I’m taking the time to visit all of my local flight schools. Choosing which school to go with is a pretty big decision and I want to be sure I get this right. It seemed prudent to check them all out to get a feel for what they offer.

First stop was Helipistas, a family run company set up by a father and his two sons, all of whom fly. They used to be based at Sabadell airport, but set up their very own heliport in the rather picturesque hills around Ullastrell.

As a business they offer tourist flights, aerial filming for news stations and sporting events, aerial inspections, construction work, air advertising and of course a flight school. Fingers in many pies one might say although I was surprised to learn that they don’t offer self hire, but will hire helicopters out to ex students at their discretion. They have their own maintenance facilities and are one of only four certified Robinson service centres in the country.

Vincenç, one of the owners, first showed me round and told me all about their business and then handed me over to their cheif (ex military) instructor Luís who explained in great detail how the course works and how they teach it. They can be completely flexible on the hours, both for the theory as well as the practical, which certainly works well for me. As an added bonus, they will be opening a heliport in Valencia next year. Definitely a novel way to visiting the in laws.

The only negative I could think of was the fact that as a private heliport there would be very little interaction with other traffic, traffic control or at least the tower, as you would get at an airport of a reasonable size.

Prices:

* They are happy for me to purchase my own course books in English.