Helicopter Instrument Rating - Australia

[Lefthanded_Rock_Thrower]

How many oz helicopter pilots have instrument ratings, for those who do not why??, cost, inpracticle, not required ?????. do tell.

[Steve76]

I do.
Best investment in yourself you can make. Can, Will and has saved your bacon in the future.
Why not?
Well it is a prick of an exam, freeking expensive to fly the hours and there are not too many jobs out there. Although once you do the transition you become a more valuable commodity to the industry. You can still bomb around in the Robbie but now you have a Super Puma, S76 behind you also.....

Rather good for longevity in this industry.

Regards. :ouch:

[Granny]

Sure Steve
You can sit in a S76,Puma or whatever and it may save your bacon having an Instrument rating , but when it comes to dollars ,with all these tickets I got Instrument , ATPL etc I know I earnt a whole bunch more dollars on helilogging ops in a jungle, seems some out fits dont want to take into consideration the time and money one puts into these extras. It does cost alot of money.
However I agree it may make the difference one day of having a job or not:ok:

[WLM]

An instrument rating in Oz is a luxury most pilots cannot afford. The availability of employment is small and dominated by a few major key firms (in OZ). Unless you have 1500 hours-3000 TT rotary including turbine time, and under a certain age bracket, it is not economical to have one. Last inquiry into obtaining the rating, on R22, with minimal time on B206 sim was around AUD 26,000.....
However I do agree with Steve76 that it may save your life at some stage if you allow yourself to get into IMC.
I also believe that the OZ regulator should introduce a scheme similar to Europe and have some instrument time on Rotary as part of the CPL (H), which could help pilots (H) realize IMC is not for the inexperienced.
:O :O

[Lefthanded_Rock_Thrower]

so if an instrument rating becomes required for ATPL, as per fixed wing and what is suggested in NPRM for part 61, what impact will this have on our industry, is it physically possible to obtain the instrument rating in an R22/Bell47 as per the FAA and still be of use to us pilots????( assuming CASA wishes to bring us inline with our FAA counterparts, if they are not it will be very hard for us to obtain a rating, does this mean more americans flying VH- registered aircraft ??) , thoughts ????.