Helicopter Training Programs near Jacksonville, FL

[Dgood]

Hi,

 

I am interested in getting flying helicopters and I was wondering if anyone knew of a training school near Jacksonville, FL?

 

I am planning to go to a Silver State seminar on Thursday, but have read some pretty negative things about them. I also want to research the other training options in my area. Thanks for the help.

[Bristol]

Hi,

 

I am interested in getting flying helicopters and I was wondering if anyone knew of a training school near Jacksonville, FL?

 

I am planning to go to a Silver State seminar on Thursday, but have read some pretty negative things about them. I also want to research the other training options in my area. Thanks for the help.

 

 

Dgood,

 

Call Brian at Tomlinson Aviation in Ormond Beach. Stay away from Silver State, they are very bad news.

Tomlinson Aviation

[av8rsandy]

Dgood,

 

Call Brian at Tomlinson Aviation in Ormond Beach. Stay away from Silver State, they are very bad news.

Tomlinson Aviation

For sure call Tomlinson, Nice ships good people. They are 1hr 15min. south in Ormond Beach.

[gft]

I second the recommendation for Tomlinson Aviation at Ormond airport.

It's not a bad drive. I did it from Jax quite often, it takes about an hour.

Airport is just off I-95 & US-1.

Tomlinson has good equipment and a great staff.

I had a great time there.

 

 

gft

[Rob Lyman]

I am interested in getting flying helicopters and I was wondering if anyone knew of a training school near Jacksonville, FL?

 

I am planning to go to a Silver State seminar on Thursday, but have read some pretty negative things about them. I also want to research the other training options in my area. Thanks for the help.

 

dgood

I was thinking of getting my CFI/CFII in St. Augustine at Florida Aviation Career Training. I had considered Aquila Aviaton in Keystone Heights but after reading the reviews I am not sure I want to go there. With the blitz of radio advertising Silver State is putting out recently I have to admit I am curious about them. I may go to the "Free Aviation Career Seminar" this Thursday at Craig too, just for kicks.

[Rob Lyman]

I am planning to go to a Silver State seminar on Thursday, but have read some pretty negative things about them. I also want to research the other training options in my area.

Dgood,

 

Regarding the "seminar", what time and what building at Craig? I missed that on the radio ad.

[Dgood]

Dgood,

 

Regarding the "seminar", what time and what building at Craig? I missed that on the radio ad.

 

Rob,

 

I called this number: 1-888-91-PILOT and they gave me all the info that I needed. They have pretty specific info about parking and shuttles, so it would be best to call the number.

[Bristol]

Stay away from Silver State Helicopters. You are wasting your time. Want to know why? Just do some research.

 

Bristol

[ascott20]

I'm going to jump in too and recommend Tomlinson Aviation. I loved training there and they do teach you more than the average school. Their equipment, facilities, and people are outstanding!

[Rob Lyman]

I was thinking of getting my CFI/CFII in St. Augustine at Florida Aviation Career Training. I had considered Aquila Aviaton in Keystone Heights but after reading the reviews I am not sure I want to go there. With the blitz of radio advertising Silver State is putting out recently I have to admit I am curious about them. I may go to the "Free Aviation Career Seminar" this Thursday at Craig too, just for kicks.

I wanted to say that today I contacted Rich Tillery in Jacksonville at the recommendation of one of the other fixed-wing instructors where I teach (fixed wing). Rich is the chief flight instructor at Aquila Aviation but mostly works out of Craig in Jacksonville, FL.

 

Aquila's web site makes it sound like the president of Aquila was a former US Marine helicopter pilot and a current instructor. The reviews of the school (Aquila) are less than flattering. When I mentioned this to Rich he sounded genuinely unaware of complaints. He remarked that the reason he works primarily out of Craig and not out of Keystone was that it was more convenient for most of his students. The reviews of Aquila on this site may not be fair, balanced or accurate. I will be going to the seminar with SSH tonight and setting up a meeting with Rich from Aquila as soon as I free up some time by completing my ASEL primary student. I will be sure to post about what I find.

 

DGood, It looks like there may be an acceptable alternative to SSH right here in Jax. Hope to meet you tonight at the SSH "seminar".

 

EDIT: Wow...just got back from the "seminar". There must have been 1500 people there. I am guessing a large number of people there will never qualify for an FAA license due to their background. Even more won't manage to get the money together. One instructor estimated 75 - 100 students will come out of this seminar over the next 12 months. Out of those, how many will go on to be commercial pilots? Out of those pilots, how many will be happy about the choice they made?

 

It is not SSH's fault, but that is little condolence for someone whose dreams have been raised and then smashed. Like the Music Man and Homer Simpson's Monorail, SSH has come into Jacksonville with streamers and a parade.

[randyegilbert]

I second the recommendation for Tomlinson Aviation at Ormond airport.

It's not a bad drive. I did it from Jax quite often, it takes about an hour.

Airport is just off I-95 & US-1.

Tomlinson has good equipment and a great staff.

I had a great time there.

 

 

gft

 

I had started a reply and was close to the end of it, and because I am on a notebook, with a glide point for a mouse, I lost my whole reply, or it will show up here in a minute when I close this site.

Just to make it short, I found this forum because of a add that ran on TV about Silver State Helicopters and didnt get all the information, so I googled it and found this forum. Glad I did after I see all the bad publicity on them. At any rate, I do have a Single engine land ticket, which has got me no where. I had really hoped that once I got my ticket i could hang around airports, get to know people and ferry planes around, do what ever I could to get time, and then move up to my twin engine and ifr ticket. But I just couldnt get any time anywhere, it always seemed someone else would get it, and there was plenty of it too, guys where flying planes to CA for a buyer to see, and it always seemed someone needed to get a bird moved from one place to another. Anyway I just couldnt afford to buy every hour till I could reach instructor status and start building hours that way.

Anyway, on flying helo's am I going to find myself in the same situation? Where I have the license to fly helo's but have no way to build time so I can get a job somewhere and make a living flying helo's?

I dont know that there are PEL Grants for flght school, I did get a degree in electronics, with the use of a PEL Grant, I had to pay back something like 80% of it, which was around $20k, but that degree really hasnt done anything for me except that I do work on computers for a living. I guess I am asking do any of these schools take you far enough that worthy of getting a job? Or are you just brought far enough along that you can legally fly what ever you have a check ride on. Besides the fact that anybody that got their time in a military uniform is always going to win out.

[gft]

Most guys get their private, then commercial & CFI.

They get a gig instructing to build their hours-

Helo pilots are in demand right now.

I've heard some companies are hiring pilots for the second seat with as little as 500 hrs,

but I'm told the rule of thumb for most companies has always been 1000hrs.

[Bristol]

I would encourage you to go to the seminar at least. If not for the mere entertainment of Jerry's BS, maybe you can inform some other people attending about what you have come across in your research on SSH and Jerry Airola.

 

Be sure to look the following sites over thoroughly before the seminar. Be wise and use your own good judgement:

 

www.thesilverstatetruth.com

www.swiftchopper.com

 

Your domain www.thesilverstatetruth.com now goes to --> http://www.silverstatehelicopters.com/

 

What's that about?