Aight, i´ve sent a couple emails to get some info.

Helipro NZ just replied, they´re just doing CPL CAA...thought this was Canada?...They´re not offering the theory, one has to selfstudy so, this won´t be an option.

Can u recommend some good reading i can do before i start my training? Books, magazines, etc. There are a lot of things a dont have a clue about that i´m feeling are basic so any advice welcome...;)

Cheers!

Smike,

Click here for all the good reading you need.

And I think you might have been led slightly astray earlier with regard to where you can work.

Have you got a US, NZ, Australian or Canadian passport? If not, then unfortunately it is very unlikely that you will get a visa or any other 'right-to-work' in these countries. It would therefore be little point of training towards these licences.

If you only have a UK (or other European) passport, then your only real option is to work in Europe (with a JAA licence). If you only speak English, then your potential market is realistically limited to the UK. If you also speak Spanish (which I'm guessing that you do due to your 'location') then Spain is obviously also a possibility.


HTH,

B73



PS Paco - I hope that Heli Services won't be repeating the same mistakes that PGT did recently. Best of luck.

Hey Bravo,

Gosh...another thing i didnt have a clue about...the passport i mean. I had a lot of reading in that "Become an heli pilot" thread, when talking bout visa i couldnt find out a word bout passport....i guess that its so obvious one should know that...arggg

I will contact the embassy to ask for info bout their passport...is it something hard to get? or maybe just impossible...

Thanks a lot for ur patience, i know you might be sick of answering the same quetions forever...

ALl the best

Smike,

What passport(s) do you hold at the moment? :confused:

Just the Spanish one....

In that case, my best advice is to direct your enquiries towards training and working in Spain or the UK.


Unless your parents are from US/Canada/NZ/Australia etc, you will find it very hard to get a passport, visa or other 'right-to-work' in these countries.


Good luck. :ok:

You are unlikely to get work visas for Australia, Canada, USA, NZ, SA etc. In order for those countries to give a work visa to a foreign national, that country needs to demonstrate that they cannot get anyone of their own nationality to do the work.

You would be taking a big risk in getting a non-European licence, therefore, JAA is your safest bet.

Cheers

Whirls

Oh, i see. Didnt know it was that hard as i spoke to some people that did their training there and a couple were FI, or at least that´s what they say. Others been for 5months doing hour building so that´s why i was thinking bout the possibilitty to do my training outta here.

You´ve been very helpfull so, i´ll keep u posted with my findings and when i take the final decission of where to train,,,nightmare..;o)

Tc

Hi guys, following the hunt for the best school, I wanna give you my own perspective. I personally know the NZ schools that Smike have mentioned. I did it with a partner of Helipro´s operator, used to be called Helipod. You can have a look at www.helipod.co.nz In short, the quality of the training was top of the line, the hours cheap, and the scenery unbeatable. Not to mention that I had the opportunity to take the heli away for my cross-country flights. With my PPL in the pocket, I took the wife-to-be around the north island, landed on solitary beaches, camped around with the pods on and had some unforgettable moments building hours up. I even got to do the Instructor´s and build up some more hours while getting paid!!

