Summit Helicopters in Addison Closes its doors

[cam]

Sean was the guy I flew with.

 

Sean is a real cool guy. He knows his stuff, backwards and forwards.

[ADRidge]

I flew with Sean for a bit. Fun guy.

[flyingfandancer]

I just logged into the forum for the first time in a while. I just have a few remarks with regards to Summit closing.

I flew pre September 11. My first instructor was Jan (he was from Finland & younger than my youngest son!). Elizabeth was the Owner then. Smooth as glass; a great business owner & spent time with us students as well. Then 911 happened & we couldn't fly for a time. Still, we were all in communication w/ each other. Back to flying again & I met Kandy. She was awesome. She knew/knows her stuff. I continued with her until she left to get special training & then finished with Scott. He too was great. At least as far as I could see, everyone had personal integrity & most of the time professional integrity. That, was MY Summit experience.

I met Jason one day in the hangar as I was getting there but never saw him much, but heard he had bought Summit. Then, 4 years later, he emailed me (last summer) & asked for a picture of me flying in 489 for the website (& told me that sadly, 489 had crashed); and to please come by and hang out & meet some of his people. I never saw my picture on there and only drove by on occasion to see what kind of Heli's they had (out on the tarmac).

...oh well

[Scarlett]

Well I've heard reliable second hand info that one former student was out around $3500, but it wasn't me so I can't verify jack. If that student hangs out here, they can speak for themselves on it if they want to.

 

 

I was a student and lost money that was deposited. They asked you to keep you account balance at $5,000 and had a higher hourly rate if you let your account balance go below $2,000. Lesson learned...that money is gone.

[bossman]

I don't doubt the management of the company was crappy, most small business owners are lousy business and financial managers. That they spend whatever cash comes in the door is no revelation...that is why advance payments to any small business are a bad idea. And based on some of his posts, that he is out of business as soon as a down economy comes around is also no big surprise.

 

But you said, "He literally stole students money..." That's accusing him of more than just the usual poor business judgments and shortsightedness of small business owners. My point was that we are just not seeing posts from students corroborating those statements (and a couple of students losing the realatively small amounts they paid in advance for block time does not equal a Silver State level ripoff).

fry,

I just now read this comment from you. I take offense at the statements you made about small businesses. They are what makes America great. Just to survive we have to be good business managers because we do not have the unlimited capital of the major corporations. I would venture to say that the small businesses care more about their customers than the mega corps do. So I am going to cry "bull" on your statement that small businesses are lousy business and financial managers. I would say it is just the opposite.

[Hedge36]

So does anyone know what happened to Jason and all the equipment?

[ADRidge]

I had seen 305SH flying around a few times. 398 is still sitting in a hangar, all bent up from what I hear. No clue what happened to the -22,-44 or 2014T.

[Hedge36]

Oh - I missed something somewhere... what happened with 398?

[ADRidge]

You have IM.

[455w30]

This is my first post and I just registered but I thought i would share this info...

 

I just received a notice in the mail today of a bankruptcy filing. I didn't look into it much as I didnt have time, but it appears to be a notice to any creditors that there will be a hearing in Feb as to the terms and conditions, etc...

 

I received my private and instrument ratings at Summit and unfortunately have not flown since Feb 09 as I have been limited financially. I quit paying large sums up front and having a large account balance once rumors began swirling around. I think I maybe had a balance of around $150 dollars, so I didnt lose out bigtime like some students probably did, although like me many other students could see the writing on the wall and began withdrawing money as well. When I first started Summit just had 2 300s (926RA and 61426 I believe were the tail#s) and the 22 (614SH). The company grew at an enormous pace while I was there and that was my first concern. Another 300 (2014T) and the 44 (703SH) came along quickly. More staff and the expansion of the offices was quick to follow. Wasn't long after that that instructors began divulging info to us about things that made me skeptical. I really was concerned when one of my instructors told me that they were not receiving their paychecks. This is when I began basically pay as you go flying. Other things quickly happened, no more hangar space, the termination of certain employees, it all snowballed quickly. Speaking from a student standpoint, the management of the company was terrible and pretty much everyone knew it. Other students knew it as well and we all talked sorta under the radar at how shady it was. I saw many students run off and completely fed up with Summit because of Jason. I was pretty turned off from Summit when my instrument instructor was abruptly fired for, like others have said, no reason basically. I went ahead and finished my instrument with another instructor, who was very professional and enjoyable as well.

 

As far as instructors go, the ones I flew with were nothing but professional as well as fun. I have nothing but good things to say about the instructors and learned a lot. I had lots of good times flying with them. I saw multiple instructors come and go, many fired for stupid reasons. But the ones I all flew with were great and it's unfortunate they got stuck in such a badly managed company.

 

Also, is it really true about Jason not ever working in the GOM or soing EMS stuff? I guess that infor really would not suprise me.

[Wetcheez]

Her's a couple of pics that some might find interesting.

398SH after hard landing

703SH grounded by FAA (notice oil spill and attached notification)

[Hedge36]

Those are from today (or pretty recently)?

[Wetcheez]

No, those were taken in the last few days of Summit's existence.

[455w30]

So I take it that maintenance towards the end was not good, if it was ever good at all. The 300 appears to be sitting very low.

[Hedge36]

That was a bit of an accident, actually.

[500E]

Fry I am with BM on his last post

We have way more trouble with med\large Co either going down the tubes or trying to change the payment agreement to suit themselves, hoping you are desperate for their custom, and role over .

We had one international company that wrote to say they were going to HELP OUR cash flow by changing from 90 days to 120 before payment. Still trying to work out how it helped us? we closed their account as this appeared to be the best way to help, they went down the tube about 8 months later

[ADRidge]

So I take it that maintenance towards the end was not good, if it was ever good at all. The 300 appears to be sitting very low.

 

The maintenance, like the instruction at Summit, was top notch. I cannot say a bad thing about either aspect of that company. It was more just the owner had this amazing talent for destroying a perfectly good company.

[Wetcheez]

The maintenance, like the instruction at Summit, was top notch. I cannot say a bad thing about either aspect of that company. It was more just the owner had this amazing talent for destroying a perfectly good company.

 

Everyone there gave it all they had to make that place work, except the owner.

[betr_thn_Icarus]

Well, I feel for you guys. I have been there myself. I'm still recovering from a schools wrongdoing. I've moved on and now have saved a good portion of what I need. I started flying in 2005 and will never quit until I reach my goal. Only a private pilot with 110 hours as of now...still working on it.

[ABarnes]

There is a website around somewhere with some more pictures of the 300's from Summit. I did a search awhile back to see if I could see who owned 398SH as that's the ship I did my discovery flight in a couple years ago. Came up with a site that had a bunch of photos. Looked like it was some sort of documentation of damage to the helicopters along with missing pieces and parts.

 

Here's what I found

 

http://s847.photobucket.com/albums/ab34/Fi...%20Helicopters/

[500E]

Still got that expensive exhaust I see, with the VW heater