Discovery Flights
Discover Flight,
Discover Helicopters Canada
Book your introduction to aviation with a campus tour and discovery flight.
There are many first steps on a student’s journey to becoming a helicopter pilot. As you begin to research schools you will learn that one of the most important things you can do is to see the school for yourself and meet the staff and instructors that will be helping you achieve your licensing goals. At Helicopters Canada, we offer Campus Tours (for no cost) demonstrating what our facilities have to offer and showcasing our highest standards of training. These tours allow you to see the campus, meet current students, have questions answered in person, make face-to-face memories, and more. Most importantly, we also offer Discovery Flights that you can tag onto your Campus Tour that we highly recommend to help with making your selection.
contact us
to book yours today!
Discovery Flight + Campus Tour COMBO
1 on 1 tour of the Canadore Campus, Flight Wing, and Hangars with the Student Coordinator. This entire process can last anywhere from 30 minutes to 4 hours, depending on how long you would like the tour to take and how many questions you have.
Includes time for a Q&A session to cover any unanswered questions regarding the life of a helicopter pilot, how to get your licence, detailed break-down of the programs we offer, and anything else you can think of to ask.
A pre-flight lesson briefing and passenger briefing/machine walk-around with a flight instructor to review the lesson theory that you will be going up in the helicopter to do.
30 or 60 minute Discovery Flight with your instructor.
Includes a dual start-up, hover-taxi to the runway, take off, then establish straight and level flight over the city of North Bay. Your instructor demonstrates turns, banks, climbs and descents, then hands the controls over to you to try for yourself. Next, you return to the airport for your instructor to demonstrate how to hover, then they give you the controls one by one to feel what it’s like to hover on your own! You will then hover-taxi back to the hangar for a dual shut-down, and your instructor will debrief with a post-flight review of everything you just learned.
Robinson R44
4-seater, 2-bladed
piston engine helicopter
30 min. Flight: $447.50+HST
60 min. Flight: $895.00+HST
Bell 206 Jet Ranger
4-seater, 2-bladed
Turbine engine helicopter
30 min. Flight: $630.00 +HST
60 min. Flight: $1,260.00 +HST
Scheduling is dependent on weather, aircraft and pilot availability. Our regular business hours for the services above are from 0900 AM to 1530 (3:30) PM from Monday to Friday, excluding holidays.
7 Reasons to book a Discovery Flight
1. See the fleet
Looking at pictures of the helicopters you will be flying can never compare to being up close and personal, especially if you have never seen one before. There’s also more to the fleet than you see as a student and you don’t want to miss an opportunity to explore some of the heavy-lifting charter machines that aren’t part of the flight school that you might learn to fly later on.
2. Meet the Instructors
These are the people who you will get the closest to in the next 9 months of your program, so it’s a great idea to introduce yourself in person, especially since one of them will be the lucky candidate to take you for your Discovery Flight!
3. hang out in hangars
Student pilots live around helicopters, and helicopters live in hangars, so it’s a great advantage getting to explore the heli’s home since this is where you will be spending a lot of time during your program. The hangar is also where pre and post flight briefings take place before and after every lesson, starting with your Discovery Flight.
4. Familiarization with airport ops
As soon as you cross over from “pax” to pilot, there’s a whole other world of the airport that opens up to you. Since you take off right from the airport, you will get to walk on the “tarmac”, watch other aeroplanes and helicopters operate up close, and observe all the action that typically happens on the other side of the fence.
5. Feel Flight First
Flying in a helicopter feels a lot different than in a commercial aircraft or a small aeroplane… especially when you’re the one in control of it. Beyond just being in the air, your Discovery Flight is the perfect opportunity to instill a sense of responsibility of handling a complex, expensive machine and see if piloting is something you can picture yourself doing for a career.
6. Test your hand-eye coordination
Just like learning how to ride a bike, your first time trying to fly a helicopter feels like nothing else you’ve done before. The Discovery Flight acts as the perfect “test drive” to try your hand at controlling the machine before you sign up for a 45 to 100-hour program.
7. Rule out the “deal breakers”
If you have never been in a helicopter, or any flying machine for that matter, this is the perfect opportunity to find out any reasons that may hold you back from becoming a pilot before it’s too late, such as severe motion sickness, crippling fear of heights, and any other general discomforts.
Ready to book your tour and flight?
Contact us today!
Are you finding the task of researching a flight school daunting?
Head over to our article Do Your Research where the Helicopters Canada team shares their tips on everything you should think about while doing your research.