How many of us are there?

[eagle5]

Is there a way to find this out?

 

1. How many licensed helicopter pilots there are in the world?

 

2. Of all the helicopter pilots licensed by the FAA, which number am I, (i.e. my place in line), or is that what my cert # means?

[Spike]

Airmen Certificates are issued by a government. Nuf said? No, okay. My understanding is:

 

#1. Are you asking about active commercial pilots? Or, including inactive commercial pilots? Or, to only include commercial pilots who are actually alive?

 

#2. The place in line would be unknown because initially cert numbers used to be issued by your social. The obvious concern about using a person's social became apparent so the Feds converted to a different system some time ago and not everyone switched at the same time. Even today, some pilots may still have their socials as their number but most likely they're no longer with us i.e. -dead (certificates need to be surrendered, suspended, or revoked to become invalid otherwise there're good fo-evah). With that, not everyone converted from their social at the same time, therefore, one could only assume the numbers have no bearing on a place in line.....

Edited September 8, 2012 by Spike

[Pohi]

The FAA keeps track of their estimated numbers, but for the whole world... That might be a bit more difficult to figure.

 

34,252 in 2011 is the FAA estimate

 

http://www.faa.gov/data_research/aviation_data_statistics/civil_airmen_statistics/2011/media/Air07-2011.xls

 

As far as your place in line, when you sign your temp certificate, you can almost be 100% positive that you are the last in line.

 

[eagle5]

Airmen Certificates are issued by a government. Nuf said? No, okay. My understanding is:

 

#1. Are you asking about active commercial pilots? Or, including inactive commercial pilots? Or, to only include commercial pilots who are actually alive?

 

#2. The place in line would be unknown because initially cert numbers used to be issued by your social. The obvious concern about using a person's social became apparent so the Feds converted to a different system some time ago and not everyone switched at the same time. Even today, some pilots may still have their socials as their number but most likely they're no longer with us i.e. -dead (certificates need to be surrendered, suspended, or revoked to become invalid otherwise there're good fo-evah). With that, not everyone converted from their social at the same time, therefore, one could only assume the numbers have no bearing on a place in line.....

 

I was interested in all helicopter pilots (active, inactive, PPL, Com, etc...). I also thought it would be cool to say, "I'm the 34,128th helicopter pilot in the world!", but if no one ever kept track, then oh' well?

[silver-eagle]

It is a programming assignment. Download the airman's database in CSV format, open in EXCEL, search for helicopter in ratings. Then again, there are lots of permutations. Pilots who are Rotorcraft-Helicopter only, Multiple ratings, IFR, missing current medical, commercial, etc.

35k. Wow. There really should be more!

[lelebebbel]

 

Number of active pilots

As of the end of 2009' date=' in the US, there were an estimated 594,285 active certificated pilots.[sup'][18][/sup] This number has been declining gradually over the past several decades, down from a high of over 827,000 pilots in 1980. The numbers include:

• 72,280 student pilots
  
• 234 recreational pilots
  
• 3,248 sport pilots
  
• 211,619 private pilots
  
• 125,738 commercial pilots
  
• 144,600 airline transport pilots
  
• 21,268 glider-only pilots
  
• 15,298 rotorcraft-(helicopter)-only pilots
  

These numbers are based on the highest certifications held by individual pilots.

There were also 94,863 certified flight instructors (CFIs), and 323,495 pilots overall who held instrument ratings.

An active pilot is defined as one who holds both a pilot certificate and a valid medical certificate, for certifications that require a medical certificate.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilot_certification_in_the_United_States#Number_of_active_pilots

[Pohi]

It is a programming assignment. Download the airman's database in CSV format, open in EXCEL, search for helicopter in ratings. Then again, there are lots of permutations. Pilots who are Rotorcraft-Helicopter only, Multiple ratings, IFR, missing current medical, commercial, etc.

35k. Wow. There really should be more!

 

That's active rotorcraft.

 

Google "faa statistics"

Go to the FAA page that comes up

click on US civil airman statistics

 

And there is a page broken down by a ton of different categories.

[nicolestadt]

We have a lot of licensed helicopter pilot here, we can't count it.Because most pilot get their fixed licenses first.

 

www.centralheli.ch