How would the Camerlengo know how to fly a helicopter??

It is explained in the book. At 16 he was obliged by Italian law to serve two years in the reserve military but he would be exempt if he entered seminary. He chose to do the two years so he could understand evil. Since he refused to fire a gun the military instead trained him to fly a medical helicopter.

He mentions in an early scene he knows how to fly helicopters. It's just in passing conversation, but it is in there.

I mean, really, how many times will you look under Jabba's manboobs?

I'm not sure why you think this needs an explanation or think its a plot hole. Do you think priests are, for some reason, forbidden to learn how to pilot aircraft?

And, just to be clear, just because something is not explained does not make it a plot hole. If they had declared earlier in the film that the Camerlengo had a fear of flying and had never been in an aircraft, then flew the helicopter, that would be a plot hole.

I know this is old, but it was CLEARLY EXPLAINED in the movie. He'd joined the army, and his dad suggested he join air force and he did, and learned to fly helis.

It's ludicrous when people don't pay any attention to what they are watching when it requires the slightest thinking.

You must have missed the part where he explained his military service and how he learned to fly choppers. Please don't make up plot holes where they don't exist.