One of the most common questions I get from new or aspiring private helicopter pilot students is how long is the course and how often do they need to fly? Not to generalize, but most helicopter training schools do not have fixed dates for the start or end of the courses, at least for the practical flight phase. The theoretical phase is a different story, as most schools prefer to have a group of students together to fill a class in a specific subject.
In most cases, my standard answer to this question is that it is entirely up to the student to determine how much and how often they want to fly, but to look at this question more objectively, the following are some points to consider. :
Flying often and completing the course in the shortest possible time.
– There is an hourly limit to how much a student can fly ab initio in a day, so check with your country’s aviation law.
– Flying regularly can affect a person’s cash flow, but surely a person knows and has done the math beforehand to determine affordability.
– Flying often maintains momentum and shows a person’s commitment.
– Being in the aviation environment often helps develop a culture and keeps students ‘hands on’ which helps establish continuity.
– Flying too often can lead to fatigue and exhaustion, but any instructor should be able to see the signs and advise the student accordingly.
Irregular flight:
– It is not so easy to quantify the irregular flight, but let’s say that it is when a student flies one or two hours a week or less.
– Irregular flights can lead to frustration as a student needs time to “give it up” in order to reach a certain standard.
– Not flying regularly can be very expensive in the sense that certain training sequences must be repeated to reach the desired standard.
– A student who knows that, for whatever reason, it is not possible to fly regularly, should budget accordingly, as invariably the course will not be completed in the specified time limit (per hour).
– A person forgets many aspects such as procedures and theory if there is no continuity and that again leads to frustration.
– Finding excuses to cancel the flight becomes easier, but why would a person want to fly anyway if there is no commitment?
These are just a couple of points to consider, but the list is actually more complicated and longer. In my opinion, there are two prominent factors that play a vital role in determining the number of flights a student actually takes and that is financial and employment constraints. Obviously, I’m excluding a young person enrolling in flight school full time as a career change, but still finances, unless sponsored, can be a pain in the ass for that person too.
I am a firm believer in the option that if within the ability of the student, the Helicopter Private Pilot course should be approached and completed as a single project with regular flights to be made and within a relatively short period of time, from five to seven. weeks if not less.
(c) Harry Helicopter Training Syllabus 2008