What to expect?
Your professional HALO drone instructor will accelerate your competency by fast-tracking many years of learning into just a few hours.
They will start by assessing your existing skill level, then build from there. As your instruction progresses, you’ll gain the tools to practice in your own time so you can continue your development without being dependant on us. This way, your skill level will grow exponentially.
Your instructor will also make time to answer all your questions or clarify any misunderstandings you may have about the practicalities of flying for commercial purposes.
Why have professional instruction?
While self-instruction is an option, it comes with a big downside. You don’t know what you don’t know – and you’ll only find out when something goes wrong. Because drones are incredibly sophisticated – and therefore simple to fly – it’s easy to overestimate your flying ability and, as a consequence, plateau at a low skill level at best, or crash at worst. It’ll take several years to develop the experience necessary to compete with established competitors. So the easiest way to catch up with – and overtake them – is through one-to-one professional instruction with an experienced instructor. Another consideration is the ongoing evolution of the drone industry. Over the last few years, the number of companies providing drone services grew rapidly before a consolidation began with business closures during 2017. Differentiating yourself, then, will be crucial. And the key to this is to be the safest and most skilled pilot your customers can choose, as few of your competitors will have invested in pilot training.
Who should book?
You’ve never piloted a drone before
Our instructor will get you get off to the best possible start. You’ll leave with all the basics necessary to excel, and we’ll provide personalised feedback to support your ongoing development. We’ll nip any errors or bad habits in the bud before they take a grip. Ideally, we’ll teach you using our own specifically designed trainer drones as they’re equipped with dual controls. A full day’s instruction will allow for an extensive debrief and time to discuss any nagging questions you may have with your instructor. Flying drones is an immersive experience, so a full day gives you the opportunity to pace your learning and reduce the need for further training.
You’ve been flying drones for a short time or are an accomplished hobby pilot
A short one-to-one lesson with an experienced commercial drone instructor will quickly identify and eradicate any bad habits (we all have them). Your HALO instructor can also provide flight training for specific applications as some types of flying call for specialist skills. For this, a half day is usually sufficient. It will be more intense than a full day, but ‘cramming’ can be surprisingly effective as it focuses the concentration.
Pricing & Booking
Our half day course is £300 + VAT and a full day is £450 + VAT. For more details and booking a date and location please contact us.
Testimonial
"Had a great experience flying under the supervision of Philip Tarry. Went there with someone else from our company in preparation for our pilot certification and even with other people, there was no down time. We covered both theory and practice, necessary and good-to-know manoeuvres as well as extra time to focus on what we felt we were lacking in. All together, I felt like I left the session with more than enough expertise to pass the test successfully. Would recommend to anyone from complete beginners to flyers who wants to iron out their skills."
Jeremie Leonard Bio Carbon Engineering
Whats included?
Our practical courses are tailored to your requirements, therefore no two courses are alike. As standard you will get:
- A professional instructor who has years of training experience and is a current commercial drone pilot. This ensures your training is up to date and relevant.
- A training location. We have a number of venues around the country, and we are also willing and able to travel to your training location, subject to our approval and acceptance.
- Training drones. We have a fleet of purposefully developed training drones. These are designed to take a knock or two, and most importantly, they have dual controls. This means the instructor can regain control from the candidate to avoid an accident. We find that this is a really useful learning tool, it helps give candidates confidence knowing they are in a safe and controlled environment. The benefit is they tend to then relax and focus on learning rather than worry about crashing.
What do I need to bring?
- Suitable clothing for all weather types
- Suntan lotion (if you are lucky)
- Food and drink in order to sustain you for the day
- Your own drone (if preferred or in addition)
- As many fully charged flight batteries as required for the length of time you wish to fly for (if bringing your own drone)
Course options
HALF DAY
This will last for 3 hours. Though this doesn’t sound like much time, but when you are concentrating on learning new skills, the focus required can be exhausting. We recommend this for pilots looking to improve their existing skills. In some cases its better do several short sessions and practice in between, as a break gives your brain the time to consolidate what has been learnt. You’ll be amazed how much we can teach in a short amount of time. A half day is also a preferred option for those looking to practice on their own drone and only have a few batteries.
