Helicentre Aviation

"Fantastic flight over Leicester today with the excellent Lucy. Highly recommend."

"I am due to undertake an Integrated CPL(H) course with Helicentre and have got nothing but the highest of recommendations for the organisation and those that work there. In the build up to the course, through applying, booking the Pilot Selection Day and starting the course I have had nothing but the best customer service and support from the team, particularly Jack in Admissions. If you're considering undertaking any training in the UK for Helicopter licenses, I would highly recommend getting in touch with Helicentre Aviation!"

"Mine wasn't the best experience with Helicentre. The place felt like an impersonal pilot and student farm. I also had to make a freedom of information request to get my test results from them. They're just not very client-centric. I've shared my observations here so that you might benefit from them. I began by attending one of their online sessions. They started the session late to allow more people to join which I found disrespectful to everyone who’d turned up on time. Their presenter was a little dead behind the eyes but the webinar informative. As part of the sell they talked a lot about all the job opportunities they might be able to connect you to once you completed their CPL course. Off the back of that I bought their Pilot Selection day product. It included some interesting online selection tests, a flight logbook, some more tests at Helicentre and a couple of hours of flying. When I arrived I told them that I needed to be back in London by 18h00 and they assured me that would be completely feasible. I did the tests then was allocated to an instructor called Gilles Pöltinger. He was the best part of the whole experience. Gilles followed a template for briefing and was utterly professional. The flights I did with him were great. As the day progressed it became apparent that I wouldn't be back in London by 18h00 which was pain. Their mismanagement of my time with them was sloppy and disappointing. At the end of the day I met with their business development person who gave me a letter informing me that I'd passed their 'selection' and that I could have £X-off discount off the cost of the full CPL course (clever marketing). She also told me what my test results were. When I asked for a copy to take home she told this was probably not possible because of their relationship with their third party test supplier... Not having heard back I followed up by email and had to keep chasing to find out whether I could have a copy of my test results. Eventually I had to make an official Freedom of Information request to get my own test results from them. Really?? Why would you be so unhelpful to someone who could potentially become a client on your CPL course?? They were finally obliged to send me my test results but I was left feeling not great about Helicentre. It felt impersonal and the kind of place pilots go to build-hours and then move on to better jobs elsewhere. As a place to learn it felt a bit like a factory. In terms of nearby landscape airspace to fly in it wasn't that interesting. Mostly flat. Doing a PPL (H) or a CPL can take time so based on my experience of Helicentre and of other helicopter flight schools I'd suggest finding one that is more personal, where you have a sense that flight instructors will be there for a while. Good luck."

"An inconsiderate noisy neighbour whose pilots conduct repeated noisy low level "training" over the same local neighbouring villages every day the sun shines without any consideration for the noise nuisance they create. It is totally inconsiderate to fly groups of helicoptors in the same concentrated patch OVER and OVER and OVER again - people live here you know! If we opened a motorcycle training school and only practiced up and down YOUR street, outside YOUR home - every SINGLE day and only your street - you might perhaps think it was unreasonable? Not illegal - but deeply, deeply inconsiderate. Yes! try living in Kibworth or Fleckney with Leicester airport as a neighbour!! Surely your aircraft can fly more than 5 miles - and give your poor neighbours a few moments without noise? This review was conducted during the lockdown - where non essential activities should be minimised (but seemingly aren't here!) ."