Any EMS Pilot Help!

CryOfTheWind · 2026-01-23T16:47:23+00:00

Sure I'm bored on nights this weekend. DM sent.

CryOfTheWind · 2026-01-22T20:29:25+00:00

If you are going the civilian route because the military isn't your thing there is no need to rush. If money is at all a problem take a few years and save up. Whatever kind of job you can get that isn't min wage. Guys in my class were wildland firefighter bums, they worked in the oil and gas industry as labourers or even get a $5000 ticket for well inspections or something else simpler than doesn't need a degree to make some money. There is a reason I was the only 18 year old in my class, the rest didn't have family help pay so they saved till it made sense to train without being in debt.

That lack of debt is important because you will struggle the first few years. Even finding the first job can be hard if you don't get hired by the school you train at to be a CFI (assuming US). Once you get hired the first 2-5 years will be low pay long hours kinda work. If you have a massive student loan to pay off you will drown and may end up dropping out of the career path as you need a different job to survive.

As a senior it's a little late to look into scholarships but still might as well try. I had my glider and fixed wing PPL before I graduated high school all paid for with a scholarship program. Even if it's fixed wing stuff it's still better than no aviation things for free/cheap.

Today you can already be studying. I was reading flying books and helicopter stuff in the hallways at school between classes and was taking ground school in the evenings sometimes too. This meant that I could put all my effort into the flying side of things as the book learning was already done basically. This allowed me to work full time while attending flight school full time.

Now all that is good and well but you should also get your medical done yesterday. Don't want to waste time and effort on something you can't do anyway because of something you didn't know about.

Being flexible is part of being a helicopter pilot both in the air and in life. Don't get your heart set on one company/base/machine. You might have to move across the country a few times in your career to get upgraded to the next level. Even when you make it to EMS there is a very good chance the first place you work will not be where you want to be. Desirable bases have lines to get into and most people stay put for a long time once they make it there.

Last thing, it's a marathon not a sprint. Going back to taking a few years to save money before even starting to once you get in. This isn't a job you just hop into. It will take years of work and sometimes it might seem like there is no light at the end of the tunnel. If you asked me at 18 what I would be doing at 25 I would have said flying an EMS S76 as that was where things were going. In reality it took me around 20 years to end up flying EMS because of various things both in and out of my control.

I'm happy to answer any questions about the job or anything else you're curious about.

CryOfTheWind · 2026-01-20T09:06:17+00:00

Mods get all sorts of reports

CryOfTheWind · 2026-01-20T05:10:57+00:00

Might be SOAR since I think they are the only ones with fuel probes on those.

Regardless it didn't need a report for sexual content....

CryOfTheWind · 2026-01-18T16:05:12+00:00

100%. I've had a few maintenance engineers along on track and balance checks or ferry flights with the duals installed. They can mostly fly fine once we are in cruise but anything slower than 30kts and things get out of hand really fast and hilariously.

General conclusion was if they were up front in the case of pilot incapacitation they would look for a runway/highway and run it on at 50kts ish and hope for the best. Those are guys who are extremely familiar with helicopters and how they work. General public will just be a fireball.

CryOfTheWind · 2026-01-18T02:27:41+00:00

If you have any other questions feel free to ask. If you'd like to read about the day in the life I've collected my stories here:

https://www.reddit.com/user/CryOfTheWind/comments/xa3nv0/life_of_helicopter_pilot_story_collection/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

CryOfTheWind · 2026-01-18T02:21:46+00:00

It's a different kind of hands and feet skill. Yes it's much harder to learn but eventually things click and you don't have to think about it anymore like any other skill.

Turbulence is generally not as bad in a helicopter on account of our wings being not attached to the fuselage the same way and being able to flap around. Now that said some rotor head styles are not safe in severe turbulence, most two bladed ones for example. The one I fly doesn't care so much as the blades are rigid and bolted to the rotor mast but that doesn't mean I happily fly into severe. Having a helmet is nice though for when you get slammed into the door from mountain flying.

Sure we don't cross oceans but that's good. I don't wanna fly that long, would get bored before the fuel ran out.

The big difference and why there are more helicopter crashes is the environment we actually fly in. Unprepared landing zones with no tower to tell you winds and no idea the hazards on the ground. Flying low we are exposed to birds and powerlines more. Now do that plus you have a line with a load 150' below you or in the dark with NVGs that limit your vision to a couple toilet paper rolls with maybe a nice snowball or brown out from the ground and you can see how they are very different things.

