Ask a helicopter pilot anything
Discussion
Ilovejapcrap said:
If I suddenly decided I wanted to be a helicopter pilot now at the age of 40 what would I have to do.
What’s a Jesus bolt
Easy one first - Jesus bolt is the one above the rotor blades which if it lets go means you are going to see Jesus or {insert relevant religious figure here}.What’s a Jesus bolt
Age is no major issue and of course you aren't allowed to age discriminate anyway. It will cost you £150k or so to get your licence and a year or two of your life. Starting salaries as a co-pilot in the offshore world approx 55-70k and average captains salary probably 90-100k, with allowances on top for trainers, remote bases etc. So if the maths works then go for it
Lots of better advice available is at PPrune website, probably the best single bit of advice I can give you is to get your CAA Class 1 medical first. £400 iirc but will save you ££££ if they find something medically that stops you holding a licence. Flying schools will happily take your cash even if you'd never be able to hold a CPL/ATPL H. Second bit of advice (sorry I know I said only 1!) is go have a trial lesson (£2-300 or so). If it's what you want to do more than anything else then you'll do it, but you may find you hate it and would rather spend the cash on something better. There are other ways to fund it including scholarships but these tend to go to youngsters to be honest, older chaps tend to remortgage the house or self-fund through a few hours here and there, which obviously takes a lot longer. Good luck
Siko said:
TO73074E said:
What's the biggest animal you could single handedly cling film to a lampost?
Dead or alive?I'll stop being stupid and throw a serious one your way now. How many different types of helicopter have you flown (civilian or military etc) and do you have a favourite / least favourite and why?
Siko said:
florian said:
What's your opinion on multi-rotor VTOL aircraft for passenger transport such as Lilium? Do you think they will succeed and compete successfully with helicopters for short to medium range passenger transport (e.g. < 200km)?
https://lilium.com
Great question. My company is trying to get into them but it's fair to say the technology isn't there yet. There are issues with obstacle clearance etc from tiltrotors and as we land offshore on some fairly small platforms/boats I am not so sure they will work in my current role. Also, the key advantage of a tiltrotor is speed and to maximise that you really want to be using them over a long range, Most of the flights in the North Sea are fairly short at 45mins - 1:30 or so and the modern generation of helicopters cruise pretty effectively (and very cheaply) at 150kts, so not as much of an advantage as you might think over a short range. https://lilium.com
Also, the problem as ever is pure lifting ability and tiltrotors effectively trade lifting ability for speed - the AW tiltrotor I think can only lift 9 whereas most Med/Large Helos will left 17-19 easily. Obviously doing two fast trips in a tilt compared to one slower in a helicopter is probably not economically viable. Long term, like Garlic Bread, it's the future imho and I suspect we'll get there but not just yet.
Edited for an error on my part, I was thinking of larger tiltrotor airframes.
Edited by andybebop on Wednesday 30th March 11:15
TO73074E said:
Whatever makes your task easier!
I'll stop being stupid and throw a serious one your way now. How many different types of helicopter have you flown (civilian or military etc) and do you have a favourite / least favourite and why?
Hey don't worry I'm happy to answer anything....I didn't think anyone would be interested anyway I'll stop being stupid and throw a serious one your way now. How many different types of helicopter have you flown (civilian or military etc) and do you have a favourite / least favourite and why?
Have flown Squirrel HT1 (AS350), Bell 412 HT1/HAR2 (Huey basically), Puma HC1, Merlin HC3, Agusta 109 and Sikorsky S92A all as Captain/P1. Other types I've flown as a jolly or just as a co-pilot for air experience include Gazelle, Sea-King, AS355, Lynx, Sikorsky S76...ones I've only flown in the simulator include Chinook and EC225 (Super Puma).
Probably my least favourite was the Sea King which I feel a bit guilty about. It was like a big boring tank, slow, heavy and dull....I jumped in the LHS for a trial which involved flying the same procedure for nearly 2 hours and actually fell asleep - I got woken up by the pilot flying it who punched me on the shoulder and was not happy
Favourite was probably the Gazelle...it's got a huge bubble canopy, is fast as fck for a helicopter and is responsible for me being a helicopter pilot today. When I joined the RAF and went through officer training we did a station visit to the tornado F3 base at RAF Leuchars, we visited the Tornado Squadron and it was all very exciting, sat in an F3 but very much look don't touch, now fck off please. Luckily we were also hosted by an Army Air Corps gazelle flight based there, they took me and a chum flying and we spent an hour of my life at probably a max height of 50' and doubt we went below 120knots...chasing deer across Scotland and generally having a blast....was the most fun I'd had in my life at that stage and here we are Siko said:
Muzzer79 said:
Which was better - Airwolf or Blue Thunder?
That's like saying which was the best 80s Cop show.....CHiPs or Juliet Bravo 
For the record Airwolf by a countrymile.I'm presuming Aerospatiale Gazelle is a given after your intro, but what about the Bell 222?
El stovey said:
What’s the smallest site you’ve landed on.
hi mate, good question. Probably a clearing in the military, iirc we could land with 2m from the edge of the disk which was nearly 19m diameter in the Merlin. essentially you could and did land anywhere, especially operationally so landed in some incredibly tight spots day/night. Have never clipped the blades yet (touch wood) though!In the offshore world we land on boats and you may have seen the yellow circle marking for the helideck - that's the 'bumline' and essentially if you park your backside on it you are guaranteed obstacle clearance behind you, but a lot of the boats we land on have the helideck on the bow and the bridge with whip aerials immediately behind it...plus they like to point into wind obviously so you have a difficult landing direction with all the obstacles behind you (you can't see them) which are bang on your limits and can be moving significantly! I tend to come in slightly out of wind if a boat is pointing into wind to give me better visibility of the bridge/aerials.
Dr Jekyll said:
What's the oldest you've know someone to get a Helicopter PPL?
In their 40s personally and that is for someone who came to fly in the Offshore world afterwards. But I know there are lots of older people doing PPLs who just want to fly for fun as opposed to commercially. Hovering a helicopter is probably the most difficult thing you do whilst learning and it is easy when you know the nack - my first instructor just told me to "hold the stick like it's your best mates **** " and he was right yellowjack said:
Have you flown both of those types (I mean the real "base" helicopters)?
I'm presuming Aerospatiale Gazelle is a given after your intro, but what about the Bell 222?
Sadly not the Bell 222, looks like a fun one though. Helicopters are fun to fly, honestly. They'll kill you in a heartbeat but can do amazing things when treated with a bit of respect and a soft touch on the controls. I'm presuming Aerospatiale Gazelle is a given after your intro, but what about the Bell 222?
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