Defence Helicopter Flying School

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The Defence Helicopter Flying School at RAF Shawbury, a Royal Air Force station near Shrewsbury, England, trains aircrew from all three of the Armed Forces. Training is undertaken on the Squirrel HT1 and for the Royal Air Force students the Griffin HT1 (a twin engine modern version of the famous "Huey" helicopter). Training is typically 6 months for the Army and Navy and 18 months for the RAF. The DHFS has three assigned flying squadrons:

• 660 Squadron, Army Air Corps - 660 Sqn is responsible for the basic 10 week flying course on single engined helicopters
• 705 Naval Air Squadron - 705 NAS provides the advanced single engined flying course
• 60(R) Squadron - 60 Sqn is the advanced rotary wing training squadron

In addition Search and Rescue training for all RAF aircrew takes place at RAF Valley on the Search and Rescue Training Unit (SARTU)

All the DHFS Helicopters and Synthetic Training Equipment (STE) are owned by FB Heliservices [1] who also provide 40% of the instructional staff, all the ground school and simulator staff,carry out all the maintenance and a wide range of support services

DHFS