Originally Posted by
Just_Waiting
I'm looking to get my PPL (H), and I'm interested to get the views on which is the best helicopter to learn to fly in.
The closest training centre to me is about 5 minutes up the road and they have R22s and R44s to learn in. However I've been told that the Cabri G2 is a much safer, easier helicopter to fly - that would mean travelling for 45 minutes or so to get to a centre that has those, but is that a better option? I've also heard some people say that if you learn to fly an R22 you will find flying anything else easy!?
Thanks in advance for your help.
Cheers,
Mark
The best training helicopter is the one your instructer uses. Pick your instructor first! That is the most important aspect of flight instruction. The instructer has to be able to teach you according to your learning style. I would travel to the best instructer I could find, quality instruction is the determinant of the rest of your flying career. I use the term 'career' because you want to be as serious, careful and professional in all your flying. Flying is not especially dangerous but it is spectacularly unforgiving; and bad habits acquired early are very difficult to train out of.
Don't worry about instructional airframe, Bell, Schweizer, Robinson, whatever should not be your problem. Airframe availability is more important. I would travel to a school with adequate resources, both airframe and instructional infrastructure, to avoid interrupted training sessions.
I recommend doing as much of the ground schooling as you can as early in the process as you can.... Even if you repeat some segments. The student pilot is not just learning to wiggle the stick with some control- you're learning in a different world and it has a different language.
Next, consider frequency of training. An hour a day for a pre-solo is plenty, more is generally not productive. Once you've done 5-10 hours of your 'solos', you can fly more every day and build experience.