Discovery Flight
30 min stick time + brief + debrief. The cleanest way to find out if rotor-wing is for you.
$249
Pay $249 →Earn Your Helicopter Rating in the Adirondacks
FAA Part 61 helicopter flight training. Patient, experienced instruction. Year-round availability — even when the tour season is over.
By booking or purchasing, you acknowledge the inherent risks of helicopter flight and agree to our Liability Waiver & Assumption of Risk.
September & October Special
Discovery Flight — $249
Take the controls of our Robinson R-44 with a certified flight instructor and see if the helicopter life is for you. Book by October 31 — and if you enroll in training within 30 days, we credit the full $249 toward your program.
The $249 rate is valid only for Discovery Flights departing Harris Airport (83K), Fort Ann NY. Intro flights at off-site fly-in events are $375.
Worried about cost? Flight training is financeable — explore loan options through AOPA Aviation Finance (PPL from as little as ~$150–300/mo, terms up to 84 months).
Short on time? Ask about our Accelerated Program — an intensive, faster path to your rating with all flight time logged. Call (518) 634-6375.
Real intro flights
What your Discovery Flight looks like
Real guests, real flights from Harris Airport (83K). Hands on the controls, coached the whole way.
Hands on the controls over the Adirondacks
That first-flight grin
Pre-flight brief with your CFI
Wheels-up from Harris Airport (83K)
The Robinson R-44 — a window seat for everyone
Meet your aircraft
Arriving for a Discovery Flight
Walk-around before you fly
Ready on the ramp
Required before you touch the controls
SFAR 73 Safety Awareness — every Intro Flight & new student
A short awareness video and three quick questions — energy management, low-G mast bumping, and the positive exchange of controls. It takes about ten minutes. Complete it before your flight; your name, the date, and your answers are logged automatically for our safety file.
Required before every flight — every pilot
Pre-Flight FRAT & Safety Report
Our Flight Risk Assessment Tool, under the Safety Management System (14 CFR Part 5). Score the flight, log it to the Master Ledger, and file a confidential safety report if something needs flagging. No FRAT, no flight.
Every flight — N668SA
R44 Raven II Preflight & Close-Out
Interactive preflight with the airworthiness call before start (engine-start and run-up are flown from the checklist in the aircraft), then a post-landing shutdown close-out — Hobbs out, fluids, concerns, and flight notes. Files the session to the student's training record with Hobbs tracked.
Why train here
The right airspace, the right aircraft, the right CFI
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Resident CFII Helicopter
Walter Dusseldorp — CFII Helicopter, on the field. Schedule around your life, not the school's.
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Robinson R-44 Raven
The most-flown civilian rotor-wing trainer in the world. If you can fly the R-44, you can fly what comes after.
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Beautiful uncongested airspace
83K means more learning, less holding short. Mountains, water, and wide-open valleys for confidence-building.
Programs
From your first lift to your CFI ride
| Program | What it is | Hours | Approx total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Discovery / Intro | 30 min at the controls + ground briefing. The cleanest way to find out if rotor-wing is for you. | 30 min | $249 flat |
| Private Pilot — Helicopter (PPL-H) | Your first FAA helicopter certificate. Solo flight, cross-country, checkride. | 60–70 hrs typical | $50,000–$60,000 |
| Add-on Rotorcraft | Fixed-wing pilot adding the helicopter rating. Major regional opportunity for airline and GA pilots. | 25–35 hrs | $22,000–$30,000 |
| Commercial Pilot — Helicopter | Pathway to paid rotor-wing work — HEMS, tour operations, ENG. | varies | By quote |
| CFI-H / CFII-H | Become an instructor yourself. Many of our students return as instructors. | varies | By quote |
| Recurrent / BFR / Phase Checks | Stay current and sharp. Short cycles, repeat customers. | 1–3 hrs | By the hour |
Pricing
Transparent, all-in
All-in dual flight instruction is $750 per Hobbs hour. Ground instruction is $75 per hour. The discovery flight is a $249 flat package and includes a brief, 30 minutes of stick time, and a debrief. No hidden fees, no surprise upcharges.
Book or pay
Discovery flights and lessons book and pay online. Ground instruction and dual flight time are booked first — we settle after the session based on actual hours flown.
Ground Instruction
Per-hour classroom or hangar instruction. Book your slot — we invoice after the session for actual hours.
