I haven't flown since I retired last year and now work a 9-5 engineer job.  It's a great job but sometimes bores me to tears.  I know of an organization that needs intermittent pilot services and I'm their guy.  
The work is very intermittent(they pay via 1099 and don't have full time pilots), but they're starting some work where a local pilot is beneficial(their current current contract pilots are not local).
My motivation is to keep flying while doing some fun stuff just in case desk jobs wind up being being not my calling in life.  

I know a couple guys who have done this on the airplane side, but that's generally a simpler and more common/established situation with a lot more info available.  
It's all helicopter flying and this company has, at one time or another, done anything/everything you can imagine with a helicopter.  External loads(including people), hollywood movies, things with weapons, and lots more.  

I'm just a dumb retired military pilot and don't know what I don't know.  
Any advice?  All information will be put to good use.

Make sure that if you don't make a deal with the company to cover your recurrent training costs, that your daily rate is sufficient after x number of days to cover that and make a profit. Also strongly consider your own LLC and liability insurance.

I don’t many of the details, but most of their operations appear to be part 91.  They have a 133 and 135 certificate (and some others) and, from the few details I know, operations outside of part 91 are uncommon and only when required for a specific purpose.  

I skimmed part 91 and there’s no mention of recurrent training outside of fractionals.  None of their helicopters are large enough to require a type rating.  I might be showing my unfamiliarity with FAA rules here, but wouldn’t a medical, biannual flight review(in any helicopter), and currency be the only FAA requirements to fly?  

I don’t know any details about their insurance, but I easily meet any experience requirements and have done factory training in the two helicopters they operate most frequently.  I would assume any insurance required training outside of FAA rules would be on them, but I will ask.  

The logistics of a biannual flight review and currency did occur to me since their aircraft are all single pilot and It’s common for them to preserve and store helicopters for months at a time while they are prepared for the next job.  There is a place local that does helicopter flight training and I’m happy to do a biannual flight review on my nickel as the cost is small/infrequent, but routinely bumping currency on my time/money is not something I’m looking to do.  

The llc/insurance is intriguing…..  are you saying to have them pay “morgan321’s pilot services llc” instead of me directly?  Any idea what such insurance would cost/cover or where to look at such insurance?  

Be sure of this. There are a lot of sketchy operations out there, particularly in the helicopter world. Do not allow yourself to be sucked into doing illegal charters. I worked for someone who was only Part 91 and they got a contract for some aerial mapping work. I was very happy to be flying them around but on the last day I was told they would be departing the aircraft at the last stop (stops are allowed for crew and aircraft servicing requirements, food, fuel, etc.) and not returning to the originating airport. I had to refuse the mission the next time one came up with the same issue.

That is correct. However, it begs the question: you are an FAA certificated commercial pilot, right? You passed the CPL written? Or not yet?

Also, if the operator is carrying a Part 135 certificate then they usually institute the Part 135 training requirements across the board lest the FAA call them out for having two sets of rules in their operations. Safety management systems and all that sort of thing. No matter what they will have to put you on their DOT drug testing program.

Let's say there is an accident/incident/unfortunate event with you at the controls. The damaged parties will sue the operation, the helicopter manufacturer, and the pilot, you, all separately. Three separate lawsuits. It's very unlikely that the operator's policy will cover any of your personal liability. Thus it can be important to carry a personal liability policy of your own lest you be sued into bankruptcy. For young, penniless helicopter pilots this is not a big issue. For mature folks with houses, cars, families and bank accounts it could be a very serious thing.

Not sure what kind of operation you are discussing, but low end operators pay peanuts and all the training is on you short of going to factory training. These are "hour building" operations for the pilots, not a steady income easy to live on. However that might not be this operator. Are you able to talk to any of the other pilots that work for them to see what's what? Hell, you should just be asking them directly.  

Having an LLC might be a tax advantage. You'll have to ask a CPA. As a contract pilot having an LLC doesn't provide much in the way of personal liability protection which is the usual reason for having an LLC. As for a personal liability insurance policy you just need to get on the phone and start talking to insurers. For instance I have one through the same folks who provide my home and auto insurance. Not everyone will cover you for flying, though. You just have to shop around.

This place isn't sketchy, they've been around a long time and do all manner of aviation related things for manufacturers, operators, and government.  Piloting is a required part of their work, not their focus.  
It's not an hour building thing - in fact they fly very few hours.  The pay is surprisingly good.  

Yes, instrument and commercial helicopter.

That's an interesting take on suing I hadn't even thought about.... most of the flying would be alone or with company people, but they have done at least one hollywood movie and I know they have gotten paid by a 3rd company to fly some rich people around for some specific events - Those things are rare and, from what I know, the reason they have a part 135 certificate.  

Insurers like usaa or state farm, or aviation specific insurers?  If yours is for flying your robinson care to share the cost/coverage?  


