Military Helicopter Pilot

[marco_pontice]

How is that possible? I am a former navy pilot with 360hrs in helicopter....bell206 and UH1N(AB212)

there is any other way to find a job other than CFI?

I know the requirements for companies are at least 1000hrs...but i am military trained and all turbine time...is quantity of the hrs more important than quality?

[67november]

The quantity of hours is dictated more by the insurence companies than the helicopter companies.

[JDHelicopterPilot]

Sadly you won't qualify for much unless you have your CFI and CFII and transition in a piston aircraft. Then you can work as a CFI/CFII to build up time. 390 hours isn't much and the insurance companies pretty much set the tone for hours.

 

These minimums may be as a result of insurance req. or company req. or a combination of the two. These have been my observations.

CFI: 200-300 hours(For Robinson helicopters: the factory course completed)

Tours: 1000 hours

Oil and Gas: 1000-1500 (has gone up recently)

ENG: 1500 with some in type(B206 or Astar)

EMS 2000-3000 with 100-300 night

 

That should give you an idea as to what to expect for hours. Oil and Gas minimums have gone up just recently. The insurance compaies set the minimum but the companies may raise those based on their needs and what their customers want.

[flyingseapig]

How is that possible? I am a former navy pilot with 360hrs in helicopter....bell206 and UH1N(AB212)

there is any other way to find a job other than CFI?

I know the requirements for companies are at least 1000hrs...but i am military trained and all turbine time...is quantity of the hrs more important than quality?

 

Don't know where to start with this one!

 

You stated you are former Navy pilot with 360 hours in the 206 and UH-1. How many years were you in, are you still in, and did you fly fixed wing aircraft also? With as little helo hours as you have my first impressions are that you were either a helo flight school drop out, military medically downed aviator, a FNAEB Aviator or a fixed wing transition to helos in the military. If that is all your flight hours in helos you have it appears you did not even complete a flying sea tour in helos.

 

As for quantity versus quality there is a fine balance between the two. With quantity comes experience, learning from your mistakes, scaring yourself and saying you'll never do that again and knowing the aircraft and your own limits as an aviator. Quality, well military training doesn't always equal quality training. I am previous military trained flying civilian commercially now and I've flown with pilots from other services and civilian schools and really see no difference in quality of their airmanship. Quality is more of an aviator's individual potential vice where they received their initial training. I've flown with people in the military where the only reason they were flying was because they were a female or minority and they almost got themsleves as well as others killed. So just because you went to Navy flight school doesn't necessarily mean you have a better quality of training than anyone else. If you are looking for a job in the civilian market flying helos you need that attitude/perception dropped right away if you want any chance of getting hired.

 

For most civilian jobs you'll need 1000 hrs PIC time to get hired for insurance reasons and 1500+ for EMS jobs.

[tiercel]

I've flown with people in the military where the only reason they were flying was because they were a female or minority and they almost got themsleves as well as others killed.

 

I guess that means that all the white male pilots that you flew with were great pilots. From now on, I'm only flying with white males pilot to be safe!