Gloucestershire Airport based Castle Air Academy has commenced training its first intake of cadets enrolled on the academy’s new Integrated Commercial Pilot Licence (Helicopter) Course with Instrument Rating, signalling a first for the UK’s helicopter training industry.
The new, fully integrated course will take cadets with no prior flying experience to CPL/IR level, making them eligible to apply for careers across the helicopter industry.
The helicopter pilot and engineer training school, with a 40-year history, is based at Gloucestershire Airport and welcomed its first batch of CPL/IR cadets on 02 September 2024, who have now commenced ground school with the academy.
Commenting on the programme launch, Robin Gibson, Head of Training at Castle Air Academy, said: “We recognised the growing demand for qualified helicopter pilots so added to our existing modular training and conversion programmes to offer an integrated course to ensure those that wanted to choose this career without any prior experience could become qualified as soon as possible, rather than a part-time option.”
Once having completed ground school and theoretical knowledge exams, cadets will progress to the flying phase of the programme, all delivered onsite at Gloucestershire Airport, encompassing single and multi-engine flying in R22 and AW109 aircraft, as well as the academy’s AW109E flight simulator. The programme is scheduled to complete in 15 months.
Castle Air Academy says that its training centre has recently been renovated and expanded to provide new classrooms, pilot briefing rooms and rest facilities, alongside its fully certified AW109E flight simulator and main hangar.
With Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) integrated training approval now in place, the academy says it will be launching its next CPL/IR integrated training programme in March 2025 and reports that interest is already strong, with potential future cadets invited to visit the academy and learn more about the training programme and the academy’s facilities.