$75 / hr
Book ground →Dual Flight (Hobbs hour)
$750 per Hobbs hour all-in. Settle after the lesson — Walter texts you the exact Hobbs reading.
$750 / hr
Book a Hobbs hour →Discovery flight payment processed by Stripe. Refund per the lesson-cancellation policy. Post-lesson invoices are sent by text with a Stripe pay link the same day. Member-partner instruction is billed separately through the partner ledger.
What you'll need
- FAA medical certificate (3rd class minimum for PPL-H — we can recommend AMEs in the area)
- Government-issued photo ID
- Ability to read, speak, and understand English
- Renters insurance with NCHF as additional insured before any solo flight (we'll guide you when you're ready)
- Time, focus, and a willingness to read the FAR/AIM and the Robinson POH cover-to-cover
Meet your instructor
Walter Dusseldorp — CFII (Helicopter), Private Pilot (Airplane Single-Engine Land), MBA, adjunct professor at Rutgers University. Chief Instructor at North Country Heli Flight and lead pilot on every training flight.
Walter's path to the cockpit ran through frontline healthcare first. He began his career as a medic, advanced to flight medic, and then went the full distance through helicopter aviation — Private, Commercial, CFI, and CFII Helicopter. On the fixed-wing side he holds his Private Pilot ASEL and is working through the instructor add-on (CFII Airplane expected by end of 2026), which will let him teach both categories under one NCHF roof.
That arc — medic to flight medic to CFII Helicopter — gives Walter a perspective most flight instructors don't have. Pre-hospital and flight medicine train you to operate inside high-stakes systems where precision, regulation, safety, and sound decision-making aren't optional. Walter brings the same standard to the right seat. Students leave NCHF as confident, decisive Pilots-in-Command — not as license-holders waiting for someone to hand them a real flight.
His academic work at Rutgers, in healthcare leadership programs, sharpens how he teaches. Aerodynamics, regulations, weather, autorotation procedure, decision-making under task saturation — Walter breaks complex topics into practical, grounded explanations a student can use the next time they're flying solo.
Outside the school, Walter is the creator of Flight Path Pioneers, the free FAR/AIM study tool that every NCHF student gets full access to from day one. He believes in conservative weather, accurate weight-and-balance, real autorotation proficiency, and the patient, repeated practice that produces a pilot you'd put your family in the cabin with.
Free study companion
Flight Path Pioneers — your free FAR/AIM study tool
Walter is the creator of Flight Path Pioneers, a free pilot-training web app covering Helicopter & Airplane from Private through ATP. NCHF students get the same study tool every other CFI wishes they had.
- 660 FAA written-test questions across all certificates and ratings
- Oral exam flashcards · DPE scenario questions · checkride checklists
- Weight & balance calculator (R22, R44, C172, Piper, and more)
- "Ask CFII" — an AI flight mentor that cites the FAR/AIM live
- Free forever; Pro Lifetime $99 one-time for full features
Built by your instructor
Helicopter · Airplane · Private — ATP
Private · Commercial · Instrument · FOI · CFI · CFII · MEI · ATP · Rusty Pilot
Pre-flight tools
Use these every flight
Free tools that live on this site — for our students, our pilots, and any pilot in the region who wants them.
R-44 Weight & Balance Calculator
Live CG envelope check for the Robinson R-44 Raven II — the aircraft you'll fly. Built around our 30-gallon operational fuel cap. Bookmark a loading; the URL saves your numbers.
Open W&B CalculatorKGFL Weather Briefing
Live METAR for KGFL (Floyd Bennett Memorial), KALB / KSLK TAF, winds aloft, and direct links to Aviation Weather Center, 1800wxbrief, and AOPA. Same data your pilot is using before every flight.
Open Weather Briefing
Already enrolled?
Schedule a lesson & track your progress
Existing students book lessons against the live shared calendar — and use the password-protected student portal to follow the syllabus, log flights, self-grade, and submit progress to your CFI.
Schedule a Lesson
Two-step booking: prepay the deposit on Stripe, then pick your slot via the Calendly link in your receipt. Discovery, dual, ground, recurrent / BFR.
Questions before booking? Email training@flyheliadk.com
Student Portal
Track your training: syllabus by level, lesson plans, flight logbook with self-graded performance, goals, and CFI review. Access code provisioned at enrollment.
Sign in →
New here?
Ready to start training? Send us your goals
Want to fly first? Book a Discovery Flight → This form is for training enrollment and questions — tell us about your goals and we'll be in touch within 24 hours.