GROUND THEORY INSTRUCTION
· What are the main subjects in the theory training?
1. Air law and procedures
2. Cells, Motor and Systems
3. Flight theory
4. Meteorology
5. Instruments
6. General-Navigation
7. Navigation and Radio help
8. Exploitation
9. Human factors
10. Air operations
· How does the training take place ? (meetings vary case by case along with the instructor):
Preferably the student attends a class 3 times every week; Group classes can be given in a maximum of 6 people at once.
Theoretic classes are generally 1h30 to 2h30.
Generally these students will fly before or after their theoretic classes.
The weekly planning is done the Friday before.
· What teaching methods are used ?
The base for the ground school are the power points projected on a big screen. The course also has diverse aspects to it such as (paper, books, movies, Internet, maintenance terrain, volunteer for air meetings)
· At what rythm is the training done ? (Number of hours per day or week, full time or part time)
There is no complete part time, although during the course you should give 1 day out of 2, the schedule can work around a job.
If the weather had been nasty during the week the students can come fly during the weekend to make up for lost time since they should fly up to 3 times a week.
Transport
Which means the students will fly a minimum of 50 h while taking 80 h of theoretic classes.
Once the theoretic exam is passed the students have 2 years, the flight exam can be passed at 75 h and the 50 h left are usually done in 2 to 3 months.
· Is there training on a flight simulator? If so, what kind? How many hours and what is the objective?
The school has since
At the end of the training, you need a minimum of 10 h of flight with the instruments. According to Transport
Therefore we give you the opportunity to do these hours on the simulator and save your extra flight time for certifications such as night time flying.
· Can you give a typical schedule of an average week of training?
ATTENTION *This calendar is only an EXAMPLE and these hours are subject to change.
|
Week N° |
Activities |
Details |
|
Monday |
|
Meeting at 7h45 |
|
8h-10h30 |
Theoretic course |
Ground instructor |
|
11h00-12h15 |
HOUR OF FLIGHT |
Flying instructor |
|
12h15-14h |
Lunch |
Cafeteria /kitchen Everyone brings their own lunch |
|
14h-15h30 |
Practical exercises/ Study |
Ground instructor |
|
Après 15h30 |
Free afternoon |
|
|
Tuesday |
Arrivée à l’école |
|
|
8h00 – 10h30 | ||
|
10h30-12h15 |
OFF |
OFF |
|
12h15-14h |
|
|
|
14h-15h45 |
|
Carl Major |
|
15h45 – 17h30 | ||
|
Wednesday |
|
Meeting at 7h45 |
|
8h30 – 10h30 |
Theoretic classes |
Ground instructor |
|
10h30-12h15 |
HOUR OF FLIGHT |
Flying instructor |
|
12h15-14h |
Déjeuner |
|
|
14h-15h30 |
Practical exercises / Study |
Ground instructor |
|
Après 15h30 |
Free afternoon |
|
|
Thursday |
|
|
|
8h45 – 10h30 |
OFF |
OFF |
|
10h30-12h15 | ||
|
12h15-14h |
|
|
|
14h-15h30 |
OFF |
OFF |
|
Après 15h30 |
|
|
|
Friday |
|
Meeting at 7h45 |
|
8h00 – 10h30 |
Theoretic classes |
Ground instructor |
|
10h30-12h15 |
HOUR OF FLIGHT |
Flying instructor |
|
12h15-14h |
Lunch |
|
|
14h-15h30 |
Practical exercises / Study |
Ground instructor |
|
Après 15h30 |
Free afternoon |
|
· Are the ground and flight instructors different ?
YES, the flight instructors share their students, and can teach on, 3 RH22, 2 HU30, and 2 RH44.
The ground instructors choose their classes either group or specific subject.
FLIGHT INSTRUCTION
· How many helicopters are used for training ?
4 RH22, 2 RH44, and 3 HU30, although our students can be qualified on the ensemble of our fleet,
· At what rythm is the training done ? (Number of hours per day or per week)
A minimum of 1 flight per week is recommended, but 3 flights is ideal.
· How many instructors does the school have ?
5 flight instructors, and 2 ground instructors
· What is the experience of the instructors? (Flight hours and qualifications)
The experience varies from a couple hundred to a couple thousand hours for each instructor.
· Is there one instructor that follows our progression during the course or is it done solely by meeting?
One principal instructor will follow the students progression throughout their schooling with a class 1(instructor of instructor) he is in charge of the quality of the instruction for ground clases as well as flights
Ponctuality with the students garanties a good quality of learning.
1 or 2 changes in instrutors can occur during your training to help diversify your learning experience.
· How are the flight slots made?
In blocks of 2 hours (unless in particular cases)
· What happens if there is a cancelation because of bad weather or maintenance?
Concerning maintenance, the exchange of machine is planned, and the number of machines allows to always have one ready.
