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Wow - the mention of SSH certainly stirs the pot.  It seems pretty clear that a great deal of the negativity out there stems from people with no personal experience with SSH.  As far as an owner/operator excluding pilots from SSH as potential employees, then I think that speaks volumes about their intelligence, character and desire to run a professional operation.  Then again, considering the source of the majority of opinions posted (JHF), perhaps enough said...

If someone wants to run a professional operation, they are going to be very curious of any pilots training.  Would you just hire any rated pilot, or would you want to know the quality and level of instruction they received?  I wouldn't call any operator unintelligent for wanting to protect their investment.

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CJ - I think you are a bit off track here.  Or perhaps I wasn't clear in my earlier post.  Without doubt, any owner/operator should be very selective and and cautious while screening potential employees.  I sure would be.  But I would certainly not exclude candidates because they were trained at SSH unless there was solid evidence to suggest the training there was subpar.  I have heard/seen nothing to support that, with the exception of accusations that are clearly based on some type of personal conflict with the owner(s) of the company.  I think the DPE's who interact with this school would be a credible(unbiased) source of info. as far as training standards and performance.  Where I the one hiring, I would judge every pilot based on MY evaluation of his/her knowledge and ability - not where they were trained.  Let me also say I do regret my statement about unintelligent operators.  I think this industry could certainly use a lot more professionalism and a lot less mud slinging.  With that, I end my rambling - be safe all...
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While I have no direct association with SSH, I spoke with a couple of their students at an airshow recently. Both had a similar feeling of the operation and it was not flattering. They felt that once they were financially obligated, that they were then relegated to the back burner. That SSH focus was on revenue generation instead of quality flight instruction and that expansion was the goal of SSH.

 

SSH recently ran a large radio advertising campaign in central California to promote an open house at their Los Banos location. While I did not attend the event, I was driving by the Los Banos Airport at the time the event was starting and I was quite impressed with the number of people that were in attendance. Of course, the radio ads were talking of six-figure incomes, in-house financing, and how training time to be a helicopter pilot is shorting than going to college and comparable in price. Now I don't know about most people in the industry, but I think six-figure incomes are few and far between. I found the ad to be misleading and not accurate of the helicopter industry. My question is if a school is willing to be misleading to get a student in the door, what else are they willing to be misleading about once the training has started?

 

Now the disclaimer...I realize that I spoke with only two students, and I am sure that SSH has many satisfied students. However, what these two told me only further backed up the rumblings within the industry that I have been hearing for some time.

 

My advice to SSH is to listen to the feedback that is being presented to you by threads such as this and if what you read here is not what you are attempting to create, then change your actions. As stated earlier in the tread, perception equals reality. SSH may have the utmost interest of their students in mind, but if the feedback is otherwise, then it is time for SSH to have a shift in the way they operate.

 

Anyway, that’s my two-cents worth on the subject.

 

Doug

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Hey to all,

 

I'm a current student of SSH in it's newer San Diego location. They came in and gave good seminar and sold me. The was a #### of alot of people that picked up applications and they only pulled about 90 from what had to be 400 at the seminar (and everyone was grabbing applications).

I'm in the Marine Corps and they flexed to my schedule.

At the time the were GOING to by Civic but either party Chin or Jerry couldn't agree and both walked away on good terms.

So far training in the ground school is tuff 2 nights a week+sim time on top of a war time military active duty job. Obviously being a student I can't make an expert analysis on the trainings completness and quality, but from a students point of view it's very good. I've been learning alot in 4mo. I had to put training on hold to be deployed to Iraq (you want to talk about $#@$y experiences...) they froze the loan so no interest will be acrude and they'll add lost time to the allowed max training time.

As far as business practices alittle inside info from a student: When the Civic deal fell through (and we were getting regular updates every class how it was going by the general manager Rick Reyes) Jerry the SSH owner flew in to talk to the students because thier base had to be moved from the Civic hanger to El Cojon about 1hr1mins away which inconvenienced to say the least some students including myself. He told them that it was understandable and that if they wanted to walk they could take thier training, materials, and a full refund. Some students didn't think that was fair enough he said to email him directly with whatever they thought was fair.

I have to say I've had a great time with them but you all are making me very nervous. Anyone have any specifics on these "questionable business practices"?

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Vertical Reference PPRUNE and Just Helicopters are the 3 most recognized forums in the industry. What I don't understand is that SSH as not once made a post to any of these forums backing them self up while everyone is bashing them.

And don't try to tell me that SSH just hasn't seen these posts.

My question to SSH is: Why do you continue to Lurk the forums and not defend yourself? By you guys not posting, says a lot more than if you did!

 

???

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Why do you continue to Lurk the forums and not defend yourself?

Why should they, really? It's just unsubstantiated hearsay: "I am repeating what I have heard"  

No facts.

 

They're apparently a thriving business and may not feel the need to dignify the allegations.

