Identifying opportunities

[The Nr Fairy]

Every major event during the summer seems to have a helicopter operating, giving 5 minute trips to the punters in exchange for moolah.

How do you identify those events which warrant the effort of setting up a helicopter ride thing ? Then what are the considerations for the actual site ?

Off the top of my head, for the main event itself:

1. Reasonably large attendance - what's the lower expected limit here ?

2. Other and varied attractions - gets a different mix of people ?

For the site(and yes I know the CAA have produced a document on HLS dimensions):

1. Where's the HLS going to be, and how big is it ?

2. How many people do you need to work it properly ?

3. Anything else ?

I'm more after stuff out of the ordinary, rather than the routine info. And if anyone knows of any suitable events which don't have a helicopter ride this year, let me know ! :D

[Heli-Ice]

Look for silly looking people with cameras and work it from there. :}

[ATPMBA]

For staffing you need a minimum of three people. Pilot, money taker, and a loader. The money takes controls the gate and keeps people away from the helicopter and off course collects the funds. Having a good loader is the key to a successful operation. They assist in getting the people in and out of the helicopter, they can set the pace. The loader needs to be safety conscious and needs to work quickly and understand how helicopters work and act. They need to have common sense too, in a door-off operation you don’t want put a small child next to the open door.

[airmail]

Nr

Its been a few years since I used to be involved in the pleasure flight scene but this is what I know-I'm sure that someone else can give you more upto date info however:

1. Attendance. Larger is not necessarily better, I went to shows in small villages where the total attandance was less than 1000 people but everybody (and I mean everybody) wanted to fly. I also attended shows that had 100,000 plus people over a weekend and we hardly flew at all. You need to get a feel for the type of show, the area and to a certain extent have some luck as well.

2. Attractions. Similar answer to the above, if there are a lot of exciting attractions it will impact on your amount of flights whereas if you are the only 'exciting' attraction you should be kept busy all day.

3. HLS. As close to the main ring, attractions as possible but you want it to be large enough so that you can use a single for commercial reasons (i.e. better margins). Cannot remeber exact size but I am sure that it is on the CAA website

4. People. Depends on skill, a/c type, how busy you expect to be etc. For a single (206, 206L) I would say that you need at least 4 plus the pilot. This is so you have one person taking the money and the rest as loaders (one per door). The quicker you can turn flights around the more you can do etc. Also, I believe the CAA insist on this sort of minimum. They will need to be current in fire and first aid.

5. Anything else. Lots to consider, where will you get the fire kit from (helicopter operator or do you have your own), do you have people that you can trust with literally thousands of pounds in cash after a busy day, are the people that will be working the site mature enough to deal with frightened or angry passengers, or in the worst case with an incident that could happen.

I have probably raised more questions than I answered-as I say its been a few years since I did it but feel free to mail me if you want any more info.

Cheers

airmail

[Helinut]

Over the years I have worked for a number of outfits specialising in pleasure flying. It is a (financially) risky business even for those with lots of experience.

I have spent many hours listening to views on what makes a good event. Busy, but without anything (else) that is too exciting. The location of the hele site relative to the other bits of the event is critical. You need to be close to the action or on the way from the car park at least. You don't want events that have other features that prevent or limit flying. You don't want to pay the event organiser too much - preferably a percentage of every pax flown. You don't want to have to position your helicopter too far either cos that is all non-revenue flying. It is also possible for an area to suffer from hele fatigue - after several years of pleasure flights a population will have been "flown out". You also have to be able to guarantee good weather too.

There is loads of advice from the Belgrano about what you need.
They do visit you fairly frequently too, so keep your house in order. From a drivers viewpoint, the worst thing is when a proper prior site visit has not been done properly. You are then under pressure to fly out of an "unsuitable" site - if you don't you probably won't fly for the same outfit again.

In practice, I think you will always need at least 4 people, and a lot more if you are busy: 1 pilot, 2 ground crew (to satisfy CAA standards) and someone to take and safeguard the money.