Originally Posted by
blessing786
My plan is to get a PPL and then hour build, when I have enough hours, looking to a CPL followed by FI rating. Best thing would be getting a job after CPL but being realstic thats not going to happen due to low hours so FI would be the way forward. Currently, have enough funds up to CPL.
Do you know if conversion courses are difficult? Is it case of you can fly one helicopter and you can fly them all? (subject to getting the type rating ofcourse)
I have seen schools around london but currently trying to keep it as close as to me as possible as I am looking to two days a week. The further the school the travelling will eat into my hour building fund.
Just to throw a spanner in the works: Get a PPL(A). Even if you don't want one. You can count 20 PIC hours in an airplane towards your helicopter CPL if you hold a PPL(A). Given that FW training is about half the cost, you could get a very cheap PPL(A) out of it. If you did the PPL(A) first, you would have the additional advantage of learning radio, navigation, instrument flight etc on a much more stable platform, which should make your PPL(H) easier.
But by FAR the biggest advantage is that you can add a fixed wing IR for about £8k - and as we all know because we've all read cap804, a FW to Heli IR conversion is only 10 hours. (In other words an IR(H) with a free PPL(A)/IR is cheaper than an IR(H) on its own.