PPL H and CPL H Training

[davidb194]

Hi Everyone,

I'm new to PPRuNe, was directed to the site from a friend who is a pilot here in Ireland.

I am planning to complete a PPL H and eventually CPL H course either in Ireland or overseas. I'm looking for recommendations, tips, anything at all that might help me find the best instructors, most reasonably priced training facilities, most efficient ways of hour building etc. etc.

Many Thanks!

[rudestuff]

Simple: Do the bulk of your training in the USA. Your training will cost 1/3 of what it would in Europe.

[davidb194]

Thanks rudestuff I have been looking in the US and haven't found many facilities providing this training at much less of a rate than Ireland/ Europe, do you know of any specific places? Currently the best value location seems to be Czech Republic for an EASA lisince

[rudestuff]

The US isn't necessarily that much cheaper per flight hour, but it can be considerably cheaper overall due to their more generous licencing requirements.

For example, helicopters are 3-4 times more expensive than airplanes. Which is where cross-crediting comes in.

An EASA CPL(H) requires 185 hours. In the most generous case 135 of those hours must be in a helicopter. (Up to 50 can be airplane time)

An FAA CPL(H) requires 150 hours. There is no minimum requirement for helicopter hours, leaving only the realms of possibility as a limit. Its entirely feasible to get a CPL(H) with less than 50 hours (one guy managed it in 13!)

Now all of that is about getting a CPL as cheaply as possible - so it's technically an entirely accurate answer to you question. If your intention is to fly commercially in Europe then an FAA CPL and 50 hours would be pretty useless. However, for someone planning to stay in the US as a flight instructor while studying for the ATPL exams it could be quite useful as the EASA minimums could be reached in just a few months.

[mattpilot]

To add to rudestuff's comments -> I did a helicopter CPL add-on in about 70 hours. Was all great and the school i trained with had Bell47's. Problem was the school shut down only a few weeks after i finished and i was kinda stuck. I wanted to do an instructor add-on, but the only other school around me had R22's. You need at least 200 hours in helicopters to instruct on an R22. I reached out to other non-R22' schools around the country, but to them i was 'only' a 70 hour pilot and no insurance apparently would cover me. So even doing it the 'efficient FAA' way with an add-on, you are stuck with an expensive hour building problem.

[rudestuff]

Good point. Insurance dictates everything in the US, although you would hope a policy that covers solo students would also cover lower hour instructors giving dual instruction.

The easiest option is always to get hired by the place that trains you. To them you're a known quantity rather than a risky curiosity.

You could also volunteer your services as a safety pilot / mentor for other hour-builders. Commercial solo hours can be done with an instructor on board to supervise. They'd get a lot out of it and you'd both log PIC under US regs.