garciadlg Posted August 29, 2009 Report Share Posted August 29, 2009 hi, i am going on a visit to my local helo flight school soon, and i was wondering if anyone knew of any key questions i should ask of my prospective IP? Thanks in advance for your help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
121.todd Posted August 30, 2009 Report Share Posted August 30, 2009 Is the school part 61 or 141 approved? Do you work with any lenders specifically? How many instructors/students/aircraft/maintenence personel? How many other local airports will I be able to fly patterns at? Do you partner with any companies specifically for post-cfi employment? (Some companies hire some schools more than others) Where do most of your cfi's go after employment? Given your personal background, health, and assuming you were a solid student.. would you be employable after CFI or CFII? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garciadlg Posted August 30, 2009 Author Report Share Posted August 30, 2009 Is the school part 61 or 141 approved? Do you work with any lenders specifically? How many instructors/students/aircraft/maintenence personel? How many other local airports will I be able to fly patterns at? Do you partner with any companies specifically for post-cfi employment? (Some companies hire some schools more than others) Where do most of your cfi's go after employment? Given your personal background, health, and assuming you were a solid student.. would you be employable after CFI or CFII? Thank you so much for your helpful answer. i was kinda stuck looking for some intellegent questions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RkyMtnHI Posted August 30, 2009 Report Share Posted August 30, 2009 hi, i am going on a visit to my local helo flight school soon, and i was wondering if anyone knew of any key questions i should ask of my prospective IP? Thanks in advance for your help. Howzit and welcome to our world of helicopters! You have already made a very good first step, participating in this forum and asking questions. This site and Just Helicopters are in my opinion two of the best resources in the industry for learning... keep lurking, do searches on your questions and keep asking questions. You can also go here and read a bunch about my first year as a helo student pilot: http://helicopterforum.verticalreference.c...showtopic=10871 and what ever you do... NEVER GIVE A FLIGHT SCHOOL A LARGE SUM OF MONEY!! aloha, dp Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rick1128 Posted August 30, 2009 Report Share Posted August 30, 2009 Also talk to other students. Preferably away from the school, to an idea how things REALLY work there and how they like it. I would talk to as many as I could to get a good balance. Also is their fleet owned, leased or a mix. How is maintenance handled on weekends. Nothing is more frustrating than showing up for your lesson on a Saturday or Sunday and finding that the helicopter you were scheduled in is down for a 100 hour, because the school schedules the owned aircraft first then the leased. And you are out flight time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NorCalHeliKid Posted August 30, 2009 Report Share Posted August 30, 2009 Personally, if I had to do it all over again I think I would check out a flight school/ college combination education. This way you get college credit for ground and flight, if you have some General Ed college out of the way it will take roughly the same amount of time and when you are done you could have an AS degree or BA depending on previous college units. There are a few such schools that I am aware of. One in South Dakota, USD I believe. Utah Valley College, and recently Blue Sky transitioned into College of the Sequoias Aviation. I also agree with "Dont give them large sums of money up front." Pay as you go and if you have to use a student loan, shop around a little bit first....even Sallie Mae is not all that great. I've been to several different schools and know guys who went to several more. Also, I would ask the school you are visiting who does the FAA checkrides, are they done "in house"? If not, how long of a wait is it usually. I know someone that waited 3 months for a CFI check. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rick1128 Posted August 30, 2009 Report Share Posted August 30, 2009 Also, I would ask the school you are visiting who does the FAA checkrides, are they done "in house"? If not, how long of a wait is it usually. I know someone that waited 3 months for a CFI check. Part of the problem with initial CFI checkrides is that they have to be done with the FAA not a DPE. And scheduling a Fed can be a pain in the butt. However, since CFI candidates have to do a full down and the FAA inspectors didn't like to do full downs, for liability reasons they say, It seems the Feds do the oral and observe the flight portion of the initial CFI for the most part. After the initial ride, they can be done with a DPE. For the most part the schools have no control over how long it takes to get a CFI ride. I do agree with two of the previous posters. DO NOT EVER pay it all up front. Do it in conjunction with a college degree. The degree will give you something to fall back on. And I have gotten jobs because I had a degree. I believe we will see the bigger helicopter companies going to the same basis that the airlines do for hiring, in that they will prefer a college degree. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pohi Posted August 30, 2009 Report Share Posted August 30, 2009 Part of the problem with initial CFI checkrides is that they have to be done with the FAA not a DPE. That depends on where you happen to be at. Where I am located, the FAA does none of the helicopter checkrides at all. Before any CFI checkride, we have to send an email to the FSDO to get permission for the checkride to happen through the DPE, and the DPE gets the permission to do the checkride. I think it all depends on where you are located at. And as far as other posts, I agree that the schedule time for checkrides can be an issue, but lately it has not been too bad since (once again, this all depends on where the school is located at) the number of students has decreased due to economic issues. The only little pearl of info that I would have, besides the other great posts, is to request to actually see the upcoming schedule. I went to visit one school, and after looking at the schedule and seeing the helicopters booked solid for over a week straight, I found out scheduling to be a valid issue. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glennahall Posted August 31, 2009 Report Share Posted August 31, 2009 Another thing you will find... No matter how many questions you ask the day you visit the school, you will think of several more legitimate questions as soon as lay down to go to sleep that night. -Plan to talk to each school you look at several times.-Don't rule out anyone until you've made a decision.-Take copious notes when asking questions.-Keep a notepad handy all the time to jot down questions and concerns or you will forget them.-Trust your gut to tell you when to research something further but don't trust it to make your decisions for you. (I have a great "trust your instruments" analogy niggling in the nether regions of my brain just now.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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