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Cotswold Helicopter Centre in training school joint venture with Gama Aviation

Cotswold Helicopter Centre Press Release | May 24, 2016

Estimated reading time 3 minutes, 10 seconds.

The joint venture will start operations with a Guimbal Cabri G2, with access to the rest of Cotswold’s fleet — further Cabri G2s, a Robinson R44, an Airbus AS350 and an Airbus AS355 — as required. Cotswold Helicopter Centre Photo
Cotswold Helicopter Centre has announced a joint venture agreement with Gama Aviation, which will create a new base at Fairoaks Airport in England. This airfield on the southwest outskirts of London is very well placed for easy road access to Central London as well as to two key airports, Heathrow and Gatwick. This will be the 11th flight training school in the U.K. operating the Guimbal Cabri G2.
The joint venture will start operations with a Guimbal Cabri G2, with access to the rest of Cotswold’s fleet — more Cabri G2s, a Robinson R44, an Airbus AS350 and an Airbus AS355 as required. Gama Aviation will be responsible for all aspects of safety management, compliance monitoring systems and will provide the facility, while Cotswold will focus on training, sales and marketing.
“We are very excited to form this venture with Gama Aviation, their great facilities at Fairoaks give us great access to the prime London catchment area,” said Oliver Heynes, director, Cotswold Helicopter Centre. “We have experienced a period of very rapid growth recently, and Gama Aviation’s great expertise in the areas of safety management will help us develop our existing systems as the business grows. In return, our involvement gives Gama Aviation a turn-key solution to operate helicopters that may be owned by their business jet management clients.”
“Fairoaks has always been a favorably positioned, helicopter-friendly base and I’m pleased that we are able to bring Cotswold to our historical home,” said Steve Wright, director, Gama Aviation Plc. “This announcement follows an increase in our helicopter capability at Fairoaks as we aim to build it into a center of excellence for the group; the addition of training perfectly complements our existing maintenance, avionics and hangarage services.”
The Cabri G2 is a two-seat light helicopter with a three-bladed fully-articulated main rotor and a Fenestron tail rotor. It has a composite-construction fuselage, and is powered by a 180 horsepower Lycoming O-360 piston engine derated to 145 horsepower.
More Cabri G2 helicopters were built in 2015 than any other two-seat certified helicopter across the world, according to the annual factory production survey by GAMA, the General Aviation Manufacturers Association.

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