Fixed-Wing/Rotary-Wing

[Dave3188]

I was just curious, I was browsing some forum and seem to remember someone talking about getting your Private Pilot's license in fixed wing, then a rotory wing endorsment or something and it's suppose to make getting your PPLs cheaper? Does that make sense? Are fixed wing hours even relevant in the rotory wing industry? For example, a company requires 1500 PIC tme. Say you have 500 hours rotary-wing and 1000 hours fixed wing. I wouldn't think that would fly, since they are two completely different animals. What do you say?

[Superman]

Dave,

 

I'm about an hour and a half drive time from Indy. I can take you on an intro flight in both airplane and helicopter. As to your question, getting your private pilot airplane rating will be cheaper than a private pilot helicopter, but the cost to add the helicopter rating later will still be expensive. There just isn't any easy or cheap ways to do it, takes time, money and work.

Send me a PM, maybe we could get together sometime and talk about it, get you in the air, there isn't any better motivation than that!

 

Clark

[BigSky]

I was just curious, I was browsing some forum and seem to remember someone talking about getting your Private Pilot's license in fixed wing, then a rotory wing endorsment or something and it's suppose to make getting your PPLs cheaper? Does that make sense? Are fixed wing hours even relevant in the rotory wing industry? For example, a company requires 1500 PIC tme. Say you have 500 hours rotary-wing and 1000 hours fixed wing. I wouldn't think that would fly, since they are two completely different animals. What do you say?

 

 

I was having this very discussion with a couple people at the airport this very weekend. The one person was arguing for going fix wing because it is cheaper to get, then he said you only need 50hr in the helo to get rated for both. His argument was for about the same money you will be rated in both and be more employable.

 

The other person at the airport argued against this because he said you wont get insured in a helicopter with 50 hrs anyway and will be stuck paying for your next 150hr's buy your self so you can get insured. So his argument was if you want to fly the helo for sure, then do it right from the get go.

 

What do you people think?

[kodoz]

I was just curious, I was browsing some forum and seem to remember someone talking about getting your Private Pilot's license in fixed wing, then a rotory wing endorsment or something and it's suppose to make getting your PPLs cheaper? Does that make sense? Are fixed wing hours even relevant in the rotory wing industry? For example, a company requires 1500 PIC tme. Say you have 500 hours rotary-wing and 1000 hours fixed wing. I wouldn't think that would fly, since they are two completely different animals. What do you say?

 

 

Another thing to consider: http://www.robinsonheli.com/srvclib/rchsn29.pdf

[Copterpilot213]

I know a few fixed wing pilots going for their Private through CFI in Rotorcraft and even though their fixed wing hours sometimes help with FAA requirements (like not needing to do as much pic cross country time and such), they usually still need to fly as much as a student that has never flown fixed wing to get used to doing the required manuevers in helicopters. I guess they are saving some money, but it's not a huge amount.

 

I'm not saying this is true for everyone, but from what I've seen having a fixed wing background mainly helped in the basic knowledge for written exams and ground type information. Also a lot of flight schools and employers will require a certain amount of flight hours in helicopters anyway.

[delorean]

The single most important thing to make you more marketable in a helicopter is to HAVE MORE TOTAL HELICOPTER TIME.

 

It may or may not be cheaper depending on your goals. Do you want to be a fixed wing pilot too? Dual rated is for corporate guys.....50 hrs in a C172 isn't going to mean anything when they fly Falcon 900s. Until you build a couple hundred hours of jet time, you aren't going to be marketable. If you want to be a helicopter, fly a helicopter and don't waste your time in an airplane.

 

Next.....If you go fixed wing first: Minimum 40 hrs, and you can do close to the minimum. A helicopter add-on is another 30 minimum (with 10 solo.) Very few people can get there license in 40 hrs, much less 30 hrs. Average time for a GOOD student is 50-60 hrs usually. So, now you have almost 100 hrs, only 50 is helicopter time.

 

For your commercial helicopter cert, you need 150 tt, with 100 PIC (35 in a helicopter). As stated before, you have 100 hrs tt, ONLY 20 of which is PIC. So you need another 80 hrs PIC (of which, another 25 needs to be in a helicopter). Let's say you do that and get your commercial & CFI....Now you have 180 hrs tt with only 75 hrs in a helicopter.

 

Can you get a job?? NO! You'll need a total of at least 150-200 hrs in a helicopter before you can get a helicopter job. So you just blew through 100 hrs in an airplane for nothing--that money would have bought about 50 hrs in a helicopter for an instrument rating.

 

Sooooooooo, in summary, if you are ALREADY an airplane pilot, YES, it will probably be cheaper. And if you want to get ratings in less amounts of total helicopter hours (even though you won't be able to use them), it *MAY* be cheaper. But, probably not.

 

The most marketable thing you can do is HAVE MORE HELICOPTER TIME. Nothing is more important than this. After that--it depends on the industry--an instrument rating, turbine time, CFI/CFII, and ultimately an ATP will be required. Long after that, an A&P, college degree, masters, etc. And to a special few......a commercial/multi/instrument airplane rating.

[RHS1]

The single most important thing to make you more marketable in a helicopter is to HAVE MORE TOTAL HELICOPTER TIME.

 

It may or may not be cheaper depending on your goals. Do you want to be a fixed wing pilot too? Dual rated is for corporate guys.....50 hrs in a C172 isn't going to mean anything when they fly Falcon 900s. Until you build a couple hundred hours of jet time, you aren't going to be marketable. If you want to be a helicopter, fly a helicopter and don't waste your time in an airplane.

