How Much Does A Helicopter Pilot License Cost?

How much does it cost to get a helicopter pilot license? How hard is it to get a helicopter pilot license? Those are questions I’m asked all the time. To answer both I recruited Steve Bush from Lone Star Helicopters, a helicopter tour/training company based near Austin, Texas at the Lago Vista airport.

According to Steve Bush, flight instructor/owner at Lone Star Helicopters, the average private helicopter pilot license costs about $15,000. Though that price can vary depending on a student’s skill level and time commitment.

For students who want their commercial helicopter pilot license, the total price runs about $50,000, according to Steve Bush, flight instructor/owner at Lone Star Helicopters in Austin, Texas.

Thanks for flying with me! #MicahFlies

0:00 Turbine Startup
0:28 Takeoff
1:20 Private Helicopter License Requirements
3:42 Private Helicopter License Cost
4:40 Commercial Helicopter License Requirements
6:10 Commercial Helicopter License Cost
6:35 Helicopter Pilot Career Options

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[MicahMuzio]

Have you ever seriously considered getting your helicopter pilot license?

[Jason-W]

Great info. I've been working in IT for over 20 years and I'm at the point where I just can't do it anymore - just burned out and realized now (at 40 yrs old), it isn't something I want to do anymore. I did my first discovery flight today and I'm making the move all the way. Using my small IT business to fund my costs and even though the pay would never match what I'm getting now, I realize that it is more about job satisfaction and loving what I do more than the money. Great video and very informative!

[joefro]

Micah have you ever told us what the hourly cost of your helicopter is ? I mean all of it—pro rated maintenance, an hours depreciation, along with the actual operating cost. That might require another video. ;)

[eganjos]

Will I ever fly?, no. Did I thoroughly enjoy this video? yes.

[Accrd]

I spent almost 15K for my Airplane pilot's license. I was sorta drug out though to build hours so we won't discuss that...I am doing IFR now though and they quote around 10K for your instrument rating at the school I currently attend. Funny because Commercial license in a plane is 250 hours! Great video man.

[cavscout]

Got my private helicopter license in 89 and my commercial in 92. Even back then it was expensive compared to a fixed wing. Flying a Hughes 300C back then was $200.00 an hour solo.

[StarcraftGT]

Hmmm the couple places I’ve looked around are 80k-100k for commercial.

[kentbullard]

Very good job covering a subject that most of us with an interest in helicopters have thought of. And in a video under ten minutes to boot.

[rovers]

Those prices are not what I've been seeing. When I first started looking for a school to train at I was being told the prices would be more like 25k for private and 90-100k for commercial. This is what the schools I was talking to were saying, and it's also about the same price that a lot of pilots in online forums were saying. Thank god the VA is paying for my training so I don't have to worry too much about it!

[danmeuse]

so far i went from flying helis in video games as a kid, to building and confidently flying a quadcopter, to successfully flying a full cockpit apache simulator without white-knuckling it. Planning to eventually move to alaska after i graduate college

[flyingwithrobertjohnston]

Landed at Lago Vista one night when fog rolled in and kept me from landing at any Austin airports. My client had to Uber all the way to Lago Vista from Austin Bergstrom so I could pick him up and fly him back to Stephenville.
I’m an ATP and CFII with over 8500 hours and not one hour even RIDING in a helicopter. I’d seriously like to give it a try but I’m afraid there will be no going back if I do. It looks like it would be so much fun and so rewarding.

[lookingforwookiecopilot]

For what its worth, my instrument training made me a worse vfr pilot. For a guy who flys by the "seat of my pants" spending forty hours staring at the gauges really roughed up my "feel" for when I took the hood off. To make matters worse, four months after instrument training I decided to go up with the hood on, and was amazed (and disappointed) at just how much my IFR skills had deteriorated in such a short time!

I don't know, an instrument rating to give rides in a VFR only helicopter just seems like a completely ridiculous requirement!

[cameronschindler]

R66!!! I fly out of KSRQ and do a lot of VFR in my 182 and occasionally with my buddy Mike around over the Atlantic! I love having a fellow aviation enthusiast! I agree the R66 is one of the best Helis out there!

[topofthegreen]

Helicopter jobs are very hard to get, there are far more opportunities in fixed wing, also drones are replacing helicopters in many jobs.

[BiggHoss]

What about funding? Are there grants, scholarships, specialized loans for some of these schools? I'd love to do it but it doesn't seem practical financially

[fightingfalconfan]

I have always wanted to be a pilot ever since I was a toddler and I saw my first ever Cessna sky hawk 172s fly over my head and wanted it to take me with it. But being a kid I was under my mothers thumb on everything and she absolutely freaked out about me wanting to be a pilot because of the stigma of all the crashes the news always seemed to report about. Fast forward to now I would love to take on official pilot training, I just don't have the money for it and I could only dedicate one day a week to learning. I already know how air craft stay airborne and how aerodynamics work. I would just have to learn how to speak with ATC again. I used to know it but since it's not a language I use I forgotten 99% of it.

[Davide]

Thank you, straight forward, clear and honest. Appreciated. Maybe a future video with the costs breakdown for different heli models? Thank you

[shawnedwards]

@MicahMuzio I had my Schweizer 300 introduction flight with Steve today. We flew over these same areas this morning, so this is extra cool watching the vid this time around! Your series with Lone Star Helicopters led me to his flight school, and I'm very glad that they did; it was exactly what I'm looking for at this time in my life and flight training. Thanks so much for sharing these!

[JaredSVX]

Add this to the list of shit I can't afford 😂😔🤣

[BlutoHawk]

With Flight instructor and the Robertson R22 it costs around $400 /hr. I already the my pilot license for fixed wing aircraft. It certainly is fun.