In conversation with Henley Air

Smoke On… Go’s Sally Fleck recently spent time in conversation with Henley Air’s founder Andre Coetzee and Chief Pilot/Head of Training Bruce Daniels on the Smoke On… Go! Talk Show.

By Michael Thomson / Images supplied by Henley Air

The now-famous Henley Air began as a single-aircraft operation back in 1995 with one Bell Jet Ranger. From the beginning, the focus was not on rapid growth but rather on remaining small and high quality.

Today, however, the company has 30 helicopters and a very highly regarded name in the helicopter field, with a mixed fleet of Jet Rangers, Long Rangers, Bell 407s, Bell 222s, Bell 230s and AgustaWestland AW119s. Henley Air also operates Robinson R22s and R44s.

Andre explains that the company’s mixed fleet allows them the flexibility to tailor charters to suit the specific needs of clients.

“Charter has always been the backbone of the business,” explains Andre. He goes on to say that Henley Air’s primary client base is surprisingly not the tourism sector as one might think but rather the mining industry that surrounds Johannesburg. “It has been exceptionally good for us. The charter side is primarily the transportation of bullion, whether it is gold, platinum, diamonds … anything precious, as well as the surveillance that goes with the mining industry, transporting of VIPs from the mining industry – I’d say about 85% of our work is related to the mining industry.”

Andre says that the balance of their charter work is transporting people to golf days or transfers from Johannesburg to the game lodges around Gauteng, a sector of the market which is seeing an improvement in numbers post-Covid. Interestingly, he says that most of these clients are locally based and not wealthy foreign tourists as one might expect.

Flying school

One of the facets of Henley Air’s operation that has seen huge success and growth in recent years is their flying training section. Originally very much a secondary part of their overall operation, since Covid this department has flourished. Andre ascribes this in part to the effects of the pandemic which caused most of the smaller helicopter training schools to close. However, Henley Air has also worked hard to earn a very good reputation for both the quality and the safety of their flight training. “Our school is booming, we’re very chuffed,” says Andre.  

The flying school has both a military and a civilian syllabus and boasts a flight simulator that Andre describes as “a huge game changer”, permitting students to train for more risky or expensive exercises in a safer, cheaper way before doing these on the real thing.

The school also offers a unique qualification through the Henley Institute of Aeronautical Learning. The 11-month course begins at Student Pilot level and includes the whole ab initio course up to PPL but also has an academic component: a higher certificate in Aviation Management. Building on that, one can do a diploma and an advanced diploma and, after four years, one can end with a frozen ATP, IF rating and automatic entry into an Honours course.

Rocket HEMS and air rescue

The final component of Henley Air’s operation is Rocket, their Helicopter Emergency Medical Service (HEMS) and Air Rescue provider. Started in 2019 as a subsidiary of the Henley Air Group, Rocket has at its core the ethos of restoring the sanctity of the task of saving lives: “The emergency services industry at large has lost its ‘traditional caring soul’ with access to services being traded off against actuarial calculations, income statements and balance sheets”. With the decline and deterioration of state-provided patient care in the emergency services field, Rocket’s objective was to provide a patient-centred, unaffiliated, innovative, world-class Helicopter Emergency Medical and Air Rescue service to South Africa.

Rocket operates the largest fleet of twin-engine air ambulance emergency rescue helicopters in Africa, comprising ICU-equipped Bell 222/230s, and their operations are split into two broad roles: on the one side, the air ambulance (HEMS) operation which responds to patients in need of urgent and time-critical transfers to hospital facilities and, on the other, the Air Rescue operation, which provides ad-hoc air rescue on demand.

Based at Rand Airport in Germiston, Johannesburg, they have outstations throughout the country, ensuring a wide-ranging area of coverage for their emergency services.

The HEMS side is largely fed by Rocket’s “Rocket Connect” subscription service which provides reasonably-priced subscription plans to individuals, families and organisations that entitles members to Rocket’s services in an emergency. Operated by highly experienced, well-trained crews which include pilots, flight doctors and flight nurses, they provide extensive coverage to patients across South Africa.

Rocket also has a very special children’s air ambulance initiative which they’ve called “Rocket Mini Kids’ Flight”. In essence, Rocket Mini is a nonprofit company that aims to provide much-needed transport to hospital for children who cannot afford such services. They have branded one of their fleet of Bell 230s in a bright and unique colour scheme to represent this fantastic, caring initiative.

On the Air Rescue side, Rocket is authorised by the South African Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA) to conduct air rescue operations including both longline and short-haul rescues into restricted and dangerous locations.

Henley Air’s Chief Pilot and Head of Training, Bruce Daniels, is heavily involved in all aspects of the operation and brings huge depth of experience and knowledge. An ex-South African Airways Captain, he flew every type they operated, barring the Boeing 767, during his 33-year career. Bruce started flying helicopters while at SAA and, by the time he left the national carrier, had amassed considerable helicopter experience doing vehicle tracking, instruction and flying the Durban Harbour Master’s helicopter, the Agusta 109.

One of the areas that occupies a large portion of his time is flying HEMS and air rescue missions. Bruce explains that he enjoys both the HEMS Air Ambulance flying and the longline rescues which involve dropping paramedics into confined or dangerous areas such as mountainsides or mines and then lifting the patients to safety. His enthusiasm for both is very evident. “It really is the pinnacle of a helicopter pilot’s career in the sense that you have to use everything you’ve ever learnt in those situations to do the job.”

Rescue flying involves a lot of calculated risk and Bruce shares a few of his most memorable events flying rescue missions, including landing on a road intersection accident scene at night. Just before landing, he realised that not only was there a strong possibility of a brown-out (where dust gets thrown up by the helicopter’s rotors, causing a severe deterioration of visibility) but there were also a number of uncontrolled people in the immediate vicinity of the landing zone, so the crew elected to reposition on the spur of the moment and land across the road on a tiny patch of fenced-off grass, providing a considerable test of their incredible precision flying skills.

Another incident he responded to was the shooting of a police officer in a township in Durban. The Rocket HEMS helicopter arrived on the scene within three minutes. After landing in a brown-out, they departed with the patient and he was in theatre in Pietermaritzburg 39 minutes after having been shot.

The future

Having established itself as a highly regarded operator, Henley Air continues to expand in a measured, rational way while evolving and adapting into the future. The company is a large employer of pilots from diverse backgrounds and holds the distinction of having 10% of all of South Africa’s female ATPL(H) holders. Personal career growth is actively encouraged among all employees and the results are evident.

With the above in mind, Henley Air is positioned for success and growth into the future.