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About me, your author: I (Ryan) am writing this while at an airbase in Idaho. I fly the AS332 Super Puma as part of a type one crew, and have been flying for a total of 21 years. I’ve flown for offshore oil rigs, TV stations, powerline companies, air medical, and this is my 11th fire season.
Baseline Info
- Helicopters drop water and retardant on and around fires
- They transport humans into places hard to reach on foot, often inserting them via rappel.
- They transport cargo as needed
Cost: Approximately 100k for flight school (zero to CFI)(some people have reported their school cost closer to $140k). Main options:
- Cash
- Student loan: Usually associated with 2 yr college degree
- GI bill & other military education benefits (for veterans)
- Military flight programs: service obligation
- Whirly Girls International - scholarship opportunities for women
Timeline:
- Nothing to being a Certified flight instructor (when you’ll usually start getting paid): 9 months-2 years
- Nothing to flying a light helo on wildfires: 4-6 years total
- Nothing to flying a heavy helo on wildfires: 8+ years total
Step 1: Attend flight school (150-200 flight hours + ground time, 1-2 years, 100k - roughly)
- Get the required medical exam (to make sure you can be a pilot) (MedExpress)
- Private Pilot’s License (like a drivers license, for helicopters)
- Instrument Rating (fly using instruments instead of just eyesight)
- Commercial Pilot Rating (now you’re legally able to be paid to fly) (150+ hours)
- Certified Flight Instructor (optional, certifies you to teach students) (must have commercial first)
- Getting your CFI will enhance your career. Teaching is a great way to be paid to build up flight hours and sharpen your skills.
- CFII (CFI for Instruments) (optional, this certifies you to teach instrument flying to students)
Step 2: Get your first job, build from your 150-200 flight hours up to 1,000+
- Teaching at your flight school is a great option. Get paid, build hours and skills. Around 1-2 year of teaching should get you to 1,000 hours
- Some tour companies may hire you in the 300-500 hour range
- Or, get another high volume flying job and build hours there.
Step 3: Get a higher level job & continue developing. Good options include
- Offshore Oil rig flying (I got hired and worked in the Gulf of Mexico when I hit 1,000 hours)
- Flying daily for a news channel (was hired around 1,500 hours, flew monday thru friday plus some weekends)
- Flying tour flights in scenic places.
- Entry level utility/powerline/pipeline patrol (You’ll fly the powerlines, Use LIDAR, looking for damage etc)
Step 4: Build longline experience (‘longline’ refers to the line that is attached to the bottom of the helicopter and typically dangles 50+ feet below the helicopter. The bottom of this line is where the water bucket and other equipment dangles.
- This requirement is tough, because you need the experience to get the job and you need the job to get the experience
- Option 1: If you are an experienced pilot, some companies with a fire contract may hire you and conduct in house training to teach you how to fly buckets and longlines.
- Option 2: Utility route. Work your way up in a company doing utility work. You’ll start transporting gravel, tools and other cargo as needed. You’ll make more money and work more days.
- Work your way up and get in house training from the company on more advanced longline work.
- Start working more advanced longline roles including delicately placing poles into holes in the ground with lineman.
- Option 3: Alaska Option - Become a tour pilot in Alaska (generally 1000+ hours) for a company that also has a utility department. Your tour flying time is like your interview, and if you do well on tours they can train you on utility flying. You will move into larger and larger aircraft and get lots of training. Pay isn’t great but the training /development opportunities can pay off.
Step 5:
- As you gain experience and skills, you can move up helo classes into larger and larger aircraft (if desired). Find a company that is willing to put you through training for a type rating (12,500+ pound aircraft) This can cost your company $35,000+.
The path I took:
My personal path was not direct to fire and utility. I took the standard CFI route followed by oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico, news gathering and air medical. While working air medical my employer was awarded a state fire contract in a light helicopter and asked if I wanted to get bucket training and staff the contract. I found long line flying far more challenging and rewarding than air medical and decided to stay on that path. I spent 7 fire seasons in light aircraft before moving to the K-max for 2 seasons followed by the S-61 and now the Super Puma in my 11th fire season.
Getting hired in this industry is as much networking as it is skills and resumes. Often jobs are word of mouth based and right place, right time. I’ve found employment by submitting resumes to posted job ads, had friends reach out to let me know they had an opening or spent months keeping in touch with chief pilots until a position opened up.
Schedule
- 12 days on, 12 off is normal
- 12 days on, 2 off is also an option
- Current duty day: Ready to fly at 9AM and we can work up to 14 hours or until dark, whichever comes first
- Some companies keep you on salary year round. Some have other opportunities such as heli ski flying and utility work in the winter to keep you busy.
- In Arizona and New Mexico the fire season typically starts in April and ends when the monsoons hit in July or August.
- In northern Idaho/Montana, season usually start mid-late July and burns through mid September/October
- Different situations exist with early/late season contracts. An example includes ‘burn contracts” which are mostly supporting prescription fire work in the south-eastern area of the US but will switch to fire suppression as needed.
Contract types (How the helo company you work for is hired)
- Exclusive use: The helicopter is paid for, staffed and available for a set number of days. The shortest is 90 days with many going 120 days or longer. These contracts come with a host base location but you can be moved anywhere as needed.
- Call when needed: The aircraft and crew is ‘deployed’ to a location/incident and when the incident is resolved they will either reassign you to a different incident or release you. The calls can be as short as a few days or last months depending on the needs of the forest service.
Pros
- Variety.
- Paid travel.
- Changes in scenery (not sitting in an office).
- Often challenging and engaging work.
- Small community. Often working around and bumping into friends.
Cons
- Feast or famine You will sit around waiting for fires then get crazy busy before sitting again .
- High travel volume can wear over time.
- Time away from home/family. Can add stress to relationships for some.
- Last minute scheduling. Here, there, often don't know when and where you're going next.
- You live out of a suitcase and pack all your bags everyday in case you get sent to a new location.
Pay:
- This is very hard to pin down since each company pays differently. They offer various schedules and may or may not have work outside of fire.
- Some pay hourly, some are salary, some pay a low base with a high rate per flight hour or a combination of all of the above.
- Flight experience, skill set and number of days worked will greatly impact compensation.
- Most companies will directly pay your travel and lodging, and pay you a per diem for food.
- Depending on the situation pilots working a full fire season should start in the ballpark of
- Heavy (captain): $130k+
- Medium: $80k+
- Light: (Entry level) $60k+
These numbers are entry level fire numbers. Compensation can be much higher depending on experience.
You can make more or less depending what other work you choose to take. If you fly 300 days between the fire season and utility work, you can make 200k+.
Danger Scale
- 5/10
- Everything is fine until it isn’t. Hovering for rappellers, towing buckets and other longline work is dangerous. You may go your whole career without a serious incident, but when incidents do occur there is catastrophic potential.
Other Details
- We must cease fire ops and be wheels down no later than 30 mins past sunset, ‘pumpkin’
- We have at least 10 hours of uninterrupted rest between shifts
- As the pilot of the aircraft you can cease operations if the situation is unsafe.
Author: Ryan Cutter
Quick Facts
- Piloted over 20 different aircraft including fixed wing
- Helicopter PPL in 2003
- 11 seasons on wildfires
- 21 years of commercial flight experience
Jobs I’ve worked
- Instructing
- Offshore oil rig work
- Heli News Crew
- Air Medical
- General Utility work
- Powerline work
- Overseas humanitarian (with the UN)
- Aerial firefighting
Questions: leave a comment on the posts related to this on Instagram: dangerousjobs_