Fixed Wing Guy Looking to Add-On

[hotrodturbo7]

That's cool, I work for the B company, wondering if I might know you...

[helonorth]

Hey folks,

 

I've been browsing around here for a little while now and done a number of searches, but haven't found quite the information I'm looking for (if I've missed an obvious thread, my apologies!).

 

I'm a regional jet captain with roughly 6,000 hours of fixed-wing experience, but for years now I've had a huge interest in getting my rotary-wing ratings. There is an off-chance that I could get a corporate job flying both fixed-wing and rotary-wing aircraft, but this is still pretty unlikely and for the most part I would just like to step out of my comfort zone and expand my aviation experience.

 

I'm not looking for any advice on future employability or the liklihood that I'll be able to take advantage of a rotorcraft rating in the future, but I was wondering if anybody had an realistic estimates as far as training requirements to get a Private Rotorcraft add-on rating. Does the fixed wing experience translate at all? What is a reasonable number of flight hours to learn the differences? 40, 50, 75, 100 hours?

 

I've got a school in mind and have met with the instructors a few times, but I'm trying to figure out what sort of budget I need for this, and nobody I work with has a clue. Any insight would be most appreciated!

 

 

The training requirements as far as flight time are pretty low and I think very few do it at the

minimums. The add-ons I did were ready in 40-50 hours. As for your fixed wing time, it will

speed things up considerably because all you need to concentrate on is learning to fly the helicopter.

One add on I did was with a guy who flew his own Citation ( among other things ) and took his

ride at about 43 hours. I would guess your looking at $12-15,000 and 2-3 months.

[helonorth]

SF why not try to find a school that has a flight sim?? The FLY IT Simulator is pretty nice and can be logged toward you're instrument rating. I believe most schools with a simulator are in the $100 hr range with the instructor.... Just food for thought.

 

 

Don't waste any time or money in a Fly-it sim for a private add-on, if that's all you plan to do!!!

Where I used to teach, they would try to make me to take primary student in the sim. It's almost

useless except for instrument training. At $110 per hour you can see why they wanted me to do

this. It gives you an idea how it all works but it's nothing like the real thing. Spend an hour maybe,

but no more.