87 Helicopter Flying School is a unit of the South African Air Force. It is currently a helicopter flight training school.
- Motto: Docemus (We Teach)
- First formed: 1 January 1973
- Historic aircraft flown: Aérospatiale Alouette II, Aérospatiale Alouette III
- Current aircraft flown:Atlas Oryx, BK 117, A109
- Current base: AFB Bloemspruit, Bloemfontein (plus a satellite base at Dragon Peaks Mountain Resort, Drakensberg)
The Helicopter Conversion Unit was established at Ysterplaat on 1 February 1968 to fulfil the helicopter pilot and flight engineers training role. The present unit was formed on 9th April 1968 by redesignating Training Flight, 17 Squadron at AFB Ysterplaat. The unit, equipped with Alouette II and III's, took over responsible for Helicopter Conversion Training of SAAF pilots and training of Flight Engineers for the SAAF.
The Helicopter Conversion Unit became an autonomous unit in 1971 and in January 1973 the units name changed to 87 Advanced Flying School. In 1973 the Alouette II's were retired and transferred to the Rhodesian Air Force. "B" Flight, 16 Squadron, also stationed at AFB Ysterplaat, took responsibility for advanced helicopter training from 16 September 1974 to January 1975.
Famous quotes containing the words flying and/or school:
“Now I am alone with the dead,
flying off bridges,
hurling myself like a beer can into the wastebasket.
I am flying like a single red rose,
leaving a jet stream
of solitude....”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)
“It was Mabbie without the grammar school gates.
And Mabbie was all of seven.
And Mabbie was cut from a chocolate bar.
And Mabbie thought life was heaven.”
—Gwendolyn Brooks (b. 1917)