Flying Training - Helicentre Aviation?
On paper initially, the integrated route certainly has its advantages. What doesn't make sense to me is whether Oil & Gas companies actually want to take those that have rolled straight off an integrated course and immediately done an ME/IR? I'm told that this is a good option but I can't see it - surely the operators would much rather take those that have got 500-1500 hours instead!
And it's a lot of money to cough up for an ME/IR, is there any chance that the operators may fully or partially pay for an ideal candidate to get their ME/IR?
From my understanding, the 2 main options are to get a CPL, fork out for an ME/IR and hope to get into a co-pilot seat offshore with <250 hours, or get a CPL and then an FI rating and gain experience that way before hoping to pick up other work like VFR charter/tours/survey etc? Both seem to have their advantages and disadvantages!
And it's a lot of money to cough up for an ME/IR, is there any chance that the operators may fully or partially pay for an ideal candidate to get their ME/IR?
From my understanding, the 2 main options are to get a CPL, fork out for an ME/IR and hope to get into a co-pilot seat offshore with <250 hours, or get a CPL and then an FI rating and gain experience that way before hoping to pick up other work like VFR charter/tours/survey etc? Both seem to have their advantages and disadvantages!
If the North Sea need people, jobs aplenty, especially if you’re in good books with a school that has the connections to get you in a Copilot position with low hours. I’ve even see them pay for your whole MEIR so long as you take a 3yr pay cut from the standard FO salary.
This is the risk any new commercial pilot takes, when it comes to whether or not helicentre is a good place to work? I’m sure it’s fine, you’ll find that there will be people that will complain about any job and employer in the industry. Absolutely nowhere is perfect, you won’t find it.
Will you work for them for the rest of your career? By the sounds of it you’d prefer to use them as a stepping stone, like many do to progress into other sectors, fly bigger things, have a bigger wallet. So if it’s a temporary post anyway, you’re just getting what you want out of it, a low time job that gives you the hours and they’re getting the same, a cheap pilot that will probably leave within 2 years which is good, because they want to hire the next FI student to keep the factory churning and advertise that you could be hired at the end of your course.
They are a school with a solid success record, a proven network into the wider industry and have a history of safe operation. I wouldn’t recommend you delve into the archives of pprune to see what has been said about some of the big companies in the North Sea, otherwise you may be put off of this career before it’s even started!
"On paper initially, the integrated route certainly has its advantages. What doesn't make sense to me is whether Oil & Gas companies actually want to take those that have rolled straight off an integrated course and immediately done an ME/IR? I'm told that this is a good option but I can't see it - surely the operators would much rather take those that have got 500-1500 hours instead!"
The offshore operators are totally happy with minimum hours, straight off an Integrated CPL and subsequent IR with maybe 150 hours in your logbook. - That is how they got their pilots for many years in the 70's, 80's and 90's. You are easy to train, cheap to employ, and haven't picked up lots of bad habits. I think it Is probably the favoured route into offshore. If you are holding out for someone to sponsor your ME/IR, I worry you maybe waiting a long time. The offshore operators will either have to be very short of pilots, or making lots of money, or ideally both. Don't assume that this route is a realistic expectation. Like full CPL sponsorship, it will only be offered in very small numbers and the competition for those positions is high.
Like others have said, timing is essential and sadly can't be predicted. Coming off the 'production line' with minimal hours and an Integrated CPL and self funded IR will make you very employable in a good market where there is a shortage of pilots. Otherwise, whether you've gone Integrated or Modular, look for two years as an FI at the end to build the time required, but the FI course costs could be the investment you need to pay for the Instrument Rating. You just have to keep assessing the market as you are going through your training, to see if you need to go the IR route where jobs are available, or are there sponsorships available, or should you just hold out for a while, become an instructor, or see if one if you can pick up any work as a low hour pilot.