Concerning the weather, flight cancelations can usually be rescheduled for the next day unless the bad weather continues in which case they are brought back to (Saturday/Sunday).
· Are the briefings and debriefings included in the training? Basically how the lesson is broken down?
For 1 hour of programmed flight, the machine is reserved 2 hours time.
A 30 min inspection (refuelling), a briefing of 15 minutes before the flight (exercises envisioned, filing a flight plan, weather check…)
The 1 h flight.
Debriefing of 15 min, and completing the documents necessary.
THE COST OF THE TRAINING
· The cost of the training includes :
- The books, yes
-The supplies yes, although for the Head Set: Budget 800 to 1100 $ CAD (optional because the helicopters are equipped with good Head sets )
- Ground training (briefing and debriefing) yes
- Ground training for the CPL theory yes
- The flight test No (because all of this concerns Transport
Aeronautical Medical Certification of Category 1 or 3: 150 $ CAD
Student permit 40,00$
Radio operation certificate: 40 $ CAD
The Practical exam (flight test) for the commercial helicopter license: 400 $ CAD + cost for the tester to travel
French and English linguistics test: 60 $ CAD
Registration for the annotations on Robinson RH 22, RH44, HU30,
Registration for the commercial license: 180 $ CAD
2 photos passeport format : 15$ CAD
- The theoretic exam No
The commercial helicopters theoretic exam : 120 $ CAD
· What are the financial regulations of the training ?
When signing, you make a minimum deposit of 2500 $ CAD,which gurantees the amounts signed for the estimate of 8 months from the date of signature, and entitles the school to send you a certificate of legal education, to make your demand for CAQ (student permit for non citizens).
Each Friday the school will send you an update of your account by e-mail. It is very important that you keep your account alive to keep flying.
· Is there a better rate for scheduled blocks?
No, Helicraft/Héli-inter does not give a better deal for a larger amount of hours bought.
· What is the refund policy in case of problems? (stopping for any reason)
Each week your flight time and ground school are taken from your account, so, if a student stops his course prematurely, he will be reimbursed the amount left in his school account, but each flight or ground school is owed to the company.
· Is the instructor paid for the before and after briefings, in addition to the flight time? This depends on the instructors level, but the student will only pay for the flight time in double command or solo.
TRAINING
· General length of a full time training?
In between 6 and 8 months, depending on the time of the year, the winter conditions and the time in the day can reduce the frequency of the flights, but bad weather conditions offer another learning experience to the course.
· What is the best time of year to fly?
The summer is the best time, although the heat limits the power of the machines.
Spring and Autumn are the best temperature wise.
· How do you fly in the winter?
The same way as in the summer, although the weather conditions are different and the powder snow make things challenging.
· How is the student progression organised?
The chef instructor flies on a regular basis with the students, team meetings will allow to anticipate harder moments, or to solve problems. All the instructing personnel, ground or in flight, is in contact with the student to optimise their learning.
· Do you have statistics to show how many hours your students need to pass their CPL?
We do not carry precise statistics, but we estimate that 95 % of our students having well learned the material could in 80 or 90 h of flight training and 100 % of the students obtain their commercial license.
IN GENERAL
· How does the school insurance cover us? (personnel protection and responsability)
The student must have health insurance (« travel » for strangers), covering them for their time in Quebec.(see our website for insurance proposals).
During the flight, the student is covered with a civil insurance up to 10 000 000 $ CAD, with a responsibility to send you to the hospital, and the students health insurance takes charge again and will finalize the compensation.
· How many students has the school trained in 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2011? (PPL and CPL dissaciated)
This is a hard question to answer because we train about 30 students on both bases (St Hubert and Gatineau), but certain are PPL that are following a CPL training, for diverse reasons such as : when buying a private helicopter, the training is more recognised by the insurance companies, fiscal advantages make it more interesting. Others are trained in 2 year’s and are hard to enter in our 1 year statistics.
· What are other school activities?
The school offers PPL, CPL, IFR training with their new RH 44 glass Cockpit, ATPL, license conversion, yearly training, night time flying qualification (soon witht he use of NVG or JVN night vision goggles), flight instructor qualifications , simulator training, floats training, long lines, specialised work…
· What are the proposed training complements?
All the ones mentioned above changing by the individual decision and budget differences.
INTEGRATION
· Are we in contact with the other students and other instructors?
If the training is for CPL or private for the PPL, the spaces are made so that you can interact with the others.
Study areas are in place for students who rather study at school then at home.
The cafeteria is a great place to meet all kinds of people such as (administration, maintenance, experienced pilots , direction…).
Some 5-7 are organised during the winter season and BBQ, during the nice season, to create a friendly rivalry between the employees as much as the students.
