The helicopter is used on the second mission (tutorial -> mission one - > mission two.) but since this is LIVE the profile and save info is likely linked so using other save files might be impossible other than a cracked version. (Where LIVE is either removed or everyone uses a "fake" profile thus the saves are compatible with that.)
EDIT: I think that's how it was anyhow, just remembered that there's the jet planes, then the helicopter gunner sequence and then the helicopter flight sequence. (And now it seems a AC-130 "gunship" is going to be used in this current mission.)
[Edited by LordJB, 1/27/2013 1:48:40 AM]
EDIT: Trainer works fine here though, missiles for the helicopter aren't unlimited as mentioned but you fire bursts of them and only one ammo is used for each so you usually always have far more than enough to finish the mission. (Same with the jet planes where you get like 300 missiles per mission, specials are a bit limited though but I never really use them.)
Oh and don't use the flare options (Might just be one of them.) when there's a helicopter sequence, seems to crash the game since those can't use flares so the game probably gets a bit confused. (Or it might just be LIVE acting up again, didn't earlier versions of the program have various things like that when using a trainer or similar program?)