Helicopter vs. Fixed Wing Initial Training?

[notspock]

My aviation resume is not that impressive. Army ORWAC in 67. The

usual tours in RVN & at Mother Rucker, about 3,500 hours. Got a commercial & insturment Rotor Craft ticket by just taking a check ride. Used VA to get a SEL & MEL commercial, mostly pleasure flying.

 

Got off active duty in 72, looked for a flying job, PHI was paying about $900 a month to start. Neither Morgan City or Houma appealed to me for so little money. Must have been 50,000 high time Air Force guys looking at the same time. I went to work for a mortgage company.

 

When not working or chasing girls, I was a hanger rat for about 10 years. I just hung around, bumming rides on anything that would get off the ground. I did turn down all the jobs in the import/export business.

 

Ended up with a consulting firm, in their aviation department. We dealt mostly with personnel and financial matters. What I saw would make most of you sick.

 

Where I am coming from; my comments on training may be off base due to the changes in FAR's. Case in point. In the early 70's a Commercial SEL could add a rotor craft ticket with a proficiency check ride & a written exam.

 

What riles me the most is, both FW & RW pilots are still getting screwed.

Aviation employers come and go. The pilots (in the past you could exclude airline pilots) lose their seniority and often go back to starting pay. FW guys have some advantage when they have type ratings. There are just to many pilots that are willing to work for to little pay.

 

IMO there is no labor force that needs a union any more than general aviation pilots. Example: operating a backhoe and a helo is similar, ya got lots of levers, sticks & pedals and it operates 360 degrees. No, they are not even close. Do you know what a union equipment operator makes in the Seattle area? $35,30,25, 20 an hour. Somewhere between $60k & $40k a year?

 

How much does a helo pilot make fighting fires, does he have a job all year? How much does Air Med pilot make flying almost any where in almost any weather, at night?

 

Enough ranting. How about some humor?

 

 

 

Little Johnny was playing in a sand box, he had his hands on 2 sticks in the sand and was sitting on a milk crate.......from his mouth came a "WOP, WOP WOP."

 

Little Suzy came up and asked what he was doing. Little Johnny replied, "I'm a Army Helicopter Pilot, flying a Huey", continuing with the constant, "WOP, WOP, WOP."

 

Little Suzy asks, "Can I fly with you in your Army helicopter?.....I always wanted to know a Army Helicopter pilot."

 

Johnny says, "sure get in the left seat." pointing to another milk crate. Continuing with the "WOP, WOP, WOP"

 

In a few minutes, Little Suzy asked little Johnny "why are you wiggling those sticks?" Little Johnny looked at her with a glaring stare and said " because that is what real Army Helicopter Pilots do."

 

Little Suzy, being a little upset at Little Johnny, turned toward him, hiked up her skirt, pulled down her panties and said "Little Johnny, do you want to kiss this?"

 

Little Johnny shut up the WOP, WOP, WOP and sheepishly said to Little Suzy, " No, I'm just playing like I'm a real Army Helicopter Pilot."

 

 

You can always just copy it and delete the, army part.

[volition]

volition,

 

I also feel safer in a helicopter. Considering the kind of work helicopters perform, they have an amazing safety record. Your dentist must be more skilled than mine.......an hour strapped into his chair is a lot of things, but not boring.

 

Yea!! The one I have know works very well.

[zemogman]

I'll be starting my heli training for PPL soon...I've been told by a few people (including a current heli pilot) to go fixed wing first because of the money you can save...etc.

 

The way I see it is that those hours will only help after getting a rotary PPL and before getting a rotary commercial cert.

 

However...Common sense tells me that every hour in an airplane (even though it's cheaper) will be one less hour in a helicopter...and if I am going to have any chance at a career in rotary I will need every hour I can get (even though it's more expensive). Through hard work (maybe CFI) and good contacts in the industry...I'm sure there are ways to get hours in a helo. I also understand many hours will be paid for...by me.

 

My instructor and I did the numbers and fixed wing hours might save you $10k to $12k in my pursuit of a commercial heli cert. That's not small change but in the long run...helicopter hours are helicopter hours are helicopter hours...and planes don't excite me at the moment. Also adding-on rotary is not a easy or cheap as it used to be...

 

Either way...whatever floats your boat!

 

Z

Edited March 21, 2007 by zemogman

[mechanic]

I am not a CFI, but I have been researching the way a poor boy needs to go to get to where I wanna be, since 97'. The only routes I found that made sense to me was something like this. But, I decided to go all heli for now. Maybe some fixed later.

