When completed by late spring, that light grey, 12,000-square-foot hangar with the brick façade facing the highway will be the headquarters of the Central Helicopter Training Academy. The business has been operating since October 2008 and now has four students training to be private or professional helicopter pilots.

Flight instructor Harald Sydness says the school has been established to serve students in southwestern Ontario, where there has been a lack of qualified flight-training resources up to now. But the Elgin area has plenty of advantages for people learning to fly.

“St. Thomas is a great location for a school,” Sydness says. “The airport is not too busy. We can just fire up the helicopter and start training on the runway right then and there. We don’t have to waste the students’ money to fly somewhere else to do the training.

“When we need to practice in busy air space, with radio talk, we can hop up to London, which is a five-minute ride. The St. Thomas and London airports combined have all the facilities we need for instrument flight training.”

The school is fully certified by the Private Career Colleges Branch of the Ontario Ministry of Training, Universities and Colleges. This opens up funding opportunities for students and ensures that any prepaid tuition is protected.

Students can learn to fly in a new Robinson R-44 Raven I, C-FWMU helicopter. They receive instrument training on a FLYIT professional helicopter simulator with dual controls providing hands-on instruction for hovering and flight maneuvering.

Sydness, 34, originally from Norway, has more than 10 years’ experience as a professional helicopter pilot and trainer in Canada and the United States. He and his wife Leigh Ann moved here last year from Manitoba and now live in London, but plan to move to Elgin County where they have been warmly received.

“The airport here has been extremely helpful,” he says. “I can’t thank them enough for doing everything they can to help us and make us feel welcome.”

Central Helicopter Training Academy, www.centralhelicoptertraining.com, is owned by Paul Zimmer as a division of Zimmer Air Services Inc. Zimmer Air is based in Blenheim, Ontario, with a sub-base in Thunder Bay, and specializes in aerial work operations such as agricultural spraying and seeding as well as firefighting.

The academy’s first full-time course will begin in September with accommodation for up to 12 students. It will require six to eight months of training, depending on what qualifications a student is seeking. Zimmer Air has offered to give the first four graduates of the course an additional 25 hours of free operational flying time.

When the new hangar is completed, Zimmer Air will also be opening an AMO, or airport maintenance operation, for helicopters and aircraft. It will be a first for St. Thomas Airport and will add value to its services to business people and private aircraft owners in the Elgin region.