 

Next.....If you go fixed wing first: Minimum 40 hrs, and you can do close to the minimum. A helicopter add-on is another 30 minimum (with 10 solo.) Very few people can get there license in 40 hrs, much less 30 hrs. Average time for a GOOD student is 50-60 hrs usually. So, now you have almost 100 hrs, only 50 is helicopter time.

 

For your commercial helicopter cert, you need 150 tt, with 100 PIC (35 in a helicopter). As stated before, you have 100 hrs tt, ONLY 20 of which is PIC. So you need another 80 hrs PIC (of which, another 25 needs to be in a helicopter). Let's say you do that and get your commercial & CFI....Now you have 180 hrs tt with only 75 hrs in a helicopter.

 

Can you get a job?? NO! You'll need a total of at least 150-200 hrs in a helicopter before you can get a helicopter job. So you just blew through 100 hrs in an airplane for nothing--that money would have bought about 50 hrs in a helicopter for an instrument rating.

 

Sooooooooo, in summary, if you are ALREADY an airplane pilot, YES, it will probably be cheaper. And if you want to get ratings in less amounts of total helicopter hours (even though you won't be able to use them), it *MAY* be cheaper. But, probably not.

 

The most marketable thing you can do is HAVE MORE HELICOPTER TIME. Nothing is more important than this. After that--it depends on the industry--an instrument rating, turbine time, CFI/CFII, and ultimately an ATP will be required. Long after that, an A&P, college degree, masters, etc. And to a special few......a commercial/multi/instrument airplane rating.

 

 

I went helo first added on the fixed wing ppl , inst, and will prob add on CPL fixed to only 10 hrs in complex a/c why not? will end up 100hrs fixed and will soon have about 145-150 hrs on the 300 CBI with PPl to CFII. around 250 TT $55000.00 8 ratings total.

 

I have to say I really got alot out of the fixed wing training as the airplane exsposed me to a completely diff. flight enviroment including about 12 hrs of ACTUAL IFR which as IFR pilots know is a whole diff. story than a sim or under the hood and not many helos can fly into IMC and the ones that can are deff. not the ships anyone uses to train accept maybe the military.

 

As far as a job goes we will see, however numerous employers I have spoke to have told me if they have two candidates with the same helo ratings and close to the same hrs the guy with more rating will have an edge for ENTRY LEVEL JOBS like instructing . As far as insurance is concerned if your in a 300 your total helicopter time will not be a promblem atleast at my school and a few others I spoke to, but this is a different story in the Robbies.

 

Im not saying this is or isnt the way to go just that it has been a good experience for me so far.

[HelliBoy]

there seem to be quite a few heli schools that have a 172 hangin around....also, one advantage of being FW rated is getting a fw instrument rating and acruing ACTUAL instrument time whenever you can- that is one extremely marketable logbook column, especially in HEMS.

[Dave3188]

The single most important thing to make you more marketable in a helicopter is to HAVE MORE TOTAL HELICOPTER TIME.

 

It may or may not be cheaper depending on your goals. Do you want to be a fixed wing pilot too? Dual rated is for corporate guys.....50 hrs in a C172 isn't going to mean anything when they fly Falcon 900s. Until you build a couple hundred hours of jet time, you aren't going to be marketable. If you want to be a helicopter, fly a helicopter and don't waste your time in an airplane.

 

I never really thought about being dual rated. What types of jobs are out there for dual rated pilots? You say "corporate guys", so do you mean guys who work for guys like Donald Trump? What are the average hour requirements for dual rated corporate pilots?

[IFLY]

I had a fixed wing rating before I started flying helos. I am getting my CFI fixed wing just to make me more marketable when I look for a CFI job next year (sticking around for that end of year bonus). I don't plan on using it except for family and friends or maybe part time because it doesn't pay well.

 

Good luck

[delorean]

I had a fixed wing rating before I started flying helos. I am getting my CFI fixed wing just to make me more marketable when I look for a CFI job next year (sticking around for that end of year bonus). I don't plan on using it except for family and friends or maybe part time because it doesn't pay well.

 

Good luck

 

Just one other point (not necessarily directed at you--just for discussion), that CFI-airplane rating may make you more marketable to more schools. However, if your ultimate goal is to be a career helicopter pilot, how are you going to feel when you're up instructing in the airplane all day while the other heli-only CFIs fly around in the helicopter? It's like when I got my A&P.....I was doing more and more maintenance which meant less time to fly.

 

While these extra ratings make you more appealing to employers, you may get stuck with a lot of extra responsibilities and/or work yourself into a niche of your abilities that you may not like. There are plenty of jobs out there that the only requirement is "CFI-Heli w/ X heli hrs"

 

And to the orginal poster, "corporate jobs" means jobs working for [usually] large companies with flight departments. You fly execs, sales people, & clients around there service area for meetings, retreats, etc. Sometimes they'll fly the jet into the airport, then take them to HQs or the corporate retreat in the helicopter. Around here, Anheuser Busch & Emerson Electric are the only two companies that have both airplanes & helicopters. And you better have about 5000 hrs in each type with 20 yrs experience before your even trying to apply for a job there.

 

Yet some smaller, privately owned companies have them too: Rural King in central IL. They own 30-40 farm supply stores and use two R44s for quality assurance visits, plus have a King Air or a small jet for long trips.