Helicopter Pilot Training

Private Pilots Licence

Helicopter

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Introduction

The Helicopter Private Pilots Licence otherwise know as the PPL (H) is the licence that allows a person to fly helicopters for his or her own pleasure without receiving pay or reward. It is also the first step to becoming a commercial helicopter pilot if it is your long term goal to have a career in aviation. The license is now a European license so you can use it anywhere in Europe and it is widely accepted worldwide. We have compiled these notes to give you some informal guidance about the PPL (H).

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The CourseThe PPL course is set out by the CAA (Civil Aviation Authority) as a minimum training course to which all training schools must adhere. This is now becoming the same licence throughout Europe so you may use it equally in other countries. The minimum requirements are:

minimum age to start 14Minimum age to site test 1645 hours training7 written examsa class 2 medicala flight test

We will go into more detail and break the list up but basically what we are trying to achieve in the course is that you will receive training and help to enable you to pass all the exams and tests to gain your license, and provide you with the basic skills and knowledge to allow you to develop as a safe and competent helicopter pilot. We are not looking in the PPL to make you the best pilot in the world but to make you safe for your follow on-flying.

Learning to fly helicopters will be one of the most rewarding and satisfying things you do. It will become addictive, rewarding, challenging and fun. It is not difficult, but it does take some getting used to, as you will be learning a new skill like learning to ride a bike. You will probably feel frustrated at some point in the course. At other times you will be on cloud nine with what you have achieved. You will almost certainly enjoy the flying most, but do not neglect the ground school which is there to give you essential knowledge.

Consider the PPL(H) license as the starting point of your flying - the best pilots continue to learn throughout their flying career.

The CAA specifies what must be included in a course of training and the standards which must be achieved to gain your license. There are two main parts:

The Flying Training Course

The Ground School

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Flying Training

Our lessons are normally offered in two hour sessions, which includes one hour of flying and one hour pre- and post - flight briefing. The aim of the pre-flight briefing is to ensure that you know in detail the flying exercise before it is flown so that there is a greater understanding of the flight to be conducted. The post-flight briefing gives you the opportunity to discuss in detail with your instructor the exercises you have just performed and are very important. Many schools will just fly a student as this is the income part of the lesson but equally important is the ground work before and after. At

Phoenix we try to arrange for you to train with one instructor and will not change that unless agreed with you or you don’t mind training with others. This is to ensure the continuity of your training. All our instructors are closely supervised by our Chief Flight Instructor (CFI) and we have produced what we hope will be one of the best PPL training syllabuses available. This way you form a bond with your instructor and you tend to progress through the course in a more relaxed atmosphere.

We have also produced a unique training plan based on our experience, with lesson hand outs prior to your lesson which build to cover most aspects of your flying and hopefully will give you a thorough knowledge and understanding of your course. These are available free from our web site in the student area. The student area of our web site is designed to give you all the information you need. We are trying to make it as interactive as possible with weather and information for your flying. The lessons are downloadable as PDFs or available from your instructor. We have an online booking system as well to streamline your booking process. At Phoenix we divide your training into three parts with stage checks at the end of each section. The checks are to ensure that you have received a high quality of training by your instructor and are conducted by our CFI.

Of the solo time, there must be at least 5 hours cross-country, including a cross-country flight where you land at 2 separate airfields with the whole trip being at least 100 nautical miles.

Most people take more than the basic 45 hours to complete their course and although most do, it is not a good idea to set this as a target as you then tend to feel you are getting behind. You will progress best if you can fly regularly, particularly

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at certain stages in the course. At Phoenix we have divided your training into 3 stages. First is the basic, where you will learn to fly the aircraft. In this part of the course you learn to control the helicopter in forward flight, the turn, the climb, descents, the hover and most importantly to take off and land. You will also learn to fly the helicopter without engine power, known as Autorotation. As important as these flying skills are you will also gain experience in making radio calls and the way that aircraft fly in and around an airfield. At the end of this stage a check is carried out on your ability and progress by our CFI and then you will do your first solo - a big milestone in your training.

From here we will revise on skills learned and continue to the second stage, the more advanced exercises and navigation. Navigation is better done as intensively as possible as this ends in your Cross County Qualifier. In this section you will also accredit most of your solo flying.

The final section or stage three will build on your skills and we will teach y o u t o c a r r y o u t a d v a n c e d techniques such as those which you would need to land safely in areas w h i c h a r e c o n f i n e d a n d i n circumstances where you have limited power available. Autorotation skills will develop so that you can safely land the helicopter if an engine were to fail. A very large part of your training is devoted to safety and hopefully when complete we shall have instilled not only the skills but also the knowledge to keep you safe and continue your flying in a manner to give you both maximum enjoyment and safety.

