Helicopter hours????? SOMEONE WHO KNOWS HELICOPTERS?

Question

My sister and I are going to inherit my dads helicopters when she turns 21 which is next year, and when I turn 21 which will be a while. We want to sell them or just get rid of them because my moms broker and accountant says that they will cost us $ 200 for each operating hour and the maintance cost are supposed to be alot. I dont understand the whole "HOURS" thing because they keep using that term. Does it mean that for every hour that we fly it..we have to pay $200 to get checked? that doesnt make sense? what is an helicopter hour?

P.S
the helicopters are not here in the U.S they are in a private island in south africa. We only use them about 2 or 3 times a year. So does that mean we have to pay even when we are not using them??

Answer 1

Helicopter flight hours are calculated from 'pitch pull' (takeoff) to landing. Time spent idling on the ground is not counted.

Per hour operating costs are figured by pro-rating your fixed costs (insurance, annual inspections, hangar rental, pilot's and mechanic's pay (if on salary), etc.) and adding your flexible costs (fuel, oil, 100-hr inspections, pilot's and mechanic's pay (if hired by the hour), etc.).

You don't stop every hour and pay $200 to get checked out, the hours add up over time. For example, when I was mechanic chasing forest fires around western U.S. in a Bell 205 (civilian model 'Huey' helicopter) the maintenance schedule was:

Daily Inspection - At the end of each flight day
25-Hr Inspection - Every 2-3 days depending on flight loads
100-Hr inspection - @ every two weeks
1000-Hr/Annual Inspection - Every year at the end of the fire season.

That said, $200/hr seems awfully reasonable for an operating cost; perhaps that is just referring to fuel costs. My employer was billing the forest service @ $2000/Hr., and that was almost a decade-and-a-half ago.

If you only use the birds 2-3 times a year, it may not be cost effective to keep them on hand. It would probably be better to hire helicopters at need, instead. Consider a lease-back arrangement. If you want to keep them around, consider making them pay for themselves. There are a number of missions that only a helicopter can do, or do most efficiently. Look around for opportunities to put your birds to work.

Answer 2

If you take into consideration how much money you can make while these helicopters are operating, the $200 it will cost per hour of flying time will not seem so expensive. The helicopter business is a huge money-making business. If you just keep things going the way they are going now, you will be fine. I'm sure that your dad already has maintenance contractors in place to look after his helos. As for the airframe hours, these are for measuring when an aircraft needs to be inspected. They are not just for helicopters. All aircraft are kept in check by airframe hours. There are a number of different checks that need to be done at different measurements of time. The reason they do this by airframe hours is because during the lifetime of an aircraft, the engines can be changed quite a few times and measuring by distance traveled is not as effective. Now that I've read your question over again, I'll have to change my answer a little. I think that flying the aircraft 2 or 3 times a year is definitely not making you any money. Your dad must just have them for recreation. I would still advise you to keep them and hire them out for more lucrative ventures, that way they'll pay for themselves and you'll still be able to go for helicopter rides whenever you want.

Answer 3

The hours your accountant is referring to is the hours on engine. Some pilots only count hours spent between takeoff and landing as flight time but insurance companies count every second< or six minutes for that matter> the aircraft is running. Many aircraft use a "Hobbs" meter to show the hours, on a helicopter there are two, one showing engine time and one showing airframe time, engine is attached to the electrical system and airframe is connected to the skids and reads when there is weight on the skids. The $200/hr you mentioned would be an accumulation of fuel burn, insurance, and maintenance. It probably does not have to do with hanger space or tarmac renting. If there is no worry about that and its on a private strip of land then the 200/hr is very very reasonable. Best of luck and I hope you keep it. Fly it once and you will definately not want to sell it.

Answer 4

Cost per Flight Hour (or CFH as it's sometimes abbreviated) is a way of estimating the amount of cost to the owner for every hour he/she flies the aircraft. It is important to note that it is only an ESTIMATE, and may fluctuate depending on what kind of flying you're doing, whether the aircraft are hangared or outside, age of the aircraft, what stuff decides to break on you at any given time, and so on. The term "hours" can refer to engine hours (there's usually some kind of counter mounted on the engine, kind of like the odometer in a car) that dictates when the engine needs routine maintenance, and flight hours that drive when the airframe itself needs inspections, upkeep, whatever. It really is rather complicated, which is why most private owners contract maintenance out to somebody. For your purposes, it's probably most important to realize two things. 1) The "cost per flight hour" is an estimate, and may be much more or much less depending on who you're talking to, and may be talking just about fuel or may include routine maintenance, and 2) There are other "hidden costs" that people may not be disclosing to you, like hangar space and what-not. Honestly, aircraft ownership is a lot more confusing than real estate in a lot of ways. The best thing you can do is find someone you TRUST that is knowledgeable about this, and get them to ask the right questions and translate it to English for you.

Answer 5

Maintenance on helicopters is expensive. Its not like a car. There is also fuel costs and the pilots salary as well. Depending on the helicopter, there are maintenance and replacement schedule based on flight hours...so for example every 100 hours of flight time a maintenance check would be performed costing thousands of dollars. Hope this helps

Answer 6

Helicopters are very expensive to operate and maintain. Instead of stating costs per mile like you would do with land vehicles, air vehicles (like planes and helicopters) are stated in terms of operating hours.

To answer your other question, yes, you will have significant costs even when you are not operating your helicopter. Things like hangar space, insurance, maintenance and inspections, and taxes are all things you can expect to pay without even starting the engine.

Answer 7

Although I do not think there are any public sources available for the exact number of hours for each aircraft, I can tell you now that it is the Blackhawk by far, simply because there are the most of them and they are used for such a wide variety of purposes. Apaches are only used as gunships for attacks and convoy escorts while Blackhawks are used for these duties, as well as MEDEVAC, reconnaissance, insertion, extraction, transportation, etc. Many of these jobs the Apache is simply unable to do. EDIT: As to what Joshua H said. I can promise you that of the military aircraft, the Kiowa has far less hours flown than many other aircraft .

Answer 8

I think they mean like how much they will cost to operate per hour.

Probably fuel wise, it uses 200 dollars worth of fuel per hour