Discovery Flight
30 min stick time + brief + debrief. The cleanest way to find out if rotor-wing is for you.
$249 + $12.50 fuel
Pay $249 →Earn Your Helicopter Rating in the Adirondacks
FAA Part 61 helicopter flight training in the Robinson R44 Raven II with a resident CFII. Weekday lessons by appointment; full availability November–April.
Questions? Call (518) 634-6375
We reply within 24 hours.
By booking or purchasing, you acknowledge the inherent risks of helicopter flight and agree to our Liability Waiver & Assumption of Risk.
Through October 31, 2026
Discovery Flight — $249 + $12.50 fuel surcharge · regularly $375
Take the controls of our Robinson R44 Raven II with a CFII and see if the helicopter life is for you. $249 plus a $12.50 fuel surcharge through October 31, 2026 (regular price $375). Enroll in training within 30 days and the Discovery Flight is credited toward your program.
The $249 rate is valid for Discovery Flights departing Harris Airport (83K), Fort Ann, NY, through October 31, 2026.
Worried about cost? Flight training is financeable — explore loan options through AOPA Aviation Finance (terms up to 84 months; AOPA membership required). See how students pay for it.
Short on time? Ask about our Accelerated Program — an intensive, faster path to your rating with all flight time logged. Call (518) 634-6375.
Real intro flights
What your Discovery Flight looks like
Real guests, real flights from Harris Airport (83K). Hands on the controls, coached the whole way.
Hands on the controls over the Adirondacks
That first-flight grin
Pre-flight brief with your CFI
Wheels-up from Harris Airport (83K)
The Robinson R-44 — a window seat for everyone
Meet your aircraft
Arriving for a Discovery Flight
Walk-around before you fly
Ready on the ramp
Required before you touch the controls
SFAR 73 Safety Awareness — every Intro Flight & new student
A short awareness video and three quick questions — energy management, low-G mast bumping, and the positive exchange of controls. It takes about ten minutes. Complete it before your flight; your name, the date, and your answers are logged automatically for our safety file.
Required before every flight — every pilot
Pre-Flight FRAT & Safety Report
Our Flight Risk Assessment Tool, under the Safety Management System (14 CFR Part 5). Score the flight, log it to the Master Ledger, and file a confidential safety report if something needs flagging. No FRAT, no flight.
Every flight — N668SA
R44 Raven II Preflight & Close-Out
Interactive preflight with the airworthiness call before start (engine-start and run-up are flown from the checklist in the aircraft), then a post-landing shutdown close-out — Hobbs out, fluids, concerns, and flight notes. Files the session to the student's training record with Hobbs tracked.
Why train here
The right airspace, the right aircraft, the right CFI
👨✈️
Resident CFII Helicopter
Walter Dusseldorp — CFII Helicopter, on the field. Schedule around your life, not the school's.
🚁
Robinson R-44 Raven
The most-flown civilian rotor-wing trainer in the world. If you can fly the R-44, you can fly what comes after.
⛰️
Beautiful uncongested airspace
83K means more learning, less holding short. Mountains, water, and wide-open valleys for confidence-building.
Programs
From your first lift to your CFI ride
| Program | What it is | Hours | Approx total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Discovery / Intro | 30 min at the controls + ground briefing. The cleanest way to find out if rotor-wing is for you. Credited toward training if you enroll within 30 days. | 30 min | $249 + $12.50 fuel surcharge through Oct 31, 2026 · reg. $375 |
| Private Pilot — Helicopter (PPL-H) | Your first FAA helicopter certificate. Solo flight, cross-country, checkride. See the full cost table below. | 40 hrs FAA minimum · 50–60 hrs typical | $750/Hobbs hr all-in prepaid blocks from $675/hr |
| Add-on Rotorcraft | Fixed-wing pilot adding the helicopter rating. Your Discovery Flight is credited toward the program. Add-on details → | 25–35 hrs typical | $22,000–$30,000 depending on hours |
| Commercial Pilot — Helicopter | Pathway to paid rotor-wing work — HEMS, tour operations, ENG. | varies | By quote |
| CFI-H / CFII-H | Become an instructor yourself. Many of our students return as instructors. | varies | By quote |
| Recurrent / BFR / Phase Checks | Stay current and sharp. Short cycles, repeat customers. | 1–3 hrs | By the hour |
Straight numbers
What your PPL-H really costs
Every line below is an estimate, built from our published rates. Hours vary with how often you fly, how you study, and the weather. The FAA minimum for a Private Pilot – Helicopter certificate is 40 hours; most students need more, and we would rather you plan for a realistic number than a brochure number.
