In the first half of this year, the company fleet of helicopters remained unchanged - 24 aircraft. 23 of these were contracted as distinct from 20 aircraft over the same period in 2010.

By comparison with the first six months of 2010, the overall mission flight time has increased by 15%, the amount of cargo carried - by 10%, passengers carried - by 12%.

As of July 1, 2011, the number of employees stands at  429 people, which is 28 people more than in the first half of 2010.

Information on the Aviation Training Center work progress can be found in the relevant section of our site.

07.09.11 - Congratulations on Anniversary!

On 8 and 9 September, our partners and friends, Konotop Aircraft Repair Plant "AVІAKON" and the St. Petersburg aircraft repair company "SPARK", will mark the 80th anniversary of the establishment of their companies.

The Ukrainian Helicopters Team congratulates "SPARK" and "AVIAKON"  management and employees on these remarkable events, and wishes them good health, financial well-being and further achievements!

06.09.11 - Aviation Company Employees Train American Pilots in Flying Mi-8MTV-1 Helicopters

	Training flights were carried out from August 29 to September 2, on the basis of Kremenchug Flight College UNAM under contract with the Canadian company "Concord XXI, Inc..." The training course was completed by Michael Adair, U.S. Army chief warrant officer 5, Ernest Cisneros, CW4, and David Edhegard, CW4 retired.
The training program included: August 29 - circle and hover flights, simple piloting. August 30 – flights with autopilot system off, simple piloting. August 31 – Selection of and landing on unprepared sites, off-route flights. September 1 – emergency OEI landing and IFR flight training.	Pilots briefing
	September 2 - external load flights, air survey flights.   Over the entire period of training, each pilot’s flight time amounted to 10 hours. The Aviation Company’s helicopter  UR-CDO was used for the training course. Instruction and in-flight training were conducted by experienced instructor-pilots: I. Krikun, Deputy Director of Operations for Flight Instruction,  S. Yurik, Senior Safety Inspector, V. Vishinsky, Flight Data Monitoring Chief, I. Roshchupkin, Flight
Engineers Department Chief, VA Bobyk, Flight Engineer. "This is the second group of trainees. The difficulty is that many pilots have had a long break from flight operations, ranging between four and thirteen years. There was a  lot of things for them to recollect and learn at the same time"- said the Co-Pilot, P. Lobanov.  American pilots had a fairly short time to master the art of flying a technology entirely new to them.
Igor Roshchupkin trains Michael Adair  in operating IFR flights	According to Michael Adair, the fact that the main rotors of American helicopters and Russian helicopters rotate in opposite directions, represented a difficulty.  "Hence the difference in control and the feel of the aircraft. I had to constantly control myself to push the right pedal, "- said Adair.
"I came to like the MI-8MTV-1. It has a very wide range of capabilities. At first I thought that controlling such a large aircraft required applying much force. However, it doesn’t. The helicopter is very responsive to control, which goes a long way towards performing complex missions, "- said Ernest Cisneros. "It was a great course" – expresses his opinion Edhegard David - "All the instructors are top-class professionals. They patiently answered our questions and	"Blind" flight
	eagerly helped solve problems arising in the course of training. Information was provided in an easy-to- understand manner, which made the training process much easier for us. " According to Igor Krikun, not only do such training flights allow foreign pilots to complete initial practical training in a new type of helicopter, but also improve the international image of the company.