Defence Awarding Organisation · RQF Level 5
DAO Level 5 Diploma in Specialist Helicopter Operations
You don’t just earn this. You learn to use it, one-to-one, on your own real work.
- LevelRQF Level 5
- Total credits40
- Guided learning174 hours
- Units in this qualification13
Awarded by Defence Awarding Organisation · on the Ofqual register
Start here
See how this course maps onto your role
Ten quick questions, one per Future Fluency, asked against this qualification rather than a generic one.
About 5 minutes · No card · Nothing to commit to
What you’ll learn
What each unit actually teaches you to do
Qualifications for Defence Awarding Organisation courses.
These are the units Defence Awarding Organisation registers against this qualification. It is a catalogue, not a syllabus. Which of them you take depends on the combination the qualification requires, and that is set by the awarding body rather than by us. Every unit here is regulated, and every one you earn is yours to keep.
Conduct Free Drop Air DispatchReal unit · Defence Awarding Organisation
What you'll be able to do
- Conduct live Free Drop Air Dispatch (FDAD) operations effectively and safely during both day and night, adhering to all relevant safety regulations and procedures.
Conduct Interdiction OperationsReal unit · Defence Awarding Organisation
What you'll be able to do
- Describe how to conduct Vehicle Interdiction (VI)
- Conduct Vehicle Interdiction (VI)
- Operate aircraft defences
- Provide air to ground support
Conduct Specialist Insertion/ExtractionReal unit · Defence Awarding Organisation
What you'll be able to do
- Prepare roping equipment
- Describe how to conduct Fast Roping (FR) operations
- Describe how to conduct specialist roping operations
- Conduct live specialist roping operations in the air
- Describe how to conduct Free Air Drop Dispatch (FDAD)
- Conduct Free Drop Air Dispatch (FDAD)
- Describe how to conduct Rigid Inflatable Boat (RIB) operations
- Conduct Rigid Inflatable Boat (RIB) operations
- Describe how to conduct winching operations
- Conduct winching operations
- Describe how to conduct Helicopter Assault Force (HAF) operations
Conduct World Wide OperationsReal unit · Defence Awarding Organisation
What you'll be able to do
- Consider how to conduct desert landings
- Carry out desert landings by day
- Carry out desert landings at night
- Describe how to conduct desert operations
- Conduct desert operations in a desert environment
- Conduct desert operations by day
- Conduct desert operations at night
- Conduct LALO transit
- Conduct desert LALO Right Hand Seat (RHS)
- Conduct desert LALO, Left hand Seat (LHS)
- Operate Electrical Optic Stabilised Turret (EOST)
- Operate desert LALO console
Conduct maritime operationsReal unit · Defence Awarding Organisation
What you'll be able to do
- Determine the appropriate strategies and tactics for conducting Maritime Counter Terrorism (MCT) operations in various scenarios.
- Conduct Maritime Counter Terrorism (MCT) operations effectively, adhering to established protocols and procedures.
Conduct operations in a Chemical, Biological, Radiological Nuclear environmentReal unit · Defence Awarding Organisation
What you'll be able to do
- Conduct operations effectively and safely in a Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear (CBRN) environment, adhering to relevant safety protocols and procedures.
Conversion to Chinook (Optional unit)Real unit · Defence Awarding Organisation
What you'll be able to do
- Consider configuration differences of the Chinook helicopter.
- Describe the location and function of integration systems differences in the Chinook helicopter.
- Discuss CDS (Cockpit Display System) and DNVG (Digital Night Vision Goggles) differences in the Chinook helicopter.
- Describe communications differences in the Chinook helicopter.
- Articulate navigation and flight sensor differences in the Chinook helicopter.
- Describe Release To Service (RTS) differences in the Chinook helicopter.
- Describe Digital Advanced Flight Control System (DAFCS) function differences in the Chinook helicopter.
- Consider core Digital Advanced Flight Control Systems (DAFCS) differences in the Chinook helicopter.
- Apply DAFCS differences in the Chinook helicopter.
