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I want to be a professional (non-airline) pilot when I grow up

Interesting that they’re doing an “instrument proficiency check” in EC120s and AS350s, neither of which are IFR-capable.

Both of those aircraft are notoriously squirrelly, plus their blades both go the wrong direction.
 
And the whole, touching the ground, bursting into flames thing.

That said, plenty of people are doing simulated and the occasional actual IIMC evolutions in 206Ls and 407s and forgetting to declare an emergency because it's a (relative) non-event, so I guess technology is a good thing.
 
Gatordev said:
And the whole, touching the ground, bursting into flames thing.

That said, plenty of people are doing simulated and the occasional actual IIMC evolutions in 206Ls and 407s and forgetting to declare an emergency because it's a (relative) non-event, so I guess technology is a good thing.
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Tell me more about their Pinto-like tendencies. I used to fly 120s. Never heard that part.
 
The A-Star is pretty notorious for bursting into flames upon impact with the ground. It historically didn't have a crash-resistant fuel tank. There's lots of various bad stories, one of the most famous being this one (sorry, don't have a direct video link):

www.nbcnews.com

Outdated Fuel Tanks in Civilian Helicopters Pose Potential Dangers

The NTSB estimates that 85 percent of helicopters built since 1994 don’t have crash-resistant tanks, saying a tank that leaks on impact could lead to fatal consequences.
www.nbcnews.com www.nbcnews.com

My favorite nickname for the airframe was "Death Star." There is an STC to upgrade the tanks, which industry seems to be doing slowly. I'll admit, I don't know if the -120 has the same issue, but since I thought it was of the same lineage, I thought I remember reading it had the same issue (and same STC).
 
phrogdriver said:
Tell me more about their Pinto-like tendencies. I used to fly 120s. Never heard that part.
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I flew the AS 350 quite a bit when it was competing for what became the Army TH-67. It was a smooth, solid aircraft all around and even auto'd nicely - despite the rotor turning in the wrong direction ?
 
SynixMan said:
Non-pilot managers who treat their folks like shit. No respect for time-off/OT/etc. Ground job BS. Getting stuck on the SW Border with no chance of transfer. Forced into UAV operations without a ramp back to the cockpit. They can chest beat about "Mission before money" all they want, just like the Navy does, but people are leaving for the same reasons they left Active Duty.
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We've got two CBP P-3 types in my reserve unit and their main complaint is how much P-3 hate there is at the higher levels, and the culture clash between the former Customs and BP air branches. According to them a lot of the leadership grew up in BP and are very Army-centric and dismiss the utility of the P-3 types ignoring the drug totals the P-3 guys interdict, fixating on helo ops and the border where much smaller loads are interdicted, and are very shortsighted in their planning for air ops and the aircraft fleet as a whole. They did say the forced UAV thing has gone away for them, for now.

They had some interesting insights to the poly as well, and CBP's policy there doesn't seem to match up with best practices.

EDIT- I have to amend the UAV claim after talking to the CBP folks for a while about CBP stuff (it was a boring exercise, lots of BS'ing), they apparently aren't making more P-3 guys go UAV's now but some who were dual-qualed still have to do their UAV penance regularly. They are apparently trying to build up a dedicated UAV cadre and the dual-qualed folks will have to do double duty until they are full up on the UAV side.

The two caveats to that for the new hires are that there are only 5 basing choices right now for the new pilots, 2 or 3 are UAV bases and the others are helo bases with no new-hire pilots going directly to P-3's (sensor operators can still go straight to P-3's). The other caveat is CBP air leadership wants to move away from UAV's, apparently the juice ain't worth the squeeze. Whether or not their bosses and bigger leadership goes along with it remains to be seen.
 
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A fairly significant newcomer - Air Center Helicopters - are up to speed flying Navy contract VERTREP and pax/mail/cargo in fleet support role. They took the Airbus H225 that could not fly for their intended role in EU (and was grounded for those operations by EASA) oil & gas support after the tragic mishap where the a rotor head separated in flight, bought the grounded helos for a song, reconfigured extensively for the Navy support mission and are hard at it! I believe CEO Rod Tinney is a former Navy '46 guy. Brilliant. Capitalism at its best.

Beautiful looking aircraft - all finished in clearcoat.

23878

23879
 
ChuckMK23 said:
A fairly significant newcomer - Air Center Helicopters - are up to speed flying Navy contract VERTREP and pax/mail/cargo in fleet support role. They took the Airbus H225 that could not fly for their intended role in EU (and was grounded for those operations by EASA) oil & gas support after the tragic mishap where the a rotor head separated in flight, bought the grounded helos for a song, reconfigured extensively for the Navy support mission and are hard at it! I believe CEO Rod Tinney is a former Navy '46 guy. Brilliant. Capitalism at its best.

Beautiful looking aircraft - all finished in clearcoat.

View attachment 23878

View attachment 23879
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So in what capacity are they doing this?
 
I saw they were getting H135s. It would be interesting to know more about the job.

I'm still trying to figure out what the contract job at Patrick flying -60s is. It's now over to AAR, but the job seems to be the same. Gone up to 30 days at a time, but no more than 90 days a year. Seems like range support stuff, but maybe it's more sexy than that. Either way, I'm curious.
 
By the way...got this the other day in my email.

Aviation Jobs and Aviation Employees JSfirm

JSfirm aviation employment service provides aviation employees access to aviation jobs such as avionics, engineering, pilots, sales, maintenance, A&P, executive, aerospace, and management
www.jsfirm.com www.jsfirm.com

Didn't realize IFR 407s were already hitting the streets. Maybe @phrogdriver can chime in with how many are out there now.
 
Gatordev said:
By the way...got this the other day in my email.

Aviation Jobs and Aviation Employees JSfirm

JSfirm aviation employment service provides aviation employees access to aviation jobs such as avionics, engineering, pilots, sales, maintenance, A&P, executive, aerospace, and management
www.jsfirm.com www.jsfirm.com

Didn't realize IFR 407s were already hitting the streets. Maybe @phrogdriver can chime in with how many are out there now.
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No idea. But it’s just a kit you can order with your aircraft now, like a hoist or a cargo bay liner.
 
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