Expert: David A. NewMyer - 9/2/2005

Question
Is it realistically to late for a guy in his mid 40's to start a career, training included, flying helicopters?

Answer
Hi, Jeff:

A helicopter pilot career is a tough one to enter from the civilian world, but, not impossible.  First of all, the cost of the helicopter flight training is considerable and, second, it is not widely available.  That means you will likely have to travel away from where you now live in order to learn to fly helicopters.  Then, the next thing you will have to face is buidling helicopter flight experience.  The majority of civilian helicopter pilots begin to fly in the military and build their experience there before entering the civilian work world.  So, they do not have to worry too much about building helo flying experience.  Most civil helo employers are not going to hire a rookie to fly their expensive machines when they can hire an experienced person.  So, if you have a scheme in mind to get experience (that can sometimes happen via where you learn to fly helicopters by turning around and becoming a helo instructor and then gaining experience that way....)....then, that is great.  If not, then, you will have to figure out how to get experience.

Finally, since you are in your late 40s, health will be an issue.  If your general state of health is good, then, great.  But, to fly commercially (fixed wing or helo) you will have to pass a Class 1 or 2 Federal Aviation Administration medical.  So, if you decide to pursue a flight career, the first step is to visit a local FAA approved Medical Examiner and submit to a medical exam to make sure you are "good to go" from that perspective.  If you are, then, proceed to the next step.  If you are not, then, you will find out early and treat any medical issues you may find.  Then, you can decide what to do next.

One final thing to think about:  The civil helicopter industry is not that large...there are 6900 civil helicopters in the USA vs. just over 200,000 fixed wing aircraft in the USA.  There are probably about 20,000 helo pilots in the USA vs. over 600,000 fixed wing pilots.  So, you can see from the numbers that it is not a large segment of the aviation industry.

Helpful websites to check out in your search for more information:

www.rotor.com is the website of the Helicopter Association International

www.heliopter.li   is a list of links related to helicopters

I hope that this advice is of assistance.

Sincerely,

David A. NewMyer, Ph.D., Professor and Chair
Aviation Management and Flight
Southern Illinois University Carbondale
http://www.aviation.siu.edu/