Now comes the downside... I´ve read comments about different schools here in Spain. All of them are bad in a way and good in another. I still believe is a matter of luck :hmm:. The thing is that with 300hrs time, I had to do the theoreticall exams all over again (the 12 of them). I don´t even get the radiotelephony licence accepted :{. Luckily, after getting the "LA HAGUE" stamp from a NZ lawyer (notario), and this applies for any country outside JAA so take note, I get the hours recognized and only have to pay for another 20 hours of a modular course. Bottom line, if you wanna go JAA, keep this in mind, you´ll have to suffer a FTO from a JAA member state....
Regarding the schools in Spain... Aerea might have had accidents... who hasn´t!!!! Somwhere I heard, you don´t learn to ride a horse until you´ve fallen off!!. Aeromadrid, too plank-jockey minded, I´m afraid, although the have nice installations, and if you are able to put up with a bunch of poss, son-of-their-dads, with crossbars on their shoulders, just go for it!!!. Top fly looks like a proffesional one, although they try to fool you into ATPL, IFR, biturbine all-in-one, wich is too much money to start with. I´ll recomend to start somewhere abroad, in an english speaking country, since this is an english oriented world, and save some money for the conversion when you get back. Get your CPL first, the turbine rating will come later, more than probably paid for by the operator that hires you, and then go for the IR which you will probably have to pay yourself for at the moment. As a hint, I´d tell you that there´re some people out there doing some co-pilot time that don´t even have their licences!! and they`re even getting paid!!!!!. That demonstrates that it never has been a better moment to try out heli-flying.

I hope my point of view will help you out.

Safe flying!!

heli atpl europe
 

One more thing I´ve notice it´s arised. The visa is not so difficult to get, at least when i went to nz, which was before the Twin Towers thingy.... The trick is, you get a student visa for a year, which can be extended for another six months, if your school writes Inmigration a letter about what course´s you´re undergoing, and they don´t mid a bit you coming in and spending such a huge amount of money in their country! This calls for a bank certificate that shows that you´ve already sent the school the money, before they let you in!! A bit risky, so be sure who you give the money to.... I was lucky, I have to admit.....

uuups, my first post seems to have been lost :ugh:. It took me only two hours to write it!!!!!!!.

Well, to cut a long story short... I did my CPL in NZ with www.helipod.co.nz training standars were awsome, the scenery unbeatable, and the hours cheap!. I was able to do my cross-country by taking the chopper away for the weekend several times!! nice beaches, carrying the camping-gear on the side pods..... In a couple of words IM-PRESSIVE!. :)

BUT, you have to convert any licence outside JAA, which means all the written exams, 20 more hours flying to pay here plus the practical exam :{. This has happened to everybody i know that has had his training overseas, Canada, USA, Australia, NZ, you name it...

Regarding schools, all have their goods and bads. Aerea has accidents... but who doesn´t!!! In the other hand, their teachers and instructors are quite good. AeroMadrid is too plank-jockey oriented. If you can put up with those poss, son-of-their-dad, shoulder barred guys, go for it!. Top-fly is good, although they try to fool you into ATPL, biturbine, IFR, all togheter, which means heaps of money. My suggestion is, try CPL overseas, improve your english, save some cash for you conversion when you get back. The turbine rating will more than probably be paid for by the operator who hires you. Then try to build hours up and, bit by bit, get your IFR (That´s where the money might be).

A hint to encourage newbies... There´re some people out there flying as copilots, getting paid (not much, i know), who haven´t finished their training yet!, which demonstrates that is a sweet moment for heli-flying.

Hope this helps, safe flying!!!

Borjaracing, there are two important parts to your post; "Pre-Twin Towers" and "Student visa".

Since the USA is, as far as I am aware, the only country outside JAA-land to offer a JAA training, then it's a US visa requirement. It is the US in particular who have tightened their visa procedures.

Secondly, student visas are simple enough to obtain; it is the work visa/permit to work that are not. It's all very well to go to New Zealand to get an NZ CPL but, if you can't work there afterwards, you have to look at the costs of converting that CPL into another country's equivalent. This is usually costly and/or time consuming especially if you're talking about Europe.

Cheers

Whirls

Hey Borjaracing,

Thx for replying. Actually, i´ve got some info from the schools i was looking at and told me about the student visa thing. Whirlygig might be right about how tricky it may be to get a work visa in the USA.

About FAA-JAA conversions, well keeping that in mind i´ve been looking for combineed FAA-JAA courses so i dont hace to convert my CPL license when i´m back.HAI Florida includes FAA FI on the course so i could spend the time left to build some hours, or maybe its hoping too much...;o) Its a shame one can´t do a JAA IR outside JAA´s areal space, i didn´t know about this(and about a lot other stuff).

