Blog

Good Career Choice?

Have you contemplated about making flying a career but the thought of becoming an airline pilot seems too routine and not diverse enough to fulfill your desire?

If that’s the case, you may be best suited for a job as a helicopter pilot. The industry will have many new opportunities in the future.

You can choose from a variety of specialized jobs and the cost of training won’t take you years to pay back.

As with any field of work that you pursue, it’s important to enter an industry that actually has job openings. Fortunately, piloting helicopters is looking good if you choose to head in that direction.

NEW OPPORTUNITIES

A high-level study was conducted by the Helicopters Association International (HAI) in recent months. Statistics from the study showed that in the United States, there is going to be a wide amount of jobs opening up in the industry in the next 5 to 10 years. These openings are equivalent to as many as 3000 to 6000 new jobs. HAI discovered that three main areas were going to play a role in the trend.

The retirement of Vietnam era pilots

The rapid growth of the Emergency Medical Service (EMS) sector

Poaching from the airline industry

These openings will require new recruits, and you may be one of the individuals qualified to fill them.

UNPARALLELED VARIETY

Let’s face it — if you choose to fly in the airline industry, you’re pretty much stuck on a path that takes you to the major carriers. You will probably start at a regional airline and work your way up from flying small aircraft to larger planes. From there, your aspirations may take you to a career at a large cargo or passenger airline. There’s not much adventure in those paths.

If you compare the airline industry with the diversity of job choices in the helicopter industry, you may find that the latter offers goals that are more exciting and congruent with your personality and ambition. The opportunities range from tours and EMS to offshore, corporate and utility — just to name a few. The big bonus is that you will probably have the ability to change your career direction many times if you’re the type of person that enjoys new adventures.

PAYBACK ON INVESTMENT INTO TRAINING

The amount of money and time that you spend on training to become a helicopter pilot should also be considered when you are pursuing a line of work. The employment path to becoming a professional in the helicopter industry is much shorter than professions in other high-level industries such as law or medicine. A study found that individuals who chose to become pilots were paid back 2 to 3 times faster for training than individuals who chose to work in other industries.

If this job path sounds good to you, you may want to learn more about our company. We have industry-wide contacts, an FAA-approved training program, and a unique platform that both employs its student graduates directly and helps them progress thereafter in the industry.