After mastering solo circuits, it was time to venture out by myself into the training area. This might seem quite straight forward, however from the air, everything looks different! Luckily for me, the area that I was training in had some gas pipelines that could be followed into and out of the training area, which…

I still remember my first solo as if it were yesterday. It is such an achievement that I don’t think it’s something that will ever be forgotten. I had some idea on the day that it might happen as I’d been practicing circuits on the previous few lessons with my instructors, but this wasn’t confirmed…

Day 5 – The Finale! We woke up to a beautiful day at Eshott Hall, the sun was shining, blue, blue sky! Couldn’t be more different to yesterday’s dismal start. Capt. Storey was up at crazy o’clock as usual for his run so once he returned, we had breakfast and finalised our flight plan.  …

First certified by the FAA in 2010 and 4 years later by EASA in 2014, Robinson has now built around 750 R66 helicopters selling them all over the world. With an R66 joining our fleet shortly we wanted to take a closer look at the Robinson R66 and see what all the fuss is about.…

Day 4 was a BIG day, we had to cover over 400 nautical miles! It was definitely set to be a long but exciting day for the all pilots. It was an early start at Warwick Hall and after a super breakfast, it was straight to the helis and managed to get away by 9am.…

Day 3 - 19th June 2019 We set off from Caernarfon airport around 11am it was a relatively short day so was good to get a couple of hours admin done before we departed. Our destination today was Warwick Hall, near Carlisle. Some of the group planned to stop off at Manchester Barton to refuel, however Frank and I…

Day 2 - Tuesday 18th June After breakfast, Matt took the opportunity to do his usual morning run. Lee also headed off for a stroll on the beach (must be all that time in OZ 😉). We met up at Padstow Harbour and took the ferry across to Rock where after a glorious morning first…

At this time of the year when everyone is going back to school or university, we thought it would be a good time to tackle the question of PPL(H) Vs University. If you’re about to finish Sixth Form this year then you could be reaching a defining moment – apply for a degree course with…

Day 1 - Distance approx. 400 nautical miles (4-5 hours flying time) On Monday 17th June those taking part in this incredible trip met up around 8:30am at Elstree for a bit of preflight refreshment, check the aircraft and to finalise our flight plans for the day ahead! The pilot teams were: Myself and Student Frank Capt Neil…

There is a lot of discussion in aviation as to how young you can be to fly a helicopter. Here at Flying Pig we think you are (within reason) NEVER too young to enjoy flying a helicopter especially! In the UK, you must be 16 years old to be allowed to fly a helicopter solo,…