Commercial Private Ground School Training Costs Survival Training Medical/ Accommodations R22 Specifications FAQ's Special Offers	FAQ's Do I need any prior flying experience? No. Most students have no prior aviation experience at the beginning of helicopter pilot training. What are the steps to getting started? First we recommend that you take an introductory flight lesson. Then get your study materials and book an aviation medical exam. What's an introductory flight? An introductory flight will give you a chance to pilot a helicopter for the first time. This will help you decide if you really want to pursue a pilots licence plus it will give you a knowledge base for the ground studying. National helicopters offers a 20 minute "Discovery Flight" as a special package, or you may want to just book an hour of flight training for a more thorough introduction. What are the study materials? National Helicopters sells a student study package which contains all of the ground school materials you will require. Our package includes the following: Principles Of Helicopter Flight Rotorcraft Flying Handbook From The Ground Up Air Command Weather Manual Aircraft Flight Manuals Flight log books you'll require Navigation and flight planning tools and charts Custom embroidered book satchel / flight bag Embroidered National Helicopters baseball hat Much more... What's an aviation medical exam? Transport Canada requires all pilots to have regular medical checkups. These are essentially a simple physical exam that you get from a general practitioner doctor who is certified by Transport as a medical examiner. The doctors office will then send the exam documents to Transport Canada and 1 - 2 months later you should receive your medical certificate in the mail. The medical certificate is not required to begin flight training, however you will need it before you can fly solo. Do I need perfect eyesight. No. You only need vision that is correctable to 20/30 with glasses or contact lenses. What do I have to do to register for the school? Give us a call or come by the heliport and we will discuss your needs and goals, make a plan for achieving them, and then begin a training file for you. That's about it! What type of helicopter licences are available? As a new pilot you can choose to train for either a Private Pilot Licence or a Commercial Pilot Licence. We can also train you for additional ratings once you have your licence, including Night VFR, VFR OTT, and IFR. Plus you can get endorsements on other types of helicopters. Do I have to get my private licence before my commercial? No. There are some benefits to getting a private licence first, but most people take the simpler approach and just get their commercial straight away. I have a fixed wing licence, does this help? Yes, your total flight hour requirement for a commercial helicopter licence go down to 60 from 100 if you have a Canadian commercial fixed wing licence. How old do I have to be to get a pilots licence? You can begin training at any age, but you have to be 16 years old before you can solo, and you have to be 17 to be issued a private pilots licence, while you have to be 18 years old to get a commercial licence. Am I too old to become an employable commercial pilot? The short answer is absolutely not. Many companies prefer to entrust a helicopter to a pilot with some life experience. The limiting factor as far as age is whether you are willing to make the sacrifices necessary to break into the industry as a junior helicopter pilot. Am I too heavy to train with you? The R22, which is our primary training helicopter has a pilot weight limit of 240lbs, therefore we aren't able to train students for a licence who are heavier than that. However, we can conduct advanced training for heavier students who already have a licence in the Bell 206 JetRanger. How long does the training take? A dedicated student who trains every day can obtain a private licence in less than 4 months, and a commercial in less than 6. Can I work at my job and flight train at the same time? Yes. National understands that many students must work to pay for their training. We can customize your training schedule around your work schedule whether you are training full time or part time. What hours is the school open? We're open from 8am to 5pm every day, and appointments can be arranged outside of those hours to accommodate special situations such as training for a night rating. Is the school open weekends? Yes! Seven days per week! When does the school semester begin? Every student is trained individually, so there is no fixed school start date. You can come and train when it fits your schedule. Do you require the full tuition up front? Absolutely not! Unlike most helicopter flight training schools National only requests small deposits onto your training account. As you fly, this account is debited. When your account gets low, you just top it up with another account. What is the best way to fund my flight training? Because we don't require large deposits, the most economical method of funding flight training with National is to establish a personal line of credit with your bank. These normally have very reasonable interest rates and, most importantly, unlike a loan they don't require you to pay interest on the full amount until you actually withdraw it. As of January 2009, Service Ontario has implemented the Second Career Option which will provide up to $28,000 toward Commercial Helicopter Training to employees recently laid off from their positions. Many of our students have gone this route. Are accommodations available? Yes, in fact we have private, affordable rooms for rent right here at our heliport. Alternatively we can also help you with selecting housing from the wide variety of choices presented by the town of Bolton which is just a stone’s throw from the heliport. What helicopters do you train on? Our main flight training helicopter is the Robinson R22. The R22’s simple and sensible design lends itself perfectly to flight training and is without a doubt the most popular helicopter for initial instruction in the world. Our advanced turbine helicopter is the Bell 206 JetRanger, which is North America's most popular utility helicopter by a wide margin. Does National hire their students as pilots? Absolutely. National Helicopters is in the ideal position of not only operating a flight school but also conducting very successful and diverse commercial helicopter operations. This allows us to offer some of the flying jobs to very talented low time pilots. This is unlike most flight schools that do no outside work at all or what work they do perform requires high time pilots. We regularly hire 1 or 2 of our students each year into actual flying positions. Additionally we offer our students numerous ground opportunities to give them experience working with helicopters even if they aren't flying. Is there a limit to how many students can train in the school at one time? No. National has 6 helicopters available for flight training, 3 R22's and 4 B206's, making it very unlikely that you could not fly when you want to. We also have 5 flight instructors on staff to meet your needs.