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Posted

Hello all,

 

I am Joe, I am 24 years old and aspiring to fly ... well been flying just not with an aircraft.

 

I am very new here (day two). I am moving to Los Angeles at the end of October and was looking into flight schools in the area. I will be starting from brand spanking new, never touch a heli stick. Learning to fly and become a pilot has always been a GOAL of mine (hate using the word Dream, dreams are for dreamers).

 

Anyways by this time I would of been a pilot, most likely FW but the same week I did my discovery flight was the same week I did my first skydive. (rest is history) After moving to Vegas 3 years ago I realized not to many places to jump like my home DZ and being at UNLV full-time I couldn't go down to Eloy, Perris or Elsinore whenever I pleased.

 

Anyways the bug of flying is getting to me, but now I want to conquer the other aspect of flying, being a Pilot. For now I just want to fly helicopters and have been putting months of thought into this. This is going to be something for me to do for my personal pleasure and enjoyment (not going into to this thinking career ... at least not yet :-) Does anyone know any good schools in the LA area? I know there's a few I found but I would love your guy's/gals feedback.

 

I found a school that does training and tours out of Hawthorne airport called "Star-Helicopters" Anyone know anything about these guys? Their rates compared to other schools seem to be the best I have found (even better than school that offer you "block rates") Which this company says they don't even accept block rates, which I love.

 

The lady I spoke to on the phone was very very friendly, talked to me for half an hour on the phone while I asked her if I can land on buildings and throw water balloons out the door at people (the usually newbie questions)

 

Anyways I guess I am here for three reasons:

 

1st: To introduce myself to everybody and say thank you for having me.

2nd: Any SoCal/LA school you would and/or wouldn't recommend?

3rd: Anybody have any information on "Star-Helicopters" that could be useful in my decision making process?

 

Thanks ahead of time !

 

Joe

  • Like 3
Posted (edited)

Hello, hello fellow skydiver :)... I'm not a pilot yet, how ever have been considering helicopters as a career for the last 3 years....been saving money for the last couple of years and working hard, still doing it. Me and my friend has recently traveled through California stopping by and jumping at Skydive San Diego, Perris, Santa Barbara and Bay Area. But the most beautiful thing was helicopter school Helistream about 30 miles south of LA....We've taken introductory flights there, It's been my second flight and I did more or less well was even able to hover stable for 30-50 seconds after 4-5 attempts....

The school is very good, I flew with Mike Duckworth, based on his words he has around 2000 hours and very friendly guy, shows and explains everything very very clear and I got all his instructions in seconds... The company owns couple of 212s, one R66, couple of R44 and couple of R22. Will get you from Private to CFII if you'd like and will work with you any kind of schedule....They do tour, lifting some other operations as well as they train customs patrol....Their rates for R22 are moderate around 260 per hour with instructor and 220 for solo (I may be slightly wrong)....The great thing if you don't consider it as a career is there are no CFIs with less then 1000 hours based on their words, that means you'll get very good education and info from those guys....The con is, if you're looking to get to CFII and hoping to get sit in one of their left seats in R22, the chance is slight, because the fact is - they don't have CFIs lower then 1000 hours.... It's Helistream, check their web site, go and talk. Their based in Costa Mesa CA....

I personally like them, but I'm looking for something with a bit more chances to get hired after training, although I know it's tough nowadays, but I'm looking to study hard and full time, be very friendly, helpful and build nice people relationship among stuff in school to have at least a bit better chance to get a left seat in R22.

Edited by X-filer
  • Like 4
Posted

Thanks for the response ! Nice to get a first reply from a fellow skydiver !

 

I appreciate your information you provided me with for the school! The school does look amazing and seems like it has a lot to offer. Not so worried about not getting hired after I finish due to the fact I'm just doing this for my personal enjoyment. However I do believe 30 miles outside of LA is way to far for me as I will be living in West Hollywood/Miracle Mile area and my 95% of my time is taking care of my buddy who is disabled so I have to be with him 24 hours a day 7 days a week. Maybe a couple hours away here and there so just getting him to be willing to sit at an airport for a couple hours a week is already going to be tough enough. Thanks for the advice though, if anything changes as far as my location or availability I will keep Helistream in the back of my head as It does appear to be a great school.

 

Joe

  • Like 1
Posted

Check out Group 3 Aviation, and Elite Helicopters at Van Nuys. Both are good outfits, G3 is a 141 school, and I believe Elite is working on getting a 141 cert..

 

Good luck!

Rob

R91

  • Like 1
Posted

Thanks Rob !

 

Really appreciate the feedback, I did come across Group 3.. Looked very nice. Should be out in LA end of this month which obviously I plan on stopping into each of these schools to get the feel for which one I think will work best for me.

 

 

From the little research I have actually done between 61 vs 141 schools I can't really decide what is best for me just yet. Love the idea of "less structure" with the 61 (if my sources I've read are correct) Although if later on I do decide to go for instrument ect it's going to cost me more to obtain the necessary requirements to even start this process. (again, I may be way left field here and you guys might be reading this asking yourselves "what in the hell is this kid talking about?!") But from my research that is what I have read some of the differences are. (If this is the main differences, I might lean 61 just because I actually am very bad (learning wise) when it comes to "you have to do everything in this order, in this way in this amount of time !"

 

My apologies if I just made absolutely no sense.

 

Thanks for the help Rob, Happy flying!