But whenever the help of our students is needed for an air show they are always invited, to witniss first hand the industry and the safety hazourds. This also creates a team spirit within our company.
· Can we lend a helping hand to the school during our training? How? This is intended to integrate into the school the world of helicopter pilots, to be as much as possible in contact with the aviation community and be able to see other aspects of being a pilot.
Yes our students are always aloud to help. Although there is a bigger demand for it during air shows when there are many helicopters.
We also tryand organize visits to the St Hubert tower, the
· How is the school spirit? Do we develop the team spirit?
The piloting world is a very individual thing to do, so we try to organise school outings to encourage team spirit like.(football games, Kart, paint ball…study session and safety training…etc)
JOB / CAREER
· How is the situation actually for helicopter pilots in
The economic situation is recovering very slowly but we have a rather favorable mining economy that drives that drives many of the machines of the province. We should not kid ourselves this is not nirvana but it flies…Certainly the early young drivers remain difficult, but for those who can take their troubles patiently, their turn will come.
The ehlicopter industry has a lot of hope in the development of the North which should bring more jobs for the future not to forget the amny pilot retiring in the next couple years.
· What does the school do for the young pilots that have very little experience?
Does the school hire new students every year? If so, what are the last 4 years statistics?
The school occasionaly hires ground staff selected from graduates at the moment. It very difficult once again to give accurate numbers, do to the period of turnover of personnel depends on the opportunities available to them during their ground period. We always keep our eyes and ears open and do not hesitate to recommend our graduates to another company. We leave provisions in the book addresse of global helicopter companies and can support during a job search. Over fifteen students ending in 2007 were placed and now have a commercial flight status.
· What training or experience can help a new pilot find a job?
It is true that as a freshly licensed pilot the insurance for the company would be more. But it is always good to show the companies a little extra baggage such as:
-Qualification with the ASTAR
-twenty some hours on the RH 44
-A night flight qualification
-Long line training and other special qualification.
· At this moment, how many hours are neede to be hireable?
250 H of flight total
· Can age be a problem?
Age doesn’t really make much of a difference but you must realise that a young 20 year old pilot will have a longer career. And after the age of 40 the medicals are more often.
CAREER PROGRAM (if you have one)
|
|
R-22 Bêta |
Hu30 CB |
|
Professional license |
52 665.00 $ |
53 685.00 $ |
|
P.P.C. Exam to transport passengers |
3 310.00 $ |
3 310.00 $ |
|
Commercial hours of experience 215 h PIC(3) |
38 700.00 $ |
38 700.00 $ |
|
Minimum hours required by Transport |
|
|
|
Instructor qualifications |
16 285.00 $ |
16 595.00 $ |
|
TOTAL** depneding on the type of aircraft |
110 960.00 $ |
112 290.00 $ |
· What does this consist of?
Allow one hand to graduating students (chosen by the chief instructor) access to education. On the other hand, this allows the school to renew their instructors everything is 2 years.
A student at the fiber of education, and budget for this program take career nominate the chief instructor, who made the observation that more closely during its formation CPL.
If the application is successful, it must pass a company (CFC) levied annually by Transport Canada, and then pay his mounting hours to 250 hours PIC, minimum required by Transport Canada to qualify for the formation of instructor), and finally the chief instructor qualified to make this his education instructor for more than three months, and only after passing the examination of three Transport Canada, the young teacher will be assigned a student, also closely followed by the head instructor.
· What si the cost for this program? What is the contract between the pilot and society?
The cost of the program from the beginning of the license to the instructor diploma in hand is about $ 110 000 CAD. But they do not include the cost of living there for a year and a half, and without receiving any income. The company is committed to providing students with the instructor so that it rises from 500 to 700 flight hours per year of paid teaching and to train and lead a turbine machine of choice
· What are the criteria for the students in this program to get accepted?
A good result in their commercial exams (theoretic and practical)
Being unselfish and outgoing with others in society, have the fiber of education, to convey and finally the financial means.
· How many are selected each year?
1 to 2 only
----------------------------------------------------------
Additional costs to the commercial pilot in training :
Head Set: Budget of 800 to 1100 $ CAD (optional because the helicopters are equipped with Head Set’s)
Inscriptions to the exams:
Category 1 Medical Certificate: 120 $ CAD
Radio Operator Certificate: 20 $ CAD
Theoretic Exam for the Commercial Helicopter License: 105 $ CAD
Practical Exam (flight test) for the Commercial Helicopter License: 400 $ CAD
Linguistics Exam in English: 60 $ CAD
Endorsement Registration
On the Robinson RH 22, RH44, HU30, BELL 206 and ASTAR:
40 $ CAD for each qualification
Registering for the Commercial License: 180 $ CAD
2 passport format pictures: 20$ CAD
Total Additional cost: 965 $ CAD + Head set = from 1800 to 2000 $ CAD