Which country for training?
 

A friend of mine is interested in getting his helicopter license, he lives in the Scarborough area.

Any suggestions on where to get it.

Also savings and benefits of getting it over seas?

How much will it cost start to finish either UK or overseas?

Any info would be much appreciated.

Cheers

Neil

Get in contact with Helimutt he lives up your part of the world.

Budget on £ 200 to £ 225 an hour.

Very few people pass with the min requirement of 45 hours, usually 50 to 60

If your friend is considering OS Australia is probably worth a look with the current exchange rate. ppl(h) is a few more hours.. 60 or 65 I think but the price is between $300 - $350 AUS/hr roughly 100 pounds/hour

There are quite a few schools here that cater for O/S students with packages that include accom etc.

With all OS ventures there are the costs of travelling to and living in another country.

Some of that can be offset by imaginative accounting, eg 'free' holidays.

Yep, give Helimutt a shout in UK, consider USA and AUS, then give NZ a thought. Cheaper than all of the above, mountains, forests and the highest per capita use and ownership of helicopters anywhere in the world.

UK training abroad
 

Hi,

Does anyone know of any UK schools that send their students abroad for training? I want to get UK CPL(H) but would also like to train abroad.

Thanks :-)

Only helicopter school where you can get a UK (JAA) commercial licence out of the UK is Helicopter Adventures in Florida.

www.heli.com

Bet someone knows of another :)

null
Hi Val ED, I am also interested in doing heli training in fl, would like to chat more, when are you thinking of going and have you done your ppl please e mail me John.Davies38@btinternet .com

I want to learn - but where?
 

Firstly - Thanks for taking the time to read this
Secondly - No, this is not a 'Bleeding heart' looking for sponsorship, however...
As the lead in suggests I'm trying to get my info in order before taking the plunge and spending what is still I think alot of money.
I've been looking into this seriously for about 18 months, including a two hour trial flight and reading the books, (Air law / Comms and Principles of Helicopter flight.)
The problem is that just as I thought I knew what I was going to do, i.e PPL in the UK, hour building in the US and back to the UK for the CPL then apply to the North Sea Fleet, up comes this Australian pilot and tells me that I can go to Aus, do the CPL licence, (for a fraction of the cost,) come back here do, approx 5-8 hours and still get the CPL...
...Basically - H E L P !! :confused:

G'day Face,

I expect you have worked out that you get Aussie dollars very cheaply with your pounds these days.

If you do decide to train here, I absolutely recommend Bankstown Helicopters (at Sydney's prime GA airport).
http://www.bankstownhelicopters.com.au

I'm not sure whether you will be exempted our 10% GST, but by prepaying 10 hours at a time you should be paying A$300 (just over 100 pounds) plus GST per hour dual at a very professional school, flying very schmick Robbies.


Cheap living, great weather, one of worlds greatest cities, not overpopulated, cheery Aussies, culturally close enough. What more could you ask for??

Or even try NZ,better value for money,more varied flying enviroments,nicer people look at Heliflight.co.nz

Best of Luck

With regards to the training in NZ you will find that this might actually help you become a better alround pilot as the flying conditions in the areas of NZ where training is usually done is more severe than what the schools in Australia have.

For example companies such as Heliflight and Wanaka Helicopters have mountains right at their back door step so you get the valuable mountain flying and density altitude training that is a great asset. In OZ most of the schools are based on the coast and therefore training is much different.

Besides the USD is worth 2.5 NZD so the exchange rate is good for you.

Pac Rotors :cool:

Nothing against NZ training, I'm sure it's top.

But just to be quite clear we do have handy mountains here in Oz (actually I'm sitting on one now), and no shortage of density altitude on account of lots of heat.

Seriously you will be certainly be busy enough avoiding running a piston helicopter out of puff here.

And we have heaps more sun & sand (& women).

But yes the NZ $ is even softer than ours. And I will concede that the Kiwis make nice beer.

Sorry Guys in NZ. Baa.

Guys, thanks for the response. I think I've figured out how and where - until someone else gives me some advice to the contrary I'm looking to go with Helipro in New Zealand on their Cadetship course.
Now if only someone could help me figure out what the requirements are in order to transpose a New Zealand CPL(H) over to a JAR/JAA CPL(H)...
...Any offers?..Anyone? ;)

[ 25 July 2001: Message edited by: Face man ]

Hi all just asking if anyone can advise of advantages/disadvantages of training here or in usa. Hope to one day get paid to fly, i have no experience at the moment but have looked at many sites on internet and still not sure. Any advise from the professionals would be appreciated.
Have looked at volar helicopters in florida and i am very interested if anyone has trained with them and could help.Thanks

Contact RW-1

Why not give Australia or NZ a thought for training? There are plenty of good reputable schools, the weather is great for flying most of the time and if your converting sterling to Oz/NZ dollars then its cheap to. CPL course is 105 hours in Oz and some schools have cheap accomodation on site. Good luck

Training in SA or AUS
 

I'd be pleased to hear from anyone who has been and trained for a PPL or CPL in either South Africa or Australia. I have a fw licence but keen to do the heli training. I was thinking of doing a SA PPL H first to test the water and then maybe go back and do the CPL H with a view to converting it to a UK (JAA) licence. Does anyone have any experience of this, how good are the schools and how straightforward is ti to convert on my return to the UK.:)

training in SA
 

i trained at helibip/the helicopter people in south africa. they are based in JHB. great instructors, great weather, well maintained machines and safety always comes first.
PPL: around GBP 5,500 (50 hours)
CPL: including PPL-> around GBP 20,000 (200 hours)
and you can live comfortable for around GBP 300 per month (rent, food, car included)
contact me if you need more info...

Flight Management,

I would recomend doing it in Oz.I have done training in both countries and it is most certain a bit more complicated flying in Oz.
This way you will have atleast a little experience when flying in the UK.I have no intentions of bad mouthing the training in SA, but my personal experience is that Oz is better.

I did CPL on the cheap--combined fix wing and helicopter,and if completed in one step only required 130 hours.Only problem is that you end up with only 80 hours in a chopper .
,which can be a pain in the arse as most places wont let you hire one unless you have 100 hours because of insurance.They will but put it down as Nav training but you cant take passengers.

Sorry ,that was 105 hours all up---130 i think if you dont do last 30 hours in one hit.Flying school was on Sunshine Coast in Queensland (aus)www.chopperline.com.au.
Was about $30g then but about $40g Aussie now so with the way the aussie buck is thats cheap.