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FAQ's about Helicopter Flying

We have made a collection of some of the most asked questions, we get.

General Questions

Safety Questions

Environment

 

 

GENERAL QUESTIONS

Q: How many people can one of your helicopters accommodate ?

A: In general between 3-5 passengers depending on type of helicopter you book and your total weight. But let us know if you are more and we will make that happen too.

Q: Can you pick me up anywhere I want to and set me off anywhere I need to ?

A: Yes (almost). There is a number of considerations that we must pay respect to but Copenhagen Helicopter will always do the research and obtain necessary permits, often within one working day.

Q: Can disabled people fly in a helicopter ?

A: The short answer is Yes. Unless the disabled person is a danger for the person him- or herself or to other passengers. If the disabled person can not enter and exit the helicopter by him- or herself, the disabled person must be accompanied by minimum one (1) assistance.

We have great experiences flying with disabled passengers. If you have any questions in this regard, please do not hesitate to call or email us. 

Q: Is it expensive to fly helicopter ?

A: We believe we are time competitive and sometimes also cost competitive but as you know, time is money and in a work-balance era you will be much more efficient compared with a much longer travel time:

  • Breakfast with the family
  • Drop off kids at school or go to fitness
  • Check in with your HQ staff
  • Attend meeting and lunch three hours driving away
  • Check out with your HQ staff
  • Assist children with their homework
  • Time to immersion, wine and dinner with your spouse or do your sport

To assure we offer the most cost-effective solution to our customers vs. total travel time, at Copenhagen Helicopter we have the unique possibility to in-house offer a wide variety of airplanes, guaranteeing our customers if an airplane or mix of airplane and helicopter usage is a better solution than solely using helicopter, we will offer our customers this as well.

Q: Is HOD (Helicopter On Demand) only for business ?

A: No, we service everyone from busy sports people, musicians, weddings to private tours when you want to spoil your loved ones.

 

SAFETY QUESTIONS

Q: What safety precautions should I take into consideration before flying helicopter ?

A: This is an important question. You will be thoroughly briefed by our staff on the ground, what is allowed and not allowed, when you are near a helicopter, for example during entering and exiting the helicopter.

On board you will find a safety briefing leaflet like the ones found in an airplane, that describe the emergencies and equipment onboard (for example life vest).

Smoking is strictly forbidden onboard and near the helicopter and on the heliports premises, except outside the building.

The pilot can at any time abort the flight or refuse passengers, in case the pilot assess the passengers to be non-fit for flight (for example due to alcohol).

Q: How much may a passenger weigh ?

A: We will always ask about your weight out of a safety aspect.

The reason is, there are different weight limitations for an aircraft, so to keep within the helicopters limits at all time, a passenger may weigh up to 110kg. (242lbs). If the passenger weighs more and has not booked the entire helicopter but just one seat, it will be requested that the passenger book and buy two seats for that one person above 110kg. (242lbs).

Passengers must be able to sit in a seat without occupying the next seat physically and be able to use and lock the safety seatbelt.

Note: Despite if you weigh below 110kg. (242lbs), the flight can be refused to be flown, if the total weight of the helicopter exceed the total allowable weight limit. So for example, if several passengers weigh more than 90 kg (198lbs), this might exceed the helicopters total weight limit. This depends also on the amount of fuel it carries on that individual flight.

Bottom line, if in doubt, ask us before you book and we can give you a straight answer based on the individual situation your flight has.

Q: What happens if the weather prevent you from flying ? - and what happen with my money, if I have made a down payment ?

A: As part of the pilots planning, we always follow up on the weather and advise you 24 hours prior to departure if we expect to encounter any problems. It is very rare we can not fly, but safety always comes first and we also want our clients a good experience.

If we expect many air pockets (turbulence) and a bumpy tour, then it is up to you whether you want to go or not and we do not ask for any cancellation fee when the reason is weather related.

If you have made a down payment for your flight and it is called due to weather reasons, a full refund will be made.

Q: I get easily airsick in small airplanes. Will I also get easily airsick in a helicopter ?

A: Probably not. The huge momentum in the helicopters spinning rotor blades works like a gyro, meaning forces from the outside such as wind gust has more difficulties to make an impact on the helicopter compared to a similarly sized airplane. So you can expect that a flight in a helicopter is more calm.

