Helicopter Flight Training: How many hours to solo/get the rating?

Aug 20, 2016

Hello, I'm Kenny Keller, the creator of Helicopter Online Ground School, and I want to answer a couple of frequently asked questions that we get. People want to know how many hours is it going to take to solo; and, they want to know how many hours is it to get the rating, to get the helicopter license.

Helicopter Flight Training: How many hours to solo/get the rating?

First I'll cover helicopter add ons. If you're doing an add on, you have to have 20 hours of dual in the aircraft, and you have to have 10 hours of solo. That's 30 hours total for an add on rating. If you're going for an initial helicopter rating, it's 20 hours of dual, 10 hours minimum solo, but a total of 40.

To get to solo, that's going to depend on any one person. I've seen people solo in maybe as little as 15 hours, not saying that you can't do it for less than that because maybe you will. Some people take more than that. Many times insurance companies will have a 20 hour minimum prior to solo. That depends on the flight school where you're going, on what point they'll let you solo. Again, this is just, I'm giving round figures. I'm not saying it can't be 10 or 12 hours, not real likely, probably be more like 15 or 20.

Helicopter Flight Training: How many hours to solo/get the rating?

To get the rating, the average is about 60 to 70 hours. What I want to cover, is people say "I'm already a fixed wing pilot, shouldn't that mean I should get it in less hours?" Yes, your fixed wing rating will help of course because you are already a pilot and you have knowledge, but there's certain things that might be a struggle for you. Number 1, when you're going to do your landings, you're used to flying and keeping a lot of speed on approach. In a helicopter the approaches have to be slow. That's a big hurdle for a lot of fixed wing pilots.

In general, a good average figure is 60 to 70 hours. I've had some add on pilots that have done it in just over 40. I've had maybe 1 or 2 people in 15 years that did it in just over 40 that were initial pilots. I've had people that have had over 100.

30 hours for fixed wing add on; 40 hours for a private rating for someone just coming off the street. Things go good for you, maybe you'll get it done in around 40 hours, maybe it will take more like 60 or 70. Again, most people have jobs, lives, families, other things going on in their life that affects their frequency of flying which is probably the biggest thing that a person is going have trouble with is getting in a good solid 3 times a week, at least, or more. If you only fly once a week, you're not making a lot of good progress because each time you come back you're backing up and going, "where were we? Okay, yeah, that's what we were doing."

Helicopter Flight Training: How many hours to solo/get the rating?

It does depend on a lot of different factors, so, those are some general numbers on what it's going to take to get the rating. The other big thing is ground school, which is what we do here. Helicopter Online Ground School, the average person excels in the aircraft and struggles with the ground school. I did it like a lot of people do. You get flying, you're having fun and your instructors are telling you to study and you're going, "okay, yeah, well, I'm going to study tonight, or I'll study next week," and pretty soon you have a bunch of flight time and your ground knowledge is not there.

We help with that, the Helicopter Online Ground School. There's a link down below this video you can click on, in the description box, to go to our site and check out our different membership levels. You can also email me with any questions, [email protected]. Please give us a like and a share. Email me with any questions, and, we'll see you in the next video.

Helicopter Flight Training: How many hours to solo/get the rating?

Let Helicopter Online Ground School help you with all of your ratings! We have four FAA certified courses, Private Pilot, Commercial Pilot, Instrument Pilot, and Certified Flight Instructor. We have a bundle pack called Professional Pilot Lifetime Membership, which includes all this for life.

Any course completion will automatically award WINGS phase credits and you are on your way to satisfying the flight review requirement.

Helicopter Flight Training: How many hours to solo/get the rating?