You didn’t mention that you’d flown in the military. I think that makes all the difference in the world. The flying you did was serious flying on serious missions flying serious equipment. This gives you an advantage that the average CFI (or private owner, for that matter) will never have.

But I do think that the kind of experience I’ve had over the past 12 years is superior to most low-time (less than 600 hours) CFIs. These guys are simply not getting the career skills they need from their employers to become good commercial pilots. It’s not always their fault. While the truly outstanding pilot/CFI will get additional attention and a better variety of missions from his employer, there simply aren’t enough of these missions to go around. The flight schools in Arizona, for example, don’t even offer services like charter, aerial photography, survey, etc. to the general public. There’s no opportunity for their CFIs to take on some of these missions. Instead, these guys sit left seat in a Robbie for 800 or 1000 hours, doing traffic patterns and practicing maneuvers. This is not real life flying. I believe that real life flying is what gives pilots the skills they need to build their careers.

I hope you can see this from my point of view — even if you don’t agree. I don’t mean to say that all CFIs lack real-life experience. But I’ll say that at least 80% do. These guys need to take a more active role in their own career development, by standing apart from the herd with good flying and communication skills. They need to get the attention of flight school management so they’re offered the missions that require more than a warm body in the left seat.

As for you, I think you have a real future as a commercial helicopter pilot. Not only do you have above-average experience (based on what you’ve told us), but you have the ability to communicate and argue a point without being offensive or obnoxious. Is it maturity? Your military background? Or just your intelligence? Doesn’t matter — it’ll serve you well in the future. Best of luck; would love to meet you in person next time I get to Vegas.

As for me, I’m sorry for overreacting. If you only knew the kind of comments and e-mail I get around here….

You’re right, I don’t know what kind of flying you’ve done. I don’t know your personality, how you handle stress, what kinds of good and bad decisions you’ve made in your past, what you did before you started flying, and a million other bits of information about you which all factor in to your ability to safely pilot a helicopter. This is why I don’t assume you’re a more or less competent pilot than myself (or anyone for that matter). That was MY point. What I mean is, just because I’ve seen pilots which took a similar path as yours and caused damage to an aircraft because they panicked during an emergency they had little practice with does not make me pass judgment on all pilots that skipped the CFI ticket and assume they’ll all handle situations the same way (and write a big blog about it). I don’t care what path you’ve chosen, military or civilian, CFI or private owner, if you can fly the mission you can fly the mission.

You’ve flown with some CFIs that have done some bonehead things, as I’ve flown with non-CFIs with equal logged time (1,000+) that have done some bonehead things. The overall tone of your blog (the way I perceived it) is that all CFIs are equally as incompetent as the ones you have flown with, that none of their time in the helicopter is as valuable as YOUR’s, and I suppose that is what prompted me to comment. I’ve flown with some CFIs that I would consider to be outstanding pilots, even without all of the fun long cross-countries and commercial operations that I’ve been fortunate enough to take part in (and like you, I’ve also flown with some CFIs that I wouldn’t trust my life with).

Overall, I think we both agree on at least one thing… its hard to compare pilots by the amount of time they have scribbled in their logbooks. But these arguments that “even though we have the same amount of time, I flew Blackhawks in Iraq and you’re a Robbie Ranger flying patterns, so I’m a better pilot” or “I’m a CFI and you’re a private owner, so I’m a better pilot because I’ve done more autos” are silly. As I said in my first comment, if you can perform your job safely, who cares how you got there. Most employers aren’t going to hire the kinds of incompetent pilots you’ve flown with even if they meet the time requirements.

Anyway, I hope you don’t take any of this personally. I enjoy reading your blogs, but felt obligated to defend the “CFI path”, probably because I am one (although you’re right, my experiences are not that of a “typical” CFI).

You list the things you’ve done, supposedly as a CFI. I challenge you to find a half dozen CFIs with the same experience during their first 1,000 hours. That’s the amount of time most pilots remain working as CFIs — after that, they’re outta there, starting their “real” career. How many hours do you have? I find it tough to believe that a flight school would give the kind of missions you list to a pilot with fewer than 1000 hours. I won’t even do recurrency training with a CFI that has fewer than 1000 hours.

In any case, your experience as a CFI is not typical. Most of the CFIs I’ve flown with over the past few years were nearly clueless about real life flying, doing nutty things like being afraid to land with a 4 mph tailwind (low density altitude, light aircraft), planning cross-country fuel stops 3 hours apart in an R44, using the altimeter to lock in flight altitude (on a cross-country flight over descending terrain), doing traffic patterns to land at an untowered airport, doing something contrary to ATC instructions without telling ATC, and landing at the approach end of a runway and then hover-taxing a half-mile to the midfield destination.