I have so many questions I don't know where to start.  I've only given them paperwork information this week and will learn lots more, there is no imminent work so I'm not in a rush.  
My concerns come from the unknown (because I'm a dumb military pilot) and the fact that their main pilot is a full time contract pilot and doesn't live locally - he flies in for a job and flies out so it's $$$ to use him for small jobs.  
One of the main reasons they're looking for somebody local is that they recently became factory authorized to do some major airframe upgrades for a manufacturer and have work lined up starting this summer, they've also bought at least one of these same aircraft for their own uses.  At least initially I anticipate the work to be maintenance flights, ferrying, etc.  
As far as I know they still use their other non-local pilot for their intermittent work with a big helicopter they own, but it hasn't flown since late last year.

Everyone gets sued. The shotgun approach is pretty much standard.

I own and operate an R44. Not currently doing so commercially, but when I was leasing it to a local operation I did set up an LLC whose only asset was the helicopter. If they managed to crash it into a shopping mall, they'd get sued, RHC would get sued, and their pilot would get sued (hypothetically speaking--nothing like that ever happened!), and the LLC would be sued which would insulate me personally. However, if I was flying for them (which I did quite a bit) then I'm personally vulnerable as the pilot.

135 cert's are hard to get and cost a lot to maintain. It's hard to believe they don't operate under 135 all the time. At any rate, as you no doubt remember, carriage of stuff and/or people from point A to point B automatically makes it 135 (aside from the 133 stuff). That leaves a very, very small list of things allowed under Part 91. And there needs to be an FAA letter of agreement (LOA) in place to do most of that Part 91 stuff.

I'm happy to share some details of the aviation insurance. Hull insurance is the costly part, liability alone is not too bad. With a slightly underinsured hull and $1M liability I'm paying $9.5K for "personal and business use", meaning no commercial op's of any type but I can fly myself to places for whatever I want and train in my own helicopter. I have one other named insured that is also on the policy. Both of us have nearly all our time in R44's and plenty of hours so I'm getting a pretty good rate. Most private owners are paying north of $12K. I have inquired and I can get an unrestricted commercial policy for about $14K. Insurance has gone up nearly 50% over the last few years because of all of the high profile accidents in NYC and HI, Kobe Bryant, etc. It sucks. If I could work the helicopter 200 hours a year it would be worth it but right now there's no market for that around here.

If you ever need an aviation policy I can highly recommend BWI as the broker.

As for the personal liability policy I'm not keen to discuss that. Just start making calls, it will sort itself out.

I'd recommend boning up on the FAR knowledgebase before jumping into the fray, particularly what is and isn't allowed under Parts 91, 133 and 135, just so you don't find yourself getting asked to do something that's not 100% kosher. Talk to the operation about what they have in hand for Part 91 LOAs and Part 133 and 135 certificates and what training those require as well as what their insurer requires. The insurers will almost always levy requirements over and above what the FAA needs. For instance I have to do yearly flight reviews per the insurer even though I have enough hours to just bang out BFRs under SFAR 73.

Sounds like a good and fun gig if you can get it together

Im going to show my ignorance again, but just because you have a 135 doesn’t mean everything is 135 right?  
A charter or airline flying an empty aircraft to another location to have maintenance done isn’t automatically a part135 or 121 flight, correct?  

The contract they sent me says “not an employee and not eligible for health, accident, or life insurance”.  I assume “accident” means like workers comp when you break your leg, not aviation accident insurance.  

I’ll be talking to them plenty in the coming weeks, So far it’s only been “are you interested, great, fill out this paperwork.”  

I also am buying lunch a couple days next week for friends who are smarter than me on civilian rules and have done some pilot contracting (but for airplanes).  

Yes it will be fun work and works out well for both sides since I live maybe 20 minutes from their hangar.  Truly would be a dream job if it were enough work to be a full time employee.  
This company had overseas work doing maintenance for a foreign government I was liaising with while in the army.  I’m familiar with some of the company leadership and flew with a few of their pilots, I’m trying to look those pilots up now to ask questions but am coming up blank - I can only remember a couple names and it was 7 years ago and long since finished so their worker bees moved on.  

The flight is conducted under the rules its dispatched under, aka 135 flight or a 91 flight.

Maintenace flights or repo flights are usually part 61.

Unless the company has a more restrictive operating requirement written into its operations manual.

Airlines are their own animal, I'm not an airline guy so I won't try to answer that.

Like you said, kind of depends on your operations manual.  The best example is the 15th hour return to base flight.....third leg of a 135 flight.  Fly it home 91 with crew, without crew, or can you even do it?  This has been interpreted a dozen different ways.  Some operators can do it, some can't.  It comes down to you don't want to put your certificate in danger, so you pretty much operate like every flight is 135 when it comes to weather, duty time, record keeping, etc.

Yep 91.

Thanks for the correction.

I'm just beginning a contract pilot job with a part 91 aerial survey. I was hourly until I figured out I couldn't make ends meet and switched to contract. I started the process to form an LLC last week. Lots of good information above. LLC and get a CPA to do your taxes and deductions.