Northern Utah Helicopter Schools

[fearlessnitefighter]

I am looking to attend a flight school in Northern Utah and was wondering if anyone had heard anything about the following companies:

High Desert Helicopters

Suncrest Aviation

Universal Helicopters

Upper Limit Aviation

Silver State Helicopters (This company has been covered in great detail in other threads)

Any feedback good or bad would be much appreciated. I just joined this forum so I look forward to gaining some knowledge. Fly Safe.

[n1252c]

Don't forget about Northern Skies Aviation in Southern Montana. www.northernskies.com

[danter]

I am looking to attend a flight school in Northern Utah and was wondering if anyone had heard anything about the following companies:

High Desert Helicopters

Suncrest Aviation

Universal Helicopters

Upper Limit Aviation

Silver State Helicopters (This company has been covered in great detail in other threads)

Any feedback good or bad would be much appreciated. I just joined this forum so I look forward to gaining some knowledge. Fly Safe.

 

I know alot about universal. All they want is your money. They do not care about your career or your future. They also have the degree program that is not included in the loan. A couple years ago when I began training it costs $62,000. I'm not sure what it is now. Every student I know of spent over $80,000 and some have spent upto $150,000. This does not include the degree, another $17,000. Students were not allowed to control their loan money. It went into universals hands. Students were charged flight and ground they never received. I hear that the students are now in charge of loan money but there are still discrepancies. I personally would not trust them. The pres. of uni. owned arizona wing and rotor in the 1980s and took money from students then too, when the students went after their money he claimed bankruptcy. He has perfected his scheme and no one has been able to get their money back yet. Let me know if you would like to know more about them.

Suncrest and high desert, the owners are former instructors at uni. I don't know about their school but they are very nice people.

[inverted911]

First off if you want to fly go visit all these schools. Talk to the instructors and most important talk to the students at that school. I went to universal and got my cfii for under 70k in fewer than 200 hours. I had to fly some x-c to get my 200 to work. There has been some serious house cleaning there and things are good. I agree there are some discrepancies with billing at universal and some students have spent a lot of money but every student has a folder that every flight is written in. both instructor and student must sign name after every flight. If you ask you will get a record of your flights, ground and what instructor charged it. If you think it is wrong it will be checked against your folder. If you have not signed for it, it will be removed from your bill. If you signed it as billed then it is your problem. some student just don’t have what it takes and continue to fly and take out loan money well aware that it will take them longer to get through. Other students take 2k in living expense every month and then wonder why it cost so much. I kept track of all my hours and what I was charged for them and in the end have nothing but praise for universal. I was treated very fair and got good instruction. I also know the guys at suncrest. They are all good guys and good pilots. Some of them finished with universal, some started with uni then finished at suncrest. I have met the owner of High Desert Helicopters and he seemed like a good guy who cares about his students. I have heard they have a high instructor turnover but don't know why and will not guess. As for the others I have heard mixed reviews but don't know enough to comment. Visit the schools and talk to the students there, listen to what they say and go with what works best for you. People like danter slander schools but you never seem to see posts from them about how they changed schools and like a miracle finished in minimum required time.

[Mitchell99]

First off I agree with inverted 911, you need to talk with all the schools and determine which one fits you needs the best. I would put any school down on the list that requests more than a per flight cost or at most a thousand dollars to get a better “per flight hour rate” or even to enroll. Your job is to be the student not the schools bank. If they need a loan they should not be going to their students. (if they can’t get a loan, maybe that should be a BIG RED sign to you) And the line that they need to know “you’re serious” is a bunch of malarkey! You’re there aren’t you, you’ve taken out a serious loan your self, you have committed your time and energy to fly and study, how much more serious can you be. Plus if they decide to close up shop or just plain refuse to let you fly, how are you going to get your money back??

With any school though do some research and ask a TON of questions! Questions are going to be the only way to protect your self.

Then there is the whole Schweizers vs Robinsons, which can either help or hurt you. Just to give a little information, a Schweizer is considered easier, and more stable to fly = less time training. 80% of schools use Robinsons and need SFAR 73 endorsed pilots = more job opportunities. There are a ton more differences, but again you need to make the best decision for you and your goals. Just remember, flight time in a Robinson or a Schweizer is going to be logged as Helicopter flight time no matter what, and that is really what your after in the long run.

Anyway about the schools;

High Desert Helicopters; Met and talked with the owner there quite a while back while I was looking for a school. Seems to be an OK school, but wanted $10,000 at a time to get a better flight rate. Not sure why their operation out of SLC #2 closed down, but I would talk to the operator at SLC#2 for the straight answer on that one.

Suncrest Aviation; Heard good things about them and have actually flown their R44.

Universal; Well I can’t say more than what has already been said.

Upper Limit Aviation: Well I have to say I’m a little bias because this is where I ultimately decided to do my training. Great school, great instructors, great experience for the long road flying in and out of Class B every day.

Silver State Helicopters; Well you said it yourself, the topic has been well covered!

 

Anyway that is my 2 cents, well maybe 50 cents

[danter]

First off if you want to fly go visit all these schools. Talk to the instructors and most important talk to the students at that school. I went to universal and got my cfii for under 70k in fewer than 200 hours. I had to fly some x-c to get my 200 to work. There has been some serious house cleaning there and things are good. I agree there are some discrepancies with billing at universal and some students have spent a lot of money but every student has a folder that every flight is written in. both instructor and student must sign name after every flight. If you ask you will get a record of your flights, ground and what instructor charged it. If you think it is wrong it will be checked against your folder. If you have not signed for it, it will be removed from your bill. If you signed it as billed then it is your problem. some student just don’t have what it takes and continue to fly and take out loan money well aware that it will take them longer to get through. Other students take 2k in living expense every month and then wonder why it cost so much. I kept track of all my hours and what I was charged for them and in the end have nothing but praise for universal. I was treated very fair and got good instruction. I also know the guys at suncrest. They are all good guys and good pilots. Some of them finished with universal, some started with uni then finished at suncrest. I have met the owner of High Desert Helicopters and he seemed like a good guy who cares about his students. I have heard they have a high instructor turnover but don't know why and will not guess. As for the others I have heard mixed reviews but don't know enough to comment. Visit the schools and talk to the students there, listen to what they say and go with what works best for you. People like danter slander schools but you never seem to see posts from them about how they changed schools and like a miracle finished in minimum required time.

 

 

Hi, I am glad that you made it through universals program. I was wondering what kind of serious house cleaning you are talking about. I trained in 03 and things were a mess there. I believe that things are better there now because of the previous students complaints. The reason we are still complaining is because we are still owed money, alot of money. I wonder how many students they have lost because of our complaining? I'm sad to say that I am going to continue to complain until I get my fair amount back. They have had plenty of time to settle this. I have plenty of time to complain. Thank you for your input.