Introduction

The Gyrocopter Experience York is based at The Gyroport, Rufforth Airfield East, just outside of the city of York and close to the major trunk roads of the A64 and A1. Rufforth Airfield is home to The York Flying Club and has an enthusiastic membership of pilots and students who fly a variety of craft including Gyrocopters, Flex-wing and Fixed-wing Microlights. It is also home to the York Microlight Centre.

From Monday to Friday, The Gyrocopter Academy runs intensive training courses for those wishing to train for their Private Pilots Licence for Gyros and also offers advanced flying tuition. On weekends The Gyrocopter Experience run Air Experience Events for the general public and for private groups.

Our aim is to get as many people as possible to experience the thrill of gyrocopter flying for themselves. Don’t take our word for it – book a trial flight and have a go yourself. You won’t be disappointed!

Air Experience Flights

The Gyrocopter Experience is a flight in a Gyrocopter. Before the flight there will be a short introduction to Gyrocopters and how they fly, together with a safety briefing. The introduction may be done as part of a group, the flight will be one-to-one with a Flying Instructor. You will be sitting in the pilot’s seat, in the front of the Gyrocopter and your Instructor will be sitting behind you.

During the flight you will be shown the basics of how a Gyrocopter is controlled and you will have the opportunity to fly it for yourself. You will be able to take the controls for as long, or as short, a time as you feel comfortable. The Gyrocopter has dual controls so the Instructor will be able to take over control at any time.

Some people prefer to concentrate on learning to fly the Gyrocopter, whilst others prefer to use their first flight to enjoy the scenery and experience the sheer exhilaration of Gyrocopter flying. The choice is entirely up to you!

At York we offer three differnt Gyrocopter Experiences: the 30 minute York Experience, the 60 minute Extended Experience and also our 90 minute Ultimate Experience.  More details on the options for each package, together with prices and booking information can be found by clicking on the icons below.

The York Experience (30 mins flying)

The York Extended Experience (60 mins)

The York Ultimate Experience (90 mins)

Gyrocopter Pilot Training

The Gyrocopter Academy offers intensive 4 or 5 day training courses for student pilots.  Courses cater for students wanting to train for a Private Pilot's Licence for Gyroplanes or PPL(G) in addition to advanced flying training for existing pilots. Training courses are held during the week. We would normally have two students on each intensive training week. Students take it in turns to fly and depending on their stage of training, may share briefings.

You can expect to fly an average of two and a half hours each day. It might not sound that much, but learning to fly is very absorbing and intense and it takes a while for your brain to assimilate what you’ve been taught. We do not allow students to book intensive training weeks back to back – it isn’t a productive way to learn as you need time to fully understand and absorb everything you’ve learned. The optimum gap between training weeks is probably between four weeks and two months, however we do have a number of students who are learning to fly over a couple of years and have longer gaps between each intensive week.

We fully understand and respect that you will probably use valuable vacation time in learning to fly and we make every effort to fly despite sometimes less than ideal weather conditions. We will sometimes rearrange the order that things get taught in an effort to make the best use of the varying British weather conditions. In the event that flying is not possible, we try to switch our attention to the various ground school topics in order to ensure that time isn’t wasted.

We have had great feedback regarding learning on these intensive courses as opposed to training an hour here or there spread across a long period. It is often helpful to remove yourself from your normal everyday life and fully immerse yourself in flying training. Many of our students stay locally and maximise the time they spend at the airfield with their attention fully focused on learning to fly.