Helicopter lessons - where's good
Discussion
Following up from [url]this|http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=197062&f=141&h=0&p=1[/url] thread I posted the other day. Can anyone recommend a decent place to take a trial lesson, then maybe carry on with proper lessons. Somewhere in the south/southeast would be good.
My girlfriend wants to buy me a trial lession for my 30th, I've told her to hold on buying it for now cause I think it'd be better to deal directly with a specialist company rather than buying it though a lastminute.com type place.
Found a place called Elite Helicopter near reading/mainenhead. No prices quoted on the website, but location is ideal. Also Aeromega in essex seems to be pretty reasonable (£260 for an hour lesson as opposed to £180 for 1/2 in most places).
Comments anyone
Cheers - Dan :)
My girlfriend wants to buy me a trial lession for my 30th, I've told her to hold on buying it for now cause I think it'd be better to deal directly with a specialist company rather than buying it though a lastminute.com type place.
Found a place called Elite Helicopter near reading/mainenhead. No prices quoted on the website, but location is ideal. Also Aeromega in essex seems to be pretty reasonable (£260 for an hour lesson as opposed to £180 for 1/2 in most places).
Comments anyone
Cheers - Dan :)
If you will be flying an R22, wear smooth soled shoes as they make small pedal movemants more precise than chunky soled shoes. Try not to use the whole foot to apply rudder as the forces required to keep it straight are akin to lightly feather the throttle in a car.
Good choice to buy directly thru a flightschool, for an extended list buy "Pilot" magazine as it list all the schools in the back.
Good choice to buy directly thru a flightschool, for an extended list buy "Pilot" magazine as it list all the schools in the back.
LRdriver II said:
If you will be flying an R22, wear smooth soled shoes as they make small pedal movemants more precise than chunky soled shoes. Try not to use the whole foot to apply rudder as the forces required to keep it straight are akin to lightly feather the throttle in a car.
Good choice to buy directly thru a flightschool, for an extended list buy "Pilot" magazine as it list all the schools in the back.
At Heliserve it will be an R22
kim
Depends where you are. I fly out of Southend which is pretty cool once you're out over the estuary and tonking into London.
www.theflightcentre.net/theflightcentrea.html
Good bunch of chaps and as already said very very addictive.
www.theflightcentre.net/theflightcentrea.html
Good bunch of chaps and as already said very very addictive.
vixpy1 said:
Not sure, but i think there is a place at Fairoaks in Surrey.
www.alanmann.co.uk/TrialLesson1.html
I fly from Fairoaks. Great bunch of people. Gary Savage is the chief instructor and is a fantastic pilot.
The only "problem" with Fairoaks is that they do not use R22s. You would start there on a Bell 47 and then progress to a Jet Ranger. Bell 47 isn't much more than an R22 to fly but a Jet Ranger works out at around the £550 an hour mark (wet inclusive of VAT).
R22s have different controls to the more usual cyclic & collective set up so I wasn't interested in flying one.
Fairoaks is a good place to fly from to get down the Thames. Favourite route with my mates is Fairoaks to the dome and back. Passing the Eye at around 800ft is cool. I even flew back once through Heathrow's overhead (with permission) which was fantastic, if not a little stressful. Flying at 1000ft parallel and between the two runways was incredible.
Good luck
Rob
Prob a bit too far north for you, but I found these guys quite good....
www.heli.org/site/scripts/contact.asp
As daft as it may sound, I found having flown the helicopter on Grand Theft Auto:Vice City on the PS2 really helped when it came to the real thing. (L1/R1 = foot steering pedals, X button = Throttle handle thing, Joystick = Joystick).
(Had to use the smiley for computer as they don't have one for PS2!!)
www.heli.org/site/scripts/contact.asp
As daft as it may sound, I found having flown the helicopter on Grand Theft Auto:Vice City on the PS2 really helped when it came to the real thing. (L1/R1 = foot steering pedals, X button = Throttle handle thing, Joystick = Joystick).
(Had to use the smiley for computer as they don't have one for PS2!!)
LRdriver II said:
If you will be flying an R22, wear smooth soled shoes as they make small pedal movemants more precise than chunky soled shoes. Try not to use the whole foot to apply rudder as the forces required to keep it straight are akin to lightly feather the throttle in a car.
Excellent advice - in fact, if you have a pair
of motor race boots (Sparco etc) then wear those -
amazing the difference correct footwear can have
on sensitive rudder types.
I did a few lessons over here in the UK and decided that if it was worth doing properly, a few snatched hours every weekend between thunderstorms was not the best way to go, so I took a 7 month sabbatical in Australia and did the full commercial course (flying every day in glorious conditions across beautiful scenery is a much more pleasant way to learn the basics). It was also a third of the cost compared to UK.
There are those who will condone US and Oz schools, but my intructors had ~20000hours between them and we did autorotations every day, to the ground (try that with the CAA breathing down your neck).
I recommend learning to fly full time- if you can, take time off and do a course (6wks I think for PPL) as it's a bit like one step up two steps down if you have week(s) between lessons. Check out www.beckerhelicopters.com for my old (recommended) school
There are those who will condone US and Oz schools, but my intructors had ~20000hours between them and we did autorotations every day, to the ground (try that with the CAA breathing down your neck).
I recommend learning to fly full time- if you can, take time off and do a course (6wks I think for PPL) as it's a bit like one step up two steps down if you have week(s) between lessons. Check out www.beckerhelicopters.com for my old (recommended) school
eharding said:
If you will be flying an R22, wear smooth soled shoes as they make small pedal movemants more precise than chunky soled shoes. Try not to use the whole foot to apply rudder as the forces required to keep it straight are akin to lightly feather the throttle in a car.
Excellent advice - in fact, if you have a pair
of motor race boots (Sparco etc) then wear those -
amazing the difference correct footwear can have
on sensitive rudder types.
And if you want to go that little extra, cut the area that covers the big toe, so you can rest this on the rudder.
Just like Janes Hunt!
Extra 300 Driver said:
LRdriver II said:
If you will be flying an R22, wear smooth soled shoes as they make small pedal movemants more precise than chunky soled shoes. Try not to use the whole foot to apply rudder as the forces required to keep it straight are akin to lightly feather the throttle in a car.
Excellent advice - in fact, if you have a pair
of motor race boots (Sparco etc) then wear those -
amazing the difference correct footwear can have
on sensitive rudder types.
And if you want to go that little extra, cut the area that covers the big toe, so you can rest this on the rudder.
Just like Janes Hunt!
Jane's what?
I can thoroughly recommend FAST Helicopters who operate out of Thruxton Airport, near Andover. I used to fly areoplanes from there and one of their pilots picked us up from our wedding venue. Very impressed.
Only trouble with learning to flying helicopters and indeed continuing to fly them is the high cost. Reckon on at least 3 times the cost of flyin an areoplane.
Only trouble with learning to flying helicopters and indeed continuing to fly them is the high cost. Reckon on at least 3 times the cost of flyin an areoplane.
Gassing Station | The Pie & Piston Archive | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff