100th pilot completes Bristow Academy Mountain Flying course

100th pilot completes Bristow Academy Mountain Flying course 18 Feb, 13, Source: Bristow Academy

There’s a certain buzz these days in Carson City, Nevada—the sound of Bristow Academy Mountain Flying Training. On 23 May 2011 Bristow Academy began operating in the majestic Lake Tahoe region and hasn’t stopped since, training more than 100 pilots from a myriad of countries in high altitude operations. Military and police units have flocked to this course, primarily from Latin America, where such operational expertise in mountainous terrain is at a premium in order to support their national security objectives.

The training is bilingual Spanish/English with the standard syllabus of four weeks encompassing 40 hours of academics and 18 flight hours to include seven flight hours under night vision goggles (NVGs) . The syllabus can be modified to fit a customer’s specific training requirement. The instructor pilots are the best in the business with more than 14,000 hours between them as they operate at the upper limits of aircraft capabilities in mountainous terrain. The core concepts of the course include performance planning, weather, operational techniques, emergency procedures and NVGs. Lead Instructor Oscar Gomez explains, “This training is just as much about decision-making as it is about flying techniques. A pilot operating at high altitudes in an unforgiving environment with a limited power margin must have an enhanced situational awareness in order to safely and successfully conduct the mission.”

Bristow Academy currently provides high altitude training with a fleet of Bell 206s. The Bristow Military Training Program Manager, Armando Martinez comments, “Since inception the chief interest has come from Latin America where our mountain program has and will continue to satisfy their particular training needs. However, we’re getting increased interest from other geographical sectors to include more foreign militaries and commercial entities. This kind of training is unique and infinitely valuable.”

Bristow Academy, located in Titusville, Florida; New Iberia, Louisiana, Carson City, Nevada, and Gloucester (UK), is the only helicopter flight school approved to provide helicopter flight training to commercial pilot level by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration and the European Aviation Safety Agency. The Academy trains students from helicopter industry or related companies and pilots from a wide variety of foreign and domestic government agencies. For more information: www.heli.com

Bristow Group Inc. (NYSE: BRS) is the leading provider of helicopter services to the worldwide offshore energy industry based on the number of aircraft operated and one of two helicopter service providers to the offshore energy industry with global operations. The Company has major transportation operations in the North Sea, Nigeria and the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, and in most of the other major offshore oil and gas producing regions of the world, including Alaska, Australia, Brazil, Mexico, Russia and Trinidad. For more information: www.bristowgroup.com.

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