Dr. Helen Hoar

MBChB MSc FRCS AFOM DAvMed DOccMed DMM MRAeS FAsMA

After completing medical training at the University of Birmingham, I spent several years as a trainee surgeon, obtaining Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1997. I subsequently obtained my PPL and took a year out of clinical medicine to obtain my frozen Airline Transport Pilots Licence. After a brief return to medicine, I started flying commercially in 2000, operating the B737-300/400/500 and 700 variants for three airlines in four years. I then flew the B747-400 for a major UK airline between 2004 and 2020. During the pandemic, I flew B747 cargo aircraft for a Bermudan-based operator and worked as a medical trainer at RAF Henlow Centre of Aviation Medicine. I am presently a B787 Captain for a UK airline and have accumulated in excess of 15,000 flying hours to date.

I undertook both the Basic and Advanced aviation medicine courses at King’s College London in 2001, the Diploma in Aviation Medicine (DAvMed) in 2003 and became an AME in 2007. I am also approved by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). 

I initially worked as an AME in Clifton from 2007. In addition, I worked extensively at the Aeromedical Centre, Mater Private Hospital in Dublin between 2009 and 2015 and continue to undertake sessional work at the NATS Aeromedical Centre in Swanwick. After 4 years based at Bristol Airport, I am now based at Long Ashton Business Park.

In addition to my aviation medicine qualifications, I have completed additional postgraduate qualifications in Occupational Medicine and in 2012 was awarded an MSc in Occupational Medicine from the University of Manchester, researching work-related stress in commercial airline pilots. 

I am a Fellow of the Aerospace Medical Association, a member of the Aerospace Medicine Group at the Royal Aeronautical Society, a member of the Executive Council for the International Airline Medical Association (IAMA), and a member of the Specialty Advisory Committee at the Royal College of Physicians for the new specialty of Aviation and Space Medicine. I was elected Chair of the UK Association of Aviation Medical Examiners (AAME) from 2019 until 2022 and served as Chair and member of the BALPA Medical Group between 2003 and 2015.

I am a contributing author to the recently published Handbook of Aviation and Space Medicine and the upcoming Ernsting’s Aviation and Space Medicine (6th Edition).

I have a long-held interest in altitude medicine and have participated in a number of high altitude medical research expeditions to the Andes, Alps and the Himalayas and obtained the UIAA Diploma in Mountain Medicine (DMM) in 2006.