Our Private Pilot training course is your first step toward enjoying all the excitement and privileges of helicopter flying.
If you’re going the professional route, it is also the initial stage in your career development. A pilot who holds a private license may take passengers flying, as long as they are not being paid to do so. This license is therefore also popular amongst pilots who want to own their own helicopter for personal use and enjoyment.
The course is a combination of flight and ground school designed to prepare you for the Private Pilot exam. As with all of our programs, training is conducted one-on-one with your instructor. At Pacific Flying School Helicopters, we feel that a knowledgeable pilot has the tools to operate an aircraft safely and competently. It is for this reason that our students are held to the highest of standards in the flight training industry. The Private Pilot course will take the fledgling pilot through three different stages of training, each designed to build pilot
confidence and skill levels.
The 1st Stage will be your introduction to helicopter aerodynamics; the “how and why” of helicopter flight. Understanding what makes a helicopter fly will be a great benefit as you take the controls of the helicopter.A great deal of time is spent on how to perform a thorough “pre-flight” on the helicopter. Pacific Flying School Helicopters’ owner, with thousands of hours experience, believes the “pre-flight” to be an important first step in helicopter flight training.
Your stage 1 flight time will be devoted to learning how to control the aircraft, including basic maneuvers like hovering, approaches, departures, flying airport traffic patterns and communications with other aircraft. These will be the building blocks leading up to your 1st solo flight.
In Stage 2, you will continue to improve your skills in all the basic maneuvers while you gain proficiency outside the local airport area. You will learn how to properly plan for and fly cross-country flights, master the art of reading the weather, experience night flights and gain proficiency in handling emergency procedures .
Stage 3 rounds out your private pilot training as we help you hone your maneuvering, navigation, pilot rules and regulations and overall aviation knowledge to the level required by the private pilot practical test standards, a set of criteria that the faa publishes which all private pilots must meet in order to earn a license. This stage culminates with your faa private pilot check ride, the day you will sit with one of our designated examiners. In order to gain your license, you will need to have passed a written exam, an oral exam and a flight test.