Looking for a career change? Interested in taking the steps to becoming a professional helicopter pilot? You've come to the right flight school!

VERTEX Flight Academy is our structured Flight Training Program that performs Primary and Advanced Helicopter Flight Training, as well as Basic and Advanced Helicopter Ground School.

CLICK HERE to take your FIRST STEP with a Discovery Flight!

To start your career as a professional helicopter pilot, you need to begin working towards your Private Pilot - Rotorcraft Certificate. This Private Pilot certificate, which is issued by the FAA, enables you to fly a helicopter, and to carry passengers, but not for hire. You are allowed to "share" reasonable expenses, but you can't be paid to fly. In order to fly "for-hire", you're required to have a Commercial Pilot Certificate.

While a Commercial Pilot Certificate enables you to fly for hire, it won't necessarily GET you hired. In the past, many pilots could fly with only their Commercial Certificates, but today, most modernized aircraft require a higher level of understanding about Instrument flight. Alas, you will need to acquire your Instrument Rating. The Instrument rating not only allows a duly rated pilot to fly in Instrument Meteorological Conditions (ie: in the clouds), it also gives you the piece of mind that should you accidentally end up in the clouds, you will know just what to do.

Now comes even more fun!

You've achieved your Commercial Instrument - Rotorcraft ratings, and you're now employable, but you're short on one of the most important requirements: Experience, and flight time! The typical newly certificated Commercial Pilot only has about 150 hours. On average, you'll need around a minimum of 1,000 hours of flying to get a commercial helicopter pilot job.

In order to build time, the most likely job opportunity for almost all new helicopter pilots is that of a Flight Instructor. Most Flight Instructor positions require you to be able to instruct for the private, commercial, and instrument ratings. This means you need to earn both the Certified Flight Instructor-Helicopter and Certified Flight Instructor-Instrument ratings. When you have both of these ratings, then you're much more "employable".

After about 18-20 months of performing flight instruction, you'll typically have around 1,000 hours of practical flight experience, and you'll then be eligible for jobs in firefighting, tour operations, offshore, and other types of flying.

The VERTEX Flight Academy Professional Pilot flight training program is designed to help you become eligible for a Flight Instructor job, and the Flight Instructor job will get you to the next higher paying helicopter pilot job!

VERTEX Flight Academy offers a number of helicopter training courses under Part 61, but all of our courses have been developed using Part 141 guidelines as our way to provide a more detailed, standardized and safer training environment. A Part 141 course is a program that has been approved by the FAA, which means it has strict guidelines for each ground and flight lesson. There are some disadvantages to a 141 program, however. A Part 141 program does not allow for any deviation in a lesson. Each lesson must be followed and successfully completed before moving onto the next lesson. A part 61 program gives us the freedom to work on areas where you may be struggling if we need to. More importantly, we use Part 141 guidelines to keep all of our records. This means you get the best of both worlds for your training!

Vertex Flight Academy currently offers the following standardized courses:

Private Pilot - Rotorcraft
Commercial Pilot - Rotorcraft
Instrument Pilot - Rotorcraft
Certified Flight Instructor - Rotorcraft
Certified Flight Instructor, Instrument - Rotorcraft

Rotorcraft Add-on Rating (for Fixed wing pilots who want to become Helicopter pilots)

GROUND TRAINING

VERTEX Flight Academy offers 3 separate 40-hour Ground School Courses for student pilots, rated pilots and individuals who may be interested in choosing helicopter aviation as a career. Each course is 10 weeks long, and meets each Tuesday or Wednesday evening from 6pm to 10pm per our training schedule*. Each of these courses are intended to assist the student pilot in preparing for the FAA Written Exam for the respective certificate. The Advanced Helicopter Operations Course is intended only for rated pilots, or students who have already completed the first two courses.

NOTE: Students may elect to take an outside ground school or study on their own with VERTEX Flight Academy's guidance for written exams. Supplemental individual personalized ground instruction will be charged at current ground school instructor rates of $45/hr. All tuition for ground school courses must be paid before the start date of the course. Attendance is the responsibility of the student/pilot that signs up for the course, and no tuition refunds are granted due to failure of the student to attend the course. Tuition fees are non-refundable*.

Helicopter Ground School 101
Private Pilot Based Ground School Syllabus
Preparation for FAA Private Helicopter Written Exam
(Tuesday Evenings 6pm-10pm*)
Tution: $495

Commercial & Instrument Ground School
Preparation for the FAA Commercial and Instrument Written Exam
(Wednesday Evenings 6pm-10pm*)
Tuition: $495

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