The market will keep changing, but you would be in a very small pool. Don't think there have been many people training over the last few years
The offshore operators are totally happy with minimum hours, straight off an Integrated CPL and subsequent IR with maybe 150 hours in your logbook. - That is how they got their pilots for many years in the 70's, 80's and 90's. You are easy to train, cheap to employ, and haven't picked up lots of bad habits. I think it Is probably the favoured route into offshore. If you are holding out for someone to sponsor your ME/IR, I worry you maybe waiting a long time. The offshore operators will either have to be very short of pilots, or making lots of money, or ideally both. Don't assume that this route is a realistic expectation. Like full CPL sponsorship, it will only be offered in very small numbers and the competition for those positions is high.
Like others have said, timing is essential and sadly can't be predicted. Coming off the 'production line' with minimal hours and an Integrated CPL and self funded IR will make you very employable in a good market where there is a shortage of pilots. Otherwise, whether you've gone Integrated or Modular, look for two years as an FI at the end to build the time required, but the FI course costs could be the investment you need to pay for the Instrument Rating. You just have to keep assessing the market as you are going through your training, to see if you need to go the IR route where jobs are available, or are there sponsorships available, or should you just hold out for a while, become an instructor, or see if one if you can pick up any work as a low hour pilot.
The market will keep changing, but you would be in a very small pool. Don't think there have been many people training over the last few years
Last edited by Special 25; 29th Nov 2021 at 06:45. Reason: quote section didn't have correct formatting
Hi Willypete
The screen was split into 4 quarters.
One quarter was ATC giving instrutions in heavily accented english.
A "pacman" style game.
The old space invaders game.
In the last one the airplane started in the middle of the quarter screen, objects appeared from the left side of the sceen and using the up/down keys on the numerical side of the keyboard I had to avoid them, all while not being "eaten", shooting down UFO's and having ATC telling me to turn on to heading 265 from 085.
The reasoning behind it is to see how one copes' with pressure.
Pressure to me would trying to autorotate a Robbie
or be a Dr in AAE
Back to the trading screen
The screen was split into 4 quarters.
One quarter was ATC giving instrutions in heavily accented english.
A "pacman" style game.
The old space invaders game.
In the last one the airplane started in the middle of the quarter screen, objects appeared from the left side of the sceen and using the up/down keys on the numerical side of the keyboard I had to avoid them, all while not being "eaten", shooting down UFO's and having ATC telling me to turn on to heading 265 from 085.
The reasoning behind it is to see how one copes' with pressure.
Pressure to me would trying to autorotate a Robbie
or be a Dr in AAEBack to the trading screen
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Thank you for your inputs, it's really helpful. It sounds like if you've got the CPL, the IR and the timing is right then you can jump into a co-pilot seat offshore just fine. If not then you've wasted your money on the IR, which is not to be taken lightly as I gather they're about £55k! With the offshore companies, is there any reason why Helicentre seem to be obsessed with Bristow - are they regarded as the best operator or are they all similar?
Sounds like instructing at Helicentre could be fine if I'm happy to accept being paid less than instructors at other flight schools, but I'd be likely to build a lot of hours in a fairly short space of time what with it being a factory so I would only be there for about 2 years - probably more hours than I would build instructing elsewhere across the country and I gather this is the "standard" route to take. The glassdoor reviews and what I'm hearing on the grape vine suggest that as a school, Helicentre are generally more expensive to train at and that people seem to have a very mixed opinion of them, which is definitely something I'll bear in mind as I dig deeper and I'll certainly be asking them lots of questions.
I believe you need to have 250 hours to get the FI rating, so you can start the training at approx. 220 hours, something else to consider as you only get 135 hours with their integrated course which means you need to build ~80 hours before you can start training to be an instructor!