Flying TestOnce all the ground exams and flying are completed you will take a Flight Test with a qualified examiner. The test has five sections but is divided into two main halves; navigation and skill or air exercises. In the test the examiner will look to see that you demonstrate that you can fly competently and safely. He doesn’t expect you to be the best pilot in the world, just a safe one. You will then be rated to fly the machine type you took your test on and can enjoy all the aspects of helicopter flying. It is easy to rent aircraft as most schools including ourselves offer what is called self fly hire. Your license is valid in any country in Europe that is in EASA (European Aviation Safety Agency).

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The PPL Air Exercise Syllabus1. Familiarisation with the helicopter.2. Preparation for flight - starting and stopping the engine and rotor.3. Air experience - an introduction to helicopter flight.4. Effects of controls - what the controls do in forward flight.5. Altitude and power changes - power, altitude and thus speed change.6. Level flight, climbing, descending and turning.7. Basic Autorotation - "gliding" a helicopter.8. Hover ing.9. Take off and landing.10. Transitions - leaving the hover to achieve forward flight and returning to the hover

from forward flight.11. Circuits - an exercise to practice accuracy within a circuit at an aerodrome.12. First solo - the first of 10 hours pilot in command.

13. Sideways and backward maneuvers.14. Turns on the spot - turning through 360 degrees in the hover.15. Vortex ring - the nearest event to a stall in a helicopter.16. Engine off landing - how to "glide" a helicopter and land safely without the

engine running.17. Advanced Autorotation - "advanced gliding".18. Forced landings - an autorotation to a selected landing area.19. Steep turns - turning the aircraft at more extreme angles of bank than normal.

20. Transitions from the hover to the hover at low altitude.21. Quick stops - coming to the hover rapidly but safely from cruise speed at low

altitude.22. Pilot navigation - navigating a helicopter away from an aerodrome including all

radio instruction for complying with Air Traffic Control.23. Advanced take-offs, landings and transitions.24. Advanced take-offs and landings on sloping ground.25. Limited power operations - operating a helicopter with limited power.26. Confined area - how to approach, enter, maneuver and depart from confined area

safely, i.e. a clearing, small field or helicopter landing site.

Many of these exercises can be downloaded from our web site in the student area. Other more complicated exercises will be covered in a full pre-flight briefing.

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Ground TrainingYou will need to learn some technicalities of helicopter flying in order to be a safe and competent pilot. The CAA also require that the following topics be studied and an exam to be taken in each subject.

Aviation Law Human Performance Navigation Meteorology Aircraft (General and Type) Aircraft Performance Radio Communication

This is not as daunting as it may sound as really aviation is one subject simply divided into several topics. The exams are multiple choice so they give you the questions and 4 answers to choose from. The pass mark is 75% and the papers are done in-house and will be given to you by your instructor when you are ready. You may attempt each subject 3 times with a fourth go at the CAA but to be honest if you are having difficulty your instructor should pick up on this and give additional ground studies to you. It is important to maintain a momentum with these as you may not do a flight test unless they are all complete and you may find yourself in a situation where you are ready to take the test and are held back. For PPL we tend to tackle the subjects one at a time moving onto the next once one is done. You must have passed Air Law before going solo and should have passed both Meteorology and Navigation before your Cross Country qualifier. In most cases the subjects are directly relevant to your flying so most students find them of interest.

In addition you will take a Radio Telephony Practical test which gives you a licence entitling you to talk on the aviation air waves to Air Traffic Control Services.

Don’t be too put off by the learning. Remember this is going to become your hobby or career and we will help you through a programe of guided study recommending which books to buy and discuss the topics with you. The syllabus is generally fairly straightforward.

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Medical Certificate

You must have a medical certificate before undertaking your first solo flight. It is recommended that you get the certificate very early in the course, or preferably before you start the course. The certificate must be a CAA Class 2 for PPL and a class 1 for CPL. If you intend to go to full CPL we recommend you get a Class 1 as you don’t want to spend money only to find later you are colour blind in one spectrum. This is obtained from the CAA at Gatwick. The medical is similar to a life insurance medical. They are really only interested in anything that may incapacitate you suddenly affecting your ability to fly. The Class 2 certificate is obtained from specially appointed Aviation Medical Examiners - they are located throughout the country and we can give you the addresses of air medical examiners convenient to your area or if you look up the web link below you should find one close to you. You will need to be subsequently re-examined at intervals determined by your age.

http://www.caa.co.uk/application.aspx?catid=49&pagetype=65&appid=21

This is available as a quick link in our student section of our web site

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About Us

Phoenix Helicopter Academy was established in 2009 at Goodwood. Although the school is relatively new the instructors are not. The company is owned and run by instructors who between us have been in the industry for a long time and have taken the best of our experiences to approach training in a new way. Unlike many training environments, Phoenix is a dedicated training facility and not just an add-on to a commercial operation. Our instructors are very experienced and dedicated to instructing. We try to instill a very personal service where our students are not treated as a number but on a more personal basis. Flying helicopters either for a hobby or as a career is one of the best things you can do and we believe the training you receive should be of the highest quality and something you will remember forever.