| Scenario | Flight hours | Flight cost at $750/h all-in | Ground school | Examiner (DPE) fee | Estimated total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FAA minimum | 40 h | 40 × $750 = $30,000 | Free, online at groundschool.flyheliadk.com | $1,000 estimate, set by the examiner | $31,000 |
| Typical | 50–60 h | $37,500–$45,000 | Free, online | $1,000 estimate, set by the examiner | $38,500–$46,000 |
| Conservative | 65–70 h | $48,750–$52,500 | Free, online | $1,000 estimate, set by the examiner | $49,750–$53,500 |
Every number here is an assumption you can check: $750 per hour includes the instructor, fuel and the R-44. Hours depend on you, the weather and how often you fly.
Not in the table: ground instruction with your CFII when billed by the hour ($75 per hour; included in the prepaid blocks below), the FAA medical certificate, the FAA knowledge test fee, a headset, and books or study materials. Amounts vary — ask us for current local figures.
Estimates assume every Hobbs hour at the all-in $750 rate. Prepaid PPL-H blocks lower the hourly rate to $700 or $675 (see below): two 25-hour blocks cover 50 of those hours at $675 and take $3,750 off the estimate. Your Discovery Flight is credited toward the program if you enroll within 30 days.
Why $750 an hour, all-in
Many schools quote a low aircraft rate and then add the instructor, the fuel, and a surcharge or two on the invoice. Our Hobbs hour is one number: the Robinson R44 Raven II, the fuel it burns, and the CFII in the right seat. There is no separate aircraft rental, no separate instructor fee, and no fuel line on a training invoice.
You pay for the Hobbs time actually flown. After each lesson Walter texts you the exact Hobbs reading and the invoice is settled the same day, so there is never a question about what an hour cost.
Ground instruction is billed separately at $75 per hour, and the online ground school is free.
Prepaid PPL-H blocks — new
Commit to a block of dual instruction and the hourly rate comes down. Every block hour is dual with your CFII in the R44 Raven II, and the ground instruction that goes with it is included.
| Block | Hours | Price | Per hour |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10-hour block | 10 Hobbs hrs dual | $7,000 | $700 / hr |
| 25-hour block | 25 Hobbs hrs dual | $16,875 | $675 / hr |
Dual with CFII, ground included. Weekday lessons by appointment; full availability November–April. To start a block, send the enrollment form or email training@flyheliadk.com.
Why the R-44 from day one
Most schools start you in a two-seat trainer and move you to the R-44 later. We train in the Robinson R-44 Raven II from your first lesson, for three reasons.
- It is the aircraft you will fly afterwards. Tour and utility operators typically ask new hires for 50–100 hours of R-44 time. Every hour of your private certificate counts toward that, and there is no second transition to pay for later.
- It is more stable than the two-seat trainers. More mass, more inertia and a hydraulic cyclic make the hover and the autorotation easier to learn well, and the habits you build are the habits you keep.
- Four seats, real terrain. The same aircraft flies our tours over the Adirondacks, so your training flights go to ridgelines, confined areas and weather decisions, not just the pattern.
Comparing us with a Florida R22 school? Read the honest comparison →
Real students
A lesson from the right seat
A hands-on flight lesson in the R44 Raven II from Harris Airport (83K) — Matt T. at the controls, Walter beside him.
Student story
From first hover to Instrument/Commercial
Photo of Michael with the R44 to come
Michael Galli earned his Private Pilot – Helicopter certificate at North Country Heli Flight in December 2025, training in the R44 Raven II with Walter in the right seat and the Adirondacks out the window. He is now in Instrument/Commercial training with us.
Disclosure: Michael is also a partner in North Country Heli Flight. We share his story with his approval because it is the clearest picture of what training here looks like from the student's seat — and because he liked it enough to buy in.
Pricing
Transparent, all-in
All-in dual flight instruction is $750 per Hobbs hour. Ground instruction is $75 per hour. The Discovery Flight is $249 plus a $12.50 fuel surcharge through October 31, 2026 (regularly $375) and includes a brief, 30 minutes of stick time, and a debrief. Prepaid PPL-H blocks bring dual instruction to $700 or $675 per hour. No hidden fees, no surprise upcharges.
Book or pay
Discovery flights and lessons book and pay online. Ground instruction and dual flight time are booked first — we settle after the session based on actual hours flown.
Ground Instruction
Per-hour classroom or hangar instruction. Book your slot — we invoice after the session for actual hours.