 

 

 

PPR-H, add Fixed PP, do fixed IFR, add Heli-IFR, do Heli Com, Heli CFI, and Heli CFII.

 

Another was, PPR-H, add Fixed PP, Heli-Com, Heli-CFI, add fixed IFR, add Heli IFR, then Heli-CFII.

 

 

 

Does that make sense to anyone else?

[brushfire21]

My aviation resume is not that impressive. Army ORWAC in 67. The

usual tours in RVN & at Mother Rucker, about 3,500 hours. Got a commercial & insturment Rotor Craft ticket by just taking a check ride. Used VA to get a SEL & MEL commercial, mostly pleasure flying.

 

Thanks for the background! Every so often a F/W pilot drops in and likes to stir the pot and raise some hell! I do think that getting duel ratings is a good concept and option. Welcome to VR by the way!

[alpine_wonder]

I've been wrestling with this question lately, if i want to fly planes or helicopters. I did four years in the Navy, worked a couple of them on the flight deck, just graduated college. I've been mainly considering helicopters lately, it seems like they both have strengths and weaknesses, from the research that i've done so far it appears that...

 

Planes Advantage:

*Less cost to train

*It appears that you can make more money

*Working for a major, you can travel pretty much anywhere for free.

*I hear you get hotels, rental cars etc. cheap

*i hear you only work about 15 days a month,

*you can live anywhere and commute to work.

*SO SOME Definate advantages to consider.

 

Helicopter advantages:

*Seems like more of an adventure, it would be cool to drop skiers off on a snow capped peak somewhere, or fly for fire or medical.

*You can land anywhere, (i'd use the example you can land next to some waterfall in the mountains that most people can't even hike to etc)

*Some people i heard in the military flying said that flying civilian in the majors is like driving a bus in the sky, not as exciting.

*For some reason i think i'd enjoy flying low over things a lot more, taking in the view etc.

 

So that's what i have gathered so far... it would be interesting to hear your opinions on what i wrote though. Pay and travel privledges are important to me, but so is adventure and fun.

 

ME: Worked a few years on the flight deck in the Navy, flew in a SH-60 Seahawk once (thats it) Took two fixed wing intro flights a year or so back, i was just trying to get through colllege, didn't have the money to start training, just wanted to check it out. Now i'm just trying to figure things out. Also is there a minimum amount of money i would need to make from my job a year to qualify for a Sallie Mae loan? Cause i do not have to many people i would like to ask to cosign. Thanks

[Scottie]

So that's what i have gathered so far... it would be interesting to hear your opinions on what i wrote though. Pay and travel privledges are important to me, but so is adventure and fun.

You mentioned you were in the Navy, do you have your GI Bill benefits? You can get dual rated and have the VA pay $1075 a month up to 36 months with your GI Bill. Thats a pretty good chunk of flight training I thought for many months about which one to pick and finally decided I love both and now my goal is to be dual rated.

 

I'm still in the Army, but from what I have seen and the people I know who do fly, they get paid pretty damn good money as helicopter pilots. An airline captain might top out at a higher payscale but thats a long long way down the road. I really have no desire to be another number in someones corporation so I dont see myself going to the airlines or any large company unless I head to the GOM for the experience.

 

I don't see anyone getting rich off being a fixed, rotary, or dual rated CFI, but once you get away from teaching the pay seems to increase quite a bit.

 

*Some people i heard in the military flying said that flying civilian in the majors is like driving a bus in the sky, not as exciting.

 

I hear the same stuff from my young pilots and crewchiefs all the time. For us its someone complaining about hauling around MRE's or fuel blivets instead of doing a "deliberate op". The flying is the same whether I'm carrying food, fuel, mail, SF/Delta guys, some AF PJ's or some of the Generals. We don't fly any different, we don't take special routes, we just go from point A to point B and pick up the next load. For some reason the guys who do "boring" mail routes have seen more action than the guys who go looking for a fight.

 

Make the best out of your flying and if you get to a point that you just dont enjoy doing it anymore, find something else to do. There are tons of opportunities in the aviation world.

[alpine_wonder]

Thanks for the input. The only thing i have to add from my previous post is that i exhausted all of my funds from the G.I. Bill when i went to college, I lived off of it for a few years when i get out, so sadly that's not an option.