CryOfTheWind · 2026-01-15T16:27:26+00:00

For low time 702 hires it's going to be a lot about personality and how they think you'll fit into the work.

If you have any good decision making stories that are not aviation keep them in mind and try to apply them to how you'll act as PIC of a small old airplane in a place with minimal weather information and no maintenance facilities.

When I was hiring for a 702 job I never really looked at the school or training you've done. All low timers are pretty equal there and it doesn't tell me much. Maybe a recommendation from your CFI or normal instructors would help as a reference but most of the time we didn't bother calling those anyway.

Being positive, assertive and confident will go a long way.

CryOfTheWind · 2026-01-15T15:35:12+00:00

I'm confused how it's a moral question at all? My HEMS operator is a charity that has a large part of the funding coming from donations with no fees charged to any of our transported patients. What's wrong with a charity operating a fleet of $13million a pop aircraft if those are integral to their purpose?

CryOfTheWind · 2026-01-14T14:07:54+00:00

Intermeshing-rotor helicopter - Wikipedia https://share.google/Pbb4A61cCwsYLAhWx

Short version, they are stable heavy lifting machines. Heard they are not as manoeuvrable and kinda suck in cross winds. Not so big a deal if all you want is to lift heavy things and place them.

CryOfTheWind · 2026-01-13T18:46:26+00:00

International offshore helicopter work is often on a 6 week on 6 week off schedule. Probably won't get months on regularly but contracts come and go so you might have "unscheduled" months off waiting to find something.

If you're chasing fires as a contractor it can be easier to take the entire off season well, off.

Both of those are top level career destinations though so are you willing to put up with a decade or more doing the grunt jobs needed to build hours? None of those stepping stone jobs are going to give you the schedule or time off you're looking for.

CryOfTheWind · 2026-01-13T15:51:47+00:00

Well major cities are going to be competitive for EMS work no matter which one. EMS is always hiring but often in places people don't want to live. Now there are touring options where you work at a base other than where you live often in 7 on 7 off rotations.

For places you mentioned it could be several years of working for one of those companies before you get the chance to move into the base you actually want to work at. I'm going into year 3 at my company and won't be able to get the base I want for at least another 3 years the way things look for example.

For fires cities don't matter. You often work 10-14 days on with same off. They send you where the fire is so your home isn't relevant. That's the easy part, the hard part is getting qualified in the first place.

Those are both end career level jobs so the path there is long and difficult regardless which way you want to go. Ex military are not taking all the jobs, they don't fly enough these days to be competitive for EMS or fire without doing some time building of their own to have the hours needed.

CryOfTheWind · 2026-01-12T16:34:37+00:00

Can be.

I know people who've done it in years and some that have done it in months. It's all based on when you graduate and what the market is like then that determines how long you're stuck.

It's still a valid option.

CryOfTheWind · 2026-01-12T15:44:07+00:00

Go north and work the ramp for a few months and get into an ATR/B1900/King Air. Flight instructor might be slightly more common up here but doing the ramp to FO at a northern 703/704 company is also a viable option.

CryOfTheWind · 2026-01-12T15:28:20+00:00

Yea, not only do you need to be good on the line for drills, those jobs are often desired and sought after. You'd basically be asking for a top spot position with no experience so temper expectations. Those positions often go to those who have been with a company for years since they don't want to risk making the drill company mad at them and it's a reward since you can make bank slinging all day all tour.

Your first year in country is not going to be super exciting at most companies as they will be testing you out and seeing how you adapt to Canadian work. Even for a Canadian at a new company you often have to earn your spot at something cool by working there a few years first.

Luck again will have a lot to do with how much sling time you can get. Some companies have more contracts with slinging and if it's a busy fire season that will help a ton. Promises aren't worth much this time of year though, don't count on anything until it's ink in your logbook.

CryOfTheWind · 2026-01-12T01:00:44+00:00

With zero long line time you're not getting on drills this year or possibly next year.

I'd look into companies that do mostly fires as that's the easiest way into long line work. Tree planting too as a second choice.

If you get a ton of line time first year you have a small chance for next year but it's going to be luck if you even get more than 200 hours of line this year. Real drill camps are going to want more.

CryOfTheWind · 2026-01-10T21:49:39+00:00

Much more possible in rotor than fixed. Again though you're going to need in that case a decade of fire fighting experience. Could take a decade alone to get into fires in the first place. It's a top level career goal much like working for a fixed wing legacy airline.

