Helicopter Training - Mountains vs Flat-land

[DHQ]

Hi Guys,

I'm looking to start helicopter training soon. I live in Ontario, and obviously it would be more convenient to train there. My question is, would it be worth my while to head out west for a bit and do my training out there in the mountains?

Cheers.

[donnybrook]

What do you want to do? Drills, seismic, fires, IFR, ENG.....

If you only care about first job and you're strapped for cash stay in Ontario, but if you want to be a mountain rescue pilot the choice is obvious....

[Heliian]

Find somewhere close and inexpensive to start and then go out west for an approved mountain course once you've got your CPL-H. Or go out west, find a cheap school and get the training there and then do an approved mountain course. I would price out the mountain courses because they will be approx 25% of your flight training bill. All in all, you're looking to spend about 80g's when it's all said and done and then you have to find a job? bonne chance.

P.S. Spend as much as you can on turbine time.

[sky's the limit]

With all due respect to HeliIan,

I would disagree with his post.

Train in the mountains if you want to fly there.

Train with the most experienced pilot you can find.

DO NOT buy a mtn course, especially after 100hrs, it will be entirely useless. You need to be able to fly the machine without thinking, and fly it precisely BEFORE you take a mtn course or it will be of little value.

Turbine time is a waste of your money. Flt schools are making a bloody fortune selling this to new students, and while a number of operators are jumping on the (you need a turbine endorsement) bandwagon, 5-10hrs in a Jet Buggy will do you no good and the first employer should be training you to a reasonable level of proficiency on your initial ride. It is a scam imho and with zero guarantee of gaining employment after the fact, the more you spend now, the further you go in the hole.

Good luck.

stl

[r22captain]

STL is on the money. When my employer sent me for a mountain course once a had a few thousand hours, it was like learning to fly all over.....so if you're wasting your time trying to mentally fly a jetbox, you're not getting anything out of it. There was a young guy "buying" a course at 1400 an hour, and was spending more time doing starts then flying.

I was broke when doing my conversion from FW to RW. All my hours were on a piston machine. First job was on a 206. Again don't waste your money. You'll have nothing more then BH06 on your license, and 10 years of payments on it. Grab a flight manual and study it so you have a level of knowledge when you show up for an interview.

[Heliian]

To clarify...

Obviously real experience will get you there, but you need to set yourself above the other candidates for low time jobs. STL and 22 cap have been at it for a while and their reasoning is logical and you won't be risking that much to start. Right now there are tons of young pilots out there with the basic mins looking for jobs, we need guys that have a few hours on the jetboxes at least to start, much less training to do, most of the young guys have just 22 or 300 time, 44 time if we're lucky. Getting an approved mountain course will also improve your chances of finding work as your new employer won't have to waste the time and money, they'll want to get you working safely as soon as possible and the basic lessons you will learn while doing a course will stick with you forever, training is always a good investment. Things are getting busy now and it's going to get to the point where those guys with the turb. time are getting promoted to the intermediates and the piston guys are getting into the longdogs.

P.S. By the time you read this, the industry will have most likely changed

[r22captain]

we need guys that have a few hours on the jetboxes at least to start, much less training to do, most of the young guys have just 22 or 300 time, 44 time if we're lucky. Getting an approved mountain course will also improve your chances of finding work as your new employer won't have to waste the time and money

I'm sorry, this is going to get you all up in arms no doubt. But I disagree with this mentality 100%.

Your company wants to do as little training as possible is what you're saying?
Waste time and money?
Why are they wasting time and money? Any company that doesn't want to put the effort into an employee isn't going to keep that employee.

I worked my ass off for 2 years doing the usual "pay your dues" routine. I went on a 25 hour, in house, operational course before doing my PPC and being set free. Trust me, I went through that course with a guy who did all 100 hours of his CPL on a JetBuggy, and the company cut him. Doesn't matter what endorsement is on your shiny new license.

Keep your money for kraft dinner and find a company that treats you with repect.

[Heliian]

Don't worry, I'm not the type to get up in arms. And training is a very important factor in a safe career, we are actually trying to get away from the whole 2 years pushing a broom thing and focusing more on the skill building right off the hop. There will still be crap pilots with shiny endorsements and crap ones with 22 time, but to fit better into the rapidly expanding industry, we expect our candidates to have "the right stuff". Maybe there is a problem with the schools? where has the vert ref skills gone?

Millions upon millions has been wasted on pilots that either a) don't cut it or b) jump ship as soon as they get the hours they need to pad their resume.

All in all, regardless of your training, attitude determines altitude.

[r22captain]

I defenetly agree with everything you said there