I am a helicopter tour pilot. AMA!

How come Helicopter Tours aren't called Helicoptours?

Also, what career path leads to your job?

Edit: You could say this comment has really "Taken Off"

I want to change our sign from helicopter tours to helicoptours now.

And the short answer is that I got lucky and was willing to work for a very small amount of money for what I do.

How do I land a helicopter? Please answer, it's urgent.

http://www.wikihow.com/Land-a-Helicopter-After-Your-Pilot-Has-Been-Killed

Have you ever made gun noises while piloting an helicopter?

By gun noises I'd say the famous "pew pew pew" as an example.

Yes

Do you respect and worship your mechanics?

Yes, very much.

How does one get into the industry? Do you just go to flight school and put in applications?

I went to flight school, flew tours with the same company for around a year, and then sent out applications. Mostly luck.

Hi, have you ever been in a situation while flying where you have genuinely feared for your life?

What got you into helicopter piloting?

Thanks for doing an AMA

Only a few times, mostly during my last job. You're flying very close to towers, power lines, and amusement rides. It gets a little nerve racking.

And I got into by trying to find something to do with my life after high school. I was always interested in aviation so after I went on a demo flight with the local flight school, I was hooked.

Is it true that helicopters only fly because they are so ugly the ground repels them?

:(

1. How much do you earn per hour?

2. What do you think of airplanes? Have you considered getting your PPL at least?

3. Oddest thing you've ever seen a customer do?

I get paid minimum wage :(

I think airplanes are cool and very useful. What I dont like about airplanes is how cheap they are. Meaning more people have access to them and can buy them. That means you have more people who fly once every couple months who loose touch. That's not saying there aren't crappy helicopter pilots, just more in airplane pilots in my opinion.

I get paid minimum wage :(

...what. the. fuck.

Let's put some lives in your hands. Literally your hands will kill or keep alive these people. And here's $9 for your troubles!

8...

7.50...

7.93.....

To be fair, there is an abundance of people who wish to do this for a living, and very little demand.

This is a big one. There are tons of people just out of school and very few jobs they are capable of doing. As a result you can literally pay zero or even charge for training of new pilots and you will still have a stack of resumes on the chief pilots desk.

Absolutely, thats why I went back and said I'm lucky for the job. After I started here and realized just how many people call and ask if we're hiring, I really understand how lucky I am.

Don't think I'm complaining about how much I get payed. I'm extremely lucky to even have the job.

Isn't that pretty much the same for many air lines commuter pilots?

Ya, those guys get paid absolute shit.

When we did tours at fairs we hot-loaded people (pilot never got out, loaders took people out and put the next group in with the helicopter running). So I was flying in Forte Wayne, Indiana and the loaders put a guy in the front seat with me with no shirt, giant nipple rings in both nipples, and a gun on his hip (Indiana is an open carry state). When I got out the boss laughs at my face and says "Its ok, we made him unload it".

What do you do when someone has to use a restroom? I know that sounds silly but as someone who nervously pees and is also afraid of heights, the moment I hear "helicopter tour ride" I just think about the sheer terror of having to pee somewhere up in the sky in a helicopter.

Our longest tour is 45 minutes. 90% of the tours are 10 minutes or less.

I've got an impressive 13 hours in helicopters in BF4, how much for ME to fly?

They sad thing is, I'm reallllllyyyyyy bad at flying the helicopters in BF4.

i'll train you, young one.

I laughed to hard at this

It's a matter of life an death. You need to tell someone how to fly a helicopter in 100 words or less. They are 20 miles off shore and their radio/phone/communication network is about to disconnect. What do you tell them in order that they might figure things out and safely land the helicopter?

Get low and jump out. You can't land a helicopter safely having never flown one.

Do helicopters have an "auto pilot" like planes?

Only the big ones

That would probably depend upon the intelligence of the would-be pilot and the ability of the instructor to give succinct and clear directions.

Not really. Hovering is all muscle memory.

Are you allowed to fly over amusement parks such as Busch Gardens?

Just got back from flying a tour over Busch Gardens

How much did you spend on all to become a certified helicopter pilot?

Around $75,000

[deleted]

How long did it take? Im still paying this off.

are you the guy that flies that little red helicopter over davis islands/downtown?

Thats the channel 5 news. I fly the blue one over Davis island/ downtown.

Sikorsky, Bell, or Eurocopter?

Probably one of those awful piston powered robbies

:(

Do you fly an r-44? A friend of mine went down in one and nearly lost his life. After speaking with some of the rescue crew they all mentioned that when one goes down its almost always an r-44 as its the hundai of helicopters, we did some research and found it to be a very popular craft. Ive always wanted to do a helicopter tour when traveling but am always scared away when I see that it is a robinson. Would you or do you feel comfortable in them?

It is a great helicopter. It's like people being scared of getting in a Toyota because Toyota has more accidents then Ferrari. There are a lot more Toyotas on the road.

Do you ever think to yourself "if I wanted to I could kill all these people in my helicopter". Or something like "one little mistake and we are all dead"?

More the one little mistake one

Have you ever done the "helicopter" with your penis?

Maybe...

What attracted you into becoming a helicopter tour pilot?

Tour pilot not so much. The way the industry works is you either instruct for 500-1000 hours to get a new job, or you fly tours. I was never much for instruction, so I picked this route. I'm looking forward to doing something different.

But what attracted me to becoming a pilot is the feeling. If you ever get a chance call up a local helicopter flight school and ask to do a demo. I promise you'll want to fly after that too.

But what attracted me to becoming a pilot is the feeling.

If my experiences in Battlefield are any indication, the feeling seems to be "I NEED TO LEAN FORWARD BUT NOT THAT MUCH FORWARD OH GOD WHY IS THE SKY BELOW ME THAT'S NOT GOOD FUCK SHIT FUCK".

Hahaha

[deleted]

We do both all the time, they aren't big deals as long as you pay attention.

How often do you quote a certain bodybuilder/actor/politician?

Every day

If you use GPS to navigate the airspace, Do you fly right up to the edge of controlled airspace (ie Class B) without calling ATC? I see targets (aircraft) do this all the time and wonder if they realize another larger aircraft could be flying extremely close to them at those points.

We fly around Tampas bravo all the time so I dont need GPS (just know based on buildings where it is), but yes. I go up to it all the time, and no airplane is even legally aloud to be at the altitude I'm at when downtown, so i don't worry.

HAS ANYONE EVER ASKED IF THEY COULD BANG ON THE TOUR?!

Yes

I'm a 17 year old who wants to be a pilot. How do I get started?

Call the nearest flight school and ask to do a demo with them.