Helicentre Aviation - Oxford Base

I undertook the Helicentre IR(H) Feb – Apr 23. The flying and simulator instructors, as well as the CAA examiners, were generally very good. All were extremely experienced and very helpful throughout. They do film and record you via security cameras whilst on site, which I found very odd. It certainly gave the impression that the company did not trust you, or even their own staff. Facilities on site are fine, the simulator being particularly good. I managed to complete the AW109 type rating and IR courses in 3 months due to considerable good fortune. Others I know had far less luck. The course really suffered from aircraft availability, averaging out at 44% over the 3 months. Their sole AW109 was unavailable for part of the course, which resulted in them having to hire aircraft from other parties. This meant that aircraft could not be guaranteed over the duration of the course, being reliant on the goodwill of other AW109 owners through a company called Volare. I’m certainly thankful for the company for hosting an interview with the Bristow Group on site, as well as providing a decent discount on the price of the course. That said, there are other companies who offer the IR(H) course in the UK (such as Castle Air, Babcock and Starspeed), who would be well worth considering. For the substantial quantity of money paid, the customer service should have been better. Unfortunately, not the greatest and most joyful of experiences.

After completing a cpl with helicentre in Leicester I agreed to take their IR course.At the beginning of the course was simulator training, I found it didn’t prepare us well for flying. When this finished we were told there wasn't anything to do and to come back 5 weeks later. I did some hour building but it's unexplained why the whole school closed. On returning, we found out the course materials we'd been given to study for >a month were wrong. They changed aircraft type from the AW109s to the A109e because the company helicopter was broken.Once we began flight training there was very little interaction from staff. I normally hadn't a clue if I would be flying on any given day and if I was, I'd be given a rushed briefing on what's supposed to happen in the lesson. I felt I wasn't at my potential and spoke to Paul who arranged a meeting with Sarah (head of all training). We spoke about how I was considering leaving the course and how there wasn't consistency in training because we were relying on rentals. I didn't appreciate how she said this is just normal and there wasn't any plan to fix this. It was also inappropriate how she missed the start of our zoom call by half an hour and mentioned I could get more out of the training if I arrived on time (I was late once). I decided to leave the course and continue my training elsewhere.