Merry Christmas from Blue Hill Helicopters !

As another year is almost over, we would like to thank all of our students and friends for flying with us this year ! It has been a great year with the addition of an R44 and a new Schweizer .

Congratulations to anybody who got a new rating this year, and good luck to those who will be getting ratings in the new year. We are hoping 2014 to be as good as 2013, it wont be long before we are flying with the doors off again !

Merry Christmas and a Happy new year !

They have way more fun at school in the USA !

Growing up in England , I was not lucky enough to experience the school system in the USA , I still have no idea what a sophomore is ! Video cameras consisted of a shoulder mounted device with a VHS tape recorder in a bag, the whole device could not be carried for long and we have better quality in a car reversing camera !

When Foxborough High school asked us if we donate some helicopter time for a high school 'lip dub' project we could not say no !

Johann landed at the school to a group of very happy students and took to the skies to film the closing segment of the video, the day could not have worked out better and we were certainly very happy to help!

Thanks for great publicity FHS !

FHS "Lip Dub" video


The 'Lip Dub' story

Kelly, another great cross country completed.

Kelly is a business owner and has been interested in helicopters since she was a child. She tried a few lessons a few years ago in airplanes but never kept up with the training. She finally decided to start her life long dream of helicopter flying and once she started she was hooked ! Kelly has a high stress job running a large security company and loves the stress relief of flying a helicopter. She recently completed her cross country and is moving into the last stage of her training with confined areas and advanced auto's. Kelly will soon be taking the private check-ride and taking her friends for rides ! well done Kelly

 

Anderson did it and got the T shirt !

Anderson finally soloed ! Anderson lives on the vineyard and makes the trip weekly to BHH. His business has been very busy and he has not been able to come every week to train with us. Anderson worked very hard and made time to sit down and get in the books, he soon found found himself on the runway with his instructor stepping out and sending him off on his first solo ! well done Anderson , you got the T shirt !

The fastest solo ever !

Brandon Williams came to BHH to get his ratings FAST !  He worked hard with Johann and was ready to solo the aircraft at 8 hours ..... when we say ready we mean ready ! With the Schweizer for primary training there are no restrictions like the R22, you must have 20 plus hours to solo in the Robinson, holding students back. Brandon eventually soloed the Schweizer at 11 hours , yes 11 ! He is currently cruising through 25 with all his cross country time completed, now find another school that can do that !
Brandon is on our 141 program so he can obtain a private rating at 35 hours , we are the only Part 141 helicopter school in the area.

No Excuse for not blogging !

Its been several months since we have shared the activities at Blue Hill Helicopters ! Its not for the lack of training but more the lack of time to blog . We are going to make several entries and try to bring everyone up to speed on what is happening and try to mention everybody who has achieved a goal at Blue Hill Helicopters over the last few months .

Carlos, one of our Brazilian connection has been working very hard on his CFI after completing all his other ratings, he should be finished soon and will be flying as an instructor with Blue Hill Helicopters and working with all our Portuguese speaking  students. If you are Brazilian and would like to work with a Portuguese speaking instructor then come down and meet Carlos, He is both a commercial airplane and helicopter pilot and soon to be a CFII in both . Keep up the good work Carlos !

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