Helicentre Aviation
 

Does anyone know much about this company? What they are like to work for and their base at Damyns Hall?

Cheers,

TiP:)

The Helicentre Aviation outfit that I am aware of was based at Blackpool, although having other bases (frequently in the NW). Been around for a while. Never worked directly for them, so reluctant to gossip. They have existed for a relatively lomg time but locations and key personnel have changed from time to time. I believe the effective owner has remained the same.

Looking at that, it may not be much help............

Thanks Helinut, I am aware that they have been based in Coventry for a while but have recently opened up outside London. Any info would be much apprieciated.

TiP

Helicentre used to have bases at Blackpool, Liverpool, Coventry, and maybe somewhere else in the Northwest, all owned by the same person. That changed - some sold off or whatever - and the three mentioned above are now all separate organisations and have been for quite a few years. That was as of a couple of years ago anyway. Since then some of them may have branched out or opened at other airfields; I've no idea. In the past I've tentatively contacted both Liverpool and Coventry Helicentres regarding instructing work; they seemed pleasant enough, seemed to have reasonably good reputations....but didn't have any work at the time. :(

Sorry not to be able to tell you any more.

Cheers Whirlybird!

FI Training
 

Could anyone possibly give me some feedback about Helicentre Aviation and the courses that they run and how good they are? Thnks.

I know some former Helicentre Aviation FI students, they all seem to have done very well with their careers. Looking at the website they are using Geoff Day, who is an excellent instructor. I have flown with Geoff and highly recommend him.

FB

Helicopter survey firm signs £20m deal

Helicopter survey firm signs £20m deal

Go in with eyes wide open

Is that the contract that HeliAir held/holds?

Other than the couple of Cabri G2 and Robinson's, I didn't think Helicentre owned any aircraft capable of carrying out this type of contract. How do you win a contract like this when you have to sub contract the work to Heli Charter etc?

Eyes wide open for what Hughes500?

This thread is 7 years old. I'm sure the person asking the original question has had it answered by now!

That contract award was announced about two months ago, saw it in various industry publications :

Helicentre Aviation awarded eight year National Grid contract

Hi all, thanks for your comments. We are delighted to have been selected to operate the National Grid contract for another eight years.

Just to clarify the factual situation, it is not a contract HeliAir have ever operated - it is a similar contract to the one TAMS and Sterling Helicopters used to operate but now on a larger scale and longer timeframe.

Chris P Bacon, we do not subcontract out any of the flight operations. Helicentre Aviation holds an AOC (GB2236) and we operate all flights under it. In addition to the airframes we own / operate, we do contract lease additional airframes, as required, which is not uncommon with a contract of this size.

Finally, appreciate this is a very old thread which has been bumped with the recent press about the contract award, but we are a completely separate commercial entity to the other "Helicentres" that do or did exist around the UK, and we have not operated at Damyns Hall Aerodrome for about 5 years now.

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a prosperous 2014!


Helicentre Aviation

It's a pity Google did not cache all the good responses from staff and customers posted after Fluffy's rant before the moderator decided to delete the entire thread.

Fluffy's comments are just his opinion and have no bearing on the true facts. It is a shame that he and a few other posters on PPRuNe continue to be so negative about pretty much every aspect of the industry. Our stats are fact. Fluffy before you make any more derogatory statements we would like to invite you to contact us directly, identify yourself and come over to our facility to meet our staff and customers.

We are an established company who have been training pilots for over 14 years as well as operating an AOC for over 10 years. You are a pseudonym on a rumour network!! We are being completely open and transparent. Nobody knows who you are or what you do!

Anyway, you would be very welcome and we are sure you would be pleasantly surprised with what we do. You can check the figures for yourself. The coffee is good! If you decide not to visit us keep an eye on the industry press, we have some more exiting news coming up which we are sure you will want to comment on.

Yeah fair comment and one of your guys did recently head off to PDG, but on the subject of scholarships how are the two pilots that were awarded there's in 2013? What are they doing now? Hours flown etc...

There seem to be a lot of negative comments about the set up at Helicentre. I visited last month to see one of our ex students who had done their FI course there and was currently employed at the school. The instructor had completed her course earlier this year ( conducted by a very well qualified FI Instructor) and had conducted 70 hours instruction in the previous 2.5 months, which ties in with their quoted training figures. Another previous student/FI had moved after several month as opportunities in an AS 350/355 became available.I spoke to several instructors who worked part-time, their choice, and who were very happy there. The company had several utilitiy contracts so the opportunity was there for progression. The on-site facilities were excellent,the operations well organised, and the workforce seemed happy and cohesive.
I know some of you have been disappointed in your training but the message is " go and see" before commenting adversely. I have been involved in helicopter training for 45 years and I came away with a favourable impression.

Hi Pitts,

In the 18 months we've also had pilots go to the North Sea, South of France, the Seychelles, Canada, and the Caribbean. Seems there are plenty of jobs to progress onto without an IR if you've got the hours and the experience.

Morgan Whiting who was awarded the FI scholarship last summer completed his FI course and was instructing by September 2013. He now has over 500 hours of instruction.

Pierre Neyses who was awarded the CPL scholarship last year has completed his hour building and is finishing his last few CPL(H) exams. He is scheduled to complete his CPL(H) course in the Cabri G2 by October/November.

