Hello;
I am looking for helicopter training in new england. I have fixed wing
ratings but I am looking to change careers.
Any help would be great.
Thanks
Dbrownie
Heyas DB,
As someone who has been there, I don't think you will EVER get any return on your investment if you are paying for your own ratings.
If you are financially secure and want to fly heilos for sh!ts and giggles, then fine, but if you are looking to change careers thinking the grass is greener on the other side, you will be very disappointed. If you get into it, make sure you get into a position where you can log some turbine time, which is the multi equivalent for heilos. Plan on working scut, CFI type jobs until at least 1000 hours heilo.
As far as operators are concerned, your 10k+ hours of airplane time might has well be zero. There is a strong anti-fixed wing bias in may RW operators, and you will always be refered to as a "Cessna pilot", and many take offense that you can always flip them off and go back flying FW.
There is always the the corporate side, where dual rated positions are not uncommon, HOWEVER, it has been my experience that most of those jobs are already filled internally, and any postings are "matter of record" only. It is far, far easier for operators to fill dual rated positions with a guy with a ton of heilo time and little FW time than the other way around. Say you have 5000 FW / 1000 RW and you are competing with a guy who has 5000 RW and 1000 FW, you will lose every time, because the time requirements for the heilo part are always more strict.
But hey, good luck with it. If you have any more specific questions, PM me. I've spent some time on both sides of the fence....
Nu