Although we are a small company, this gives us the ability to treat you individually. We are attempting to operate more as a club than a school in the sense that once students qualify it doesn’t end there, with trips, meetings and events planned. All student lessons are based on a two hour slot with an hours flying. Although the school income is only generated from the flying hours it is crucial that students get the benefit of a full lesson. In my time I have seen too many students from other schools with close to 100 hours and still have a poor understanding of the basics as they have never been taught correctly. As an Instructor I am proud to say that I have a 100% first time pass rate and I have never had a student leave me to finish at a different school.

We also try to arrange activities for you after you have passed in order that you keep enjoying your flying. We recently sent three helicopters in formation on a return trip from Goodwood to France. The London Heli Lanes again easily reached from Goodwood or Blackbushe.

Other activities revolve around the club including barbecues and events where you can meet other students and pilots and bond and make good friends. We also have a Facebook group where students and pilots can exchange stories and experiences. Take the time to have a look though our web site in the student area, and feel free to come down to see us for a coffee and a chat. Deciding on a school or helicopters as a career is a big step.

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Our Courses!

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PPL TRAINING onR22R44Bell 206EC 120

Advances Courses

CPL TrainingCPL Conversion

Night Ratings

Water Landing Course

Type Ratings onR22H269Bell 206 & lAS 350EC 120

Our BranchesGoodwood Aerodrome

Well what you can say about petrol-head heaven? Goodwood is one of those nostalgic places deliberately set back in time. Its buildings and grounds are very highly maintained to give you a 1930’s feel and return you to that period of art deco. It does however have modern track days and is well known for the Festival of Speed, Revival and Breakfast Clubs where owners show off their prestigious cars to the public and enthusiasts alike. The aerodrome itself is a grass strip aerodrome with

a racing circuit around the outside. It is a wonderful training environment for helicopters with large hover training areas, no fees for helicopter circuits and in uncontrolled airspace so you are training the minute you get in the air. What’s more, there are small landing fees, only one per lesson. You will be training in the beautiful south coast with no restriction on airspace. Because of its location we don’t tend to have the poor weather that other fields can get although it can be windy as we are close to the sea and relatively flat.

Blackbushe AirportBlackbushe Airport is our latest base for training for the London and Thames Valley region. Located conveniently next to the M3 only a few miles outside the M25, Blackbushe is a perfect location for convenience if you live in London, Reading, and Farnborough or anywhere within the Surrey area. Phoenix Helicopters Blackbushe is a perfect place to embark on your helicopter training, with the advantage of having both un-restricted clear airspace and busy controlled airspace right on our doorstep.

Farnborough airfield is only a stones throw away and with views across London on a clear day it makes for an interesting and fulfilling place to learn to fly helicopters. Being guided through your training by experienced instructors, you will be familiar with some of the busiest airspace in the country, by the time you obtain your licence. This method of training and the advantage of being used to such airspace will put you ahead of many other PPL (H) or CPL (H) holders out there, and having that guidance from the early stages of your training will be invaluable.

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Questions And Answers

Q. Do I need an aeroplane licence or any previous experience?

A. No, you need no previous experience before starting your helicopter course. However if you do hold a current fixed wing licence the minimum hours requirement for the course is reduced from 45 hours to 40 hours flying.

Q. Will I automatically get my licence after 45 hours flying training?

A. No, 45 hours is the minimum requirement as laid down by the Civil Aviation Authority for a person to hold a Private Pilots Licence. It can sometimes take people a few more hours to meet the standard required by your examiner. It is not in the interest of safety for a flying school to guarantee a student a pass in a certain amount of hours. At Phoenix we treat safety with paramount importance and therefore our students will only pass a test when their flying is up to a suitably high standard.

Q. How long does the course take?

A. There is no set time over which you must do the course as long as you complete it, therefore we can tailor a course from a full time (3-4 days a week) up to spreading it over 2-4 years if you so desire. However, please bear in mind people tend to suffer from lack of continuity if they try to spread the course out over too long a period.

