The Hields’ Blog
Evening exam brush-up classes
As we head into the autumn and the daylight hours whittle away, we are planning to give a bespoke two nights a week package to ensure you get ahead with ground exams. The evening will consist of an instructor led brush up, one subject per evening, two hours an...
Coronavirus Update
To all our Dear Customers & Students of Hields Aviation Fixed Wing & Helicopter Flight training centre. Firstly we hope you are all keeping safe and well during these unprecedented times. We appreciate that it is difficult for everybody at the moment, and...
New Addition: The Bell 505 Helicopter
Hields Aviation is now approved for type conversion training on the fabulous Bell 505 helicopter. We are the first operator to gain this approval in the UK. We are also offering full PPL H training on this type. Please contact us for more information and the price...
New Fixed Wing & Helicopter Flight Training Centre
Established Yorkshire flight training company Hields Aviation has opened a new fixed wing and helicopter flight training facility here on the Multiflight site at Leeds Bradford Airport. The new flight training facility opened its doors this week, next door to the...
Rob’s Hiller and TV’s Heartbeat
The long running popular TV series Heartbeat is filmed here in Yorkshire. Set in the 1960's, it's full of period cars, vans, trains and motorcycles. So a few years ago, when the storyline involved a 1060's helicopter, our Hiller was the perfect machine for the part....
Flying The London Heli Lanes – One of The Best Things to Learn as a New Helicopter Pilot
For newly qualified helicopter pilots, adding to their initial basic skills is something we feel is vitally important. Just as learning to drive a car doesn’t end when you pass a test, so learning essential helicopter piloting skills is something we hope we continue...
8 Top Tips For Great Aerial Photographs on Your Helicopter Pleasure Flight
Our helicopter pleasure flights make a wonderful gift for such a diverse range of people. We fly guests from all walks of life and even the most nervous of passengers will enjoy flying on a helicopter pleasure flight across Yorkshire. Probably the most important thing...
The Lycoming O-540 Engine and Why We Use It
One of the questions we’re often asked about our Robinson R44 helicopters is what type of engine they use. Many helicopters used for pleasure flying, aerial work and other types of flying are often turbine powered. The Robinson R44 has a piston engine, as does our...
Five Reasons Why Helicopter Trial Lessons Make a Great Gift
Sometimes people contact us to talk about buying a helicopter flying trial lesson as a gift for someone. They may be concerned about the cost of flying helicopters or even whether the person they're buying the helicopter gift for might actually like it. In fact, a...
The Importance of Checklists and How Pilots Memorise Them
For any Student Pilot the vast amount of Information to retain, plus the Theoretical Knowledge requirements, can be a little daunting. In addition to the obvious handling skills to be learned, there are checklists and other important tasks when learning to fly. That's...
The Robinson R44 Type Rating and Why Pilots Should Have It
We’ve written before about why we use the Robinson R44 for our helicopter training rather than the cheaper R22. Learning on the R44 from the outset means that your type rating for the four seat helicopter becomes an integral part of your learning, with no conversion...
Some Images from the Helipad and the Cockpit
Sometimes, we forget just how lucky we are to be flying helicopters for a living. Our view from the office window on the good days is probably way better than must people are able to enjoy and we often forget that. So here's a few images we've grabbed just recently to...
Old Buckenham Air Show Images
Photographer and Flickr user John Allen dropped us a line recently with some great pictures he shot at Old Buckenham Airshow this year. He kindly sent us over these images of Rob flying the Hiller on both days of the airshow, with the helicopter posed alongside the...
Leeds Festival From The Air
Leeds Festival is actually just a short flight from our base at Sherburn. Just north of Leeds Bradford and west of York, the festival is a huge event each year. These quick pictures were taken by one of our pilots, Oliver Nicholls as we flew over the location this...
Why We Use the Robinson R44 for Helicopter Training
Hields Aviation owner Rob is often asked by student pilots why we use the Robinson R44 for helicopter flight training in Yorkshire, rather than the cheaper to buy R22 two seat model. Student pilots often gravitate initially to the Robinson R22, but Rob believes the...
Flying With Honor Blackman – The Original Pussy Galore
We had a wonderful weekend at Old Buckenham Airshow earlier this month, the team taking two helicopters to the event. One Robinson R44 for pleasure flying, plus our Hiller for some VIP guests. We’d been approached by the organisers and asked if we would be interested...
Filming With Emmerdale In Yorkshire
Emmerdale fans will have been following the progress of the latest big event in the soaps storyline recently, the helicopter crash onto the pub. Emmerdale writers are never shy of a little controversy and are often creating a stir. We were contacted to provide aerial...
Press and PR for the 2015 York Maze
A busy day yesterday working with the people at York Maze to film their latest creation from the air. York Maze opens officially this weekend on 11th July and as ever, the team came up with a unique design and theme for the season. The maze is created from over one...
Vintage Bell Jetranger – Still A Great Pilot’s Helicopter
This lovely early model Bell 206 Jetranger belongs to a client of ours. He called in to see our chief pilot Andrew Hutchinson to keep his ratings current and last week he called in for some recurrent training. The helicopter is actually, believe it or not, a 1970...
The Bell 429 – A VVIP Visitor
The summer weather has kept us particularly busy this past week. We’re really pleased with the progress of our student pilots, as our location here at Sherburn makes on-airfield flight training a breeze. Additionally, we had a VVIP visitor earlier in the week, with...
Our New Website is Now Live
We're really pleased to enhance our website for 2015 with a completely new design and makeover. As mobile devices are being used by more and more of our clients, both students, fellow pilots and guests for pleasure flights, it became obvious that we needed a new...