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Hey, I have recently been looking into starting helicopter flying lessons and I have been looking into Glacier Aviation Flight school in Olympia, WA. I have visited a couple times and it seems great and Mike the owner is very helpful and seems like a good guy. Of course, they would sell themselves to a prospective student who is about to give them 80k, so I was wondering there was anyone who has gone through it or knows anything about them to see if there are any downsides to the school. All the reviews I have read on here seem good as far as I can tell, but it is a big decision and I woudl appreciate any input or knowledge anyone has on this particular school. Thanks so much.

My name is James I've been thinking about the prospect of starting a helicopter tour business. I am in the infant stages however I have been doing some research and I am starting to get an idea what all is involved. I am personally not a pilot. Most of the forum threads I have been reading are tiered towards the pilots discussing the wages they get from the tour companies and which from the sounds of it, they are not always that great. What I want to do is discuss this business side of things with someone who has either owned a helicopter tour business or has worked within one to know the inner workings of the business. As I said, I am in the beginning stages so I just want helpful information at this point. My initial idea would is to partner with an experienced pilot and to take care of 100% of the financing and back end work. I would possibly get my license at some point but I am more interested in the business then flying. I would want to do it professionally and right with regard to properly maintaining the aircraft so the pilot/partner would need to have the experience necessary to facilitate proper maintenance and repairs one way or another. I've done helicopter tours in Vegas before and I absolutely loved it. The price per head back then was $180 and up to 5 passengers were in the air at one time for 15 minutes each. Time is lost between flights so even if you consider only flying 1-2 tours per hour, an average of 5 hours or more per day, it should gross $4,500 per day. I realize there are seasons and weather to consider so I would calculate for downtime. The specific market that I have in mind would be non stop and I'm great at marketing so I have no doubts about filling tours. To my knowledge, it does not exist In the market to the capacity I would be interested in doing it. I have read that some cities limit the amount of flights per day. I'm not sure but there may be cities that do it allow tours at all and/or have tighter restrictions. I want to know exactly where to start to find this information out. My email is jfineman1@yahoo.com if you would like to DM me or we can communicate publicly in this thread.