- Consider general handling emergency differences in the Chinook helicopter.
- Describe how to use DAFCS in the Chinook helicopter.
- Demonstrate how to apply DAFCS by day in the Chinook helicopter.
- Demonstrate how to apply DAFCS at night in the Chinook helicopter.
Employ Core SkillsReal unit · Defence Awarding Organisation
What you'll be able to do
- Conduct General Handling (GH) manoeuvres
- Navigate the Aircraft (Ac)
- Operate at NVD level A
- Operate in a mountainous environment
- Manage the aircraft at an overnight location
Manage MissionsReal unit · Defence Awarding Organisation
What you'll be able to do
- Describe the processes involved in conducting pre-mission management activities.
- Conduct pre-mission management activities in accordance with established procedures and protocols.
- Describe the procedures and considerations for executing a mission effectively.
Operate Role Specific equipmentReal unit · Defence Awarding Organisation
What you'll be able to do
- Operate the aircraft secure communications suite.
- Operate Aircrew Equipment Assembly (AEA).
- Describe the Electrical Optical System Turret (EOST).
- Operate EOST core functions.
- Describe an Avionics Management System (AMS).
- Operate an Avionics Management System (AMS).
- Operate a Mission Management system (MMS).
Operate tacticallyReal unit · Defence Awarding Organisation
What you'll be able to do
- Describe how to operate aircraft defences.
- Operate aircraft defences.
- Describe how to fly in formation.
- Fly in formation.
- Describe how to operate within an Electronic Warfare (EW) environment.
- Provide air to ground support.
- Employ evasion tactics.
Operate within Specialist Role EnvironmentReal unit · Defence Awarding Organisation
What you'll be able to do
- Determine how to operate within specialist flying regulations
- Determine how to operate within specialist units
- Explain how to participate in operations and exercises
Ship OperationsReal unit · Defence Awarding Organisation
What you'll be able to do
- Conduct basic ship operations, demonstrating competence in essential shipboard tasks.
- Conduct advanced ship operations during daylight hours, demonstrating proficiency in complex shipboard tasks.
- Conduct ship operations during both day and night, demonstrating adaptability and competence in varying conditions.
- Conduct Marine Counter Terrorism (MCT) operations during both day and night, demonstrating proficiency in counter-terrorism tactics.
- Conduct Marine Counter Terrorism (MCT) operations (Ship Flarex) during both day and night, demonstrating proficiency in specific counter-terrorism scenarios.
- Conduct Marine Counter Terrorism (MCT) operations (OEI Flarex) during both day and night, demonstrating proficiency in specific counter-terrorism scenarios.
- Conduct Marine Counter Terrorism (MCT) operations (MCT airplans) during both day and night, demonstrating proficiency in specific counter-terrorism scenarios.
The honest bit
You’ve started things before
Most courses were built for a room full of people who aren’t you. A cohort moves on whether or not your week allowed it, and by the third week the thing you’re behind on becomes the reason you stop opening it.
There’s no cohort here, and no timetable to fall behind. Before anything starts, Zavmo asks when you’re sharpest and how long you can realistically sit down for, then builds the sessions around those answers. A bad fortnight changes your pace. It doesn’t put you behind.
And you only pay once you start learning. Searching and planning are free, and you can cancel any time — so the cost of finding out is an afternoon, not a year.
Your passport
Every credit is a stamp you keep
Level 5 credits are regulated. They don’t vanish when a subscription ends or a website closes. They travel to any employer, and Zavmo keeps the map of what you’ve earned and what’s next.
Each stamp is a real unit registered against this qualification.
Who’d teach you this
The Evidence Evaluator
Assessor
Helps you show what you can actually do, gathering the evidence that proves it as you learn.
Meet all twelve tutorsWhere this connects
Where these credits take you
A qualification is never a dead end here. See the jobs its credits open, the national occupational standards its units map to, and the future skills they quietly build.
