Short conversational video (Kenny Keller, Jan 15, 2021) discussing how long it typically takes to earn a helicopter private pilot license. Speakers cite the 40-hour baseline and give practical pacing guidance (twice-weekly training ≈ 5–6 months; once-weekly ≈ 40 weeks), note common delays (weather, maintenance, scheduling), and offer extreme examples ranging from an accelerated 3-week completion to a 27-year span.
Questions this video answers
40 hours
About five to six months
About 40 weeks
Three weeks (accelerated program with daily flying and strong ground knowledge)
27 years (student resumed and finished 27 years after initial attempt)
Chapters
All right, Daily flight brief number two. Time frame for private pilot. I know Chris and I agreed on the first questions today on the ones we get the most. This is one we both get a lot. Time frame for private pilot. Take it away. Chris, what do you think? What's your opinion on time frame for private pilot?
You know what, it's kind of like the cost too. There's a simple way of thinking about it. Of course this is unrealistic, but let's say that you need 40 hours, which you do, and you flew every day for one hour. Well, you know you're going to get your rating in possibly 40 days. But that is completely unrealistic. Nobody can fly every day, you know, due to weather, aircraft availability, instructor availability, whatever else. What I like to tell new people is try at least twice a week, even three times a week if you can.
I agree.
So if you do that, if you, let's just say you go twice a week, okay, you're looking at five months, six months, something like that. Two times a week, 40 hours. That comes out to about five months, six months. Now obviously there's people that can and are able to fly more than that. Then of course that means you're going to get your rating quicker. But you know what, I've trained some guys that can only do once a week because of family life, careers, weather, whatever. So once a week, if you could only do it once a week for 40 hours, you know, that's 40 weeks, you know, so you're, I mean, that's kind of a little idea to think about. But I would like to see especially newer students at least twice a week. So five to six months. And that's just. And again, ours, the way we train is we're a one on one flight school. You get with the instructor, you, we schedule them, we try to do it on your availability. So it's not like a classroom setting where, or a college setting where you come every day from 8 to 5 or. It's not like that. Now we can certainly work that in. Sure. You know, but ours is, you know, just based on your availability and everybody and the schedule of the aircraft and that kind of, that kind of thing. So it's, you know, like I said, I try twice a week, three times a week, if you can. Yep.
And you probably already mentioned, you know, you got aircraft maintenance, you got weather, you got all these other things that can come into play. So a good average might be, you know, five, six months to a year. But then on the other end, we've had People. We had a guy that took 27 years to get his private. He failed the first time, went back with his pink slip 27 years later and finished 27 years after he started. And then we've got people who've done it in three weeks. But that's. And that's a program where this gentleman used helicopter and ground school. And he just hammered the ground knowledge before he showed up at flight school. Impressed him. When he walked in the door and they went, wow, your ground knowledge is amazing. And then they just flew every day. Every day? Every day. But that's, you know, it can be done. But that is a. That's more of a rarity, I guess I.
And I guess I should have said that too, is there's, you know, each person is different. It might take a guy three months to do it, or it might take a guy two years to do it just based on, you know. And there are some people that like to do accelerated. I know when I was finishing up my instrument, I went somewhere and I stayed there for a week, and I flew every day and took my checkride on the last day. You know, so there are those type of possibilities. But, yeah, you know, everybody's different. Just like the cost is different. It just depends on each. It depends on your situation.
Exactly right. So is there an absolute answer? No. It depends on so many different factors for every individual situation. So bottom line, with some ground prep, we had a Guy did it three weeks. We've seen people take 27 years. It could be really anywhere in between. All right, so let us know what else you want to see. Put them in the description Bo box below. Click, like, subscribe the channel, click the bell, and we'll see you in the next video.