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faxmeabeer,

 

If you have that "check six" feeling, then perhaps your instincts might be on target.  Once upon a time, I was a soldier... even got a little trigger time in sand land, as well.  The corporate world has it's own version of snakes and there are many deceivers who pray on the honorable... try to use your IR to see through the smoke.  If something is behind the smoke screen, get out of the kill zone... if not, drive on.

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.....  I think the DPE's who interact with this school would be a credible(unbiased) source of info. as far as training standards and performance......

 

CJ,

Here in Vegas they were using outside DPE's and then our CP just got DPE status.

Excuse me. *raises hand* WTF is a DPE? And a CP for that matter?

 

::thanks::

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So I appreciate what your saying RD, but does anyone have any "for examples" of thier "questionable business practices" and bullying that seems to be the main complaint? I'm not siding with them  or calling anyone a liar. Just trying to see if there are any lines in my experience so far that I can connect to anything anyone here has to say.

 

As for anyone not hiring me in the future because I was associated with them that would really be too bad for you. You don't want to work with someone based on just training and experienced. It's about the quality of the person that matters. You can adjust the knowledge, you can't change the person, and the person is what always shines through in the end.

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I am a business owner in the industry and I am repeating what I have heard from other business owners and experienced pilots.  There is a thread on JustHelicopters.com about this subject.

Mr Eliassen,

       I seem to remember your resume in a SSH office and seeing you for an interview. At that time you were not a business owner in the industry nor had you been a pilot for more than ten years as you have claimed on this forum.

       I believe that your bitterness towards SSH stems from the fact that you failed to perform to company standards during the interview which, in turn, influenced managements decision to not hire you.

       I would like to offer some free advice for you; This industry is very small and real business owners within this industry do talk to each other. You may want to post anonomously when you find it nessecary to speak negatively about another company. Also, your odor during the interview was offensive, you may want to shower before the next one.

Respectfully,

               AO3

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Sounds like alot of people are hearing things third person (so they must be true) but lack the confidence or courage to speak up. Talk about cloak and dager. More like throwing stones and running away. For example I heard that "someone" had an interview with "a company" and did "something" offensive like didn't "something"..... I'm not saying it's true just that I heard it from "someone" who said it was. You know the old saying......'where theres smoke....
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The Better Business Bureau...

 

"The Bureau has processed two or more customer complaints on this company within the last three years or since its inception of business, whichever is less."

 

Blatently Misleading Statements from Silver State...

 

Silver State Director of Student Enrollment Wally Beatty says, "If every one of them graduated today, I could put them all to work, there's that much of a need."

 

Silver State has THOUSANDS of students across the U.S., and that statement is misleading and dishonest to the customer (you).  Look, just do some research of your own and make up your own mind.  They are great at marketing and sometimes attract a lot of folks at their seminars, but I doubt many of them are prepared for the future (mainly because they have been mislead by sleezy car-salesman techniques).

 

I don't own an aviation company, but I've talked with former Silver State students who got really shafted.  That said, I can tell the difference between a disgruntled student who couldn't be trained and someone who was cheated.  Perhaps things have drastically changed... perhaps not... just watch out for yourself.  Don't let a gung-ho attitude give you a false sense of security or loyalty to an organization that has a history of problems.  I hope it works out, but you need to have more of an open mind.

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Well, see that is some reall information. I'm not trying to hurt anyones feelings. Just show how childish some of this sounds. If you have something to say that you know to be true say it and let the other guy squirm if you know your right. But if you don't know your right don't knock someone. I'm sure that AO3 would love to step in now that he has something real to defend or explain if his position allows. You say research, this is reseach, I'm just trying to promote dialog. But only fact need be involved.
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What puzzles me about them is that they recruit a bunch of students (100+) and tell them they will be hired by SSH upon graduation. Then hire enough CFI's off the street to train them. That means they will have to recruit about 12 more students for each student CFI that they hire. Let's just say that 50 of those studends reach CFI. Each CFI there is assigned about 12 students each. That means they would have to recruit about 600 new students plus enough for the existing staff, altogether about 700 new students. The math dont add up. Smells of pyramid. Does anyone else see this? I realize this is a simplistic view, but even with a ballpark est. the numbers dont add up. And I do have FIRST hand experience with this company.
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Can anyone quote on the accuracy of this statement?

 

" There are more flying helicopters today than there are pilots who can fly them, and the factories are still making more"

 

(Silver State web site - BTW, I hope they didn't pay for the Flash version!) ::confused::

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The Rickster man makes some good points ... he usually does. But he's posting with some apparently genuine evidentiary matter, not just inuendo. That's a big difference. Whether that evidence will be refuted, we'll have to wait and see.

 

On the other hand, when I was at the Robertson course, I met about 10 SS folks from several different areas. Some were CFIs, some students. They had nothing negative to say, and seemed to be pretty content with the way things were going. I'd loved to have asked them about this, but that was my first introduction to Silver State.

 

I dunno ... smoke and fire, or smoke and mirrors?

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