A visit to… Christophe Comyn, Head of Training – Toran Heli Academy

In the small Belgian helicopter world we have seen many well-known names come, but also disappear. Names such as Paramount Helicopters, EG Helicopters, VC Helicopters, Heli-Group, Croon Helicopters, Publi Air or QS Helicopters were once commonplace in our world but have all since become a thing of the past. But one of those well-known names: Toran was founded in 1996 and is still present today, more than ever, from various airfields in Flanders.

Time, then, to let the new Head of Training of Toran, Christophe Comyn (see photo), have his say.

To begin with, I would like to introduce the company Toran Heli Academy and myself. Around the age of 20 (some 30 years ago) I caught the flying bug through a gliding course. After some wanderings I eventually ended up, a few years later in 1996, at the Bierset air base, where I flew the Agusta A-109 anti-tank helicopters.

At the time, these were still in the hands of the Belgian Land Component, more specifically the Light Aviation. What I did not yet know then was that, several hundred kilometres west of Bierset, in that same year 1996, Marc Lambert was founding Toran Heli Academy, to pass on his passion for flying to others. I myself met Marc a few years later, and it was partly thanks to Toran that in 2008 I got the chance to also obtain my civil licence and grow further to become, today, Head of Training of Toran Heli Academy.

The first theory lessons that Toran gave were private lessons, which usually took place at the students' homes. The practical lessons were then given from Kortrijk-Wevelgem airfield. The helicopter used in the beginning stood in an old dusty hangar on the north side of the airfield, somewhat wedged between a number of aeroplanes.

To this day, our main base is located in Kortrijk-Wevelgem, although that charming yet dusty hangar has since made way for a smart and brand-new hangar with, next to it, a fantastic reception building and our offices. Our main base is located in the best spot at the airport, in the middle of the 2 km long runway. As a result, Toran not only has a fantastic view of all incoming and outgoing air traffic, but also, and above all, a consistently smooth taxi route for its own helicopters.

Due to the growing number of students, the individual theory lessons were, over the years, transformed into small group lessons in order to also bring the cost down. Not only did the number of students grow, but more instructors also joined. I myself was initially hired as a theory instructor and then grew further into a fully fledged practical instructor. Simultaneously, together with a few other members of the Toran Team, I rewrote the theory courses, so that the quality of our teaching also increased.

Depending on the number of prospective students, theory lessons are nowadays taught one or sometimes several days a week. Ultimately, Toran also expanded territorially over the past decade, for both theory and practical lessons. In addition to our main base in Kortrijk-Wevelgem, we expanded to the heliport of Knokke and then also to the heliport in Antwerp-Brecht and Droneport in Brustem, Sint-Truiden. In this way, Toran became a flight school that has 16 helicopters at its disposal and is, at this moment, with 60 active students, by far the largest helicopter school in Belgium.

In 2022, three former students of Toran took over the business from founder Marc Lambert (see photo), with the latter, to this day, still fully dedicating his passion and expertise to the further development of Toran. You can see it as a kind of mentorship. Toran Heli Academy is a hotbed of young ambition on the one hand and reliable experience on the other.

Finally, I will conclude this introduction with a presentation of the three new partners of Toran who gave me the chance to become Head of Training: they are Matthias Decleer, operational manager, Arno Soete, financial and strategic manager, and Wim Decleer, silent partner and our sounding board.

We thank Christophe for the nice introduction about himself and the helicopter school Toran. Christophe has also agreed to write us an article each month about an important topic from the helicopter world. We are already looking forward to his first article, which will be about: ‘How can you “hover” a helicopter (hang still in the air)?’.

Photo 1 © Tom Buysse – Photos 2, 3 & 4 © Toran
Article source: https://www.helispot.be/hs/page/detail.asp?oid=c5E1G2C3&sub=logboek