PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - questions from Ms Naive
View Single Post
Old 7th Sep 2006, 15:36
  #7 (permalink)  
moosp

Cool as a moosp
 
Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: Mostly Hong Kong
Posts: 802
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Elena, welcome to the forum. Many of us here are also "hooked" on helicopters, and many can say that they still enjoy going to work every morning, especially once they get past the office building and into the machine.

My input to you would be to take care if any school asks for a lot of money as a deposit to start. I tried several schools in America, and I am very glad that I did not tie myself to one by giving them a deposit of thousands of dollars. It is only by being there, seeing the organisation, meeting the instructors and other staff that you will feel if it is right for you.

I do not know the school that you mention, but if you arrive at school xyz and discover that you are not happy there, it is important for you to be able to move on to another one.

The Bell 47 that your proposed school uses is one of the older design machines, and people who are trained on it have a good understanding of the basics of natural control. I may be shot down by others here but I think it is a very good training machine. If you continue with your training to the CPL level, then you will need to get experience on other machines like the Robinson R22 and R44 which would make you more employable.

Remember that you will need to get your TSA security clearance to learn in the USA. I'm not sure how long it takes these days but a few months ago it was taking around three months to come through. There are full details on another thread, but I cannot find it right now. (Help me here guys?)

Don't go for the cheapest school, like most things you get what you pay for. A few thousand dollars more now may make a difference in future by the quality of your training and the good name of the school on your c.v.

Once again welcome
moosp is offline