When you begin to learn to fly the Helicopter, you will progress through a series of stages and challenges. These will include basic theory, your first solo, and your first solo with a passenger, passing your theory exams and finally getting the ultimate, you’re Helicopter Licence. As you progress through each of these stages you will experience a fantastic sense of achievement.
Once you have learnt to fly a helicopter:
- You will be able to take your family and friends flying (and won’t they be suitably impressed).
- If you have gained a Commercial Licence, you are now in a position to look for your first flying job.
These are just some of the changes that will occur once you are a helicopter pilot. But how do you go about it? Following commonly asked questions should help you with this:
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The Helicopter Group Pty. Ltd. also trades under the name Ayers Rock Helicopters. Ayers Rock Helicopters operates helicopters in Central Australia on scenic flight operations. We operate a Bell 206 Jet ranger from the Ayers Rock base and 2 R44’s and a R44 from Kings Creek Station. We have 6 full-time pilots employed in these bases, all of whom are employed in their first flying job. We also offer all our commercial students the opportunity to do joy flights locally once they have their licence.
If you are wondering what a potential employer looks for in a new pilot, I can tell you from experience, both as a new pilot and also as an employer. ATTITUDE. The right attitude; keenness, desire, appearance, PR skills and ability to work hard. Things like education, your flying school, and even your ability as a pilot are secondary compared to YOUR ATTITUDE. There is nothing more important.
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To be able to fly a helicopter is something that you need to be taught how to do. It is not like jumping in your Dads car when your are 17, and having watched him for years, you are quickly able to drive (without dual controls!). As you learn to fly a helicopter, every new sequence presents a new challenge that must be overcome. Some of these challenges take a few minutes and others take many hours.
The simple answer to the above question is YES. 100% of all our students that have sat for a licence or theory exam have passed. Many have passed both tests on the first attempt and others are content with another go at it if the first attempt isn’t good enough. The end result is that if you put in the time and effort you will end up with a helicopter licence.
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A *Commercial licence will cost between $40,000 and $50,000; $370.00 per hour; and
A Private licence will cost between $20,000 and $30,000; $407.00 per hour.
*The commercial course is GST exempt
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Even though you are probably very excited about learning to fly a helicopter, the journey ahead may seem quite daunting.
You simply tell us how much time you have available, and a course for the theory and flying will be arranged to personally suit you. To give you some idea about the time taken; the flying can be done from just one Lesson (average of 1 hour per lesson) per week through to fulltime, which is two lessons a day, five days a week. The length of time to do the theory will depend on you. As an example, fulltime theory will take about five weeks. If you are going to fly fulltime then you should have the majority of your theory completed before you do too much flying. If you are flying one or two hours a week then the theory can be done in conjunction with the flying.
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Our oldest student was 67 when he started learning in 1995. He now has a Private Helicopter Licence and flies around in his own helicopter. The minimum age to get a student licence is 16.
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Many people have the misconception that if the engine stops you will drop like a stone (usually spinning around in circles) and crash. Well, good news. During your training (before solo) you will practice numerous engine failures or ‘Autorotations’ as they are called. You will quickly see that the helicopter is actually safer than an aeroplane if the engine should stop. “Safer?” I hear you saying. The helicopter will still glide in autorotation. Nowhere near as far as an aeroplane but then it doesn’t need anywhere near the size of landing area either. The helicopter in autorotation is still under the complete control of the pilot - you can fly forwards, backwards or around in circles to manoeuvre the helicopter to touch down in a suitable landing area. How hard is the touchdown? Unlike many overseas schools, we conduct actual touchdown autorotations. Some weeks we do 10 autorotations and some weeks we do 100. After every touchdown we take-off again. That should give you some idea of how soft the landing is.
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There is a certain amount of risk in everything we do. Helicopters are not toys. Flying a helicopter does have some degree of risk and for that reason, they must be treated with care and respect. If you learn to fly safely with the right instructors then you will go a long way towards reducing that risk. Your safety, and that of the helicopter and its occupants is the most important objective of our instructors. You will not be treated as ‘just another student’. Our emphasis on your personalised training and quality service is something that the bigger and busier schools may not be able to match.
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Your instructor will have several thousand hours’ helicopter experience.
Rest assured you will not be lured by the experience of our senior pilots and end up flying with inexperienced instructors, as is often the case. The instructors who will assist in your training have had at least 2 other jobs and loads of experience.
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No! Turbulence in a helicopter is minimal compared to an aeroplane.
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We have all kinds of students, male and female, young and old, people that are not from an English speaking background, people that have dreamed about being pilots all their lives and people that have just discovered how much fun it can be. Every person that wants to be a pilot, is the kind of person that can be a pilot - if you are thinking "I could never do that!", come and see us, we will show you how.
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Maybe another question you still have is “Why should I learn with The Helicopter Group?” Here’s something that you may find interesting. Of all the students and pilots who fly with us, 43% have come from other flying schools. All those students/pilots either started or even completed their licence elsewhere (some before The Helicopter Group had commenced business). They now fly with us because of our reputation and the quality of the personalised service we provide. None of those pilots have gone back (or will go back) to the schools that they left. The importance of this fact cannot be overlooked. How many students/pilots have left The Helicopter Group to fly at another school? None. Does that tell you something?
With The Helicopter Group, not only will you receive personalised and professional training to help make you into a helicopter pilot, you will have fun while you do it. Flying a helicopter is just that, - fun. To make sure that the fun continues when you are not in the helicopter we have weekends away with the helicopters and BBQ's.
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Where should you go from here? On your first helicopter lesson of course. If you have read this far, you are obviously keen to fly a helicopter. For some, it may be too expensive, for others they have not got enough time. The bottom line is you probably have an ambition or dream to fly a helicopter. The first lesson will comprise of a 15 - 20 minute briefing followed by a forty five minute flight. Before the lesson is up, you will have had basic control (dependant upon the conditions) of the helicopter. If for whatever reason you can’t see yourself actually going for a helicopter licence then do yourself a favour and at least come down for this flight. You will be able to say that you have flown a helicopter! If you decide to continue towards a licence then your first hour is completed and logged as the commencement of your licence added to that, you have had fun doing it.
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