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Orbic Helicopters offers practical, top-quality, personalized flight instruction in our fleet of Robinson Helicopters for both non-rated and rated helicopter pilots. Our training courses are individually personalized to your specific needs. For over 30 years, we have trained local hobbyists, emergency medical operators, government pilots, and law enforcement agencies. Come and see why people from all over train with us.

We provide:

  • Training for any annual recurrence training requirements (needed by many insurance companies).
  • Instruction for owners of privately owned aircraft.
  • Flight reviews and advanced training.

Why choose us for flight training?

  • One-on-one personalized training at your own pace
  • We offer advance flight training
  • We specialize in touchdown autorotation training
  • Turbine Transition Training available
  • Over 30 years of experience in helicopter flight training
  • Clean, well-maintained, always hangared fleet
  • We do our own maintenance and we are a FAA Certified Part 145 Repair Station

Why choose Orbic?

Since 1990 Orbic Helicopters has been providing practical, high-quality, flight instruction using experienced flight instructors and exceptional aircraft in an informal setting. Our small size, ideal physical training environment, and highly-experienced instructors allow us to provide individually-tailored, one-on-one flight training experiences that adapt to our customers’ needs, schedules, and produce the safest helicopter pilots possible. For almost thirty years, we’ve trained everyone from local hobbyists to professionals from multiple industries (including emergency medical operators and government / law-enforcement agencies). Come see why people from all over the world travel to Camarillo to train with us!

Instructors

Our goal is to provide the safest, most practical, flight training to our customers. While many flight schools employ almost exclusively low-time instructor pilots (new pilots who are looking primarily to build flight time on their way to other jobs) Orbic’s instructors are highly experienced professionals with extensive and varied flight experience. Even our youngest instructors have well over a thousand hours of helicopter flight time, with extensive training in emergency procedures including touchdown autorotations. Our faculty also includes former Robinson safety course instructors.

Furthermore, in addition to their instructional efforts, all of our instructors regularly take part in flying outside of the training environment. Orbic CFIs experience in other fields ranges from tour flying, passenger-carrying charter operations, and film and television production, to scientific survey and ferry flights involving flight in remote locations and challenging flight conditions. This breadth of experience is extremely beneficial to our students. Our instructors will not only prepare you to pass a check-ride, but will also help you to develop practical skills and judgment which will keep you alive outside the traffic pattern as you grow and pursue your goals as a rotorcraft pilot.

While many schools instructors move on to more lucrative jobs after attaining their industry-standard thousand hours of experience, Orbic’s instructors keep teaching for one important reason: we love the challenge of pushing ourselves and our students to be the best helicopter pilots we can possibly be. Whether you’re pursuing a career in rotary-wing flight, or simply want to learn to enjoy the helicopter on your own terms, Orbic’s CFIs are here to help you reach your full potential as an aviator.

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LOCATION

Our location at Camarillo airport provides students with an ideal helicopter training environment. As a general aviation airport with an operating control tower that is home to a variety of aircraft operations, Camarillo is active enough to give students the experience and confidence they need to operate in busy airspace, but also quiet enough to ensure an efficient, un-interrupted training experience. Where students at busier airfields must often spend the first and last fifteen minutes of their flying lessons commuting to and from a practice area, our students can fire up the helicopter and be practicing maneuvers at our on-airport helipad within minutes. The helipad has its own traffic pattern which provides a separate training environment for our students: there’s no need to queue up between fixed-wing aircraft and wait to use a runway.

When it’s time to venture out into the wider world of flying, our location again provides ample opportunities for instructive experiences: from cruising the beach, to eight-thousand-foot mountain peaks, to the hustle and bustle of the LA basin, we have a tremendous variety of flight environments all quickly and easily accessible from our base in Camarillo.

Lastly, the Camarillo airport has both an aviation medical examiner and an FAA-approved testing facility available on the field. You can get your medical certificate and take your FAA written tests right here at the airfield, which is a major convenience for our customers.

Aircraft

At Orbic Helicopters we have a wide array of low-time, well-equipped, well-maintained aircraft available for training, tours, and charter. As a Robinson dealer and authorized service center, we operate nearly the entire Robinson product catalog, including the R22, R44 Cadet, R44 Raven, R44 Raven II, and the turbine-powered R66. In addition to the Robinsons, we also operate an Agusta Westland AW109, a 1963 Bell 47, and a Magni M16 tandem gyroplane. Flight training is available in the Robinsons, as well as twin-engine training in the AW109, and gyro training in the M16. Our instructors also have experience flying numerous other types; thus we can provide training in various customer-provided aircraft if desired. New pilots can expect to begin their training in the Robinson R44 Cadet – a two-seat, training variant of the ubiquitous R44 helicopter.

Why Train in the R44 Cadet?

While we have the entire range of Robinson helicopters available for training, the vast majority of primary instruction at Orbic Helicopters is performed in the Robinson R44 Cadet. The Cadet is a specialized, two-seat, training variant of the popular R44 helicopter. Designed explicitly with the needs of flight training in mind, the R44 Cadet offers considerable safety, comfort, and ease-of-use advantages over the R22 helicopters used by many flight schools. The R44 Cadet is larger, more stable, and has increased safety margins (both in terms of available engine power and rotor inertia) when compared to the R22. Simply put, the R44 Cadet is easier to fly, has the power and CG envelope to comfortably accommodate larger students, and is safer and more forgiving for low-time pilots. It is also more comfortable to fly, with a significantly larger cabin than an R22, more comfortable seats, and (crucially in the California heat!) the addition of an air conditioning system.

While the Cadet is somewhat more expensive on an hourly basis than the R22, the Cadet’s stable airframe, powerful engine, and heavy rotor blades mean that students typically find themselves prepared for solo flight (and for their check rides) significantly sooner than those who train in the R22. As a result, the cost increase associated with training in an R44 Cadet is typically smaller than you might imagine based on hourly rates alone. We find that the Cadet’s increased safety, comfort, and faster pace of training result in a safer and more satisfying experience for our students while only representing a modest cost increase over the R22 for the average student. At the end of the day, we believe the safety benefits alone of training in the Cadet far outweigh the slight cost decrease offered by the R22.

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Take a demo in our air conditioned R44 Cadet!

We offer advanced flight training in all of our helicopters – including full down auto-rotations.
Our high time Certified Flight Instructors will assist you in obtaining your dream of flight!

Scheduler

Current Orbic students please click here to schedule your next training session.
Prospective students please contact us directly to schedule.

Ratings / Services

Orbic Helicopters offers instruction applicable to all helicopter ratings, including:

  • Private Pilot
  • Commercial Pilot
  • Certified Flight Instructor
  • Helicopter Instrument Flight / CFII

In addition to providing initial training for FAA certificates, our instructors can also help you:

  • Add a rotorcraft rating to your current certificate
  • Accomplish your mandatory biennial flight review
  • Renew your SFAR-73 PIC endorsements for Robinson helicopters
  • Meet your insurer’s flight training and experience requirements in either Robinson helicopters or customer-provided aircraft

Orbic Helicopters has served as an approved training vendor for several major aviation insurance companies. Please contact our office to discuss your requirements.

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FAA Requirements

The Federal Aviation Administration requires a minimum of 40 hours flight time, to include 10 hours of solo flight time for your private pilot helicopter rating. Other requirements include passing a written knowledge test, obtaining a FAA Third Class Airman Medical Certificate, passing the FAA oral knowledge test, and passing the FAA practical test (check ride).

Contact Orbic for more information or to get started today.