Michael Circus (who posted on the original thread before it was deleted) was awarded the FI(H) scholarship this year and starts his FI course this month. He has work scheduled for September.

unrestricted in 2 months and a week
 

hello everybody,

i did my fi training and hour building with helicentre aviation in leicester, the day after i passed i went to gatwick for my licence, the day after that i started to work in the comapny and i got my restriction removed in exactly 2 months and a week time :). this means min 100 hours of flight instruction (and this doesnt even include numerous students I have send solo). it seems when a school is succesful there is jealousy around the corner from others and people with bad experiences/ frustrations/ no job starting to try to bring a succesful business/ person/ school down. i am very happy with my decision and my advise for future students, go and visit various schools out there, get impressions on site, and you can conclude whats working best for you. and the future? nobody can look in the future, aviation is a world full of curves, and to get a job its not only about training, its also about attitude, competence, will, motivation and character. so good luck to all and if you got any questions, feel free to ask!

We are supporting Helicentre with ground school - I can assure you we wouldn't be doing that if they weren't up to speed.

Phil

You have to chuckle when you look at the photos of the staff, and the acountable manager is dressed as an astronaut! (Apologies, if he was an astronaut.....:D )

Out of all those 21 members, I understand only 10 of them actually still work there.

It seems they just won't remove people when they leave, It obviously looks better for them if they have lots of staff. :=

The owner is not an Astrronaught no.

"In the 18 months we've also had pilots go to the North Sea, South of France, the Seychelles, Canada, and the Caribbean. Seems there are plenty of jobs to progress onto without an IR if you've got the hours and the experience"


So like I said in the last thread before it got deleted, there are limited positions in the UK that I don't believe will sustain the amount of students coming through and will in the future through the loan scheme.

Morning,

Foureyedflyer, apologies, it was not intentional - there are actually more instructors and staff now than what was shown, the page just hadn't been updated for a while. It's with web developers so should be correct later today. You're right the chairman is not an astronaut but a down to earth chap with a sense of humour :)

exactly right ananke. I just hope helicentre is telling everyone before they pay any money that even after getting their instructing hours over 1000, they will highly likely have to go abroad or have a shot at the north sea. those are the only feasible options i see. without those instructing hours it would be even tougher.

Hi Ananke

Do you have any contact details for Off-Shore hiring with those requirements?

I believe I was called. That's what I love a company attempting to defend itself on a rumour network, with a couple of new registered joiners backing up their company or people with a financial interest in a company. Fact is if you do not gave an IR you are unable to go offshore, I do not think that this company in question offers IR courses. Also the career prospects of what has been talked about by some students is years old of those people progressing to the next stage. I was quite happy leaving this alone, as in my previous post which was deleted and said I was bored now.
If the moderators would like to step in and quite simply see how people are trying to market themselves every chance they get, using new registration to promote their own business interests.
You do not see any other operator abusing this forum in this way.

Fluffy

And another thing I find it highly entertaining how a leading professional training organization wishes to get bantering away on a rumour network. I believe for many years people have talked about bristow, bonds, chc , police and hems, and I do not see the senior management of Bristow getting involved in a good old conversation on a rumour network, wish says leaps and bounds about the operation you are trying to defend and at the same time get a bit of marketing in at the same time :D

Fluffy

There is no doubt that these guys sell, but then that’s probably smart isn’t it?? Are they really mis-representing themselves?I’m not so sure they are.Aren’t they simply suggesting come here get a licence, then come instructing and build your hours and the rest is up to you.It’s a sausage factory but then given the dynamics of the industry doesn’t this company just fill an obvious need…. After all isn't that one of the principle headline in any commercial job advert...hours ??

These guys have managed to build recent and on-going business off a new type (the G2) and better for them with leased machines from an importer.They recognised the Cabri G2 as a way forward arguably 2 years before the rest of the training organisations and now they recognise that funding is a barrier, and always has been, but have identified some liquidity and are breaking into it via the educational element.


It doesn't matter if its real or doing a good thing for future pilots... wake up its doing good things for their own P&L!

The self-fuelling instruction and the little pipeline contract they have allied to the scholarship programs seem to be obvious business and actually I’m a little surprised in mid-2014 no other school is copying the model because there don’t seem huge barriers to do so.

Are the pilots getting rich?Of course not, even the guy doing 500hrs per year at £35 per hour is still just existing but then one suspects he was always more interested in the 500hrs in his log book than the £17500 yearly pay – at least at this stage in his life.

The guy making the real money is the one doing all the examining… that is really nice business.

Helicentre Aviation
 

I have recently spoken to any current students and ex instructors... a lot of them are disappointed with false promises and are fed up of being over charged for the tiniest things.

Recently a thread got deleted because the truth was coming out which proves their points.

Don't believe all of the propaganda you see on here because they are paid advertisers.

OK, we all know there was a thread which breached the advertising rules. Nothing else, it was a self promotion exercise and was deleted.

We don't need the constant reminder. Really, we don't.

Fluffy, there was always the legendary 'shell management'! One of the least popular pruners ever to bless us with his opinion

Pretty much every advertising these days tries to sell some inflated dream or experience rather than just the product itself.

Education is no exception - you only have to travel on the tube or watch the TV to see some advert from a university\college\training institution etc. trying to convince you that a degree\qualification\course etc. in IT\business studies\law etc. will enable you to change to a more fulfilling\lucrative\exciting etc. career ...

That a helicopter training outfit should be following similar marketing tactics does not surprise me.

What is more telling is the number of helicopter training outfits which don't!

Matthew

Ananke, no one else has found a need to 'repeat themselves'.

Mods rarely give explanations for moderations, this is an oft discussed topic.

Nonetheless in this case an explanation was given twice, by two mods: Deleted threads. In your 3 months of posting here, you have deleted 10 posts and one thread and no-one saw a need for you to explain your deletions.

If you have any issue with moderation, the RoE of PPRuNe is for it to be discussed via PM.

You're joking right?

Which part of the quote is he joking about :=
Quote:
You're right the chairman is not an astronaut but a down to earth chap, with a sense of humor

You're joking right?

500e sorry is that he is a joke or he is joking about something ?