The truth about tubine transitions revealed...........

If you started training to be a helicopter pilot to someday make it a job, please read on !
Very early in your training you start to hear talk about turbine engine helicopters like they are some some of mystical machine that are only operated by pilots with 100,000 hours ... not true, they still have a collective and a cyclic and even pedals ! Some have other gadgets that actually make it easier for you to fly. I can speak as a pilot who flies several different types of turbine helicopters commercially in the gulf of mexico and will explain a little more about making the transition to turbine helicopters .

There is no doubt that you will teach in small piston helicopters like the schweizer or (if you have to) then the R22. You will teach private commercial and instrument students the same things that you learned about for probably 1500 hours . This number changes on the industry standards and the demand for pilots increases or decreases year by year . Right now there is no doubt that the industry requires 1500-2000 to be considered for maybe a tour job or power line patrol, these jobs are generally with a company like liberty helicopters in NY City or one of the Las vegas tour operators like Sundance or Papillon. The Vegas operators normally hire in December and start looking for pilots at the heli-success  job fair in Vegas, Liberty seems to be a closed door and unless you know somebody it can be hard to get in but not impossible. One of my best friends and an old instructor at Blue Hill,  'Mark Musgrove' landed a job with liberty several years ago with only 1200 hours....to prove a point he had no turbine experience and had been teaching with Blue Hill for almost a year in a piston engined schweizer. He built 800 hours of turbine experience in the Astar (AS350) and moved over to an EMS job when the NY tour season ended and gaining a transistion to the EC135 multi engine  helicopter with Air methods.

Many of our current students will know 'Adrian Mansfield' a long term instructor at Blue Hill who got himself a job flying tours for Papillon in Las Vegas at the start of the tour season this year. To prove another point Adrian had 0 turbine hours but almost 2000 of piston time again teaching in the schweizer. I guess my point here is 'DO NOT pay for turbine time ..... if you can get in it for free then go ahead of course but never pay for it !

Factory courses
A factory course can be of use, but real factory courses like the "Eurocopter" factory course or the "Bell" factory course are expensive and run upwards of $8k plus travel etc. Insurance companies will only except the actual factory course , don't be fooled by a flight school offering you a 'turbine transition' in an old Bell 206 , there is no such thing as a turbine transition .................. Do car dealers offer a transition into there vehicle when you buy it ? NO ! this is the best way to look at it .

When you get hired
When you get hired on by a tour operator they will train you... and for free ! in whatever type of helicopter they want you to fly, they will also train you the way they want you to fly it. Not to beat a dead horse but both Adrian and Mark were instructors that were hired with 0 turbine time.

The GOM
A little about the gulf of mexico.... The gulf has always been a place for pilots to build some good time and get transitioned to some pretty complex helicopters, there are stories of pilots getting hired with no turbine experience and only 1500 hours , its changed a little these days and it seems the operators are now looking for 2000 plus some turbine experience, its a love or hate environment with long hours and being away from the comfort of home for 2 weeks at a time called a 'Hitch'. If you put the time in here it can pay off with transitions with the non-union operators coming quickly .

Housing is generally at a remote heliport in a trailer just a couple of hundred feet away from the helicopter but comfortable, maintenance is good  and the flying is varied with most days being different, unlike tours where the same route is flown everyday just with different people.

So the purpose of the blog ... Don't pay for transitions into turbines !


BHH







 

Rick did it !

Rick Venditti came to Blue Hill Helicopters this summer in the hopes of learning to fly a helicopter , we told Rick  he had certainly come to the right place !

On August 19th Rick completed his first solo in the schweizer, with no limitations he took the solid little training helicopter around the pattern for a few laps . Ricks next trip out will be solo from the ramp with no help from his instructor Kilian.

 Good luck and well done Rick !

Solo !

Hugh joined Blue Hill Helicopters after one of our open houses, he has worked hard to get to a solo standard and on August 15th he did it !

Well done Hugh, now you can continue on to the next level of  solo cross country !

Some questions to ask your flight school !

So..... you decide that you want to go to flight school, you did your research and chose your school . The school seemed friendly and they had good equipment . The instructors explained the courses and you found yourself working your way through the private license.

BUT WAIT ! Do they have an instructor with the experience to do the touchdown autos required for the CFI ? yet again does that instructor have the requirements to be able to sign you off for a CFI check ride ? This requires 24 months as a flight instructor and 200 hours of flight instruction given as a minimum, many instructors do not have the experience to do this and many schools bring in outside instructors just to do this , this can really disrupt the flow for the student.

Blue Hill Helicopters has several instructors on staff to take you through the CFI. We can safely complete your CFI rating without bringing in outside contractors.

Our newest instructor "Johann Sweitzer" has been in several blogs already, this month he completed the CFI and moved on to a job with Blue Hill Helicopters ! Johann trained exclusively from start to finish with Blue Hill and finally he gets to sit in the left seat and teach , Well done Johann .

May was the month of checkrides !

What a great month at Blue Hill, Check rides and solo's. With awesome weather we were able to fly 7 days a week and get people finished up quickly. It started with Carlos Almirani getting his Helicopter Add-on on May 24th. Carlos is already a commercial fixed wing pilot and wanted the benefits of simulator to cover some of his hour requirements. Carlos went solo very early in his training and unlike the Robinson with a 20 hour solo minimum the schweizer 300Cbi did not hold him back. Well done Carlos, already on to Instrument and commercial and then CFI.

