Helicopter Pilot
Helicopter Pilot
Career Overview
Helicopter pilots fly helicopters for a wide range of missions, including emergency medical services, search and rescue, firefighting, tourism, aerial surveying, utility work, law enforcement, transportation, and commercial operations. They use advanced flight instruments, GPS/GNSS, digital navigation systems, weather data, radios, sensors, and other avionics to plan flights and make real-time decisions.
Education
A high school diploma is generally the starting point, followed by professional helicopter flight training at a certified aviation school. In Canada, a Commercial Pilot Licence – Helicopter (CPL-H) requires a Category 1 medical certificate, ground-school training, written examinations, flight training, and at least 100 hours of helicopter flight time for the commercial licence. More advanced flying jobs require additional ratings, licences, and flight experience.
Work Environment
Helicopter pilots may work from airports, heliports, hospitals, remote sites, offshore facilities, or other locations depending on their specialty. The work can involve changing weather, irregular schedules, early mornings, nights, weekends, and time away from home. Pilots must stay highly focused while managing navigation, aircraft systems, communications, weather, passengers or cargo, and changing conditions.
Future Outlook
Helicopter pilots work in specialized areas where helicopters offer capabilities that other aircraft cannot, from emergency medical transport and search and rescue to aerial surveying, firefighting and remote-area operations. Modern helicopters rely heavily on digital avionics, GPS/GNSS, electronic navigation, sensors, satellite communications, and real-time weather information, making strong digital navigation, data interpretation, and decision-making skills increasingly important.
Recommended High School Courses
- Math
- Computer Science
- Business
- Physics
- Technical Writing
- Health
- Geography
- Active Learning - Understanding the implications of new information for both current and future problem-solving and decision-making.
- Active Listening - Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
- Complex Problem Solving - Identifying complex problems and reviewing related information to develop and evaluate options and implement solutions.
- Coordination - Adjusting actions in relation to others' actions.
- Critical Thinking - Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions or approaches to problems.
- Instructing - Teaching others how to do something.
- Judgment and Decision Making - Considering the relative costs and benefits of potential actions to choose the most appropriate one.
- Learning Strategies - Selecting and using training/instructional methods and procedures appropriate for the situation when learning or teaching new things.
- Monitoring - Monitoring/Assessing performance of yourself, other individuals, or organizations to make improvements or take corrective action.
- Operation and Control - Controlling operations of equipment or systems.
- Operation Monitoring - Watching gauges, dials, or other indicators to make sure a machine is working properly.
- Reading Comprehension - Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work related documents.
- Social Perceptiveness - Being aware of others' reactions and understanding why they react as they do.
- Speaking - Talking to others to convey information effectively.
- Systems Analysis - Determining how a system should work and how changes in conditions, operations, and the environment will affect outcomes.
- Time Management - Managing one's own time and the time of others.
- Troubleshooting - Determining causes of operating errors and deciding what to do about it.
- Administration and Management - Knowledge of business and management principles involved in strategic planning, resource allocation, human resources modeling, leadership technique, production methods, and coordination of people and resources.
- Computers and Electronics - Knowledge of circuit boards, processors, chips, electronic equipment, and computer hardware and software, including applications and programming.
- Customer and Personal Service - Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
- Education and Training - Knowledge of principles and methods for curriculum and training design, teaching and instruction for individuals and groups, and the measurement of training effects.
- English Language - Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
- Geography - Knowledge of principles and methods for describing the features of land, sea, and air masses, including their physical characteristics, locations, interrelationships, and distribution of plant, animal, and human life.
- Mathematics - Knowledge of arithmetic, algebra, geometry, calculus, statistics, and their applications.
- Mechanical - Knowledge of machines and tools, including their designs, uses, repair, and maintenance.
- Public Safety and Security - Knowledge of relevant equipment, policies, procedures, and strategies to promote effective local, state, or national security operations for the protection of people, data, property, and institutions.
- Transportation - Knowledge of principles and methods for moving people or goods by air, rail, sea, or road, including the relative costs and benefits.
- Arm-Hand Steadiness - The ability to keep your hand and arm steady while moving your arm or while holding your arm and hand in one position.
- Auditory Attention - The ability to focus on a single source of sound in the presence of other distracting sounds.
- Category Flexibility - The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
- Control Precision - The ability to quickly and repeatedly adjust the controls of a machine or a vehicle to exact positions.
- Deductive Reasoning - The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
- Depth Perception - The ability to judge which of several objects is closer or farther away from you, or to judge the distance between you and an object.
- Far Vision - The ability to see details at a distance.
