Fly-Q.

You may find it all a bit confusing - all this stuff about JAR courses, FTDs, FNPT2s, this rule, that criteria and so on and so on. I certainly do, so I have tried to explain below what this fabulous bit of kit means to you.

The simulator is built into a real Agusta 109 helicopter that had a bit of a “heavy” landing!!

We have removed the engine, rotor blades, tail rotor and lot of other bits. The cockpit is identical to the A109 and all the knobs, buttons, switches, controls, seats, seat belts, radios, gauges, dials are the same as in the real helicopter.

In the back are five computers, hidden away, and an instructor’s seat. This seat is sacred. Never disrespect the seat!

Outside there are more computers and a huge curved screen some 2.5 metres high. Onto the screen are projected various scenes. The scenes vary from mission to mission. On take off you see the runway and runway lights. It then becomes very boring for the Instrument Flying course scene for at 200 feet it just goes,  er………., all white.

Lots of other scenes including oil rig platforms in the North Sea, a tiny island Kingdom in the English Channel, the mountains of Wales and lots more. The best scene is the confined area display where you can skim over the sea, fly into a cave, go up the side of a cliff and drop down into the centre of a castle. It’s great!

We recorded the all characteristics of the flight of the A109. The sights and sounds of the helicopter and the feel of the controls. The Vne, turning, climbing, descending, engine failures and so on and so on. A very clever man translated this information into software so that when you fly the simulator, it performs exactly like the real thing. It doesn’t have motion sensors, but I know from experience that you do not need them. It is very, very real. So real it is almost unreal.  Imagine sitting in a small cinema with a 250 degree of a scene around you?.

The upshot of all of the work that the guys that built and operate this simulator, GA Simulation Ltd, is that the UK CAA have approved this machine to be used for a lot of courses, and these approvals extend all the way across the 27 EU States that have signed up to the EASA/JAR standards.

The obvious course is the JAR Multi engine Instrument Rating Course. This is a 50 hour flying course and you can do 40 of these ours in our simulator. You will need this if you want to flying executive helicopters in bad weather or want to work in the oil industry. You can also do some instrument approaches to oil rig platforms.

But it does not stop there.

We can use the simulator to re-validate your IR if you already have one.

We can use the simulator for type conversions from piston engine or single turbine engine to a twin engine helicopter. You will need this if you want to be paid to fly people around at night or over water.

You can use the simulator for type conversions to the Agusta 109. You will need this if you are going to fly an A109 in a corporate environment.

The simulator can also be used for Multi-Crew Co-operation courses. This is all about how to work well with your Captain, Co-pilot and even Cabin crew... It saves lives!

As far as we know, we are the only place in the whole of Europe that can offer such comprehensive tuition all at the same place.

There are lots of reasons, but the three main ones are:-

1. Cost. The simulator cost per hour is roughly a quarter of the price of flying the helicopter in the air.

2. Green. It is better for the environment. It may sound silly trying to be “green” when working in the helicopter industry, but it is a factor. The emissions are virtually zero (just a bit of electricity) and it does not make a lot of noise and irritating everyone who lives near the airfield.

3. Safety & Learning. You can practice getting out of “interesting” situations that only a fool would deliberately expose him or herself to in reality. If you get stuck on that particular procedure in an exercise, you can freeze the simulator, and work on just that bit of the task.

The equipment that we use is just a part of the whole package. We have other simulators dedicated to training for specific tasks. GPS for example.

You need to be sure that the people teaching you are up to the job and that you stand a very good chance of your passing test first time.

You need to be taught in a top class facility with accommodation and entertainment within easy reach.

You need to be in an environment that treats you as a valued customer as well as a colleague and pilot.

Fly-Q offers all this, and more.

As well as the usual hourly rate system, we also offer fixed price courses.

With the fixed price course it enables you to spread the cost of your course over a year in several monthly installment. This helps you budget, and subject to status, we may be able to arrange finance.

We strongly recommend that you NEVER pay up front for the whole course. Any discount you may be offered is not worth the risk of losing your hard-earned cash. You have probably guessed already that we will not take your money up front!

When comparing prices please note that our prices are based upon the time from “collective up” to “collective down”. You do not pay for the time from “engine start” to “engine shut-down”. This in some cases can be 0.3 of an hour saving. All our prices exclude VAT.

I hope you have enough information to decide whether you want to be a twin-rated, instrument rated, commercial pilot or an instrument rated Private pilot?

As a next stage, I suggest that you come and see us, and our facilities at Cardiff Heliport. You can come by helicopter – its free to land if you have made an appointment to see us. This is the best way to travel, of course!

If you are coming by public transport, we will collect you from Cardiff Airport or the railway station.

If you are travelling from abroad, let us know and we will arrange the whole of your visit including accommodation if necessary.

You can contact us by email, Duncan@FlyQ.com or by telephone +44 7970 720 767

I look forward to welcoming you as one of our VISs. – a Very Important Student.