Helicopter Flight Training

How long should training really take?

There are three major factors of equal weight which will determine how long your training will take.  1: YOU. If you think you are going to flight training in combination with a vacation, there is a problem since you will not be focusing on training as you should be.  If you show up when you are scheduled to fly rather than an hour earlier to prepare, that is a problem since your flight time will now be shortened to avoid pushing back the next perhaps more devoted student.  If you don't study in your free time, that is a problem since you are not a child and should not need someone to hold your hand every minute.  2: Your Instructor. The quality of training you receive from your instructor will be greatly dependant upon these several factors.  Your instructors depth of knowledge and consequently his/her ability to pass this on to you.  The ability of your instructor to recognize where you are having difficulty and his/her creativity to come up with a method which will help you learn.  Your instructors devotion to your success.  Your instructors seriousness i.e., does he/she take flying serious?  There are countless instructors out there just building time who don't have any valuable skill, nor the desire, nor the ability to pass any quality training on to another person.  3: The School. This will ultimately come down to the schools commitment to you as well as the student/instructor/aircraft ratio, combined with the ability of the school to ensure that maintenance is completed in a timely manner.  Quite frankly, a vast majority of schools only care about your progress as long as it does not inhibit another student beginning i.e., you go to the back burner when another student starts.

Rating/Training Duration:  A Private Pilot Helicopter Rating should take 4-5 weeks.  This is completely contingent on the factors in the above paragraph.  I never had a serious full-time student I could not complete in this time frame.  This could be accomplished in 4-weeks if there were no other students competing for the aircraft which would permit training uninterrupted by maintenance; an unlikely event.  A Commercial Helicopter Pilot Rating with no previous pilot certificates should take less than, 3-months regardless of the type program.  A serious student going from zero time to the career/professional pilot program should be able to complete in 4-6 months.  Anything more, and someone is doing something wrong!