[MMike]

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Smugglers+increasingly+using+helicopters+transport+drugs/2091961/story.html

Part of the fall-out from the Sam Brown, Jeremy Snow thing.

People taking flight training just long enough to be able to fly......sounds a lot like the same problem as the Sept 11 pilots.

Honestly, I'm not sure how you'd control something like this. It would be like denying someone access to a university education in chemistry because they might go on to build terrorist bombs later in life.

 

[Westy]

Build SkyNet to defend the border.

 

[4xBoy]

Do you know anything about the cost of going to a flight school? (I don't I have never looked into it).

4 month basic training, if I started do I pay up front? do I pay per class?

 

[MMike]

As near as I know, you pay up front. And basic helicopter flight school is about $40k...for a turbine. Less is you stay in a piston engine. (So I've been told)

 

[rockofullr]

mmmmmm......

 

[Andyman_1970]

MMike you're correct, Helo flight training is major $$$. Very few people can afford that. Even with fixed with flight school, it's not like we're talking thousands of students to check, with the helo's you're probably talking a few hundred at the most.

Another note, there is an alarmist tone to that article, but if you think about it, this is a self correcting condition for the most part. The examples noted were not licensed pilots, and as such were probably not building alot of time in type, I think it was noted in the article the helo's they were flying when arrested were stolen, so these are one off flights in a sense. Flying in the PNW is difficult between the terrain and the weather. Flying in instument conditions in a fixed wing aircraft is hard enough (I know), but flying a helo is an order of magnitude more difficult. These guys will eventually kill themselves as I'm sure they are pushed to fly outside weather minimums, at night with no NVG's, etc.

Seems like a tempest in a teapot to me.............

 

[MMike]

MMike you're correct, Helo flight training is major $$$. Very few people can afford that. Even with fixed with flight school, it's not like we're talking thousands of students to check, with the helo's you're probably talking a few hundred at the most.

Another note, there is an alarmist tone to that article, but if you think about it, this is a self correcting condition for the most part. The examples noted were not licensed pilots, and as such were probably not building alot of time in type, I think it was noted in the article the helo's they were flying when arrested were stolen, so these are one off flights in a sense. Flying in the PNW is difficult between the terrain and the weather. Flying in instument conditions in a fixed wing aircraft is hard enough (I know), but flying a helo is an order of magnitude more difficult. These guys will eventually kill themselves as I'm sure they are pushed to fly outside weather minimums, at night with no NVG's, etc.

Seems like a tempest in a teapot to me.............

Yup. People pile up Jet Rangers all the time because they are flying outside "the envelope". And if they aren't even "low-timers", they won't last long.

On a side note, I was at the IHST symposium last week. (International Helicopter Safety team). Their mission is to reduce helicopter accidents by 80% in the next few years. Not surprising, the #1 cause of accidents is pilot action/judgment. I believe this is also true for fixed wing but especially so for helicopters.

 

[jimmydean]

"Sam was super. None of the other students could believe he was involved in smuggling."

Like they walk into class and announce "Lets get this **** started, I have plants budding!"