Originally Posted by
Rotorbee
One thing first. Since you mentioned that you are living in France right now, I suppose you have a work visa. The UK is a third country now. If you leave your job in France and move elsewhere you will not be coming back easily. The visa will be gone and you will not get a work visa as a helicopter pilot in the EU. They have enough. No mountain flying in the Alps for you. Even a digital nomad visa will not help you. If you keep your job and do a mondular course in France, you have a much bigger job market. Keep that in mind.
And don't blame the EU, that was the Brits decision. They knew the rules before they left, because they helped writing them.
I have heard good things about Hillsboro. That is really a good way, not the cheapest one, but Hillsboro has a good reputation in industry. If you can get an instructor job in the US, good for you. Always better to come home with a 1000 hours than 150.
EASA has a list of approved flight schools outside the EU and I can not find Hillsboro, therefore ask them who's licences you will get. They claim they are the only helicopter flight school with an F1 visa. Since Trump and Brexit, things got harder for training in the US.
You can always try to do something more complicated like Agile suggests, but things have probably changed quite a lot since he did his licences.
Yes you're right Rotorbee, I'm living in France on a work visa (mine expires in Feb 2027) and yes if I leave coming back will be tricky. I was hoping that if, some years down the line, I had 1000/2000 hours on an EASA license I could easily find someone to sponsor a visa, either in France or elsewhere... are you super sure that basically no one does that in Europe?
As you say yes Hillsboro are affiliated with Rotorsky in Aus (they even said I'd need to get my medical specifically in Austria too). Not having a UK license (assuming I had FAA and EASA) doesn't bug me too much as in the long term I don't want to live in the UK. However given the fact that I don't have the right to work in the EU, it may be the only option open to me...