$75 / hr
Book ground →Dual Flight (Hobbs hour)
$750 per Hobbs hour all-in. Settle after the lesson — Walter texts you the exact Hobbs reading.
$750 / hr
Book a Hobbs hour →Discovery flight payment processed by Stripe. Refund per the lesson-cancellation policy. Post-lesson invoices are sent by text with a Stripe pay link the same day. Member-partner instruction is billed separately through the partner ledger.
What you'll need
- FAA medical certificate (3rd class minimum for PPL-H — we can recommend AMEs in the area)
- Government-issued photo ID
- Ability to read, speak, and understand English
- Renters insurance with NCHF as additional insured before any solo flight (we'll guide you when you're ready)
- Time, focus, and a willingness to read the FAR/AIM and the Robinson POH cover-to-cover
Meet your instructor
Walter Dusseldorp — CFII (Helicopter), Private Pilot (Airplane Single-Engine Land), MBA, FACHE, adjunct professor at Rutgers University. Owner, chief pilot and Chief Instructor at North Country Heli Flight, and the pilot on every training flight.
Walter's path to the cockpit ran through frontline healthcare first. He began his career as a medic, advanced to flight medic, and then went the full distance through helicopter aviation — Private, Commercial, CFI, and CFII Helicopter. On the fixed-wing side he holds his Private Pilot ASEL and is working through the instructor add-on (CFII Airplane expected by end of 2026), which will let him teach both categories under one NCHF roof.
That arc — medic to flight medic to CFII Helicopter — gives Walter a perspective most flight instructors don't have. Pre-hospital and flight medicine train you to operate inside high-stakes systems where precision, regulation, safety, and sound decision-making aren't optional. Walter brings the same standard to the right seat. Students leave NCHF as confident, decisive Pilots-in-Command — not as license-holders waiting for someone to hand them a real flight.
His academic work at Rutgers, in healthcare leadership programs, sharpens how he teaches. Aerodynamics, regulations, weather, autorotation procedure, decision-making under task saturation — Walter breaks complex topics into practical, grounded explanations a student can use the next time they're flying solo.
Outside the school, Walter is the creator of Flight Path Pioneers, the free FAR/AIM study tool that every NCHF student gets full access to from day one. He believes in conservative weather, accurate weight-and-balance, real autorotation proficiency, and the patient, repeated practice that produces a pilot you'd put your family in the cabin with.
Free study companion
Flight Path Pioneers — your free FAR/AIM study tool
Walter is the creator of Flight Path Pioneers, a free pilot-training web app covering Helicopter & Airplane from Private through the instructor ratings. NCHF students get the same study tool every other CFI wishes they had.
- 660 FAA written-test questions across all certificates and ratings
- Oral exam flashcards · DPE scenario questions · checkride checklists
- Weight & balance calculator (R22, R44, C172, Piper, and more)
- "Ask CFII" — an AI flight mentor that cites the FAR/AIM live
- Free forever; Pro Lifetime $99 one-time for full features
Built by your instructor
Helicopter · Airplane · Private — CFII
Private · Commercial · Instrument · FOI · CFI · CFII · MEI · Rusty Pilot
Pre-flight tools
Use these every flight
Free tools that live on this site — for our students, our pilots, and any pilot in the region who wants them.
R-44 Weight & Balance Calculator
Live CG envelope check for the Robinson R-44 Raven II — the aircraft you'll fly. Built around our 30-gallon operational fuel cap. Bookmark a loading; the URL saves your numbers.
Open W&B CalculatorKGFL Weather Briefing
Live METAR for KGFL (Floyd Bennett Memorial), KALB / KSLK TAF, winds aloft, and direct links to Aviation Weather Center, 1800wxbrief, and AOPA. Same data your pilot is using before every flight.
Open Weather Briefing
Already enrolled?
Schedule a lesson & track your progress
Existing students book lessons against the live shared calendar — and use the password-protected student portal to follow the syllabus, log flights, self-grade, and submit progress to your CFI.
Schedule a Lesson
Two-step booking: prepay the deposit on Stripe, then pick your slot via the Calendly link in your receipt. Discovery, dual, ground, recurrent / BFR.
Questions before booking? Email training@flyheliadk.com
Student Portal
Track your training: syllabus by level, lesson plans, flight logbook with self-graded performance, goals, and CFI review. Access code provisioned at enrollment.
Sign in →
New here?
Ready to start training? Send us your goals
Want to fly first? Book a Discovery Flight → This form is for training enrollment and questions — tell us about your goals and we'll be in touch within 24 hours. Or call (518) 634-6375 / email info@flyheliadk.com.