ASEL add-on to Com/Instr Helicopter - Which are the best places to get it done?

[HighRotor]

Fellow Aviatiors!

I am looking to educated myself and build night & real instrument time.

And after thinking about it long and hard, I decided the best way to build night and real instrument time would be in airplanes, financially and practically speaking.

I have been flying commercially since 2004, all of utility in AK, power line work, heli-ski, construction, SaR, high altitude mountain time and only MD500 and AS350 series airframes. Turns out getting a fancy EMS job with 10,000hrs+ isn’t that easy after all. My 60hrs of night and 45hrs of simulated instrument aren’t worth anything to the HAA companies out there.

SO! Since I fly 3 weeks on/3 weeks off, I will have ample time to work on it this winter, preferably in one of the more stable weather states in the winter months, like AZ, FL, TX… etc.

Any reputable flight schools out there that are putting quality first? Maintenance, Airplane age, up-to-today’s standards avionics/navigation equipment! I am willing to pay for it, because I want to be able to use it in the real world.

 

Thank you!

 

[helonorth]

You might want to make sure they will accept airplane time for the night and instrument requirement. I ran into the same issue years ago.

[HighRotor]

Good to know. So far I haven’t seen any specific rotor requirements, but I also might have overlooked it.

Would it be rather unusual for HAA operators to require night and instrument flown in rotor-wing or the norm?

[helonorth]

I'm not sure. I would just call the company you are interested in and see what they say. At Air Methods, they do not specify the night time in catagory but they do for the instrument time.