FULL DAY
A full day consists of 6 hours training with a lunch break. This is usually preferred by people with 0 experience and wish to accelerate their skill level rapidly and or conduct application specific training. We usually fly a mix of our training drones and the candidates drone to give a broader range of experience so that the pilot doesn’t become conditioned to one type of aircraft. A full day is also popular for small groups who are happy to share an instructors time in order to save costs.
FIXED WING
We have a range of fixed wing drones on which we can provide both manual and automated flight experience and instruction. Flying fixed wing aircraft is very different to multi rotors as they cannot stop. This has inherent risk and requires careful consideration and that can only come with experience. We can tailor our training to your requirements as manual experience isn’t always necessary for what can be highly automated aircraft with little option for manual intervention.
LARGE MULTIROTORS
We have a 14kg Octocopter which is set up with dual controls which can be used to help ease pilots into operating larger drones. It is surprisingly intimidating to fly larger multi-rotors and we can significantly ease the burden and increase confidence, while minimising any risk to what can be very expensive drones.
Pricing and booking
Our half day is £300 + VAT and a full day is £450 + VAT for one person. Additional pilots are charged at £100 + VAT up to a maximum of 4 per instructor. For more details and booking a date and location please contact us.
Our Other Training Products
Testimonials
One of the best courses I have ever been part of. Very well designed course, on which I learned as much as possible in two days. Great material, very inspiring and engaging instructor, who not only answered all of our questions with great proficiency and support, but really helped us learn in an effective team. This course will really give you a solid foundation in all aspects of commercial drone operations, that will help you get a huge leap in the market. Worth every penny. Great job!
Oliver Wagner, Skyports
You get what you pay for. Halo Drones isn’t the cheapest but there’s a reason for that. The course is well put together and the materials feel and look excellent. A LOT of time and thought has clearly gone into how it is delivered and how it looks and it certainly isn’t death by powerpoint which from my research other providers focused too much on. Post course, you will spend a lot of time working on developing your Operations Manual which can be a pain. Halo Drones helps you here a lot as well which in my opinion pays itself over many times if you value your time! Highly recommended!
Luke Dorey,
I was always put off by the idea of having to complete the operations manual as it looked like an awful lot of work. To my surprise the way that HALO had assembled the documents and the instructions, not only made it straight forward but it was an enjoyable process. It enabled me to reassess my understanding of the regulations and think about how I’d like to conduct my drone services so that to fit within my businesses pre-existing policies. Great work HALO!
Chris McGaughey, Like an Egg Productions Ltd
I attended the HALO Drones FCCDO Course in April 2019. It is clear that a lot of effort has gone into designing the course as the provided material and teaching standards are of exceptional quality. Thoroughly recommended, Phil is an excellent instructor and the course as a whole stands out as a brilliant PfCO training course.
Matt Hudson, Liverpool University
The course with HALO Drones was great. Really well structured course involving tasks and working through examples as a team to help understand the application of what we were learning. Questions were answered very well and there was a lot of support through both days. Inspiring and I feel like I have learned everything needed to operate drones commercially. Highly recommended. Thank you!
Alice Baker, Wiltshire Wildlife Trust
Had a great experience flying under the supervision of Philip Tarry. Went there with someone else from our company in preparation for our pilot certification and even with other people there was no down time. We covered both theory and practice, necessary and good-to-know manoeuvres as well as extra time to focus on what we felt we were lacking in. All together, I felt like I left the session with more than enough expertise to pass the test successfully.
Jeremie Leonard, Bio Carbon Engineering
The course provided by HALO Drones was excellent. A very informative and enjoyable few days. The course was well structured, providing important information needed to become a qualified and proficient drone pilot. HALO’s experience flying drones meant they were able to clearly add context to everything we were learning. Would highly recommend.
Robert Godwin, Like and Egg Productions
