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:
“Y’know plenty of people, in their right mind, thought they saw things that didn’t exist, y’know, like flying saucers. The light was just right, and the angle and the imagination. Oh boy, if that’s what it is, then this is just an ordinary night. You and I are going to go home and go to sleep and tomorrow when we get up that sun’s gonna shine. Just like yesterday. Good ol’ yesterday.”
—Theodore Simonson. Irvin S. Yeaworth, Jr.. Steve Andrews (Steven McQueen)
“A sure proportion of rogue and dunce finds its way into every school and requires a cruel share of time, and the gentle teacher, who wished to be a Providence to youth, is grown a martinet, sore with suspicions; knows as much vice as the judge of a police court, and his love of learning is lost in the routine of grammars and books of elements.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)