A career in aviation and more specifically flying as a helicopter pilot has always been a top choice for many, and no, there is no Top Gun: Maverick influence at play here.
Sure your average hero looks great flying those mean feats in the air but watching a movie is far different that planning a realistic career in the flying industry. This holds true even after a top notch course from a school such as Hillsboro Aero Academy.
For starters, you need to understand a few things that might be hard hitting, about being a professional helicopter pilot first.
It Aint A Jolly Ride
- Forget all the motivation and positive thinking. Always remember that making it big as a helicopter pilot has so many challenges that you could conclude your job to be a hard nut to crack.
- Helicopter pilot as a career calls for a long run commitment, time, practice as well as expense. It is not as easy to gain the required flying experience and expertise to be able to become a helicopter pilot, all that easily.
- The commercial pilot certificate and the FAA ratings are just the beginning to making a name as a helicopter pilot.
Things Aren’t Cheap
It is expensive to undergo helicopter training and then flying professionally. It will take you a long time as well, to get the right flying experience. Earning the commercial certification and requiring FAA ratings will be the beginning of many more expenses and things related to helicopter pilot training.
Exciting Prospects
Once you make your mind up on becoming a commercial pilot though, be prepared for a slew of opportunities. There are exciting options in government radio, law enforcement, agriculture or even firefighting. The list goes on. You can even seek employment with agencies of the federal and the state governments. From border patrolling to customs—there are so many niches to try and find employment with, in this regard.
Take Your Pick
While planning a career in helicopter flying, you can take your pick between military or the civilian niches.
- The first thing to do is getting in touch with Armed Forces recruiters for exploring what options are available at that specific time. These services have very detailed requisites that you need to fulfill besides just having the needed licenses.
- You can also tap the civilian flying options when it comes to making a career in helicopter training. While this is expensive, it has its own advantages. You need to get a certain number of flying hours completed and then obtain a commercial flying license.
- Based on your area of training, the model you train with, there are a number of courses that offer varied price ranges to trainees.
- There are a number of college programs in helicopter training too. You can easily get government-sanctioned college programs that offer you scope to train with easy credit options.
Summing Up
Only when you are clear about how your career growth will shape up and are exactly sure that you can face such hurdles; go on to commit yourself a career in this field. Once you are confident and are able to wrap your head around the challenges, there would be no looking back professionally!
The employment opportunities staring at you in this field, in the future are ample. There were a number of civilian jobs in helicopter flying even for army veterans right after the Vietnam War.
Currently though, this generation of pilots are all reputed and there is a huge need for new pilots to go replace them. Therefore, flying a helicopter professionally has a number of great prospects on offer. Go ahead and tap this career path without a doubt of what’s in store next!