I want to become a commercial helicopter pilot. How much should I spend? ?

Question

I dont know if I can afford it!

Answer 1

firstly these are uk prices. If you didn't want to go into the military it is going to cost the same as a high range family saloon car about £30,000 to £40,000. Firtsly you've got to get a ppl around £10,000, then you got to get your comercial CPL licence around £30,000. But a considerable chunk of this price can be reduced if you where picked for a scholarship, this usually means a company will pay for you to learn and train while in return the company gets your services as a qualified pilot. but before any of this take a trial flight and see if you enjoy flying.

Answer 2

It's not cheap.  You can pretty much count on spending at least $75-80K USD on all the training it will require to become a certified flight instructor (CFI) for piston-powered helicopters.  Then you'll need to be a CFI for a couple years to build time to be employable for a real helicopter career, and somewhere along the way you'll most likely need to spend some additional out-of-pocket money for training in turbine-powered helicopters to prepare for a real helicopter career, depending on whether or not the company that hires you is willing to provide you with free turbine training and training in-type.  Paying out-of-pocket to build turbine time and time in-type is generally frightfully expensive (generally $400/hr and up).

If you want cheap (free) training, consider joining the military where taxpayers will pay for your training.

EDIT:  I may have misinterpreted your question to mean professional helicopter pilot rather than merely commercial certification.  Not sure whether you meant commercial as in commercial certificate only, or if you meant it as in professional career.  :)

Answer 3

The US Army will teach you for free, but you must be of age to join and probably get a degree while in the military. If you go to a private school, I'm guessing probably $20,000 more to get enough hours to get your commercial pilot license for helicopters. If you become a police officer, some departments will train you to fly their helicopters. You can get a lot of flight time and experience in the Army and police departments and get paid for it.