Helicopter Ride

[dredgey]

Hi all,

Just thought it might be useful to post my experience of the Helicopter Tour on circuit as the info we had was a little out of date.

Cost: €115 pp
Duration: 10 mins
Area Covered: 1.5 laps

Firstly to say it had been an un-ticked box of mine for years and the experience was excellent. Following the cars up the Mulsanne Straight was amazing! Well worth the money, even though pricey.

If you're tempted its worth booking a day before. The two of us walked over on the Saturday afternoon to be told if we wanted to go in the same chopper we'd have to book for Sunday afternoon, which we did. Other than that there isn't any other planning to consider.

Location is easy, just over the road behind the Michelin grandstand next to Bleu Nord.

Thoroughly recommend it!

Pics attached.

Edited by dredgey on Tuesday 27th June 14:48

[dredgey]

[dredgey]

[dredgey]

[dredgey]

[dredgey]

[chasingracecars]

Excellent thanks for that, what is the deal with occupants?

If only one of you is there do you get the chopper to yourself?

If there are two groups then do they combine them?

If so who gets the front seat?

Finally is that a chopper price or person price?

[chrisr111r]

Good pics - looks like quite some banking angle at Mulsanne corner

[dredgey]

chasingracecars said:

Excellent thanks for that, what is the deal with occupants?

If only one of you is there do you get the chopper to yourself?

If there are two groups then do they combine them?

If so who gets the front seat?

Finally is that a chopper price or person price?

Cheers!

They fill the chopper with 5 people, If you're on your own, you sit with other people that you don't know. If you're a group of five then I think you've got every chance of getting the chopper to yourself as a group. I would imagine this is provided you've booked in advance though. We were offered one of us to go on the Saturday at 3:30pm, and and the other person to go on the same day but different chopper and different time because of what spare seats were available. Hence why we went Sunday instead. We were combined with another group of 3 people.

Front seat is a bit of a lottery but it seemed to be based on weight; fortunately my brother was luckily enough to bag that seat!

Price is indeed per person.

Edited by dredgey on Tuesday 27th June 14:54

[dredgey]

chrisr111r said:

Good pics - looks like quite some banking angle at Mulsanne corner

No warning either!

Edited by dredgey on Tuesday 27th June 15:37

[RC1807]

thanks for that
1 of our group has commented on wanting to do this for a few years now, but after a couple of hours at the track he's usually pissed and forgets!

[MrC986]

We had a helicopter ride on Saturday evening at about 8.30 pm (having booked it via 1st tickets in about late April) with 4 of us together. Having flipped a coin for who would sit in the front (& not having been lucky), I was told I should sit in the co-pilots seat on what I suspect was weight grounds.

We'd never done the flight before & we thought it was a great treat although we wouldn't do it annually due to cost. It certainly gave an idea of the scale of the track and we were airborne when the safety car came out due to the incident on the Mulsanne straight.

[chrisr111r]

Ah yes I remember you said you'd been up now Chris - quite a trip for you this year then, with the pit access as well...

If Dan talks me into going again next year, then maybe I might tick off the heli ride as well

[David W.]

Have done this a couple of times on LM trips with a group from Cambridge Porsche Centre. Its been part of the package and is highly recommended. I always come back wanting to book a helicopter flying lesson. Get it booked.

DW

[thegoose]

David W. said:

Have done this a couple of times on LM trips with a group from Cambridge Porsche Centre. Its been part of the package and is highly recommended. I always come back wanting to book a helicopter flying lesson. Get it booked.

DW

Do it! I've been learning for a while - I've flown solo including a cross-country navigation, landing at various airfields (decided I'd have to do a lap of Oulton Park on the return run!) passed my radio test practical on Monday and now just have my flight test and I'm qualified.

Having just done Le Mans for the first time I'm now thinking that I need to see if it's possible to self-fly hire a R44 at the airport there (maybe £300/hour, seats 4) and then get rated for that machine in plenty of time (with choppers you are rated to fly individual models - sort of like passing your test in a 3 series and not being allowed to drive a 5 series, or an A4 for that matter, without additional training).

[ukcobra]

We did it for the first time this year and at around 7.15pm on the Sat eve.

Front seat is usually done by weight, to match the pilot in my experience.

There is only one good seat in the back, and that is get in FIRST, and get the right hand seat as the heli follows the circuit in a clockwise fashion, which means if you sit in the middle (2 seats) or the rear left, you get a restricted view.

I only saw 1 Heli go off with 4 passengers, most around 6.30pm to 7.30pm on Sat, were full with 5 people.

1.5 Laps, lots of fun, and as stated €115. We booked up early and were the first on that particular heli, it did not secure us the best seats !