Hey!
I'm 20, and I've been thinking about being a heli pilot for a good year now, the more time goes on the more I want to.
I've recently been to this meeting of this heli school in Canada called helicraft. Uh, learned many things including that it's supposedly way better in Canada (and some dudes in the public confirmed this to me telling me that in france or switzerland for example you need 1000 hours to get a job wheras in Canada it's 500).
I get a 110 hours by doing their course, + "training" to be a goffer + a "career+" program that alows you to do easy flights for them after you "graduate" for like 10CAD an hour to pay for the exam you need to pass as a heli piolt each year. However it's only if you didn't find a goffer job yet so idk.
Also is it worth to study some sort of mechanic studies in helicopters to be a mechanic and get flight hours there ? I know european school won't give me what I need for Canada (since it's not european helicopters there) but i mean, fuck it haha, I can study in Canada, work as a mechanic then pay for the heli school, then work again as a mechanic until i get enough hours ???
Anddd, they also told me there's a short gap of a few years with a need of pilot because of covid (that is already closing a lot from what they've seen as a heli school). to quote them : Q: "But it's for experience pilots" A:Yes but it creates a sort of draft, if there's not enough experience pilots they take a bit less experienced, then the a bit less experience get the job of the pervious one and so on. Moreover the company are starting to realize it's gonna be an issue (the lack of experienced pilots) and that we do need to get flight hours to the beginners to have experienced pilots in the future"
And would you know any other country that is good to get your licence ? (and so work afterwards in it ?) I heard the states might be good because you can easily be a flight instructor after you get your license, to get these flight hours... but yeah, as we say in french "it's the cross and the banner" to get a visa and live in the states hahaha.
ps: yes I do speak english well, I have not been practicing a lot these last 2 years so I lost a bit but I was a good B2.2/C1 and know it will come back very quickly, so I'm not limited in working just in Quebec.
Thanks a lot ! might have some other questions that will come up as i read your answers.