- Finger Dexterity - The ability to make precisely coordinated movements of the fingers of one or both hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble very small objects.
- Flexibility of Closure - The ability to identify or detect a known pattern (a figure, object, word, or sound) that is hidden in other distracting material.
- Fluency of Ideas - The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).
- Glare Sensitivity - The ability to see objects in the presence of glare or bright lighting.
- Hearing Sensitivity - The ability to detect or tell the differences between sounds that vary in pitch and loudness.
- Inductive Reasoning - The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
- Information Ordering - The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
- Manual Dexterity - The ability to quickly move your hand, your hand together with your arm, or your two hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble objects.
- Multilimb Coordination - The ability to coordinate two or more limbs (for example, two arms, two legs, or one leg and one arm) while sitting, standing, or lying down. It does not involve performing the activities while the whole body is in motion.
- Near Vision - The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
- Oral Comprehension - The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
- Oral Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
- Perceptual Speed - The ability to quickly and accurately compare similarities and differences among sets of letters, numbers, objects, pictures, or patterns. The things to be compared may be presented at the same time or one after the other. This ability also includes comparing a presented object with a remembered object.
- Problem Sensitivity - The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing there is a problem.
- Rate Control - The ability to time your movements or the movement of a piece of equipment in anticipation of changes in the speed and/or direction of a moving object or scene.
- Reaction Time - The ability to quickly respond (with the hand, finger, or foot) to a signal (sound, light, picture) when it appears.
- Response Orientation - The ability to choose quickly between two or more movements in response to two or more different signals (lights, sounds, pictures). It includes the speed with which the correct response is started with the hand, foot, or other body part.
- Selective Attention - The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted.
- Spatial Orientation - The ability to know your location in relation to the environment or to know where other objects are in relation to you.
- Speech Clarity - The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
- Speech Recognition - The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
- Speed of Closure - The ability to quickly make sense of, combine, and organize information into meaningful patterns.
- Time Sharing - The ability to shift back and forth between two or more activities or sources of information (such as speech, sounds, touch, or other sources).
- Visual Color Discrimination - The ability to match or detect differences between colors, including shades of color and brightness.
- Visualization - The ability to imagine how something will look after it is moved around or when its parts are moved or rearranged.
- Written Comprehension - The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
- Written Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
- Pilot aircraft.
- Inspect aircraft or aircraft components.
- Monitor engine operation or functioning.
- Choose optimal transportation routes or speeds.
- Communicate with others to coordinate vehicle movement.
- Review work orders or schedules to determine operations or procedures.
- Inspect cargo to ensure it is properly loaded or secured.
- Resolve issues affecting transportation operations.
- Plan flight operations.
- Assist others during emergencies.
- Coordinate flight control or management activities.
- Record operational details of travel.
- Train transportation or material moving personnel.
- Direct passenger or freight transport activities.
- Evaluate performance of applicants, trainees, or employees.
- Arrange maintenance activities.
- Maintain vehicles in good working condition.
- Test performance of aircraft equipment.
Schools
Blue Hill Helicopters
Corporate Helicopters Fli...
Hillsboro Aero Academy- H...
Mauna Loa Helicopters- Is...
Mauna Loa Helicopters- Is...
Middle Georgia State Univ...
Northeast Helicopters, In...
Skyeagle Aviation Academy
Southern Utah University
Us Aviation Academy- Dent...
Canadian Helicopters L...
Canadore College- Avia...
Chinook Helicopters (1...
Glheli
Heli-college Canada Tr...
Helicopters Canada
National Helicopters I...
Potential Scholarships
Tac Foundation 407 Etr Tr...
Usa - American Public Tra...
Usa - Wts Molitoris Leade...
Usa - Asce Robert P. Wade...
Usa- Fhwa Dwight David Ei...
Wts Toronto Area Chapter...
Usa - Ndta Foundation Nat...
Approx Salary Expectation
Low End:
$59,000.00 /yr
Avg/Med:
$123,000.00 /yr
High End:
$266,000.00 /yr
Related Careers
References
Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook, https://www.bls.gov/ooh/.
Trend Analysis - Explorer the Market, Labour Market Information, Government of Canada https://www.jobbank.gc.ca/trend-analysis.
O*NET OnLine, National Center for O*NET Development, https://www.onetonline.org/.
Trend Analysis - Explorer the Market, Labour Market Information, Government of Canada https://www.jobbank.gc.ca/trend-analysis.
O*NET OnLine, National Center for O*NET Development, https://www.onetonline.org/.