Re: How do you become a medical pilot?

[TMc0617@aol.com]

Hi, Most EMS programs use helicopters.  Assuming you want to fly helo's vs. 
airplanes the two basic routes to get experience, flight time, and the 
commercial license are military and civilian.

1) Military, join any branch of the military, army, air force, navy or 
marines.  Even the national guard has periodic openings in each state and 
will send their soldiers to army flight school.  The army is regarded as 
having the best helicopter flight training.
No offense to other services...The air force sends their pilots to the army 
to learn to fly helicopters and once graduated they return to the air force 
to go advanced training.

The plus to going military is they pay you to go and the flight training is 
widely regarded as the best available.  The down side is a multi year 
requirement to serve, probably at least 5 to 6 years now with some overseas 
service involved.

2) Going civilian is all out of pocket and most civilian trained helicopter 
pilots first get their private license, then their instructor rating and 
began instructing soon after to build up flight time and offset the cost of 
paying for helicopters by the hour.  This route is shorter time wise but is 
much more expensive as you pay initially for all the flight time yourself and 
must depend on a steady stream of students to offset the costs later.

If you have are close to graduation and you don't have the $30,000 to $40,000 
available to pay for the flight hours yourself, join a branch of the military 
as an officer and then go to flight school. 

Most ems programs and operators wont consider hiring anyone with less than 
1500 hours of flight time.  It used to be 3000 to 4000 hours was the average 
requirement with the available pool of pilots mostly from the Vietnam era 
with much experience behind them.  These days there is a shortage of 
qualified pilots and the hour levels are coming down.    

If you would like more details as to exact hour requirements and FAA 
licensing requirements feel free to email me back. I hope this opinion helps.

Good luck,
Tim McCartney
SK-76 Captain
Metro Life Flight

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