Q. How old do I have to be?

A. The minimum age requirement for a holder of a PPL(H) is 17. If someone younger than 17 wished to start and learn, this is no problem but he/she would not be able to fly solo or pass his/her test until their 17th birthday.

Q. Do I automatically get a licence when I have completed the course?

A. No, just as when you learn to drive you will take a test at the end of the course.

Q. Where do I go to take my test?

A. At Phoenix we have on call examiners and can take you right from scratch through to passing your Private Pilots Licence.

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Q. What are the medical requirements?

A. You may start the course without holding a medical certificate but before you fly solo you must posses at least a CAA Class 2 medical which must be conducted by a CAA approved doctor. We have a list of the approved doctors and can steer you towards the nearest. The medical is not as stringent as many insurance check-ups but pays close attention to heart, blood pressure, hearing, eyesight etc.

Please note colour blindness does not necessarily preclude you from holding a medical certificate.

Q. Can I get a job as a pilot when I have my PPL (H)?

A. The holder of a PRIVATE Pilots Licence is entitled to fly a helicopter for his/her own private use with family/friends etc or on his/her own business trips. In order for you to work as a pilot and receive revenue for your services you must become a Commercial pilot or Instructor.

Q. How long is a licence valid for?

A. Under EASA a PPL (H) is valid for life and is renewed automatically as long as you remain current.

Q. If I learn on the R22 and wish to fly a different sort of helicopter what must I do?

A. You must do a 5 hour conversion onto each particular type you require to add to your licence after having initially passed the flight test.

Q. When I have my licence do I have to buy a helicopter?

A. You can self-fly hire one of our aircraft for your own use when you have your licence.

Q. Where can I take a helicopter and can I land it anywhere?

A. You can take the helicopter almost anywhere you wish and land at any civil airfield subject to its terms and conditions. More importantly you can land in anybody’s field or private site, e.g. hotel, restaurant, golf course etc, provided you have the owner’s permission and you do not violate any Air Traffic Rules whilst doing so (you will be taught the rules on the course).

Our experienced staff will be pleased to assist with site selection and the

relevant permissions.

Q. Your price list quotes by the hour, what does this mean?

A. You only pay for the hours you fly. If you hire a helicopter for the day you will only pay for the time it flies, subject to a minimum of 1 hour. When you are learning you will spend a considerable amount of time on the ground being briefed by your instructor, this time is not chargeable.

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Q. Is a helicopter safe?

A. Yes, air travel generally is statistically far safer than road travel. In the hands of a sensible and well-trained pilot, the helicopter is an excellent form of transport, which can be safely landed in the rare event of an engine failure. Many people think that if the engine fails in a helicopter the situation is dire, this is not the case. During your course your instructor will demonstrate and subsequently teach you how to land the helicopter safely without the engine running.

Q. Can anybody fly a helicopter?

A. Helicopter flying is a skill that most people can achieve to a satisfactory level after sufficient practice. There will always be certain people who find controlling a helicopter a little too difficult but generally 99% of people who start the course do complete it to a safe standard.

Q. What prior knowledge of the helicopter, navigation, air law etc do I need?

A. None as long as you are willing to learn and have a good degree of common sense we will teach you all you need to know.

Q. Why should I learn to fly a helicopter with Phoenix?

A. We have extremely experienced and dedicated instructors who are passionate about helicopters. Our main business is helicopter training. The business is owned and run by instructors who put students first. We only survive by making you happy, are not too large to ignore the individual needs of our students but experienced enough to provide a first class package to suit each person’s own particular requirements.

Q. If I am training at another school and want to move to Phoenix, can I do that or do I have to start again?

A. No its easy. Simply contact us and we will arrange for you to do an assessment flight with one of our instructors and then sit down with you and see what you need to do to finish. All the hours you have done will count. If you’re happy with us we will contact your old school for your notes.

With the exception of your medical you can come to us and complete the course from start to

finish without having to look elsewhere for examiners. We are a self-contained operation with

numerous aircraft available with on-site maintenance; therefore the chance of a helicopter not

being available is minimal.

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Finding UsGoodwood Branch Blackbushe Branch

Phoenix Helicopter Academy Ltd,Goodwood Aerodrome,Goodwood,Chichester,PO18 0PH

Tel: 01243 790900E-mail: [email protected]

Further  details  and  instruc/on  can  be  found  at:  h4p://www.phoenixhelicopters.co.uk/contact-­‐us/

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Phoenix Helicopter Academy Ltd,Blackbushe Airport,Camberley,Surrey,GU17 9LQ

Tel. 01252 875444Email: [email protected]

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