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Universal Helicopters in Scottsdale


cgwinn1985

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I always see people talking about the Prescott location, but I haven't been able to find any info on the Scottsdale one though. I am thinking of using my GI Bill for their 2+2 program, I am married with 2 small kids, so I would mostly like to know the daily hours and amount of class work and stuff.

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Well I know some about DC3, most all of your classes with the exception of the FAA ground schools will be online courses. You also can only work on one rating per semester, and if you fail to finish that rating in that semester you can take another semester, but cannot start the next rating that same semester. So because of that it can basically be a full time job almost at some points. At the Prescott location they have all ground and flight lessons normally scheduled as a 2 hour block, so Scottsdale may do the same thing. I'm an ERAU student and am typically at UHI 5 days a weeks for at least 2 hours, with some days being there for up to 6 hrs.

 

They have lots of well maintained aircraft and lots of good instructors. They also have not had any accident or incident in the past 10 years.

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Those are questions that can be answered simply by calling them directly. I know they used to fly twice a day and get from 0-cfii in 6 months, so you'd be pretty busy. This was before the GI programs though, so who knows now?

 

I saw Gordon at Heliexpo. Looks like things are going pretty well for them.

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I stopped at the SDL location once, spent a few minutes chatting with one of their people. I made a few enquiries, asked a few questions. I asked from the perspective of a fresh student. One of my questions involved add-on ratings. The person to whom I spoke told me that to get a commercial add on, the FAA required that one first undergo the private checkride, get private certification, then begin working on the commercial. This was untrue, and showed either a gross misunderstanding of the requirement, or was an outright lie. The added expense of doing so is unnecessary, and the notion that the company representative who said it to me thought he was doing to to someone who had no knowledge of the regulation, or experience, told me all I needed to know about them.

 

You might be better served across town at Quantum.

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Well I live in North Phx, so driving to Chandler every day isn't something I want to do. UHI is relatively close, and has a degree program for vets that is covered under my GI Bill, which is why I am leaning towards going there.

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I stopped at the SDL location once, spent a few minutes chatting with one of their people. I made a few enquiries, asked a few questions. I asked from the perspective of a fresh student. One of my questions involved add-on ratings. The person to whom I spoke told me that to get a commercial add on, the FAA required that one first undergo the private checkride, get private certification, then begin working on the commercial. This was untrue, and showed either a gross misunderstanding of the requirement, or was an outright lie. The added expense of doing so is unnecessary, and the notion that the company representative who said it to me thought he was doing to to someone who had no knowledge of the regulation, or experience, told me all I needed to know about them.

 

You might be better served across town at Quantum.

And that is why you talk to the right people :P

 

The staff and teaching curriculum in PRC is pretty good, and the company seems to have an idea whats going on.

 

BTW I am not saying UHI is perfect, no company is perfect, however from my experience if you are using VA benefits then there is no reason not to go here.

 

Sometimes you might think some of the rules, policies, or standards might be stupid, especially if they push back your solo cross country (like mine was). However they haven't had any accidents or incidents in 10 years and when you do your solo flights along with check ride, you wont be wondering whether or not you are ready, you will know you are ready.

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Everything has stupid rules and policies. Can't be any worse than the Army. A solo Cross Country? Do you actually fly by yourself across the country?

 

Cant remember the requirements, but I flew from Prescott, to Sedona, to Cottonwood and back to Prescott and it ended up being just over a 2 hour flight.

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Cant remember the requirements, but I flew from Prescott, to Sedona, to Cottonwood and back to Prescott and it ended up being just over a 2 hour flight.

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Cross country simply means a flight from one point to another. Different levels of pilot certification have different definitions of "cross country." The basic one is a takeoff at one location and a landing at a point other than the point of takeoff. For some levels of pilot certification, the experience requirements contain a minimum distance, but it's not that far; up to 50 nautical miles.

 

You'll have to forgive pokey. She's an idiot.

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Personally all I care about is 186 more hours of cross country time by the 25nm definition, after that who cares. For what its worth my first solo xc flight was from Scottsdale to Wickenburg. Easy flight, just follow the road...a road well traveled on many a weekend trip to Vegas.

IFR ?

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Care to elaborate Pokey?

 

to quote the god all mighty avbug-that has worldly flying and maintenance experience that is far superior to any of us mortal human beings :

 

"I stopped at the SDL location once, spent a few minutes chatting with one of their people."

 

"ONE" of their ppls? was it the secretary? receptionist? even if it was a knowledgeable person,,, could it have been maybe said "that MOST ppls got the route of private pilot 1st" but then again? the avbug knows all, and was "posing" as a new student? hardly a professional in my book

 

that is my elaboration, and i always travel with a can of bugspray, in case i run into ppls like him

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Well I live in North Phx, so driving to Chandler every day isn't something I want to do. UHI is relatively close, and has a degree program for vets that is covered under my GI Bill, which is why I am leaning towards going there.

 

Quantum also has the GI program through Chandler-Gilbert and a lot of students commute from Phoenix, Goodyear, and even Maricopa.

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