TurbineDriver

Thx for the scoop! What about typical schedule?

V1RT8

The company I work for, we do 12 hour shifts and work 7 days on / 7 days off. So the first week on is from 0700-1900, then off a week, then on from 1900-0700, then off a week, then repeat. There are plenty of overtime opportunities if you want them with filling in at other bases within the company.

TurbineDriver

Interesting schedule. I assume you have to be at the airport while on shift? For that evening shift can you sleep? Like do they have bunks for you at the airport if you don't have any flying to do?

V1RT8

We have "community based" programs and "hospital based" programs. The community based tend to be based at an airports and there are living facilities at these locations (kitchen, bedrooms, living room, etc). All crew members are usually employed by the same company providing the helicopter service.

At hospital based programs, the pilots, aircraft and mechanics are all employed by the Part 135 company. However, the med crew is employed by the hospital. The Part 135 company contracts out the service with the hospital. Part of the contract is that the hospital provides "living quarters" for the pilots while on duty.

In other cases, hospitals have their own Part 135 certificate and they own the the aircraft and employ everyone in the operation.

So yes, you can sleep on duty between calls, watch tv, clean your car, etc. You just can't normally leave the base while on-duty in case a call for service comes in.

HighFlight

Who told you this lie? I had over 2500 Helo and 250 FW and got hired. Wouldn't have been possible if the Helo time was subtracted.

badtransam97

I've never been asked to subtract my helo time from any fixed wing jobs I've applied to.
What has hampered me was the multi req's..they don't seem to count multi helo toward multi FW etc..

BeatNavy

I was in the same boat in 2014 and couldn't even get a call from Mesa. A buddy arranged a phone call with a Mesa recruiter and he said he was only showing me having 650 hours and therefore I wasn't hireable, but I actually had 1900 hours. I went back and forth with the airlineapps owner about airlines and their minimums and airlines that count helo time. If you talk to a delta or AA recruiter they say they count all flying time. He changed the website after that and it now reflects all time, including helo, in total time.

TurbineDriver

Great info. Very interesting! Curious how often guys fly? Ie is it common to fly every day or just couple times a month? Seems like that week of graveyard could be pretty brutal if you're flying every night. On the other hand if you rarely get called you could sleep all night and be functional at home during the day time when back at home.

V1RT8

Some bases are more busy than others and day shift definitely has more flights than night shift. Where I am at now, we average about one flight a day. Some days there are none, other days you might fly four; there is no rhyme or reason. HEMS flying is 90% waiting and 10% flying. That is the only bad thing about this type of flying, or the lack of it. It is very rewarding though, especially when the patients recover and come back to visit and meet the crew.

PleaseComplete

its not called Earn Money Sleeping for no reason....