Kenny Keller (creator of Helicopter Airline Ground School) answers FAQs about how many flight hours are typically required for helicopter solo and for add-on/initial helicopter ratings. He gives regulatory/typical figures (add-on: 20 hours dual + 10 hours solo = 30; initial: 20 hours dual + 10 solo but ~40 to solo and average 60–70 hours for rating), notes variability (some students solo as early as ~15 hours; some need 100+ hours), explains fixed-wing experience helps but landing techniques differ, stresses frequent practice and ground school, and provides contact info for his Helicopter Ground School.
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Hello, I'm Kenny Keller, the creator of Helicopter Airline Ground School and I want to answer a couple of frequently asked questions that we get A lot. People want to know how many hours is it going to take to solo? And they want to know how many hours is it to get the rating to get the helicopter license. So first I'll cover add ons. If you're doing an add on, you have to have 20 hours of duel in the aircraft and you have to have 10 hours of solo. So that's 30 hours for an add on rating. If you're going for initial helicopter rating, it's 20 hours of duel, 10 hours minimum solo, but a total of 40 daily to get to solo. That's going to depend on any one person. I've seen people solo in maybe as little as 15 hours. Not saying you can do it, that you can do it for less than that, because maybe you will. Some people take more than that. A lot of the times though, a lot of insurance companies will have a 20 hour minimum prior to solo. So that depends on the flight school, where you're going on, what point they'll let you solo. So again, this is just, you know, I'm giving round figures, not saying it can't be 10 or 12 hours. Not real likely, probably more like 15 or 20. And then to get the rating, the average is about 60 to 70 hours. So what I want to cover is people will say, well, but you know, I'm already a fixed wing pilot, you know, shouldn't that mean I should get it in less hours? Yes, your fixed wing rating will help, of course, because you're already a pilot and you have knowledge. But there are certain things that might be a struggle for you. Like number one, when you're going to do your landings, you're used to flying and keeping a lot of speed on approach. In a helicopter, the approaches have to be slow. So that's a big hurdle for a lot of fixed wing pilots. So just in general, a good average figure is 60 to 70 hours. I've had some add on guys that have done it in just over 40. I've had maybe one or two guys in 15 years that did it in just over 40 that were initial pilots. And then, you know, I've had people that have had over 130 hours for fixed wing, 40 hours for a private. For someone just coming off the street, things go good for you. Maybe you'll get it done in around 40 hours. Maybe it'll take more like 60 or 70. Again, most people have jobs, lives, family, Families, other things going on in their life that affects their frequency of flying. Which is probably the biggest thing that a person is going to have trouble with, is getting in a good solid, like three times a week at least or more. You know, if you only fly once a week, you're not making a lot of good progress because each time you come back you're kind of backing up and going, well, where were we? Okay, yeah, that's what we were doing. So it does depend on a lot of different factors. So those are some general numbers on what it's going to take to get the rating. And then the other big thing is ground school, which is what we do here. Helicopter Online Ground School. The average person excels in the aircraft and struggles with the ground school. I did it like a lot of people do. You get flying, you're having fun and you know your instructors are telling you to study and you're going, okay, yeah, well, you know, yeah, I'm gonna study tonight or I'll study next week. And pretty soon you have a bunch of flight time and your ground knowledge is not there. So we help with that at Helicopter LA Ground School. There's a link down below this video you can click on in the description box to go to our site and check out our different membership levels. Can also email me with any questions. Kenny helicopterground.com so please give us a like and a share. Leave your comments down below. Email me with any questions and we'll see you in the next. Sam.
