Helicopter Flying Lessons

For more information on flying lessons and activity holidays in Wales call activity Wales on 01437 766888 or email fran@activitywales.com

If you want to hang in mid air, perform stunts and move at will in all directions then the only alternative to joining a circus is to go fly a helicopter. Keen for an aerial adventure and the chance to get closer to his beloved elements, Activity Wales sent BBC weather forecaster Derek Brockway to Mid Wales Airport, on the outskirts of the historic market town of Welshpool, to fly off for a taster of what it takes to be a chopper pilot.

Weather plays a big part in planning any helicopter flight and so who better to have on board as a budding new pilot than BBC Wales' very own weather guru, Derek Brockway, star of Derek's Welsh Weather. To fly choppers you need a cool, calm head and the relaxed , professional approach of the staff in Whizzard Helicopters office at the Mid Wales airport immediately boosted Derek's confidence. "I had a stomach churning experience flying gliders a while ago, which almost recked a night out in Brecon, so i was a bit nervous about coming to fly helicopters", said Derek relieved to find himself in such safe hands.

Peering out the window at the clearing sky above the low lying green hills and woodland around Welshpool, Derek was quick to admit that the weather was better than he had forecast the night before on Wales Today. The predicted cold front had pushed through more quickly than expected, leaving the sky slightly overcast but bright, with only a small chance of showers. Most importantly, visibility was good and Jerry Lanchbury, Whizzard's experienced pilot, clad in a suitably worn-in leather jacket with his pilot stripes on the shoulder proclaimed it a lovely day for flying.

Althought helicopters pilots in training need to spend many hours studying the theory of flight, the good thing about this taster session was that Derek could learn simply by doing the seeing. There was no need to sit at a desk studying notes, this experience was designed to thrill and excite from the off. After a welcome cup of coffee, Jerry took Derek out onto the landing pad to introduce him to his unmistakeable bright pink helicopter, a Robinson R22 dual-seater with a 160BHP engine capable of speeds of upto 83 knots. "They had to give me the pink one didn't they!" laughed Derek as Carol, his friend, looked on with amusement.

Derek, being a tall solidly built chap, had to squeeze himself into the small cabin and onto the co-pilot seat to listen to Jerry's technical flying briefing. The controls in a helicopter appear deceptively simple and Jerry's clear and concise talk seemed to back this up, but how on earth can something so simple actually fly? The cyclic stick and the elongated t-bar that floats almost in three dimensions was the key to changing the attitude or direwction of the rotor disk, making the chopper move left or right or bringing its nose up or down, which in turn makes it fly faster or slower. Basically, Jerry revealed to a slightly concerned Derek, the rotor disk is the thing that realy flies while the cockpit merely dangles beneath it! Sensitive to the lightest of touches, the cyclic stick was the thing that Derek was going to take control of once they got up in the air. The reality of what was to come struck home and he began to pay even more attention to each of Jerry's words.

Beside the seat, the black collective lever, which resembles a car handbrake, was infact connected to the throttle and needed only gentle lifting to speed up or slow down the progress through the air. By the time Jerry had shown how the angle of the rotor blades could be altered to affect flying speed and the attitude and the foot pedals also played a part in steering, it was clear that the simplicity of the controls belied the skills of getting this pink beast of the ground. As Jerry explained, knowing the theory is all well and good, but the real art of helicopter flying is 'a touchy-feely-visual kind of thing'. Or put another way, you can't substitute Knowledge for hours in the sky.

For Derek, his flying clock was just about to start ticking. With a tightening of seat belts and a systematic pre-flight instrument check, the throttle was opened up and the powerful downwash of air from the rotor blades began to rattle everything around the pad. The cockpit shook under the increasing pressure until eventually Jerry released it into the air where it instantly became more graceful. Hovering just a few feet above the ground, Derek broke into an excited smaile befor taking gentle hold of the cyclic stick and helping Jerry guide the chopper above the airport's runway. As they swept along it, they pulled back to send the pink bird soaring up into the sky and over the distant hills with all the purpose and grace of a scene from Francis Ford Coppola's 'Apocalypse Now'.

Words and photographs by Steve Watkins