I was wondering if it would be cheaper to do the FAA IR and the convert to JAA than doing the JAA straight away. For what i´ve seen here in Spain JAA IR costs something around 35.000€ , at HAI Florida FAA IR is about 10.000$(7400€)...FAA to JAA conversion is something around 11000€? couldnt find out a school here offering it with their prices. If that was the case it would mean saving 14000€, needless to say that it´s a lot of money.

I´ve got no answer from Heliflight NZ yet but, will checkout the one u´re suggesting Borjaracing.

Cheers!

Just checking Helipod, on their training section it directs me to http://www.helinorth.co.nz/content/view/15/36/ is this where u did ur training?

Thx

For what it's worth, I belive there is a JAA-certified school in South Africa, somewhere around Johannesburg. I'm fairly sure I read something to this effect recently (while looking for info on something else entirely).

Smike, yep, helinorth is how they´re call now, since they sold the helipod patent. The CFI/owner name was Peter Maloney, if you wanna contact him.

I´ve realised that the work visa is the one that worries you. In my particular case was no so difficult, cos I manage to get the residency in NZ, which was a bit of a nuisance to get, and that gave me the opportunity to work there from the beginnig. Otherwise it´s true what´s been commented about the fact that if you get a job offer, they´ll have to demonstrate that no nationals can cover that possition. This is trycky, because is a subjective opinion up to the inmigration officer only... When I did it, it happened that nobody at my school had an instructor´s rating, and there was a true sortage of pilots at the time, so I manage to get the work permit before the residence permit. I believe this might be still true, and not only in NZ. Regarding whether is worthy or not to do a licence overseas and then converting it to JAA, well I´m not too sure, for me it has been. Not only in the economical aspect, which it has by a little margin at the end of the day, but definitely in the personal aspect, meaning that having travelled overseas has given me the opportunity to improve my english, to know other way of operate and enjoy such a wonderful place like NZ. In their defence, I have to say that kiwis are easy-going, laid back and extremely professional at the same time, which to me has proved to be a wonderful combination. In terms of time consuming, I have had to undertake all the exams again, but with what I was already taught, It´s only taken me a couple of months to be ready for the theory, and the flying part has been piece of cake.

Safe flying!!!

Borjaracing, thx for the helpful info...will keep it in mind while i take my final decision.

Take care

Spanish Helidriver
 

There is another interesting option in spain, a company called FAASA, they also have CPL/IR/ATPL(H) and they own about 75 helicopters, besides there are goverment agreements to pay for the training. I think they are the best option now and they have the Hughes 300 and A109 for the IR. I wouldn´t loose time with IR as i know people loosing 4-5 years of good job opportunities, waiting for the IR.

Yo!

Right, finally i think i´m gonna go thru CPL(h) here in Spain. I´m trying to decide between two schools...Top Fly(Barcelona=my city) and Centervol(Gerona). Both are on the same price range. Centervol seems a bit more intensive on theory, 6hours per day from Monday to Friday...when Top FLy is doing 3:30h . Centervol has quite good reputation and they´ve been quite more friendly regarding payment facilities etc...

I have a question, Centervol is offering 2 options for CPL(h), one with just R22 type rating and the other R22+Ecureuil AS350. Do u think its worth that AS350 extra rating? I ask coz i´ll be most likely doing IR afterwards(at the moment just Top Fly is offering it as its the only school with biturbine) and if i´m not wrong i would get AS355 type rating when finishing IR, right? Any thoughts?

Thx folks!

Hey, i know i´m a bit of a pain...doh! sorry for the noise but, gotta decide to keep my place for September´s promotion so...as i said,," its worth to get get that extra Ec AS350 rating if i´m gonna do IR that will lead me a EC AS355??or better go straight to CPL(h)+R22?

All the best