The examination for a helicopter ‘A’ Certificate may be taken on application to a Registered Helicopter or Fixed Wing Examiner. The candidate must successfully carry out the following flying test:

a) Carry out pre-flight checks as required by the BMFA Safety Codes.

b) Take off and hover tail in over the take off point, with the helicopter skids at eye level, for approximately   fifteen seconds.

c) Hover the helicopter slowly sideways, either left or right, for approximately five metres, stop, and hover briefly.

d) Hover the helicopter slowly sideways in the opposite direction to bring it back to its original position in front of the pilot, stop, and hover briefly.

e) Fly slowly forwards for approximately five metres, stop, and hover briefly.

f) Fly slowly backwards, bringing the helicopter back to its original position over the take off point, stop, hover briefly and land.

g) Take off and hover briefly, turn sideways either left or right and fly forward to perform two ‘lazy eights’, each at least 30 metres on length. Each time the helicopter passes in front of the pilot it must be sideways on to the pilot.

h) At the conclusion of the ‘lazy eights’, bring the helicopter to a halt above the original take off point, hover briefly and land.

i) Complete post-flight checks as required by the BMFA Safety Codes.

The above schedule must be completed within one flight and two attempts per examination will be allowed in any one day.

In addition to the above flying schedule, the candidate must answer correctly at least five questions from the BMFA Safety Codes for General Flying and local flying rules.

The examination for a helicopter ‘B' Certificate may be taken on application to a Registered Examiner. The examination may be carried out by:

If your club does not have any Registered Helicopter Examiners, does not have enough Examiners or has any problems with co-ordinating the work of your existing Examiners you should contact your local Area Achievement Scheme Co-ordinator who will be able to help. Names and telephone numbers of Area AS Co-ordinators are available from your Area Secretary or from the BMFA Leicester office.

The candidate must successfully complete the following flying tests.

g) Perform one stall turn.

h) Perform one twenty second nose-in hover.

All manoeuvres must be carried out in front of the pilot in a similar manner to the fixed-wing ‘B’ Certificate and, in addition, parts (e),(f),(g) and (h) must be performed in airspace designated by the examiner prior to the test flight. The schedule must be completed in one flight.

Exceptionally, at a pre-determined point in the flight an intermediate landing may be permitted for the sole purpose of refuelling or the fitting of a freshly charged flight battery. This landing may only be made with the prior consent of the Examiners. Two attempts per examination will be allowed in any one day.

In addition to the above flying schedule the candidate must answer satisfactorily at least eight questions from the BMFA Safety Codes for General Flying and Model Flying Displays and local flying rules.

The job of a Club Examiner is to "test applicants for 'A' and 'B' Certificates and to maintain the standards of the Achievement Scheme". This is normally done within a club environment and examiners are "appointed specifically to clubs". The only restrictions on club examiners are that they must be BMFA members and over 18 years old (i.e. senior members). In addition they must have held a 'B' certificate in their chosen field (fixed wing or helicopter) for a minimum of six months before they are initially appointed.

The Power Achievement Scheme (PAS) is a national scheme which is not just for BMFA members and it may be run by both BMFA affiliated and non-affiliated clubs. The only condition laid down for non-affiliated clubs is that the Club Examiners must be fully paid up senior members of BMFA.

The scheme is free to all applicants, whether BMFA members or not.

These notes are for the guidance of Examiners when taking such tests but they are also to be made freely available to 'A' and 'B' candidates. The need to even out the standards of testing between different examiners is extremely important and the notes should be followed closely.

If local conditions are such that you need to deviate from them in any way (geographical constraints on the flying field which might inhibit some manoeuvres for instance) you should make sure that you discuss this with the candidate before any testing takes place. Any such deviations must be sensible and within the spirit of the guidelines as laid down in this booklet.

As an Examiner, preparation is vital, not only to ensure that your paperwork is in order and that you know the procedures that you will be following but to give you some advance information on the candidate. You may have seen them fly before, you may have even taught them but, if possible, you should still talk to one or two other club members about how the candidate has been performing in the few days prior to the test. Don't ignore any information which may help you make your assessment.

You should also ensure before the test that the candidate is fully aware of what is expected of them so that misunderstandings do not occur when the model is in the air. A pre-flight briefing with you talking the candidate through the flight is a essential; both of you will then know what to expect.

Some Examiners have the attitude that the flying tests in the PAS are "aerobatics" and must be flown as a strict schedule with no deviations, very much like an FAI Aerobatics competition schedule. This is ABSOLUTELY WRONG.

In fact the flying tests in both the 'A' and 'B' certificates are to allow the candidate to demonstrate to you their ability to be in full and safe control of their model at all times during a flight in which they must fly a set of simple, specified manoeuvres competently and with reasonable accuracy.

Your decision on the candidate's flying abilities and safety standards will be based on an objective view of their performance both during and, perhaps as importantly, before and after the flying test.

You should be looking for evidence that the candidate has the appropriate standards from the moment you meet them on the flying field until the moment you finally sign their certificate. This is most important as anyone can pay 'lip service' to safety standards for a short period but if they are unsafe when they think you are not watching them, they should not pass.

The basic safety standards are laid down in the safety codes and you should not expect to compromise in this area.

It will be a point in the candidate's favour if they show a measure of common sense during their time with you on the flying field and an awareness of other flyer's problems could also be a positive indicator (checking and calling "strip clear" when another pilot has called "landing" for instance). In fact, everything you see the candidate do on the field will tell you something about their capabilities.

During the flying tests you should watch especially during those parts when the candidate is not performing any of the specified manoeuvres, i.e. when they are positioning for manoeuvres or when they are recovering from any errors they make.

The general level of performance expected, bearing in mind the relative difficulties of the manoeuvres, should be good, with few faults, and it is essential that throughout the flight the candidate should give you the firm impression that they are in complete control of the model at all times.

At the completion of a test and assuming that you have deemed the candidate to be successful, you should make sure that they understand their future responsibilities to fellow club members and to model flying as a whole. This applies especially to those who have passed the 'B' Certificate.

An examiner qualification is not just the 'next step up from the 'B'' and you should not expect to just sit there and be admired by your fellow club members. It is expected that you will be actively promoting the raising of flying standards within your club. If you cannot do this on a whole club basis ("the committee won't listen to me") then you should be targeting likely members and working on them as individuals.