 

Joe

  • Like 1
Posted

Joe,

 

When you get into town, just PM Rob or I and we will go grab a beer. There are a few good schools in LA and a few maybe not as good. Rob listed two of the good ones, any more would be a commercial, so just PM us.

 

Good luck,

  • Like 2
Posted

Thanks very much Goldy. I will PM you both as soon as I get settled down in the area.

 

Really appreciate it !

 

Joe

  • Like 1
Posted

I really don't think there is a huge difference between 141 and 61 schools if the VA is not involved.

 

Just because a school is 141 approved doesn't mean that all training will be done via 141. I went to a 141 school and only did 141 when it was most beneficial.

 

The required hours to complete is often talked about with 141 being less, but that only (if my memory is correct) saves 5 hours on the private certificate. Instrument, commercial, CFI, and CFII are the same. Even on that note, there are 141 schools that average double the minimums for private, so nothing is saved there.

 

It is very nice to know exactly what you are going to be doing the next day or week in the 141, but then again, a part 61 instructor (provided they give a poop) will tell you what to read and study in advance.

 

To summarize, there are good 141 and bad, as well as good or bad 61. I think you are on the right track on visiting the schools, talking to people, and deciding from there.

Posted

Make sure to go take a look at Los Angeles Helicopters at Long Beach Airport. Great school with nice equipment. Guillaume Malliet (spelling?) is their chief pilot and also an instructor at the Robinson safety course. Troy is also a great instructor and makes learning fun, even the boring instrument stuff.

 

The only other advice I have is don't go into a lot of debt to do this because it will be a burden later. Other than that don't let the naysayers stop you from doing what you want to do. Good luck with whatever you decide!

Posted

Make sure to go take a look at Los Angeles Helicopters at Long Beach Airport...

 

Have you any experience with their Advanced Emergency Proceedures Course?

 

I am considering taking it next year.

:huh:

 

 

P.S. When my part 61 CFI climbed into the helicopter and looked over at me, one day during my Commercial training, and said, "Ok, what do you want to do today?", I decided I liked the structure of part 141 better.

:)

  • Like 1
Posted

141 is good for PVT, CFI and maybe IFR. Commercial do 61, its gives you an opportunity to take what you know and build on it, as well as learning new scenarios without being limited to a syllabus. The trick is knowing where to improve and expand and having a CFI knowledgeable to know the same.

Posted

Just to recap for you...

 

All 3 schools mentioned are reputable(G3, Star, Elite). I suggest you take a tour of all 3, take a demo flight in 1-2 of them and then make your choice from there.

 

Monica is great and still flies at Star (and the best looking helo pilot around), you can talk to Claudia at Group3, or Alex at Elite.

 

Once you get settled, joint the PHPA (www.phpa.org) and get involved in the local world of LA based helicopters!

 

Fly safe,

 

Goldy

  • Like 1
  • 2 weeks later...
Posted

Have you any experience with their Advanced Emergency Proceedures Course?

 

I am considering taking it next year.

huh.gif

 

 

P.S. When my part 61 CFI climbed into the helicopter and looked over at me, one day during my Commercial training, and said, "Ok, what do you want to do today?", I decided I liked the structure of part 141 better.

smile.gif

.

Butters- As much as I like LAH, if you want some really great emergency procedures in the R44 I would have another local recommendation for you.

Posted

.

Butters- As much as I like LAH, if you want some really great emergency procedures in the R44 I would have another local recommendation for you.

 

Thanks, I'll keep that in mind.

:)

Posted

I do FTDA's every 6 months at Western. They have a 300C and a 500D. Instructors are all multi-thousand hour retired military pilots and career utility and fire pilots. There arent any 20 yr old CFIs there building time. (Not that there is anything wrong with that)

  • Like 1
Posted (edited)

remember though age can be deceiving, there was a 45 year old going through our program being taught by a 22 year old pilot with over 1000hrs

Edited by turbotay
  • 4 weeks later...
Posted

Hey all, sorry I haven't been up to date here. Just wanted to say I moved out to LA finally and decided to go with Star Helicopters out of Hawthorne Airport. Love the vibe there.

 

Did my first Intro-Flight, nothing special but gotta start somewhere.

 

I absolutely loved it and can't wait to continue the process!

 

Flying was a lot harder than I thought it would be and well if you put $10 million in front of me and said all I had to do was keep the heli in a hover over a entire taxi way, it would of been easier to lite the money on fire lol.

 

 

Anyways I plan to continue posting updates on here about my process!

 

Thanks again everyone for your support !

 

Joe

  • 1 month later...
Posted

another one is Universal Air Academy in La Verne and El Monte. mainly a fixed wing school but they have a a R44 and 2 R22's along with a R22 IFR trainer...helps you pocket book out a bit.

Posted

Hey all, sorry I haven't been up to date here. Just wanted to say I moved out to LA finally and decided to go with Star Helicopters out of Hawthorne Airport. Love the vibe there.

 

Did my first Intro-Flight, nothing special but gotta start somewhere.

 

I absolutely loved it and can't wait to continue the process!

 

Flying was a lot harder than I thought it would be and well if you put $10 million in front of me and said all I had to do was keep the heli in a hover over a entire taxi way, it would of been easier to lite the money on fire lol.

 

 

Anyways I plan to continue posting updates on here about my process!

 

Thanks again everyone for your support !

 

Joe

 

Hey Joe, glad to hear you are flying! Say hi sometime as we are passing at 150 AGL thru the Class B shoreline route!

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