Adaptation Breeds Sustained Success Becker Helicopters, which is considered to be the largest flight school in the Southern Hemisphere, is well-versed in the vagaries of operating a helicopter training business at an international level. Mike and Jan Becker launched the flight school in 1996
Hillsboro Heli Academy has partnered with
European operators on training and
mentorship programs to ease the transition of students from flight school to
industry jobs in that
region. (Hillsboro Heli Academy Photo)
with the goal of making it an international destination for rotary-wing flight training. Six years later—after epidemics, terrorist attacks, and Middle East war squelched global interest in air travel—the couple retooled to focus on flight training for Australian allies’ military and paramilitary services and law enforcement/public safety providers. Tat led them to focus on technology, incorporating night-vision goggles and IFR capabilities in their helicopters and eventually developing their own flight simulators. Glass cockpits and turbine aircraft became standard in their operations. Becker Helicopters maintains a civil training program,
too, offering initial to advanced rotorcraft instruction, including multi-engine transitions and aircrew and multicrew cooperation. Te company’s business plan included drawing most of their students from outside Australia to reduce their reliance
on a single nation’s economic health. Tat forced the Beckers to deal with individual countries’ changing visa criteria and the associated interactions with immigration and education departments. Tey’ve also had to confront the complications of converting pilot licenses amid changing rules and reg- ulations, as well as attitudes toward the legitimacy and recognition of different countries’ licenses. COVID-19 prompted another business-plan retooling:
the company now draws more on contract pilots and maintenance technicians, uses a smaller Bell 206B-3 fleet, and trains corporate clients within their home countries (due to Australian entry and exit restrictions). Becker Helicopters has succeeded in building its interna- tional business despite the regulatory and red-tape quirks. “Tis question has to be asked,” Mike Becker says: If every International Civil Aviation Organization–compliant country trains to an ICAO standard, “why are the licenses not rec- ognized in each of these countries without unnecessary conversion? For me, this is the crux of international training. Not individual companies in individual countries advertising and offering a product, but the ability to actually train legitimately.”
40 ROTOR MARCH 2024
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