Robinson Helicopter Company CEO Dave Smith addressed participants on Day 1.
I had the opportunity to personally experience the course recently, and an experience it was. I was fortunate to attend only the second iteration of the course. The first class consisted of eight highly experienced CFIs and DPEs from across the United States and elsewhere. My second iteration class was just as impressive, with six CFIs and one DPE (myself). Overall, the group brought a fantastic amount of experience ranging from 3,000 to more than 20,000 hours, much of that in an instructional setting. Regardless of the experience level, it became immediately apparent that those in attendance were there for the right reasons: “I have over 22,000 hours as a pilot, and I feel I have a lot to offer and have started to give back by doing flight instruction – I’m here because I want to do things right,” said Alex Leal of Laredo, Texas.
It should come as no surprise that the accident numbers surrounding helicopter flight training remain a constant area of concern for many in the industry. So many individuals and incredible organizations have worked tirelessly to undertake the proverbial Sisyphean task of reducing accidents in all aspects of our industry. RHC has strongly entered the
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game. “I’m an engineer at my core, so I like to find problems and fix them,” said CEO Smith, who is only the third person to lead RHC in its nearly 50-year history. The transition came in February as Kurt Robinson handed over the reins.
This new program has not replaced RHC’s familiar safety course that boasts an impressive attendance over the decades of 30,000. The new program features an entirely different level, one explicitly designed for instructor pilots to reduce accidents. “Studying accident trends to improve safety is at the forefront of what we do here at Robinson, and we are taking that knowledge and incorporating that information into this new program,” said Bob Muse, safety director at RHC. The new course will include a full five days of instruction and four to five hours of flying. Something I quickly learned in the introduction of the course is that it isn’t an “everyone gets a trophy” program: the course is pass or fail. To complete the course, participants must not only demonstrate the required flight skills themselves, but must also demonstrate the ability to teach those skills in an instructor- student setting to RHC’s standard. The program’s overarching goal is to provide
standard instructions and answers to related questions. The certificate issued at the program completion isn’t just for bragging rights; RHC intends to offer the list of successful instructor pilots to the industry, and it’s working on different ways to make those successful course completers stand out in the industry to those seeking qualified instructor pilots. My initial impression of this course reiterated a long-held personal belief that there is a vast difference between a flight instructor and the holder of a flight instructor certificate.
The course is headed up by Muse and RHC Chief Flight Instructor Guillaume Maillet, a 25-year CFI and 18-year RHC instructor known to his colleagues and students as “G.” They have poured an incredible amount of work and research into the development of the course. This included running two course iterations with a select audience to help them determine exactly what the standards should be. “We have a passion for getting back to basics and pushing for precision flying,” Maillet said. “We want to standardize training in our airframes and have an agreed-upon level playing field.”
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