What to Expect When Helicopter Flight Training

To obtain your Private Pilot Helicopter License you will need to complete an FAA Written Test, an FAA Flight Test, and an FAA Oral Test. To get yourself prepared for these tests, you will need to receive ground and flight instruction from your new flight school.

There is a lot of ground (non-flying) instruction that you will receive along with your flight training. This includes aerodynamics, how to talk to on the radio to Air Traffic Control, basic engine operations, systems, computing weight and balance information, interpreting performance charts, navigation, Federal Aviation Regulations that govern flight (FAR's), and many other subjects. There is a lot of information to take in but it will be given to you at intervals.

Your first flight lessons will most likely be learning the 4 basics. You'll learn how to climb, descend, turn, and fly level. As your flight lessons progress, you will begin to learn how to hover. Hovering is one of the most challenging aspects of learning how to fly a helicopter. Unless you are a natural, gifted pilot, it will take some time to master the skill of hovering. Be patient and remember that hovering will become second nature someday.

You will spend a lot of time hovering because this is very important to taking off and landing. Pick ups (take offs) and Set Downs (landings) will be practiced a great deal before you can hover solo (flying by yourself in a hover). When your flight instructor feels you are competent enough, he/she will turn you loose on a hover solo. This is a great milestone in a student's road to the private helicopter license.

After your hover solo, your next goal will be your first solo flight. This takes a lot more work and time. You will learn how to air taxi, do a quick stop (slowing the helicopter to a hover from  forward flight), many other maneuvers...  and safely perform autorotations prior to you first solo flight.

You will spend may hours perfecting autoroations. The helicopter's engine can fail at any time and your job as a student is to learn how to handle this and not kill yourself. You will learn how to do hovering autos, straight-in autos, 180 degree autos, 360 degree autos, backwards autos, autos from an Out of Ground Effect (OGE) Hover, and any other auto that the flight instructor can think up. You may not do all of these prior to your first solo flight but your instructor wants you to be able to safely land the helicopter by yourself if the engine should quit.

You will learn how to land in confined areas (small areas such as a small clearing in a forest). You will learn how to land on ridge tops, on pinnacles, at high altitude areas, and many other different conditions and terrain.

Cross Country flight training is fun. It is when you actually plan a flight and go somewhere. Most flight training is spent in a relatively small area but cross country flight training is when you get to see new terrain.

Some advice while you are training:

• Flight training can get frustrating at times. Keep at it and realize that you will not learn how to fly in a day. 
• If you make it past 10 hours of flight time, your chance of "washing out" (dropping out) from flight school will be less.
• Study your material and visualize flying whenever you can.
• Your flight instructor is there to keep you from dying. Trust him/her and allow this person to show you how it can be done.
• If you don't feel like you are learning at the rate you wish, ask your instructor for a different approach to teaching you the concept. If you can't resolve the issue, ask to fly with another instructor to see if the problem is you or your instructor or the combination.

Helicopter flight training is a fun way to spend a lot of money. Use your time and money wisely. Enjoy your flight training but take it seriously. You will get the most for your money if you realize that it takes a little bit of hard work to get a helicopter license.