What you might see
A major attraction for visiting the Pilot’s Hub is to view all the aircraft movements right outside. The majority of helicopter movements are carried out by companies and organisations (Arena, Police, Air Ambulance etc), whereas the fixed-wing aircraft tend to be private or training schools helping individuals attain their pilot’s licence.
Hangar 9 is home to around a dozen private planes that can be viewed by members of the public during their visit.
Arena
Hangars 4, 5 and 7 are occupied by Arena, a company that specialises in outside broadcasting. The company has 12 aircraft including news helicopters for Sky News and the BBC. These are the most likely ones you are likely to see flying.
Air Ambulance Kent, Surrey, Sussex
The one service that everyone supports but nobody wants to use! The air ambulance is one of our highest-profile neighbours.
EBG Helicopters
EBG Helicopters
Travelling by helicopter must be the most glamorous and exciting way to get about, surely? Faster than the train or car, more nimble and convenient than a private jet; these things can land in your garden. But unattainably expensive, right? Maybe. Ken Faria has been running EBG Helicopters out of Redhill Aerodrome since 1999, and one of the first things he tells me is that people regularly replace their Rolls Royce wedding car hire for a helicopter for the same price.
EBG has a number of strands to its business. To a non-flyer like me, it is striking how accessible the business is; the most obvious example being the set tours. Choose from helicopter flights around central London; maybe a Kent Heritage tour of the West Kent castles of Hever, Chiddingstone and Penshurst Place. If you have an hour and a half, you can take a trip to Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight. These tours start at £140 per person, and there has been a recent trend for mid-air proposals. Champagne sales are up.
For those of us who don’t have time to sit in traffic on the M25, there is always the option of chartering a helicopter to fly you anywhere in England (well, as long as it’s not past Newcastle!) Often costing no more than first-class tickets on the train, EBG will fly you to destinations throughout southern England and into Wales. Business meetings, music festivals, sporting events – anywhere really. And often these are “real” people using these services, not just VIP’s and celebs.
It’s clear that whilst undeniably extravagant, helicopter flights need not be out of reach, especially when viewed through the prism of the life-long memories that they usually make.
For anyone who wants to learn to actually fly a helicopter, there are taster sessions available where you can get a 25-minute briefing, followed by 25 minutes of your first helicopter lesson. These are often bought as gifts for birthdays. And if you get a taste for it, your own helicopter license is only 45 flying hours and nine exams away. Once you have that license, you can call EBG and hire a helicopter to take out and fly yourself.
With four two-seaters, three four-seaters and two five-seaters on its fleet, there is a great need for maintenance, and since 2010 EBG has run its own service and repair shop in a separate hangar, also at Redhill Aerodrome. In addition to its own aircraft, servicing and minor and major repairs are carried out on other owners’ helicopters. On the day of my visit, a repair was being carried out on a helicopter bearing the colours and logo of a premiership football club. For obvious reasons, employment opportunities are limited to those who are highly skilled, and although there is nobody there from our parish, there are employees living as close-by as Merstham and Salfords.
If you wish to learn more about EBG Helicopters and the services they offer, please visit ebghelicopters.co.uk or call 01737 823282.
