David Walley

I am a New Zealand-based helicopter pilot, flight instructor, and examiner with over 10,000 flight hours, primarily in helicopters.

I especially love teaching people with no previous flight experience the thrill of flying helicopters, as well as fixed-wing pilots who want to try their hand at rotary. I also enjoy night vision ops and instrument flight training.

I initially learned to fly fixed-wing aircraft in the Royal Air Force. I later flew large helicopters to offshore oil rigs throughout the world, conducted search and rescue missions, served in the Falklands for the UK Ministry of Defence, and flew for Greenpeace in Antarctica and the Arctic. In addition, I flew commercial blimps in North America, the UK, and Australia, and was a Boeing 737-200 copilot for Air New Zealand.

I love instructing in simulators and have built several myself. Online flight instruction is the way of the future, and I’m fascinated by its potential, not only for ab-initio and scenario-based training, but also for teaching Crew Resource Management (CRM) and advanced human factors.