copy of my number one bestseller top 10 checkride tips that I co authored with 2018 Flight Instructor of the Year, Dan Tas. Christman top 10 checkride tips free PDF down below do us a favor, subscribe the channel because it really and truly helps. Give us a thumbs up. I'll see you next video.
