I hope this helps prospective Heli Pupils in New Zealand.
I went over in November 2006 for 6 weeks to complete my PPL (H). I did my training with Helipro from their Paraparaumu base near Kapati Island. I was picked up from Wellington Airport and taken straight to the pub to meet some of the students from the school than dropped to my accommodation. I was picked up everyday and taken into the school for lessons. Unfortunately weather wasn’t on my side for the first two weeks so didn’t manage to get many hours in so swotted up and got 2 of my theory exams out of the way. The next challenge was the medical, due to childhood asthma I nearly didn’t get my medical, so unfortunately I had nearly 20 hours by the time I was allowed to finally go solo. The Examiner did one circuit with me and cut the engine for me at 500ft on short finals (autorotation easy). He then got out and away I went. I have got my mountain rating and 10 hrs solo to date. Another problem I had was due to xmas, the theory test centre shut early and didn’t open again till I had returned to the UK so I couldn’t do my cross country solo which means I couldn’t do my test in the end. I returned back to the UK with 42 hours. I was fortunate to do my training in the Hughes 300 (basically due to being a fat so & so) I also managed to get some R44 hours.
I chose Helipro after attending a seminar. Helipro are a commercial organisation which means I got to bump my hours up cheaply by volunteering for ferry flights. I loved it, my favourite being the low level stuff (apocalypse stylee) and the mountain flying.
My main advice is get your medical sorted before you potentially waste money by not being allowed to fly, and if you need help with the theory don't be shy pay for it if necessary.
Thank you to Adam, Mark and Jarrod. I will be going back as soon as I save some more money up.
If you have any other questions please just PM me
Mick