The process of finding the right school is all about research. Just because you see helicopters flying over the freeway every day doesn't necessarily mean that the local Fixed-Base Operator (FBO) offers the best training for you. FBOs manage and service commercial aircraft, including training, fuel, maintenance and aircraft upkeep, so the particular operator may or may not provide what you need in every instance. The idea is to contact a likely FBO, then start asking questions such as how many helicopters do they operate, how many instructors do they employ, what is the student safety record for their school, and what are the costs involved. Take the time to talk to the operator in depth, and ask every question you can think of before signing on the dotted line.
Finding the right helicopter instructor is like finding the right mate--get it right and live happily ever after; get it wrong and you'll irritate each other to no end. Learning to deal with the intricacies of helicopter flight is not simple. Learning to flying a helicopter demands commitment and focus, and accepting the process of making mistakes, then learning from them. So when a you have just botched an engine-out auto-rotation that really scared you along with the instructor, what you're looking for is a teacher who is willing to offer calm assurance rather than hard-edged criticism. As a process, the trick is to size up various instructors before signing up to fly with one. After interviewing potential instructors, ask yourself if you like the instructor's personal demeanor and does the instructor respond to questions in detail, or just offer "...don't worry about it, we'll deal with it in the helicopter" kind of responses.
Federal Aviation Regulation (FAR) Part 61 generally governs student pilot operations during helicopter training. There's another regulation that offers a lot more structure than Part 61: Part 141 operator, which requires these schools to produce and certify a formal curricula. The end result is that the teaching process is much more refined. So unless your impending instructor is a family friend who just happened to retire from the Air Force with 10,000 hours under his belt, it's better to go with a Part 141 school.
Most students don't typically have the minimum $11,500 required to complete a course lying around, but there are other ways to get funded. Of the numerous commercial funding opportunities available, there are a couple that stand out: credit union loans and third-party financial firms who specialize in training school funding. Either way, you will have to describe a formal plan and support it with an appropriate written proposal or business rationale to get this type of funding. However, this long process will force you to think through the entire "fly a helicopter for fun and profit" idea before it gets too far into the financial details. The alternative is having to face other career options after already spending a good portion your budget by standing in the middle of a frozen Wisconsin field at 20 degrees F waiting for a power-wire inspector after realizing its cold outside. In other words, "talk the talk," but make sure that you intend to "walk the walk" before you sit down in front of a funding underwriter.
As the movie "Hope Floats" opined, "Beginnings are scary and ends are sad, it's the middle that counts"; and so it is with helicopter flying. First flights are characterized by part fear, part excitement, followed by significant pride once you take the controls for the first time. By the same token, at the end of a long career flying helicopters, a pilot will undoubtedly feel a mixture of nostalgia and sadness at how quickly the entire experience passes by. So for a potential student, enjoy the future and ride the ride throughout, because working with these amazing aircraft is well worth the effort.