This is also a reason why many photographers prefer to work from a helicopter than an airplane.

Q: I know that airplanes can glide, if its engine(s) should fail. But helicopters scare me, because they drop to the ground like a rock, right ?

A: No. Helicopters do actually glide as well, about 3-4 meter forward for every meter they descend without power. It is called "autorotation" and use the same principal as the maple seeds wing use when failling from its tree. It does not drop to the ground like a rock, but glides slowly and safely to the ground.

All commercial pilots is examined in these autorotation’s every 6th month. The demand is that the pilot can complete the autorotation with the engine in idle (same effect as if it was turned off) and land on a spot +/- approx. 15 meters without damage to the helicopter. The helicopter can do with a small area in an emergency and touch down on the ground with very little forward speed in contrast to a normal small airplane, that with its engine turned off or in idle lands with speed and need approx. min. 400 meters of flat surface.

A good example of a non-dramatic autorotation in a small helicopter (Airbus H120) can be seen here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=DozMhsXymUQ

Q: How do I know, if the helicopters and pilots from Copenhagen Helicopter fulfill all the demands to fly commercial ?

A: All aircrafts in the EU must follow strict maintenance procedures, that only approved maintenance facilities are allowed to handle. Copenhagen Helicopter operate and offer only aircrafts from such approved facilities, like our operator Copenhagen Air Taxi® A/S own facility CAT Flyservice A/S.

Copenhagen Helicopter pilots and helicopters is operated by the AOC from our operators Copenhagen Air Taxi® A/S. An AOC (Air Operator Certificate) is the certificate an operator get issued from the country’s Civil Aviation Authorities, that inform what type of operations the operator has been approved to. Unless we offer you other operators aircraft, which we will inform you whom they are, Copenhagen Air Taxi® A/S stands for all Copenhagen Helicopters operational approvals and has in that respect the operational responsibility for all our operations except for those we might hire in from other approved operators. This is your guarantee that Copenhagen Helicopter at anytime fulfill all conditions for a safe and legal flight.

Grey market: If you receive an offer for a flight, that is significantly cheaper than any legal professional operators price and you are thinking about choosing that cheaper offer, we recommend you reconsider that decision. Approvals and high level of safety cost money and must be in order. In case of an accident, you could end up with an insurance that will not cover you, if you hire a non-approved operator.

 

ENVIRONMENT QUESTIONS

Q: What about the emissions aviation makes ?

A: We take great concern in our impact on the environment. We know that aviation today is still run on fossil fuel and we have no intention the "greenwash" this. We call it as it is. But we also rely 100% on facts and facts only what the nearby future will become.

Within this decade ('20s), we will see the first vertical takeoff and landing aircrafts powered by electricity called eVTOL, that is small aircrafts that can seat 1-4 passengers beside a pilot for short distances from 20-300km. range. There are +200 different eVTOL projects around the world in the works, the majority of them will never become commercially viable, but a few of them will and the Aviation industry only needs a few to choose from.

Aviation as a whole also recognize the current usage of fossil fuels and is in a period of transformation to research and implement new technologies to become environmentally friendly such as:

  • Bio Fuel, a blend made of different organic leftovers. Did you know that Neste in Finland produce such fuel and it is distributed to a number of European airports ?
  • Electro-fuel, made of captured CO2 from the air powered by renewable energy like wind and solar. Did you know Denmark is among other countries in the forefront of making this commercially viable ?

Bottom line, Aviation is doing a lot to become emission friendly in the nearby future. We have to, it is as simple as that.

And if you compare air travel with ground travel and comparing which mode of travel is more emission friendly than the other, please do factor in that air travel does not need a massive CO2 heavy infrastructure, that require a lot of maintenance, that take a lot of land from our valuable nature plowing through forests and open landscape and is made of concrete (like bridges and tunnels), asphalt and a lot of natural resources such as gravel, sand etc., which natural resources by the way recently has started to become in short supply.

Q: What about the noise ?

A: With our ongoing development of our business, we plan our acquisitions for a future with Quiet Technology helicopters and expect within this decade (the '20s) to start flying electrically that can transport passengers with vertical takeoff and landing, called eVTOL.

Beside this we operate in the most neighbor friendly way we can, following the proven procedures by HAI how to minimize our noise footprint.