Winter Survival

Helicopters Canada Winter Survival course is designed for students or employees who must face these conditions as part of their everyday job duties. Our week-long training session includes one day of classroom instruction at the Canadore College Aviation Campus and three days out in the wilderness with hands-on practical training. Students will learn essential safety skills such as the recognition, prevention and treatment of frostbite, hypothermia, and other cold weather injuries as well as the skills necessary to quickly locate or improvise effective shelters to survive an unexpected situation.

Our extensive ground school includes the following:

• Shelter Building Methods
• Fire Lighting and Signal Techniques
• Search and Rescue
• Map and Compass Navigation
• Survival Kit Contents
• Trapping and Snaring Techniques
• Remote Winter Helicopter Operations

The skills and knowledge gained during this course will help prepare you with the understanding and confidence that you have the will to survive an outdoor emergency situation. If you find yourself in a survival situation, you’ll be grateful you know what to do.

Duration: 4 days/3 nights
Delivery: February
Cost: $1,239 + HST

Underwater Egress

Helicopters Canada Underwater Egress Program is designed to provide aircraft crew and passengers travelling over water, the knowledge and skills necessary to react to an aircraft ditching emergency. The course has been designed for workers traveling via aircraft on a regular basis, to provide vital safety information, procedures and potentially life-saving knowledge. Regrettably, many passengers do not survive during a ditching emergency because of a lack of knowledge and practice of emergency Underwater Egress scenarios.

The Underwater Egress Training Program is given in two parts; Theory in a classroom and practice in a pool with a submersible aircraft simulator and sea survival equipment.

Our program content includes the following:

• Surface and Underwater Egress Training
• Emergency Ditching and Evacuation
• Pre-ditching procedures
• Survival and Water Rescue Skills
• Cold Water Emersion
• Hazards related aircraft and personnel operating over water
• Safety and survival equipment requirements and utilization

Duration: 1 day
Delivery:
Cost: $735 + HST

First Aid

Standard First Aid is a practice that pilots should not take for granted when operating in remote areas with risk of injury. Our two-day First Aid course is unlike any basic course offered; students are given scenarios to put their classroom lessons and decision-making skills into practice to develop hands-on solutions.

Day One: Our certified instructor teaches the theory and procedures involved in treating all types of first aid situations. PowerPoints and demonstration videos are discussed as students read along with the workbook, including guidance and references for emergencies that they can keep with them in their aircraft.

Day Two: All the teachings from the previous day are practiced first hand. CPR and AED responses are utilized on dummies, and first aid crisis’ are demonstrated on our staff and student “dummies.” Students are divided into groups and are given surprise scenarios they must react to in real time to make life-saving decisions using their new first aid training.

Not only is our certified instructor an experienced paramedic, but also a special effects makeup artist with a talent of making fictional scenarios seem frighteningly realistic. These aspects of real-life storytelling and convincing scenarios grasp the attention of our students and make them react as realistically as possible when dealing with a first aid emergency. That is what makes this a First Aid Course unlike any other.

Duration: 2 Days
Delivery: October
Cost: $620 + HST

Chainsaw and Felling

The majority of helicopter operations take place in heavily forested areas where the felling of trees is often required. Therefore, it is often helpful if pilots are familiar in chainsaws and their operation. That is why we have made this Chainsaw Safety and Tree Felling Course part of our Pilot Preparedness Program.

The first day of this two-day course begins in a classroom setting where our experienced instructors review the storage, upkeep, mechanics and safety practices of chainsaws. Students are also familiarized with how to identify tree types and their best usage, properly fell, prune and buck the wood yielded from their cut.

Day two takes place outdoors where students practice the lessons they learned in class. Divided into groups, the students are assigned an instructor who walks them into the bush and are given the opportunity to identify, select, fell, trim and buck their own trees. Then when it comes time, students must utilize the necessary tools to sharpen, file, clean, oil and refuel their chainsaws to keep them serviceable.

This course most accurately represents real experiences helicopter pilots face when working in remote forested areas. These skills help our graduates meet the demands when expected to create helicopter log pads, survival shelters, firewood and so much more.

Duration: 2 Days
Delivery: November
Cost: $620 + HST

Log Pad Construction

The perfect opportunity for helicopter students to marry their chainsaw safety and winter survival training; our Helicopter Log Pad Construction Course is the best way to test the future pilots on their ability to retain knowledge and act quickly under high demand.

At some point throughout their winter survival experience, one of our helicopters pays a visit to the secluded area on short notice and needs a place to land to keep them out of the snow. It is at this point our group of students must work as a team to assemble a safe log pad in a suitably determined landing site.

By selecting sturdy lumber trees, making clean cuts, thoroughly pruning, and bucking into appropriate sizes, this is the perfect culmination of the students’ chainsaw training while dealing with the winter environment under high pressure.

All done under the supervision of experienced instructors with the familiar chainsaw equipment and safety gear, the students are not given the chance to lose any of their past training by applying it to a real life scenario with a real life reward. This may be the first time a student builds a helicopter log pad, but after getting a job in the aviation industry it most likely will not be their last!

Duration: 1 Day
Delivery: February
Cost: $620 + HST