When it comes to spoiling your loved one for Valentine’s Day, nothing says ‘I Love You’ more than a romantic day flying helicopters, creating extra special memories with all the side trimmings of gifts and bubbly! After a nice Valentine’s lie-in, make your way to Elstree Aerodrome, perhaps for a delicious breakfast at our on-site…

I remember my first flight in a helicopter like it was yesterday.  The Robinson R22 was the training school's primary machine and they operated 4 of them at that time.  I was introduced to my instructor and given a comprehensive briefing about how all the controls worked and of course how to remain safe during…

The great thing about flying helicopters is their ability to land in diverse areas that don’t necessarily have a runway. Now of course there are risks that need to be taken in to account before just taking off into the unknown. Surrounding airspace, accessibility, obstacles and power requirements are just some of the many things…

For me, there was never really a choice between helicopters and fixed wing. As far as I’m concerned, there is just no comparison. Coming from an emergency services background, I’ve had the opportunity to witness helicopters in search and rescue situations and was always interested in the complexity of flying them and how easy the…

In December we welcomed Capt. Neil Day to the Flying Family! Neil is a highly-experienced Flying Instructor and Flight Examiner and we are thrilled to have him on board. This week, we learn about Neil's journey to becoming a Helicopter Pilot. "I am not sure when my love for helicopters started; I know that from…

It’s the most wonderful time of the year with Christmas just around the corner so we wanted to help get your Christmas shopping off to a flying start by introducing the Flying Pig Av-Vent Calendar for the first time ever! This year, we have put together 24 unmissable deals especially with Christmas Shoppers in mind…

In March we held our 4th PPL(H) Open Day, a chance for all you budding pilots out there to come along and turn that lifelong dream of learning to fly a helicopter into reality. It was a great success with many new students signing up to one of our PPL(H) training programmes on the day…

The days are getting shorter, the trees are changing colour, and the temperature is dropping. It is getting to that time of year where we need to get our winter coats out! What kind of effect does the temperature drop have on helicopters? A good place to start is looking at the weather itself and…

As you probably already know pilots rely a lot on vision when they fly, like most of us do in everyday life. It is the main sense that we use. So does this then mean that we cannot fly at night? Of course not, but there are some limitations we have as humans. Vision, as…

As technology is progressing it is affecting us all more and more every day and it does also affect helicopters. The industry has evolved in many areas starting with one of the more obvious things - going from analogue to digital screens. A good way to illustrate this is by taking a look at the…