Bliss Aviation, formerly Bournemouth Helicopters was established in June 1994 by Gary Ellson who, following a career in the Coastguard Agency, came for a trial lesson which led to not only his gaining a helicopter licence, but also the ownership of a training school.
Our original fleet consisted of Robinson R22s, Bell206 Jet Rangers and for a few years, Gazelles. The R22s were superceded with a more stable training platform, the American built and designed Schweizer 300, which was introduced to the fleet in 2001. It quickly became apparent that the Schweizer was an easier helicopter to train on and subsequently our last R22 left us in 2004.
We decided it was time for a change, so in 2004 we introduced the more economical and more widely used R44, which replaced our Bell 206. Today we offer the S300 and R44 as the primary helicopters for training and in addition, we offer a Eurocopter EC120. This is used for Charter and Type conversion training.
At Bliss Aviation we constantly aim to renew our aircraft, ensuring we offer our customers the highest quality in training platforms.
