Gloucestershire Airport Staverton Training
 

Hello ladies & gents, first post within this forum, so please go easy on me :)

I'm looking to undertake my ppl (h) at Gloucestershire Airport (Staverton) & was wondering if anyone had undertaken any training there?

Looking for a recommendation on a good flying school, as I know there's a few there.

Any advice?

Many thanks & safe flying

James

As an instructor, the one & only Ray Jones - reliable, experienced, patient.
There are plenty of others who will also recommend him.

There are four training schools at Gloucester, all very good, I would recommend going and visiting all the schools and talking to each, have a trial lesson with a couple, see which you like the best.

I would personally recommend James Kenwright, very experienced.

Really depends on what sort of machine you want to learn in. This will open a huge can of worms again. I would go with Ray Jones and a Hughes 300. Also an examiner so a pretty high standard !

Thanks M1900, Redland & Hughes500 for your recommendations, really useful. I was hoping to learn in the R22. Despite being well informed that there's much easier helicopters to learn in, it just looks like so much fun to fly!

Never been one to shy away from a challenge ;)

James

Heli Air come highly recommended at Glosser. There's another 2 schools there also so shop around, get a feel for each place yourself. Talk to students of each also. Some have been to multiple places.

Ray's Jones is a good bet

I have always had great service from Rise Helicopters.

Are you planning to learn in a 'school' helicopter, or buy your own and learn in that?

Ray Jones or Jon Lane at Heliflight, both good blokes.

Or go see Andrew at AH at Dunkeswell if you can travel that far.

I'd be happy for any of those 3 to teach my kids to fly.

Gary

Thanks for your advice Hedski, md600, jettiejock & VeeAny. Ray Jones' name seems to be becoming a common occurrence throughout this thread. Could anyone please confirm which school he instructs at?

Fly7 I plan to learn in a school helicopter.

James

Ray Jones. Completed my PPL(H) with him last year at Gloucester on a Hughes 300. He is a fantastic teacher. Or, as VeeAny says, Andrew Harvey at Dunkeswell (also 300) if that is near you.

Any specific reason for flying at Gloucester? Its a little crowded now in my opinion. Have you chosen the R22 for any reason?

Thanks for your advice Gustosomerset. Ray Jones must be doing an excellent job at his respective school!

Helirotor - The reason I chose Gloucester originally, was simply because it was the closest airfield to my home with a good selection of helicopter schools to choose from, but since posting this thread it has also become apparent that there also seems to be some very good instructors teaching there.

The reason I chose the R22 was because:

1. it looks like a super fun and responsive aircraft to fly

2. I have also read Swan's technical manual and watched youtube videos on the aircraft prior to starting training, so I already feel quite familiar with it.

3. I was also told by an instructor, that if you can learn to get to grips with it you would qualify a technically skilled pilot, able to transition to any other light piston quite comfortably?

4. It's seems like a very good value helicopter to train in, in comparison to other training aircraft.

Ultimately, the quality of the instructor is more important to me than learning in the R22 though, so I would be prepared to ditch it for an excellent instructor.

Thanks again for all your help, really pleased that I decided to join PPRUNE and post in Rotorheads before starting my training. I have come across a goldmine of information.

jpmb

Be careful with an R22 there are a lot of instructors who will not do some parts of the course with one as it has very little margin for error. For all those who say it is wonderful, it was not designed as a machine to teach you to fly ( words from the inventor himself ). The Enstrom and Schweizer are much better teaching machines giving you a much bigger margin of safety

Mr Hughes 500,

which parts of the course do you think they won't do?
as I am not sure I recognise what you are saying from my own experience

regards

As only a very recently qualified pilot I am not really in a position to comment on the Hughes300 v R22 debate (and it has been covered extensively in another thread on here). But I completely agree with you that the instructor is more important than the machine. As others have said, there are people at Gloucester who will train you on either. FWIW, my personal advice would be to buy Ray Jones a cup of tea at The Aviator and listen to his point of view...

CF

Go and ask at any school using R22's if the normal instructors, not the CFI will do EOL's to the ground in no wind.

If it's convenient, Gloucs is definitely a very good place to learn to fly helicopters - from ab initio to CPL/IR.

Suggest you speak to all the above recommended names, but yes, Ray is bit of a legend :ok:

I don't think it's that big of a deal to wait for 10 knots of wind, it'll be along soon.