The story of Tiger Helicopters
Alan Ramsden started flying at Shobdon Airfield in 1977 - initially on aeroplanes with a vision to become a fixed wing instructor. However, after a 5 minute pleasure flight in a B206 JetRanger, where he first experienced the thrill and excitement of helicopter flight, Alan was hooked. He went on to sell his house, his car and his share in the family business in order to raise the funds to become a commercial helicopter pilot and instructor! He then founded Tiger Helicopters in 1992 and, together with the Tiger Team, has helped develop both the Helicopter school and Shobdon Airfield.
One of the team's proudest achievements came in 2005 when we acquired our first overseas contract. This was to train the next generation of Police Helicopter Pilots for Kuwait. With a 100% success rate, a further contract to train Police Helicopter Pilots for Algeria was awarded to Tiger. This contract of over 10,000 flying hours, was completed in 2012 without a single accident or incident. We are extremely proud of this and it is a huge credit to all of the Tiger Team.
The UK School is growing as the UK's economy recovers from COVID. We remain firmly committed to our UK school and it is great to see an upturn in students coming through our doors, ready for the excitement and challenge of helicopter flight! Many of our students travel great distances to train with us, which is very humbling. We believe it's because of our world class facilities and excellent instruction. We now offer Helicopter Pilot training to individuals, large companies and Governments. We take individuals from never having flown before, all the way up, to being Commercial Pilots and Flight Instructors. The global demand for helicopter pilots is increasing rapidly. Tiger's ambition is to keep re-investing in the business to help meet this growing need. Currently our capacity is 60 overseas students as well as a thriving UK school. As for the future? Well... The Sky's No Limit!
