raingod,

Career Development Loans have to be through specific training providers, and there are special forms to fill out, though it's done through several banks. I don't know about the US though. Your best bet is to phone the flying schools concerned; if they do CDLs, they'll know what you mean.

Great practical and proven advice from Whirly and, never one to spare her blushes, congratulations of the big article about you in the Daily Post:} :}

Regards
Rob

PS - Free plug allowed for your work at Hawarden - several forums on the site owe you a great deal for your contributions over the years.

I think its becoming much harder getting into the American market if you are a foreigner, after completeing your CFI training.

Its definitely starting to become much more difiicult and expensive for companies to renew Visas and are going to be less favourable to foreigners looking for work if they only have a very limited time.
Also since Frank Robinson now owns the insurance company that insures his R22's, still the main helicopter used for flight training in most flight schools in the U.S.
The minimum requirement is now 300 hours and you must have completed the Robinson Safety course in the factory in L.A

Fly Another Day.
getting some time down South will be very beneficial for your Flying.High Mountains and exceptional Scenery.Simon has a great Reputation here in NZ and I'd recommend spending some time with him.If you want to do some training in AK drop me aline and we could do a city scenic around AK but it would have to be in a New 300CBI.Nice ship!!But even if you just want to talk Choppers and have a few cold ones let me know.

Skidbiter I will have to correct some of your comments about the R22 crash.Pilot was Pre Cpl with Cpl booked in for the next week.The R22 was an instrument trainer and was used by students for initial training and building up for Cpl's as well as C Cat candidates.The main Robby instructor down there with over 2000hrs on the R22 new his stuff and the R22 safety awareness programme was in place and no different from many other schools in NZ.Please make sure of your facts and not post hearsay.

Safe flying all

Loads of good advice so far, just thought that I would add some non financial stuff:

1. You need a good dose of determination - this is most important.

2. Start with and maintain a professional attitude - you never know who might be giving you a job/reference in the future.

3. Have a plan B to keep you solvent while you go through training

4. Enjoy yourself and remember safety is everything

COD

Hey Gambino, go hard in the study mate, biggest peice of advice I can give is to get those exams passed and out of the way! Big relief off the shoulders when they are all done, then you can fully concentrate on the flying. What stage are you at?

Attention Moderators
 

Hows about a forum for Helicopter Training?

Forums exist for Pro Training in USA/UK etc, but a dedicated forum for rotary wing pro training would really be a wonderful resource.

Fantastic site, keep up the good work.

training forum urls?
 

Smashing idea, that. While we're waiting for moderators' decisions, could you perhaps provide the locations of those training forums? Have been prowling the net for heli-training for a couple of years now, haven't discovered them (pesky little thing hide under the rug, I guess).

In case you don't want to put on the forum openly, the private email address is [email protected].

Dave
RV-gypsy w/trailered R22
everywhere Western USA

I think clevenger means the pro-training forums on pprune....

clevenger
Welcome to Rotoheads.

If you use the 'Search' function, you'll find a mine of information about all aspects of helicopter training not only in the UK, but in many countries all over the world.

Heliport http://www.click-smilies.de/sammlung...smiley-085.gif

I have to agree with my fellow moderator, as I feel that a majority of the threads here in Rotorheads are training/instructive in nature. Creating another forum for Training might be redundant, and might even reduce this forum below critical mass - that level of activity where the threads spin of themselves, as ppruners stop by and find an interesting conversation.

What do others think?


Clevenger, on behalf of Rotorheads, thanks for the compliment!

PedalStop, Rotorheads Other Moderator

Cheers folks,

I appreciate the reluctance to just add another forum willy nilly, but as any prospective student (h) pilot knows, researching schools and attempting to get semi-balanced information and facts out of the slick marketing departments of HAI/Cabair/Hillsboro/Northeast Helicopters et al, is trying at the best of times.

Visa information, the "where to train debate" and such subjects are of course ampley catered in the fixed wing training forums, but there are so many issues particular to rotary training that would warrant a seperate forum (in my humble opinion)

The turnover of Rotorheads is so high I`m sure it could handle a wee sub forum to help us poor confused wannabes.

Again, this site is really a godsend, so cheers anyway.

As a newbie to these forums myself i'd have to agree with both the Mod's (always a good idea to suck up to the Bosses!)

What few posts I have started regarding Heli school recommendations and other initial training questions have been well responded to by people who have been there, done that and got all the t-shirts.

The problem with having a seperate forum for helicopter wannabes is all we'll get to do is ask other wannabes questions, and not manage to grab the attention of the people with previous experience of the schools, visa's, costs etc - as all the people in the "know" will be hanging around the Rotorheads section discussing things I don't even know the meaning of!!!