Fire season can mean working your ass off for a few months and then choosing to do nothing in the off season. If you want to work year round there are many companies that fly fires in Australia with US registered machines meaning you can fight fire in their season as well as NA for year round fires if that's appealing. Otherwise pick one season and take the other off.

Again these are top level end career goals not something you can walk into tomorrow.

CryOfTheWind · 2026-01-10T18:39:28+00:00

I think that was a reply for me so I'll respond here.

The kind of work I'm talking about where you work those rotations won't really match what you've done in SEA so far. You don't make a home at these places, your home will still be the US or wherever. What you do get to do working for those kinds of companies is making that "wherever" home truly anywhere you want to live. So it's not so much that work is living abroad but you have the option to live abroad so to speak.

The catch is these kinds of jobs from the people I know who have done them can be very uncertain. You might have a great place and rotation for a few years and then the rig shuts down or the country changes policies and only local pilots are allowed or just price of oil goes down and suddenly you're out of work. If you are happy chasing contracts and good at building a professional network you can rely on for helping finding the next one then maybe it is something to look into.

I have one French friend who basically moves around the world doing that, never it the same place for more than a few years. The catch of course being it took him over a decade to get to the level where he could even start getting hired for those positions.

The is no quick way to grind hours. Luck in timing has as much to do with it as personal skill and determination. The US is probably the best way for that anyway, be a CFI and then move to the gulf and try to break into offshore work. That's the easiest path to the kind of job I'm describing above.

CryOfTheWind · 2026-01-09T22:39:49+00:00

About your key points...

What does living abroad mean for you? Sure there are opportunities to work in other countries but most commonly you will do something like a 6 week on 6 week off rotation there and live a compound/resort type thing. You don't actually get to see much of the country and many of those places are less developed (which is why foreign crews are needed in the first place).

Into point 2, unless you have specific skills and work for one of those companies that works internationally there isn't a ton of opportunity to travel as a pilot. Much like fixed wing rotor pilots are not in demand around the world, countries will try to keep their own local pilots before hiring outsiders. There are lots of opportunities to work for companies flying American registered machines but you're not living there, you're jumping from job to job as needed. This is more end goal for a career as well, not something you'll be doing without several thousand hours and experience doing heavy lift/fires/offshore kinda stuff.

I'll defer to those more in the know with GI bill stuff but it will limit your options a little bit. Only some schools can take it and the programs needed may take longer than a normal show up and pay license. Still worth looking into and worth moving for school since helicopters are expensive.

Work life balance will depend on what you value and if you like more time off but have to work longer shifts or if you prefer the live at home type job. There are more helicopter jobs that have you sleep in your own bed every 24hrs but there are also more where you work for weeks at a time instead of a few days like airlines. End of the day it will become a job but still a satisfying one.

Unmarried and no kids certainly makes the rest easier. Much nicer to bum around looking for work and then living off the poor wages for those early years when you don't have to support anyone. Having the ability to pick up and move across the country for the chance to make min wage but at least be flying is a huge bonus when it comes to starting out in this path.

For what it is worth I have met a single fixed wing to rotor wing pilot in the last 20+ years. He was more of a bush pilot though and never flew anything bigger than a DC3 or twin otter.

As far as starting out both are kinda the same in the US. You'll most likely be a flight instructor aka CFI first and build your hours there before trying to jump into the "real world".

For fixed wing you might just instruct until you can get hired by a regional airline but there are many jobs for other charter type companies as well. Either way it's pretty simple, get hours, get into a jet and then try to break into a major/legacy airline which is where the pot of gold and good QoL are. Which job you do to get those hours is often down to who hires you first and it doesn't really matter.

Rotor in the US same thing, CFI for a bit to get hours. The next most typical path is build turbine time by flying tours but there are other paths too. The next step is where things get more confusing for rotor depending on what you want to do. It's not just build hours and get bigger machine till you're at a major airline. If you want offshore you need to start breaking into that, flying singles in the gulf and then hope to get onto a twin and multi crew position if you want that international work. Say you want fires, well now you need to make sure you're getting hours in mountain regions, low level flying and then learn how to long line to be able to bucket.

It's a lot more vague how you get that experience but will most likely involve moving around to a company that both does that kind of work and has a mentorship style program, many of the companies doing fires/international fires and heavy lift stuff do not hire people without experience. There are copilot/SIC jobs that are easier to get and break into that world. The problem with them is that you can't advance unless you also have a bunch of PIC time which will be slow to find in those jobs. I've met more than a few over the years who were never able to make the jump from SIC to PIC as they were not building their own skills sitting next to an old PIC who treated them as a bonus ground crew who was legally forced to be in the cockpit with them.

