I’m thinking of working on my rotary certificate and I’m in shock at the rates for, e.g., Robinson 44 time in France and Switzerland relative to what training in the U.K. Costs. I’m going to be mostly in the South of France and maybe Geneva for the next few months.
It looks like north of 1000 euros per hour in Geneva, Annecy, Cannes versus £440 per hour at HQ at Denham and something similar for Ottershaw at Fairoaks, two well regarded instructors/operations.
Any idea why the pricing down south is double UK prices? (Other than the obvious drop in Sterling post the Brexit vote, which only explains a bit of the differential…)
An hour of RH44 instruction on my field costs 654 €, but there are some ways to get lower hourly rates by paying more upfront. So it seems that maybe the Geneva area is more expensive “because they can”?
Yeah, wondering if I’m missing some smaller airports with Heli training but it does not seem to be the case near Cannes… not sure about near a Geneva.
Just FYI, the going charter rate (no instruction) for an R44 here in the SW US is around USD 600/hour. Therefore GBP 440 / hour ( = approx USD 560) including instruction sounds almost too good to be true.
If you are in the GVA region it’s about 1 hours drive to Lyon Bron – I have done 2 hours of helicopter training there and remember it was quite a bit cheaper than Annecy LFLP. I got it as a gift fro friends but then got bored with it so I didn’t continue. I think the outlet was Azur Helicopter. http://www.azurhelico.com/fr/formation-pilote-prive-helicoptere-pplh.html (not affiliated with them at all so hope it’s OK to post the link)
If you are going to be in the GVA area do let me know if you want to meet up.
W.
The best rates I have seen for an R44 are at East Coast Aero in Boston (KBED). Apparently you can get an R44 with an instructor for $379 to $409 USD, (£300 to £323). I have had them bookmarked for a while and suspect I might be making the trek over eventually… :-).
For an R22 the best rates I have seen are Jerry Trimble in Oregon at $275 USD.
I would love to learn to fly helicopters in the mountains of France or Switzerland, but the prices are crazy. For the cost of a heli license in Switzerland you can buy half of a machine which is almost timed out but has 500 hours to go….
Heli Air’s UK-wide block rate for R22 PPL training is about £280 + VAT. I would certainly recommend them.
300EUR per hour in Guimbal Cabri G2 in Czech Republic – www.lionhelicopters.cz. Watch a very nice video intro on their website.
