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Lr Helicopters Or Mountain View Helicopters?


buoybuoy
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Hi,

 

Ive been looking into doing my CPHL in the Calgary area. LR and MV have popped out art me as possible schools. I will hopefully be in the area in June to go and see the schools. Any advice?

I see that LR has a mentorship program. Has anyone had experience with this? Any suggestions would be gratefully appreciated!

Thanks in advance.

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Both places have mentor programs, of sorts. MV is just pumping out the students so there is a lot of competition among their grads to get into the mentor program. Don't know too much about LR and their mentor program other than that they have one.

 

In general, think long and hard about the license and how bad you want to stick it out if/when you get it. The general climate of the industry is pretty pessimistic right now, in particular for low-time prospects. If it's something you really really REALLY want to do, talk to pilots at all levels, read past threads on here and take a serious look at your financial situation (not just for getting the license, but also for the roadtrips afterwards and the low-time wages).

 

Whatever your decision, best of luck to you.

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Phil is correct you need to see them both and then make your call. That said MV is a bit of a "puppy mill" they produce a lot of good pilots so many in fact that only about 10% ever get jobs, or at least that was the stat shared with me a few years back. There are simply more 100 hour wonders across the country than will ever be jobs for. However the hard workers often find a way in. If I was doing it againg today and LR and MV were my choices I would choose LR with out a second thought. They have smaller classes so less competition and currently hold the contract for CTN (the global news helicopters) if you work hard and get into the mentor program it's an excellent way to build experience.

 

That said every school teaches to the transport standards, every school is expensive, and no mater what sale pitch you hear unfortunately the odds of getting a career in the industry are against you. So go meet the instructors get a first hand feel maybe do an intro flight or two then go with your gut. Just be cautious of the "we hire our graduates" line it's only true to an extremely small degree and most of the time it's BS.

 

Also don't over look the great schools in BC.

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Who cares if they hire from their graduates!!!!!!!!!!

 

These are only two of the two hundred helicopter company's in Canada that a graduate might work for ........

 

You want to get the best training you possible can that will prepare you for all employers, multiple geographic locations and any specialty flying that might interest you.

Paul at MV has been around a long time and has many contacts.

And this industry is all about knowing a guy that knows a guy that needs a guy....

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But at the end of the day it's a business, and the primary goal of any business is to make a profit. If in the course of that endeavor they assist you with getting a job then they can use that to further their own ends. Yes go visit a school so they can tell you that 80% of their grads found work (sweeping hangar floors, delivering fuel to caches, washing machines, fueling, building loads, etc, ANYTHING BUT FLYING). They're not in the business of finding you a job, they are in the business of parting you with your money and handing you a piece of paper that says you have the legal right to fly a helicopter. Let me try to sell you... This is a really good time to train, we are in a down cycle so by the time you get out things will be on the up-swing! Or, All the Vietnam vets are going to retire soon! (No wait, though most have gone, some are still flying, and in the mean time we have two more wars worth of ex US military pilots clambering to find jobs in the civilian sector... Ummm... did i mess any of the sales pitches (it's been a while)?

 

The REALLY hard part is finding a job and VERY FEW DO. Whether you get your license from one of Canada's fine puppy mills or a smaller school, it's all the same, you end up with a piece of paper that really ain't worth much. Before you spend any money, take a few days and drive around and talk to operators, see how it will be (you can pretend to have a license because no one will ask to see it) this will give you a good taste of what it will be like, then you can take that $80 K and stick it into an investment that will pay you something back. Chances are you or someone you know has an unused license in their pocket, why not use theirs? sorry, feeling a bit b!tchy this morning... but that is the down side of this crazy business (welll there's a few actually).

 

Go see the Doctor, maybe you bumped your head, maybe i did... LOL

 

Anyway, what ever you do, good luck to you.

 

W.

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As mentioned a few times in this conversation, there are a lot of low time pilots and we have all been there. Its all about timing. I have had experience with LR and MVH, If you go to a school, it is nice to be taught by pilots/owners who work or have have many years working in the industry because they will teach you from operational experience not running a school experience. Which LR lacks. MVH has a standard across their instructors which is shown in pilots who have been working in the industry who went to that school.

LR has the ENG contract which helps, but dont just base it on that. You are paying for the whole experience, go talk with the people that teach and operate the schools, if you dont like their attitude go else where. You are giving them your hard earned money.

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I have never thought of MVH as a puppy mill. I have known/worked with PB for almost 20 years and have the utmost respect for who he is and what he puts into his students. We have an agreement between our company's, and we are hiring our ground crew from MVH exclusively.

 

Yes, you will spend 2 years on the ground with us before getting your shot at a seat...and there is no guarantee...but, our plan is that the proper candidate gives us 5 years and we'll give them 1000 hours and production longline proficiency.

I think that in this day and age this is as good as it gets for a 100 hour junior pilot. I have a pilot who is 18 months into his seat (approx) and has broken his 1000 hours already. I am in the process of training/PPC'ing 2 more candidates right now.

 

IMO this is a far cry from some of the negativity which has been expressed here. Don't show up at an operators door and lie about anything, ever. It's transparent and compromises your integrity.

 

I have no personal experience with LR so I withhold any comment there.

 

Rick Kitzler

Chief Pilot
Heli Source Ltd.

 

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Hi,

 

Ive been looking into doing my CPHL in the Calgary area. LR and MV have popped out art me as possible schools. I will hopefully be in the area in June to go and see the schools. Any advice?

I see that LR has a mentorship program. Has anyone had experience with this? Any suggestions would be gratefully appreciated!

Thanks in advance.

I just finished my licence with MVH in January, if you think that's the way to go you can go up for a half hour fam flight which actually counts towards your licence if you decide to keep going with training. Initially I chose Mountainview because of the option to start off with R22 time before moving into the 44 to keep cost down. I went into it with a Glider pilots licence and a fixed wing PPL and I was impressed with the experience of the instructors and really enjoyed my time there. I have no knowledge of LR so I can't comment on that but I'd say go check both out.

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