If you’re considering a career as a helicopter pilot, you should have an idea of how much money you can expect to make.  There are several sources you can use to find this information.  Websites like salarywizard.com has national averages and statistics on pilot compensation. Another way to find out how much pilots make is to contact individual operators, or look at more focused sites like helicoptersalaries.com.  We’ll discuss both…

According to salarywizard.com, 50% of helicopter pilots earn at-least $81,950 per year, or more.  The average pay for helicopter pilots is between $69,920 and $106,107 per year.  Salary Wizard has a more specific search feature which you can use to determine how much helicopter pilots make in a specific zip code.  Click here to see the salarywizard.com report for helicopter pilots.

While its certainly encouraging about helicopter pilots making 80k per year, I will warn you that the above information can actually be somewhat misleading.  Usually these statistics are a conglomeration of many industry segments and doesn’t take into consideration the experience of the pilot.  So, while yes, the above information may be technically accurate for experienced helicopter pilots, that doesn’t mean you should start thinking of all the ways you can spend $82k per year, after you finish flight school.

A better way to anticipate what you should expect in terms of pay is to research the compensation packages of specific companies that do the type of flying you want to do.  If you want to fly for EMS, look up EMS salaries, if you want to fly offshore oil, research companies that do that sort of thing.

There is one website that stands out above others for this type of research.  The site is called www.helicoptersalaries.com.  It’s well worth your time to take a few minutes and go to this site to see what starting pilots are making at different companies.  The down side is that it doesn’t have every helicopter operator listed, but it does have enough information to give you a good idea of what you can expect to earn as a helicopter pilot.

If you’re serious about becoming a professional helicopter pilot, you need to know how you will be compensated, and what you can expect to earn.  Also, if you already know of a company that you want to work for that’s not listed on helicoptersalaries.com, don’t be afraid to call their HR department and just explain who you are and you’d like to know how much a new pilot can expect to make.  It never hurts to ask. There’s no substitute for good solid research.