Flight Training in CA

[Kyle]

Anyone have any thoughts on the following flight schools:

 

1. CA Aviation Services

2. Silver State Helicopter

3. Los Angeles Helicopters

 

Option 1 costs $59,900 to go from private to CFII (100 R22, 100 R44) and hires students.

Option 2 is $69,900 for about the same, no guaranteed hires.

Option 3 is $69,000 (150 hours, approx 15 R44), hires.

 

Obviously leaning towards option 1. Problem with option 1 is its 50 miles away, through traffic in Riverside, CA. The others, 2 and 3, are 10 miles away in Long Beach, CA. I live in Huntington Beach, CA. If anybody knows of any other flight schools in my area, or as I mentioned, has any opinions on the three mentioned, all info is greatly appreciated. Thank you for your responses.

 

Kyle

[waterway4]

Check out HeliStream in Orange County. PM me and I can provide some insight.

[Sparker]

Anyone have any thoughts on the following flight schools:

 

1. CA Aviation Services

2. Silver State Helicopter

3. Los Angeles Helicopters

 

#1 CAS

#2 Seriously? Search the forum.

#3 LA

 

Kyle, good luck in what you choose, check out other flight school reviews here:

Flight School Reviews

Edited November 7, 2007 by Sparker

[K-38]

I second waterway4's suggestion. Helistream is a great operation. They fly out of John Wayne Airport. You can find them on the web.

[DAWg134]

Two other smaller schools worth checking out at Long Beach:

 

Rotor Aviation - flies R22's and R44; experienced instructors and considerably less expensive than LA Helicopters.

 

California Flight Center - 300CBi's only; also offers fixed-wing instruction and can provide IFR instruction in either or both to help mitigate expenses. Slightly more expensive than Rotor, but still cheaper than the other schools you've been evaluating.

 

From what I've seen, both of these schools get their students certified in less time and in most cases, slightly fewer hours than average without compromising quality. Smaller schools tend to be more flexible in terms of scheduling and financing.

 

Good luck in this, the first and perhaps most important, decision of your piloting career. Be sure and ask any school you're considering what's their "first-time pass rate" as this will give you a good indication of how well the schools prepare their students.

[EC120AV8R]

If you live in Huntington Beach, I would definitely check into Helistream. They have an awesome reputation. It's at John Wayne and cost wise, it will probably come out to be about the same as anywhere else you go.

[MarkRobinsonR22]

Check out Helistream for sure www.helistream.com, contact me for furthe rinfo if you need.

Mark

 

Anyone have any thoughts on the following flight schools:

 

1. CA Aviation Services

2. Silver State Helicopter

3. Los Angeles Helicopters

 

Option 1 costs $59,900 to go from private to CFII (100 R22, 100 R44) and hires students.

Option 2 is $69,900 for about the same, no guaranteed hires.

Option 3 is $69,000 (150 hours, approx 15 R44), hires.

 

Obviously leaning towards option 1. Problem with option 1 is its 50 miles away, through traffic in Riverside, CA. The others, 2 and 3, are 10 miles away in Long Beach, CA. I live in Huntington Beach, CA. If anybody knows of any other flight schools in my area, or as I mentioned, has any opinions on the three mentioned, all info is greatly appreciated. Thank you for your responses.

 

Kyle

[Goldy]

I sound like a broken record. In So Cal the two I like is where I fly in VNY, and LA Helicopters in LGB.

[big_z]

Anyone have any thoughts on the following flight schools:

 

1. CA Aviation Services

2. Silver State Helicopter

3. Los Angeles Helicopters

 

Option 1 costs $59,900 to go from private to CFII (100 R22, 100 R44) and hires students.

Option 2 is $69,900 for about the same, no guaranteed hires.

Option 3 is $69,000 (150 hours, approx 15 R44), hires.

 

Obviously leaning towards option 1. Problem with option 1 is its 50 miles away, through traffic in Riverside, CA. The others, 2 and 3, are 10 miles away in Long Beach, CA. I live in Huntington Beach, CA. If anybody knows of any other flight schools in my area, or as I mentioned, has any opinions on the three mentioned, all info is greatly appreciated. Thank you for your responses.

 

Kyle

 

 

Good for you, doing research before you go. I would break it down like this:

 

Price: option 1 is the cheapest

 

Hiring: NO helicopter company is going to GUARANTEE you a job, no matter what. I would check each school to see hwo any students they hire yearly, a number and a percentage.

 

Distance: options 2 and 3 are closer, and distance matters. Also, do they have a distance learning program? Can you study and take ground school quizzzes online?

 

I would visit each of these schools and interview the staff and students. See what the facility is like, that sort of thing. What I would NOT do is take the word of anyone on any internet forum about your future career. Go see for yourself.

 

I can tell you about my experiences if you want to PM me.

[rwehtje]

The cost of training in California is too high. I did my private certificate in the San Fransisco area and it dragged on for two years. I decided I had to make a change. I asked friends who work in the industry about schools they would recommend and I got two names back two names, Hillsboro and Silverhawk. An instuctor at the school I got my private at was from the Portland area and he told me that because of the fog and low ceilings your time in the air was limited. Not to mention the fact that they have some silly restriction to their pattern where you can only have a couple of helis in the same pattern at once. So even though you had a helicopter reserved unless you booked a spot in the pattern you would not be flying. At the same time I had called Silverhawk and the owner was very polite and helpful with answering my questions. The school was also very affordable-the whole program (Pvt-CFII) on average costs 65K. Silverhawk also provided for a great training environment that consists of a canyon like desert, a valley desert, and forested mountains. The desert environment helps provide for an average density altitude in the summer of over 5,000ft DA. The moist air blowing in from Oregon also contributes to random summer thunderstorms which help build your go-no go decision making. The school also has two cheif pilots (one of which is an in-house examiner). The VFR cheif has at least 3,000 hrs (all in mountainous terrain) that fights fire in the summer, and the IFR cheif has dual ratings in helicopters and fixed wing aircraft all the way through ATP. I decided that the reputation of Silverhawks pilots and the affordability of its training was the way I was going to go. I was also very impressed when about a week before I left for Idaho, the pilot who was going to be my primary called to introduce himself and see if I needed any help moving in. The whole experience at the school was very positive and they emphasize "Real World Training" which has benefited me greatly. I would recommend Silverhawk to anyone I meet!