What is the cheapest way to become a helicopter pilot (without enlisting)? How much do pilots make?
The cheapest way is to get your Private Pilot’s Licence and instrument rating on a fixed Wing, then add the Commercial rotary wing (you don’t need a private licence for helo first). Helicopter time is generally more than double that of fixed wing time, (locally to me about $225/hr for helo and $100/hr for fixed wing – a huge differance when talking about 200 or so hours!) and if you convert you will not have to fly as much helicopter time. It will save you a lot of cash if you only get Private and Instrument ratings in a fixed wing and then do your commercial Helo training – to get a fixed wing commercial requires 250 hours, a Helo commercial is only 150 and you should have the fixed wing PPL & Instrument with about 100 hours flight time, leaving you with 50 hrs of helo time to comply with the specifics listed below (these are only MINIMUM times, not guaranteed to get you a licence!) To quote FAR 61.129(c): For a helicopter rating (commercial) you must log at least 150 hours flight tim