What bugs me is how these guys, with 1000 hours spent mostly sitting in a cockpit either preventing someone else from killing themselves or watching them fly, can equate that time with 1000 hours spent mostly doing real-life missions. That’s my point.

And yes, I’m deeply offended by your suggestion that “skipping the CFI ticket” is a cause of bent aircraft. Pilots like me? How do you know? How do you know about the kinds of flying I’ve done? The emergencies I’ve been in? The way I’m able to perform, year after, on difficult missions and on check rides? You suggest that I need to be a CFI to learn my aircraft better. I know my aircraft by putting it to the test, day after day, and being responsible for the way it performs and the souls on board on every flight.

Why are you still a CFI? Is that the end of your career path? If so, great — we need experienced CFIs to train new pilots. That’s my other point. But just because you’ve had good experience as a CFI doesn’t mean everyone does. And it certainly doesn’t mean that those of us who don’t make flight training a part of our career paths are any less of a pilot than you.

I’m a full-time CFI/CFII, but I don’t really fit the “typical career path” mold you lay out in your blog. My career path has been sort of a combination of yours and the “typical” one. Yes, most of my flying is spent teaching the same maneuvers within 50 miles of the same airport, but not all of it. I have a friend that I fly with who, like you, owns an R44. I’ve flown in all the same states you have, and 3 different countries. I’ve conducted aerial photo missions, sightseeing tours, etc. over mountains and lakes and in high DA and through bad weather, just like you. And although that experience is valuable, I think you’re downplaying the value in the experience one builds as a CFI.

A good instructor allows his/her students to make mistakes. I think if you gave instruction a try you’d see just how much you can learn about your machine and about flying by watching students chase RPM in autos, botch approaches, droop the rotors on hot days, and the hundreds of other common student mistakes, even with your hands off the controls. You learn to feel when things are going wrong 3 steps ahead of when they do. There is no better way to know the machine you are flying than to flirt with the edges of the envelope and you get to do that day after day, because as an instructor your primary job is recovering from mistakes that, had you not been there, would have destroyed the machine and/or killed your student.

Not to downplay your “path”, but I know pilots like you that skipped the CFI ticket and damaged helicopters and nearly lost their lives by making incorrect inputs during emergencies simply because they only practiced those EP’s during their private/commercial training and then once a year just before a BFR.

I guess my point is that there is value in every minute we’re in the helicopter, whether we’re teaching someone how to hover or flying across multiple states. Don’t assume that another pilot’s “career path” is better or worse than yours simply because it is different. At the end of the day if you kept the rotor side up and performed the mission safely who cares how you got there.

I was requested to work OT and instead of taking the FIRC, I let it slide… now my only regret is, I already had it, and it took me a lot to get that rating, it was the hardest one of all… and I just let it slide away… I should have at least kept it current, even unused… however…

Since you’ve never obtained it, and really have no need for it… I really recommend the Instrument rating more than a CFI… the better knowledge you have about the IFR system, the better off you’ll be in the “real” world of aviation, which you are already in, and with as much flying as you do… and the “possibility” of IIMC… you’ll be better prepared to get out of it…

I to this day, wish I had more IFR experience, and actual IMC flight time… I only have 5.2 actual in a Bell 222 with my friend Scot… we flew Coca-Cola’s 222 from Minneapolis St. Paul, back to Atlanta Georgia… we hit weather about 40 miles south of MSP… so we landed in Winona, filed IFR from the taxiway, and went on our merry way… some of the best flight experience I’ve ever had… of course an executive IFR equipped 222 with an auto pilot made the job

much easier…

My point is, not having the actual IFR experience has kept me from getting other jobs… but not the CFI… I don’t want to teach… and I don’t think you do either. I may go and get my fixed wing instrument and just fly some actual IFR for the experience and knowledge… good safety practice as well.

Nice article, I liked the comparison parts… M

If I were working towards my commercial licence I would be whats known as an “hour builder” over here, trying to fill the gap in hours requirement from post private to being eligible to start practical commercial training.

I see so many of my peers fill these approx 90 hours of flight time with the same standard flights – airfield to airfield, and not far between; and nearly always the cheapest way possible. On the other hand I have made a conscious effort to do more and more challenging things, a lot of off airport stuff / flying the heli-lanes over London often, long distance stuff etc.

The real challenge for the industry is that the experience is not quantifiable easily – whereas straight hours are! When we get into this debate over here, we normally get stuck at the “how would you change it?” question!