 

All you need to do now Carlos is loose the flip flops for flying ! 

John Doris

Next up we have the young John Doris who went solo on May 25th, he is only 18 years old and already has a fixed wing rating, John has some great talent and again went solo very early with no hold backs for minimum solo that you need to meet with the Robinson, like Carlos he chose Blue Hill Helicopters over several Robinson schools in the area and never looked back. John is off to Florida to study aviation management in August so wants to finish the private before he has to leave.

 

Here is John with Kilian, although we are unsure why Kilian is wearing a hoodie on an 80 degree day ! Kilian you are the best !

Johann Sweitzer 

Johann has been at Blue Hill for a while and on May 29th he passed his Commercial Helicopter check ride. Johann has completed all his ratings at Blue Hill helicopters and has become part of the team. Johann is always around the school and is the technical expert on our Fly-IT simulator. He is glad to have the Commercial out of the way and get the CFI and CFII finished. He can then begin his teaching career at Blue Hill ! 

Johann is 26 and this is the only girlfriend he has right now :-( 

Call Blue Hill Helicopters for his details !!

Josh Haddad

Josh started with Blue Hill Helicopters several years ago before he moved away to the west coast, he completed all his ratings there and came back to MA recently to complete his CFII with Blue Hill Helicopters. We can safely say he 'aced' the check ride and finally added that all important CFII on  June 18th. The instrument rating is the most important rating in the helicopter world and to teach it you need a CFII. Well done Josh !

 

Keep checking back for updates on www.BlueHillHelicopters.com , we will have our next open house in August along with the yearly school barbecue for current students . Have a great week and remember we have great deals on flight training even with fuel costing more than gold !

BHH

Commercial Pilot and Open House

Again its been a month since we took the time to blog, Part 141 Re-Approval took a lot of our time and is now fully complete with the only approved simulator course in the north east. With other flight schools losing approval due to lack of experience to maintain a chief pilot or zero graduations.....
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Summer is trying to arrive and we are busier than last year, maybe that's a good sign that the economy is improving and people are again thinking about having fun !

Francisco has been a student for some time at BHH, He does not fly often but has been a solid student and always studied hard. Francisco balances a full time Job as TSA agent and his shift allows him to receive flight training on weekdays.

After obtaining his Private and Instrument ratings with BHH he took his Commercial check ride this week and passed first time, Well done Francisco !!! He will move on to his CFI next week .

Don't forget we have an open house this Saturday the 28th at the BHH office, 125 Access road, Norwood MA 02062. We will have sandwiches, drinks and our Simulator here for people to view. We will be talking about how to obtain ratings and save money in your training.

See you there !

More to come........

BHH

More Solo's !

A while ago we mentioned Scott Gannon completing his first solo in the Schweizer or Sikorsky 300 as it is now known. We did not have pictures at the time but finally they are here !.

Scott is the perfect student, he always studies and arrives on time. Scott has been a super fast learner and I am sure will make the perfect instructor when he is finished.

Scott got his solo done in very low time, unlike the Robinson Helicopters there is no restriction on when a student can complete their first solo flight, so if your a fast learner like Scott you can save some time.

Scott is completing his solo cross countries right now and will soon be on to the all important checkride !

Congratulations Scott and have a great day !


The BHH Team

An example to us all.......

Adrian Mansfield started with Blue hill helicopters almost three years ago, We were looking for an instructor and I called Adrian. He was down in Florida at the time after just completing his training at Bristow Academy, the biggest civilian school in the world with over 50 Schweizer helicopters.

Adrian and I arranged a date and he came up for a two day interview, I collected him from the airport and we headed to the school, chatting about England on the way and how I did not miss it and he did !

We went over some ground school in the classroom and Adrian did great , we flew and I knew at that point he would be teaching at Blue Hill. Adrian and I arranged a date for him to start and he made the drive from Florida a week later and to my house until he found a place to live. Adrian fitted in well and soon built some great relationships with the students and myself, although we butted heads at times ! Many people have moved through the school under Adrians careful guidance and received licenses from Private through CFII.

Here we are three years and 1800 hours later in Adrians logbook and he is more than ready to move on to his next adventure. We would love to keep all of our instructors forever but they must all move on to the next stage, thats why we teach. Adrian will be making the trip to Las Vegas to fly tours in the Grand Canyon and the las vegas strip. He will be flying the EC130 initially then the AS350, I am sure he will impress and help more of our CFII's to move on to the next level.

I can honestly say that I am proud that one of our instructors has again been hired into the industry, It says a lot for the school and the standards and reputation we keep, we will keep you updated on Adrians progress in Las Vegas !!!!

Steve 

Solo pilots and fresh 141 simulator courses approved !

Firstly, we must apologize for lack of blogs, recent weeks have been taken up writing new simulator inclusive courses for our fresh part 141 school approval, these will be approved for use at the end of the month !  January has seen several new student pilots and some are solo already !, Firstly Scott Gannon soloed in the schweizer and closely followed by Carlos Almirani this weekend. Scott has moved right along and already completed some of his required cross country work. Unlike the Robinson helicopter , the schweizer has no restriction on hours when a student can solo, so you wont be held back if you are talented ! Carlos was already a fixed wing commercial pilot with tail wheel and aerobatic experience under his belt, he showed his skill with three perfect patterns under Kilian's supervision on the runway.

Congrats Carlos and Scott, We promise to update you all with the latest on the fresh 141 approval and the inclusion of the sim in the programs to save you money !

The BHH Team