PVCC Puma Press: March 2006

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	Photo Courtesy of Heather Larson
	The job market is booming for helicopter pilots, with the retirement of Vietnam veterans. Starting pay is about $40,000-$45,000.
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A helicopter flight-training school has opened at the Scottsdale Airpark this year to provide flight training to a new generation of pilots who, upon completion of the school’s program, will be faced with a booming job market.

Premier Helicopters has locations in Denver as well as Scottsdale and plans to open a school soon in Dallas. Operations Manager Debbie Richardson says there was a need to bring the school to Scottsdale because they had students who were interested.

The school’s president, Michael Kelly, is based in Colorado and divides his time between the Denver and Colorado Springs locations. Kelly is excited about his schools and the many opportunities they provide to students who dream of becoming helicopter pilots.

“I estimate that in five years, there will be 15,000 jobs available industry-wide,” says Kelly.

What makes Premier Helicopters unique is the school’s relationship with Utah Valley State College. Students can obtain an associate’s or bachelor’s degree in helicopter aviation while learning to fly. Premier’s flight training lasts about six months, but after that those students can continue their college courses online.

“We’re able to do financing through Sallie Mae and do student loans,” says Richardson.

That is vital because the program to become a CFII, or certified flight instructor with instruments, will cost a student $70,000. Whatever college credits a student has accumulated are transferable to Utah Valley State College. Kelly advises students who wish to transfer into the program to get their general education requirements out of the way first. If it sounds like a lot of money, Kelly points out his program’s other unique aspect—promoting from within and giving Premier students jobs as flight instructors.

“Banks are willing to lend to the students because they know we give them jobs,” says Kelly.

The operating cost of flying helicopters is twice the amount it takes to operate fixed wing aircraft and Kelly took that into account when deciding what to pay his flight instructors. If a fixed-wing instructor’s starting pay is $10 to $13 an hour, Kelly felt his instructors’ starting pay should be $20 an hour since he knows the schooling is expensive.

He says everything has to do with the number of jobs available and, while the number of fixed wing jobs are declining, the amount of jobs available to rotorcraft pilots are increasing. The starting pay for helicopter pilots is about $40,000 to $45,000 per year.

It would take a student around six months of going through the program before getting hired on by the school as a CFII. At that point, the CFII would be making $20 an hour to instruct while logging those hours as experience. Kelly says that after about a year the student has accumulated 800 hours and can then start flying turbine helicopters at which point the yearly salary jumps to around $50,000-$55,000. This works as a one-year contract where the pilot works for a week on and then has a week off.

It’s a booming industry, according to both Richardson and Kelly, who describe jobs with corporations who need helicopter transport, sightseeing tours and pilots who can fly workers to and from oil rigs. Kelly says students have graduated from the program and gone on to do sightseeing tours in Hawaii, Alaska and Florida.

“It’s incredible. With Vietnam veterans retiring there are so many openings,” says Richardson.

Richardson encourages anyone interested in finding out more about the job outlook for helicopter pilots to go to Verticalreference.com. The school encourages both women and men of all ages as students.

The Whirly Girls organization of international women helicopter pilots offers scholarships, which you can learn more about at Whirleygirls.org. Kelly says there are about eight or nine female pilots at his schools right now across the country and a total of 60-70 students have graduated from Premier so far.

For more information about Premier Helicopters, go to www.premierheli.com or contact Debbie Richardson at 602-690-9043.