Sounds like instructing at Helicentre could be fine if I'm happy to accept being paid less than instructors at other flight schools, but I'd be likely to build a lot of hours in a fairly short space of time what with it being a factory so I would only be there for about 2 years - probably more hours than I would build instructing elsewhere across the country and I gather this is the "standard" route to take. The glassdoor reviews and what I'm hearing on the grape vine suggest that as a school, Helicentre are generally more expensive to train at and that people seem to have a very mixed opinion of them, which is definitely something I'll bear in mind as I dig deeper and I'll certainly be asking them lots of questions.
I believe you need to have 250 hours to get the FI rating, so you can start the training at approx. 220 hours, something else to consider as you only get 135 hours with their integrated course which means you need to build ~80 hours before you can start training to be an instructor!
It's funny how you'll do anything to get hours when you're at the entry end of the business, and at the other end you'll do anything to get out of going flying. 
I guess it's wisdom or something.
I guess it's wisdom or something.
If Helicentre were aligned with any of the other companies it would be exactly the same.
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I notice that their integrated course is only 12 months. Isn´t it 18-24 months most other places? Very fast paced and intense then, or did they just remove unnecessary slack?
Here is another helicopter job that is currently being advertised for the same salary (£20k): https://uk.indeed.com/viewjob?jk=f1f079a01134ab0f
The major difference is that the Ops assistant won't have spent £70-100k before getting the job.
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Alright, didn´t know/remember. I looked into integrated RW ages ago, but went modular FW instead. Still, isn´t 12 months a tight schedule? Anyone here did it in that kind of time and recommend?
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It's pretty damn tight considering you have to do all the theory in that time as well. You could easily spend a year full time just on the theory alone.
If you end up going down the integrated route I would advise starting the study well before you begin the course.
If you end up going down the integrated route I would advise starting the study well before you begin the course.
I did a 12 month integrated and thought it was fine, although I’m sure it’s not for everyone.
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Hi all, hasn't time flown! Just thought I'd chime in with an update.
After much deliberation, I decided to begin my training elsewhere. I had a lot of messages from various people across the industry with horror stories of dealing with them, and have reached out to several current and old students there and have heard similar stories again. Firing instructors for standing up to tyrannical management in cases where flight safety is concerned, lying to students with regards to future jobs, making up and spreading terrible stories about students to recruiters in the industry to ruin the student's reputation, and needlessly telling capable students to pay for more hours - in some cases taking a card machine out to a rotors running aircraft!
In my personal interactions with them, like a previous poster mentioned, I found their very salesy attitude was off-putting, and combined with their crazy prices and non-optional add-ons totalling thousands of pounds by the time I would've finished training, I decided my money would be far better spent elsewhere.
I know that there will be happy people that have gone through the school and succeeded, but from my impression it seems that for every one of those happy people there are several others feeling very hard done by that have changed school because they had enough. I have decided not to take this gamble!
After much deliberation, I decided to begin my training elsewhere. I had a lot of messages from various people across the industry with horror stories of dealing with them, and have reached out to several current and old students there and have heard similar stories again. Firing instructors for standing up to tyrannical management in cases where flight safety is concerned, lying to students with regards to future jobs, making up and spreading terrible stories about students to recruiters in the industry to ruin the student's reputation, and needlessly telling capable students to pay for more hours - in some cases taking a card machine out to a rotors running aircraft!
In my personal interactions with them, like a previous poster mentioned, I found their very salesy attitude was off-putting, and combined with their crazy prices and non-optional add-ons totalling thousands of pounds by the time I would've finished training, I decided my money would be far better spent elsewhere.
I know that there will be happy people that have gone through the school and succeeded, but from my impression it seems that for every one of those happy people there are several others feeling very hard done by that have changed school because they had enough. I have decided not to take this gamble!
I suspect there is no smoke without fire, from the detractors, and they have discovered how small the industry is (and their naivety) in the process!
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Given what I've said, I'm sure you can understand that I don't want to give too much away as to who I am for fear of being hunted down! I'll reveal that I'm happily working through my training and will hopefully be out the other side within a year or two.
