Once I started looking into booking my trial flight, I discovered plenty of choice both in locations and time in the air. Prices don’t vary that much between one place and the other, so it generally makes sense to go for the closest place that offers what you want. Prices do, of course, vary depending of the amount of time you spend in the air.
Most schools offer trial flights of 20 mins, 30 mins, 40 minds and 1 hour. I’m taking this pretty seriously, and I know how quickly the time will fly (excuse the pun), so for me it made no sense to book a 20 minute flight. Furthermore, time on the trial flight counts towards the minimum hours required for the PPL(H), so I had my mind set on the 1 hour flight.
I spoke to Bristol based Rotorflight first, but I have to say I didn’t have a great feeling speaking to the chap there (although the mention of an autorotation demo had me grinning away on the end of the phone). I can’t really put my finger on it, but I can’t say I wanted to rush up and sign up with them immediately.
I decided to hold back and inquire with some flight schools around Valencia in Spain, given I was going to be spending a couple of weeks there. As it happened my visit coincided with the Festival Aéreo Valencia hosted by the Real Aeroclub Valencia that not only allowed me to gawp and admire the maneuvers by various aircraft (shame I didn’t have my SLR), but also speak to some members of the club about learning to fly. Unfortunately the company based in Requena that I was trying to get in contact had gone under, and all other schools in the area only teach fixed wing. The Real Aeroclub Valencia were looking to introduce the PPL(H) to their offerings but are apparently struggling to get permission for the required helipad…
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A few tight months financially saw me put the booking on the back burner for a while. In July I was down at Goodwood Motor Racing Circuit for the 2010 Mongol Rally launch. After a long day I wandered over to watch a Robinson R22 being flown around the aerodrome by, judging from how much it was moving around, a PPL(H) student. Unable to help myself, I wandered into Pheonix Helicopters’ office for a chat, and was greeting by a very friendly chap who worked there. He was not an instructor, but a holder of the PPL(H). We probably spoke for about 20 minutes, and I learned how this chap took his time taking over three years to get his license and spreading the cost at the same time. He didn’t start until after his 50th birthday, which is sureley encouragement to anyone who might be thinking, I’m too old for this.
Later in the evening I received a called from the instructor at Pheonix. Once again I had a good chat, and was informed about what trial flight options were as well as the PPL(H) course itself. He also introduced me to the ‘discovery day’ which is a whole day with them with two hours flight time. A good option for those seriously considering the PPL(H)… i.e. Me.
I got completely the opposite feeling from this guy than the one from Rotorflight, and ultimately if Goodwood wasn’t so far away, I’d have signed up with Pheonix.
Enthusiasm fully restored, once back in Bristol I did some more research and found both Tiger Helicopters’ Introductory Day near Hereford and Rise Helicopters’ Discovery Day close to Cheltenham. Tiger offer more air time, at three hours, than Rise do, with 2.5 hours. Prices seemed to reflect this at £763 and £675 respectively.
After much deliberation, read faffing, I decided to go with Rise Helicopters at Gloucester Airport as it is much easier to get to. In fact I can get to Cheltenham for £7 return on the train (which is actually cheaper than getting to Rotorflight at Bristol airport!), and from the station I’ll cycle to the airfield.
Yup, that’s right, cycle. Ride a bicycle and then fly a helicopter. I could hire a car, but that would be a bit wasteful given it would sit in a car park for most of the day, besides, every penny counts when saving up for the PPL(H).