- Check and operate flight instruments and automatic flight control systems
- Check and operate navigation, surveillance and communication equipment
- Contribute to helicopter handling operations
- Contribute to helicopter refuelling operations
- Operate In-Flight Systems, Equipment and Doors
- Operate specialist equipment in an airport environment
Where this can lead
Operations Duty Officer
This role is a fantastic launchpad for a long and rewarding career in aviation operations. We're looking for someone who sees this as more than just a job, but as a chance to build a deep expertise and make a real difference in a truly dynamic industry. The sky's the limit, honestly.
See the whole journey →Showing 6 roles, drawn from 7 job records mapped to this qualification.
Skills it covers
What the job actually needs. These are the standards the units are built against, in the words employers and awarding bodies already use for the work itself.
How you’ll actually learn this
One-to-one, on your own real work
A qualification is usually something done to you: sit the class, sit the exam, hope it sticks. Here it’s the opposite. You learn it one-to-one with a companion, on your own real work, and you keep going until you can use it, not just recall it.
Applied to your work in any of these jobs
Learners will acquire the skills to conduct live Free Drop Air Dispatch (FDAD) operations safely during both day and night. The unit includes pre-flight checks, adherence to safety regulations, emergency response, accurate record-keeping, and post-operation evaluation.
- Remember
- Understand
- Apply
- Analyse
- Evaluate
- Create
Built for DAO Level 5 Diploma in Specialist Helicopter Operations
13 units in this credential, in the order it lists them, awarded by Defence Awarding Organisation.
- Conduct Free Drop Air Dispatch
- Conduct Interdiction Operations
- Conduct Specialist Insertion/Extraction
- Conduct World Wide Operations
- Conduct maritime operations
- Conduct operations in a Chemical, Biological, Radiological Nuclear environment
and 7 more in the full unit list below.
One to one, not one to many
No two people run this the same way
A course is written once and handed to everyone. This is assembled around you, and keeps changing as it learns you. Five things it reads, and what each one changes.
- Your actual work Every unit is taught against a live piece of your own work, not a worked example from a textbook.
- What you already know The first conversation finds your starting point, so you skip what you can already do and spend the time on what you cannot.
- The conditions you learn under Not a learning-styles quiz. The evidence does not support those. The dimensions the research does back, read once and used to shape the plan.
- How far you got last time It picks up mid-thought. The tutor knows what you said, what you struggled with, and what it asked you to try.
- Which tutor suits the moment Twelve of them, each for a different kind of thinking. The one who walks you through a first idea is not the one who stress-tests it.
See how you learn, free. Eight questions, no sign-up. A directional taster; the diagnostic inside Zavmo goes deeper and keeps adapting.
Why it sticks
Most courses stop at remembering
There’s a well-known ladder of how deeply you learn something, called Bloom’s Taxonomy. Most courses get you up the first two rungs: you remember some facts, you pass a test, you forget it. Real skill lives at the top. Judging, deciding, creating. And this isn’t a generic ladder: every rung has a named Zavmo tutor who walks you up it.
- 6CreateThe Creative Catalyst
- 5EvaluateThe Evidence Evaluator
- 4AnalyseThe Analyst
- 3ApplyThe Coach
- 2UnderstandThe Connector
- 1RememberThe Builder
Where most courses leave you Where Zavmo takes you
The value
Why the companion is worth £70 a month
You’re not paying for the units. They’re regulated, and the same wherever you earn them. You’re paying for the one thing that decides whether you actually get there: a companion that makes them stick, on your real work.
That is one-to-one on this qualification, every day, on the work you already do, for £70 a month. Your first module is free, so you can see the teaching before you pay for any of it. Billed monthly, cancel any time and billing stops.
Earned on your own work, taught to the top.
Everything you just read, learned one-to-one on the job you already do. Your first module is free, so you can see the teaching before you pay for any of it.
Build my plan, freeNo card. See how this qualification maps onto your role and meet the tutors who’d teach it, free. The learning begins when you subscribe. It’s £70 a month, billed monthly. Cancel any time and billing stops.