Fairoaks, UK-based operator Starspeed recently invited associates from the industry and media to its headquarters for a sightseeing flight in its vip-configured Sikorsky S-92. The rotorcraft, which is usually used for oil and gas transportation, is one of the only units in the world configured for large group charter.

Director Simon Mitchell laid out the scale of the company before the guests boarded: “Helicopters make the impossible possible and the complicated simple. At this very minute we have aircraft operating as far away as Costa Rica, the British Virgin Islands, the Maldives, New Zealand, Cannes and, shortly, Zurich. We now go around the world with these machines – we do not just stay in the UK,” he said.

“Be in no doubt that our first priority is to deliver safe aviation; we will always regard that as the first achievement we have to make. Our ops manager Sarah is the first ops manager to attend the CAA's chief pilot's course as nominated person.

“We also train up to ten pilots at a time on type rated courses. We invest very heavily in training because, along with safety, we recognise that what we have to deliver is our professionalism and our skill. As new challenges arise, we enhance our skills to keep our operation safe.

“We then come to the big word, which is trust, because that is what Starspeed stands for, and what we have built our reputation on. As a pilot you cannot buy experience, but as a customer, you can.”

Starspeed has for many years opted to train its pilots internally. It has a facility in Gloucestershire which was initially set up for basic instrument training, and later on it invested in a fixed base simulator which has now been active for four years. It has carried out roughly 180 initial instrument ratings, with a 98 per cent success rate. Nowadays it also leads 11 type rating courses along with examiner and instructor tuition. The expanding market of deck landings on boats is opening up further training possibilities.

After the briefing, 16 guests plus two crew boarded the S-92 and the aircraft made its way across south west London towards the centre of the city. Passengers were treated to views of Wembley Stadium, Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, the London Eye and The Shard before heading back to Fairoaks.

Mitchell, who regularly pilots the S-92, is in awe of its capability: “It is quite exceptional in that it can achieve really impossible tasks. They are the sort of tasks that you would deem too complicated and that would require too many aircraft.”