Kenny Keller answers questions from people considering helicopter pilot training. Get your medical certificate early, a high school diploma works now though some employers want college, and training takes anywhere from 8 to 9 months to several years depending on how fast you move.
Questions this video answers
An aviation student pilot medical certificate (get it right off the bat).
Yes — wearing glasses is allowed.
A high school diploma; college/university is not mandatory though some employers prefer a degree.
He has heard of people achieving CFI in about 8–9 months (if full-time and well-funded).
He started in 1997 and obtained his CFI in 2001 (about four years).
Chapters
All right, thanks for stopping by this helicopter training Q and A broadcast. The question that I have for the first one is a great question. If you have high blood pressure, would you still be able to come a helicopter pilot? Now, of course, that question would be one that you have to take to your medical examiner, which brings up a great point. A lot of people ask questions about their health and getting their medical certificate. You can have certain problems and still become a helicopter pilot. And we urge people, when they first start training to get your medical student pilot medical certificate right off the bat. Because if you start flying and then find out later that you have some kind of a medical problem, of course that drags out your training, costs you more money, and in the end, maybe you would find that maybe you couldn't become a pilot. But there are a lot of different things, different health problems that you can have. And if they're monitored by a doctor and, and following certain guidelines, you can fly with certain medical problems. So that is a great question, and I'm not going to even attempt to answer because high blood pressure probably depends on, you know, the medical examiner, your age, the other things going along with your health. So I wouldn't attempt to say for sure on that. But I would think that probably under a doctor's care, and if it wasn't too out of control, I would think that that probably would be okay. So that is a great question. But again, the main point is get a medical certificate early on. You don't have to get it before you start training. You can become a student pilot, start taking lessons, but a lot of people wait and they're ready to solo and they still don't have a medical certificate. So if they don't have that, they can't do the solo flight and continue on with the training. So then if you say you did get an appointment with medical examiner and you had some kind of a problem, then again that's going to drag out the training. So go do an aviation medical examiner early on and find out your health situation. If there's any problems. You may be surprised on certain things that can be allowed and still fly. A lot of those questions come up like, can I wear glasses? Yes, you can wear glasses. I've been wearing glasses for years. So any questions on your medical certificate and becoming a pilot? Go to an aviation medical examiner and get the test done right off the bat. And the other part of this young man's question, do you need a college or university to become a pilot? No, you don't at this time. You only have to be a high school graduate, you have to have a diploma at this point. You do not have to have college or university. Now, with that being said, are there some companies that are now requiring potential pilots to have college or a college degree? Yes, there are so many. By not having college, you may be limited on that specific job that you want by not having a college degree. But at this time, there is a lot of helicopter jobs that do not require a college education. I didn't get college. I've been lucky enough to do all the different forms I've wanted to do as far as jobs in the helicopter world, and it hasn't restricted me from any, but it could in the future. So if you're questioning whether you have to have college or not, I would say get it. Because as time goes on, I do believe that it's probably going to become more of a requirement and probably more and more companies are going to start asking you to have that college degree. So not an absolute, but get it if at all possible. I would definitely get the college degree, but it's not mandatory. And the other last part of his question, how long will it take to complete your training? That is a good question. It's a great question. There are so many things that are involved in how long is your training going to take. I've heard of people that went from off the street to CFI in like eight or nine months. And to do that, you're going to have to have all the money available. You're going to have to commit yourself to studying and working at it full time to get through it in eight or nine months. So it can be done in a short time span like that. But I wouldn't recommend it. I think that would be a huge stress to try to get through it in that amount of time. But it can be done. And then we'll go to the other end of the spectrum. Use me, for example. I started in 97 and I didn't get my CFI until 2001. And it was because I was operating a business and trying to scrounge up the money for more training. And, you know, like most of us are a lot of helicopter pilots. I struggled along the way and had different things that held me up with. I failed my first private pilot checkride because I didn't have the ground knowledge I needed. Which to say is why I'm here and why I'm offered the helicopter online ground school that I currently have is due to that lack of knowledge that I had in the beginning. Everybody wants to fly, we all want to go fly. Nobody wants to do the ground part. The ground part is, in my opinion, 75% of learning to fly helicopters, 25% is the actual flying. So it can take three or four years to get to CFI from off the street, or it could even take longer. It all depends on, again, how much money do you have available, how well do you study on your own? There's just so many different factors on how long it's going to take to get your helicopter rating. And I tell people, when they're looking at doing it as a career and they're worried about the private and the commercial and the cfi, I say, you know what, get your private first. Make the private your goal. Start the training, get your medical, get to private pilot. And when you get there, then the next step is commercial pilot. And then you can get started on that. It can be overwhelming if you look at the total cost and the time. So my opinion, focus on that private rating first and go from there. So that's three great questions from one of our young subscribers who's in high school and looking at becoming a pilot later on. So if you have any questions you'd like answered, leave them in the comment box below. Thanks for stopping by and we'll be back again tomorrow for more questions. Thanks for stopping by and we'll see you soon.