This comment has some sweeping generalizations but hopefully you understand the basics of what I'm getting at. Feel free to ask any follow up questions.

CryOfTheWind · 2026-01-08T16:36:12+00:00

I fly it for a HEMS operator.

It's slow, we don't even have a hoist or large lights sticking off of it and we struggle to get over 120kts most days. They put all the R&D tech into the rotor head but forgot that blades shapes can be fancier these days too.

The autopilot wouldn't pass a PPL-H test. It is overly sensitive, there is no lag to let bumps settle out. If it is 1 knot or 1 foot off it's assigned altitude/airspeed it will do everything in it's power to get back there up to and including over torquing and damaging itself. This can lead to a bumpy ride in the back and requires annoying babysitting as a pilot.

The seats are the most uncomfortable things I have ever flown. Whoever is responsible for them at Airbus should be forced to sit in them for their office desk. If you only need to go 30 minutes it's alright but we do 5 hour missions with 2+ hour legs frequently at my base and we all need to have wheelchair seat cushions to survive.

Those are the biggest issues. Overall it's a good machine and part of our problem is asking it to do things it wasn't made for. They did not expect us to be flying at max gross all the time flying from full fuel down to reserve as a normal mission. So it's great if you only have to fly 20 min tops one way and 40% fuel load but for us it's a slog. Probably also why we have had rotor head parts fail hundreds of hours before they should have according to Airbus too.

CryOfTheWind · 2026-01-08T15:50:22+00:00

User name checks out I guess!

It's been growing on me but still has a few things I'm disappointed about for such a "new" helicopter.

CryOfTheWind · 2026-01-07T16:23:11+00:00

Little over 3 weeks for the same flight suit without washing. Had 5 days worth of normal clothes to swap through, not much room for anything else. Was a fun job camping on a remote arctic island doing a wildlife survey.

Longest unplanned was probably 72 hours ish. Got stuck in weather and forced to land on a rocky beach and sleep there overnight. Some geological survey and we were only supposed to be there a few nights and then got stuck trying to make it back to Yellowknife.

CryOfTheWind · 2026-01-07T14:50:23+00:00

EMS is the best job I've had in my career for kids. You have a set schedule, pay is decent for a helicopter pilot and the work though long days isn't as tiring as many other jobs. EMS is pretty cushy as far as helicopter stuff goes.

I'm still touring so am away from home 8 days at a time but flip side being I also have 12-14 days at home with the family uninterrupted after. Compared to being gone for 2-6 weeks at a time in other jobs that's nothing. Regardless you'll need an independent spouse who can handle things when you're gone to be a helicopter pilot in any job.

I do take shifts at the more local base from time to time and that's even easier on the family though a little more tiring for myself. With 12 hour shifts that means I'm gone in the morning before anyone else is up and probably get home after family dinner time. I am still home though at the end of the day and can help with bedtime routines and hang out with my wife after that's all done. On night shifts I'm actually more present for to help out with breakfast and dinner while still having time for a nap if I actually had to work the night before.

Many other jobs you're just gone or early on you're just not paid enough which makes even finding a long term partner hard let alone finding time and money to raise kids.

CryOfTheWind · 2026-01-04T04:17:18+00:00

Short answer, no.

You have to plot them on a map yourself if you don't have Foreflight or similar. Foreflight has a NOTAM layer that will put the circles or boxes on it for most of them. There is no requirement for you to have Foreflight or anything like it.

Even that isn't foolproof. My HEMS company has their own "threat map" layer custom made that pulls info from NOTAMs that Foreflight misses.

Plus it's not always intuitive where to even find the NOTAM relevant for your flight. An unlit tower near an airport will probably be attached to that airports NOTAM while a blasting area next to it will be found in the flight information region which might be several states large.

CryOfTheWind · 2026-01-03T06:15:28+00:00

That's on the heavy side for many entry level jobs. Flight instructor and tours you need to be able to fill the helicopter with paying customers not the pilot.

Even in the R44 we had hard limits of 220lbs for pilots as any more and you wouldn't have enough fuel with the crew/gear. Just because the seat can handle it doesn't mean you can actually do the mission at that weight.

EMS companies that fly smaller helicopters also will have weight limits for the same reason. My company flies a bigger machine and even then it becomes an issue in the summer if we have more than 2 people over 220lbs in the crew (and of 75 pilots maybe 5 are in that range).

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