Just my two 'peneth worth.
Best regards,
Bones
:ok:

I think rotorheads is a good "one stop shop", why mess it up and have to look at 2 forums when one is all you need !, you can generally tell if its training or not from the title anyhow

reality check
 

I have some great advice for you all.
Do not under any circumstances pay for training, it makes absoloutely no sense economically! Especially in the current environment, If you are having a midlife crises and you feel the urge to spend your money on something for gods sakes spend it on something you can see a return on or else go out and blow it in some strip bar somewhere.
Personally I think anyone who pays for there complete training needs there head seriously examined.
Around $50,000 odd for FAA alone, plus loss of earnings for the year or whatever it takes you to complete, then have f'all chance of getting a job at the end of it!
There are enough unemployed Pilots out there as it is.

If you go through with it, you will remember these words of advice when its to late, Your Call!!

Cheers for the replies

No, no mid life crisis here, I`m only 23, a bit early for that. Just finished university in Dublin. Would take at least two years to accumulate the base capital and then an unhealthy crippling loan to boot. Have about 7 years part time experience working for a giant law firm (did Law in uni) which is enough time to realise that office life is not for me. It goes without saying of course that I love flying. Semi-Carnally.

I`m going into this with my eyes wide open and am all too well aware of the difficulties ever finding a first job, let alone dealing with the after effects of a substantial bank loan. Fortunatley, Uni is free in Ireland so I have no debts and good qualifications to work for the next 26months or so.

any more words o wisdom would be welcome.

Mate, I have known people who took out loans for there Heli training in the past only to go back to work on building sites security guards or whatever work they can get there hands on, for years, so they can start paying back there loans, regretting ever having thought up such ridiculous ideas in the first place.

You should at least wait until you have the full amount and then some, even then you really ought to seriously think is it worth spending such an extreme amount of hard earned cash and going through all the hassle so if you are lucky you can get a job working in some of the worst places in the world, getting treated like S*#t and getting paid in the equivalant of magic beans?

Whatever your decision best of luck with it.

:confused: :confused:

I agree with autosync!

If you want to go for it, just for the fun, speak Private License, I say GO FOR IT, IF you have the cash together to spend! If it is not what you wanted, well you will have to drive your old car a while longer.

If you want to go for Commercial, have ALL the money up front - NO LOANS!!! - AND some spare, as it always costs more than you want to believe. THEN you still need the spare to hang around up to 2 years to have a chance at some job. Be very careful where you spend your cash - make sure you have a chance to start with that outfit!!


To the extra forum, no good. Info gets old fast besides our moderators will tell you how to search for the old stuff. If a wannabe comes along and asks he will always get the newest news,....just ask!

3top
:cool:

Been there (the loan BS), done that (tried the cheapest way: first fixed wing then add on helicopter, another BS)!
I was just ucky enough to get away with it! Actually hair raising story......don´t repeat it, you only get away once, and I used that one up!

:E :E :E

Mr Selfish, I take it you own a flight school!
Yeah I bitch and moan and there are plenty of reasons you cannot get your foot in, fortunately for me I have managed to squirm my way in, still getting paid F'all and working my ass off, and no I could not do anything else, but yes I would prefer to work somewhere else!
But it is important for people to know the reality of the world out there, and not swallow the B.S these heli schools keep promising!

As a new instructor I've already been asked for advice on this topic several times by people wanting to become commercial helicopter pilots. I tell them how I think it is...even though it might lose me future students. :( This is how I see it, in the UK at least; I don't know about elsewhere.

When I started, the situation in the UK was that people got a PPL(H), built hours, instructed for a bit, then went off to the North Sea or elsewhere. OK, I know that's an over-simplification, but that was what I was told, and that was what I saw happening. So there were at least instructing jobs available...and a chance to go on from there if you wanted to. Then came JAR, and you needed to get a CPL(H) before you could instruct. But for a short while at least, the North Sea companies were taking newly qualified CPLs. Then came 9/11; the duel qualified airline pilots who lost their jobs went back to the North Sea, who stopped recruiting, so instructors stayed in their jobs, and newly qualified CPLs decided to get to 300 hours somehow and get a FI(R). So instructing jobs became thin on the ground, and everything else dried up completely unless you were very lucky and/or knew the right people. This hasn't changed...it might tomorrow, it might next month, it might next year, it might never!!!!

So I tell people that if they have the money and really want to, go for it, as flying helicopters is great, and if you're determined enough you'll get a job somehow, somewhere, and things will probably change eventually. But to try and do that while repaying even just the interest on a £50,000 loan....NO!!!!

That's how I see it, and I've told it like that twice this week already. So if I've got it wrong, please tell me.