RM,
Any advice must be general - specific advice will depend on personal circumstances.
I went the "instructor" route (pre-JAR FCL); it made sense then. It is all much more difficult (and expensive) post JAR FCL. Most of my time has been spent combining instructing and flying commercially. I did not have the option of flying in the military (far too old)- if you can, you should think of military flying as an option for several reasons.
Although I had it in mind to have a go at police flying, I really wanted to just fly helicopters, rather than particularly fly for the police. I have always enjoyed the flying and that's why I changed careers. Now that I fly for the police, I particularly enjoy the teamwork, and not knowing what is coming next (as well as the flying).
It has cost me a moderate fortune in training costs to get where I am today, and it has cost me even more in lost income. However, I would not want to do anything else, and I manage to earn some extra by doing what I used to do part-time. This was very useful early on, when it was really impossible to earn a living wage purely by flying.
Most helicopter work in the UK is freelance - your personal circumstances need to be able to cope with that.
Minimum Experience for police flying is along the following lines, although it does vary and if not ex-mil you normally need a lot more than the minimum to be considered seriously:
Min Rotary Time 1,500-2,000 hrs
Multi Eng Time >500 hrs
"significant" VCF overland, with some low level experience
Night Flying 50+ hrs
Although most police hele ops are VMC, they are also looking for significant instrument experience, cos inadvertent IMC at night is always a possibility. Civi pilots often have IRs, although they are not kept valid.
In most cases, a significant amount of the time needs to be PIC.
Some ASUs ask for other requirements where relevant too.
Last edited by Helinut; 11th May 2003 at 03:18.