Thinking Of Becoming A Heli Pilot...i Have Some Questions

[xrkyle]

And great slave does higher out of their training school, all of their students usually.

 

I'm curious to know who told you they usually hire all of their students. If you got that idea off their website, I think you'll want to double check with them because in 05/06 they moved the school and as far as I know, for that year only, they trained and hired a select few candidates.

[Cole]

To my knowledge they have never hired ALL of the students that graduate their program. They do NOT gauruntee you a job at the end of the course, noone will.

 

Do your reaserch very thouroughly... from what they told me they have a date that the big boss takes you for a checkride on, if youre not completed the course for any reason by that date youre outta work for another year with that loan sitting on your head.

 

Cheers,

Cole

[sirlandsalot]

LISTEN TO COLE! He is right, I know guys from GSHL school who got jobs but didn't fly...even though there where several 100 hr pilots flying from elsewhere....point is you need to have the right attitude. And when you go for a check ride, that 206 time won't make any difference, all they want to see is your attitude and decision makeing skills. Bighorn will give you a job too, IF you have the right attitude! Also if you train at GSHL and don't get a job, then good luck getting hired anywhere else, their first question will be "how come you didn't get hired by greatslave?" $85,000? your payments will be so high you will NEED a high paying job to pay it off and that won't be in aviation. I saved 30,000 and borrowed 30,000. did the training in 4 months and went to work......flying with bighorn. I did my tax return, got $10.000 back, bought a house with it and re-morgaged a year later to pay off the 30,000! long story short....I went to school, two years later debt free and own a house. No problem, peice of cake and I love my job!

[xrkyle]

How does transferring your training debt to your mortgage constitute being debt free? Unless I misunderstood what you did.

[sirlandsalot]

Well tecnicaly not debt free, however it puts the morgage up $125 bucks and takes away the $1050.00 a month payment....which would have killed me eventually. went into debt to my eyeballs, went to school and ended up with a house and a CH license, and only have to pay $1000 dollars a month for a morgage, all in all worked out very well considering the where I started.

[Freefall]

I met the 100hr guys from Great Slaves school from last year and they are the best low time pilots I've seen. I was one of the lucky guys to get on that didnt go to their school, but I had some catching up to do in order to be at their level.

[Jordan]

i got another question....it's pretty random

 

when you go for your flight test how long is it? 2 hours? And if you fail a certain part do you have to do it all over again or do you just do the certain section you failed over again?

 

Thanks, Jordan

[COJOZORRO]

Hey Jordan,

I can see you've asked a lot of questions and you've obviously made your homework. Considering the amount of money you are going to put into your project, that is very wise.

My advise would be to do all of your trianing on piston, and like most of the guys before me said, take the extra money and spend it on a few R44 hours or just a couple on a 206 (just to start that turbine engine a few times).

At the 100 hrs mark, the potential employer or the guy that checks you out, wants to see your attitude at the controls. He wants to see how you fly in a general way. These guys know how to recognize good from not so good, just by sitting there along with you.

If you are hired, the company will give you training on 206s and astars when time comes. So don't spend your money on to that.

Now for that last question of yours, I think you get to try again what you have failed. The important thing is that you have to have training on your weakness before trying again.

You could train with CHL either in Buttonville ON, Quebec city or even Penticton BC.

I wish you good luck. Do not forget...Work hard!!

Cojozorro

[Cole]

Negative on the penticton side... unless you have cash coming out your ears. Couldnt think of more perfessional guys to fly with... couldnt think of any schools hitting the 170,000 mark either

[Cole]

and by the way, in a practical flight test the examiner is not there to force you to fail, he or she will not prompt you in any way but may offer you another oppertunity during the same flight to perform the same maneuver.

 

My DFTE said this to me befor we started the plane-

 

"Cole, the only way you can fail a transport canada flight test is to put yourself, the examiner, or the aircraft in immediate danger. Your examiner would not have let you do this ride if you were not ready." proving that the examiner wants you to pass just as much as you do.