Co-pilot jobs

[Hellaheli]

I'm working on my commercial right now and a few of the people I'm training with have discussed being a co-pilot when they finish the commercial plus a few additional hours. I've been wondering if that is a good way to go and how many hours does it usually take to get one of those jobs. I think I could learn a whole lot flying with a high time pilot in say a Bell 430 or S-76 etc. Any info on this subject would be greatly appreciated.

[gmsemel]

Go to the Civil Aircraft Registry at FAA.gov. Add up all of the S-76's Bell 430's and what have you, then go look at the number of rated helicopter pilots on the books. It will not take long for you to fiquire out how few helicopters fly with more than one pilot. I been flying helicopters for 24 years now, and in all that time I seen maybe four or five co-pilot jobs for helicopters open. I'm not saying that they are not there, just that there is not a whole lot of them vs the number of pilots looking for such jobs. I have only run into one pilot that was a co-pilot on an S-61 for croman helicopters, she didn't get much time in the 9 months she flew there, and its was more of just read the gauges and take down the times and keep track of the turns. Didn't pay much from what I recall either. She though that after a year they would put her in a support ship. She didn't have enough PIC time, so she ended up at a flight school were I was doing winter work at the end of season.  Oh there is an EMS in OH that hires co-pilots from time to time, from what I understand you don't fly a whole lot, so it would take maybe 10 years to get to 1200 or so hours. Not many would stay that long, and you would still not have any or very little PIC time.